Columbia bicyclist harassment ordinance brings out the bicycle haters

 

Well--you'd be wrong.

 

J Karl Miller says in an opinion column in the Columbia Missourian that the new law is "unfair to motorists":

When it comes to bicycles, however, I am sorry to say my acceptability quotient has bottomed out. Please belay that — I have nothing against bicycles per se. . .

The problem I am beginning to experience is not with bicycles, but rather with cyclists and some of their elitist attitudes. It is not unlike an observation of one I know, who, after visiting France, opined “Paris would be a good place to spend a vacation if not for those darn Parisians.” Translated, one might observe “If not for cyclists, the bicycle would be an acceptable mode of transport.”

Of course the Columbia Tribune's Trib Talk piles on (repeatedly), the Lawrence Journals' Andrew Hartsock worries that bicyclists are now a protected class (along with pedestrians and wheelchair users, presumably) and the KCStar's Mike Hendricks chimes in to say that such a law isn't really needed--at least not most of the time.

A rather vigorous discussion took place in the KCStar's letters to the editor as well as in comments to articles about the new law in the Columbia Missourian, Columbia Tribune, KCStar, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch (with over 130 comments about a four-paragraph article).

Out of state, there appears to be a bit more support--Port Huron, Michigan, Times Herald columnist Michael Eckert is prodding the Michigan Legislature to pass a suite a bills even more sweeping than Columbia's new law.

• The impetus for the law was continual motorist harassment--at almost every session--of Columbia's Bike Ed classes. So (after all the complaints about "bad bicyclist behavior" in Columbia's media and letters to the editor) you have a student and a teacher out actually following best practices as prescribed by national organizations including the International Police Mountain Bike Association.
  
  And these Bike Ed students are being honked at, sworn at, swerved at, targeted by thrown objects, and all the rest, on a regular basis.
   
• The specific impetus for the new law was, when the Bike Ed instructors approached the city police about the issue, the police felt they had no law at their disposal to address the situation--even when motorists were clearly threatening, harassing, and endangering bicyclists.

So yes, this law would be unnecessary if Missouri had reasonable road rage laws.

But we don't.

And it would be reasonable to protect all road users--including pedestrians, handicapped users, motorcyclists, and motorists as well.

MoBikeFed supports initiatives to improve safety for all road users--and the Columbia City Council appears to be moving in that direction as well. Within a few weeks they plan to amend the law to include other vulnerable road users.

What do you think? Feel free to share your opinion on this topic in the comments below.