TheWashCycle

From the Archives: How a police shooting led to bicycle registration in DC

In 1971, there was, it seems, a surge in bicycle thefts in Washington, DC with nearly 2,000 bicycles stolen. As a response, the police department began a bait bike program to try to break up the "ring" of bike thefts. On August 11, 16-year-old Gregory James Coleman came across an unlocked, parked 10-speed bike. He got on and started to ride away, until he was shot in the back by a plains clothes police officer. Police Chief Jerry V. Wilson found himself in political jeopardy, with 22 black organizations demanding that President Nixon fire him (because at that time the D.C. Chief of Police was a presidential appointment). Nixon didn't fire him, but Wilson did end the bicycle stakeouts. 

1971 was the same year the DC Council passed a law replacing mandatory bicycle registration with a voluntary program. That is the same law that made sidewalk cycling legal outside the Central Business District.

The provision permitting 'bikes on sidewalks outside of business districts will be of limited value until the city provides curb ramps, which would be highly desirable not only for bicyclists, but for baby carriages, shopping carts and wheelchairs as well.

The following year registration would be mandatory again, in part due to the shooting. Crime was still a problem. The newly formed WABA wanted the city "to require office building owners to either provide parking for bikes or allow that they be taken into elevators and offices" something it seemed the Council was ready to do.

When that was published the Building Owners and Managers Association went through the roof. So nothing happened on that until the WABA petitions forced hearings [on bicycle theft problems in the District].

The city had mandatory registration for a number of years, complete with a police bike squad. About '5000 bikes were registered out of 100,000 or so estimated to be in the city.

It appears that the city took the path of reinstating mandatory registration and not requiring bike parking. Mandatory registration would remain on the books until 2008, and zoning rules requiring bike parking would come later. Those regulations were updated this year - requiring more parking.

The shooting also led to the formation of the Coalition of Black Community Organizations for Justice. It's all too familiar considering we're still dealing with some of the same issues today as similar shootings have led to the Black Lives Matter movement. In the 1971 shooting the officer, who was black, claimed that the gun went off by accident due to him using the wrong holster. I don't know if he was ever charged or convicted. 

What's in the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act of 2015

Holy mackerel, Cheh's Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act has a lot in it. In short:

• Lots of data reporting
• complete streets policy
• pedestrian and bicycle priority zones
• stop as yield  Idaho Stop (sorry Crickey)
• dooring language change
• bicycle insurance provisions
• universal street safety education mandate
• targeted for-hire vehicle operator training
• study of a remediation and deferred disposition program
• escalating fines for repeat offenders
• tougher distracted driving law
• a new penalty for aggressive driving
• required side-underrun guards and blind spot mirrors or cameras on trucks
• study of pedestrian alert devices on District-owned large vehicles
• access to video for crash victims
• creation of a major crash-review task force

Thanks to Greg Billing to proving me a link to the bill. 

Unpacking it a bit.

1. DDOT will have to regularly publish crash data, sidewalk closure information and information on citizen petitions for for traffic calming measures on its website, MPD will do the same with moving violations. DDOT will also report annually on dangerous locations. Every 5 years DDOT will report with recommendations on how to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety.

2. DDOT is instructed to create Bicycle and Pedestrian Priority Areas (at least one per ward) where right-turns-on-red can be abolished, speed limits lowered and more TCO and camera-enforcement can be utilized.

3. DDOT will adopt a complete streets policy. [They have one now, but is one issued by the DDOT Director, and thus can be removed by them at any time. This one will be law.]

4. The law will be changed to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, just as pedestrians do. DC would adopt an Idaho Stop law. (I had to reread it to catch it) Cyclists approaching a stop sign or stop light will be required to slow down, and if required for safety, stop before entering the intersection. After slowing or stopping, the cyclist will yield the ROW, after slowing and yielding the cyclist may proceed through the intersection.

5. Dooring will be redefined to explicitly include bicycles.  

6. Bicycle insurance will be governed by the same laws as motor-vehicle insurance, and bicycle insurance providers may require policy holders to register their bikes.

7. All schools will have a curriculum available to them on safe cycling and walking.

8. For-hire vehicle operators will be required to learn about issues related to bicycle and pedestrian safety as part of existing mandatory training. And those using digital dispatch will require additional training.

9. The Mayor is required to study a remediation and deferred disposition program for people committing moving violations. 

10. Repeat offenders will see larger fines - up to 5 times as much for 4th time offenses. This will be true for speeding offenses, crosswalk violations, right-of-way violations, stopping or standing violations (including in a bike lane, sorry UPS). 

11. Drivers will no longer be able to use the phone when the car is not moving. 

12. Drivers who commit 3 or more or a set of violations (like speeding or improper lane changes) can be cited for aggressive driving, which carries a penalty of $200 and 2 points and mandatory driver education.

13. All heavy-duty vehicles registered in the District will be required to have side under run guards, reflective blind spot warning stickers and either blind spot mirrors or cameras. This is currently the law for District-owned vehicles.

14. The Mayor is instructed to report to the council as to whether Circulator buses and District-owned heavy duty vehicles can be equipped with pedestrian alert technology.

15. If a District owned camera captures video of a crash all vehicle operators involved in that crash will be informed that the footage exists, the footage will be preserved and the parties will be assisted in acquiring the footage.

16. A Major Crash Review Task Force will be established to review every crash investigated by the Major Crash Investigation Unit and as a result, recommend changes to reduce the number of major crashes.

17. The Kitchen sink

This would represent a major improvement in the safety of DC streets for vulnerable users and put DC at the forefront of American cities with respect to pedestrian and cyclist safety. It's ambitious, but everything on here represents something for which consensus existed among the Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force (which was co-chaired by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) and AAA Mid-Atlantic).  

Alexandria Police want to keep requirement that bike shops register bike sales

Alexandria's Police Department is asking the city to retain an ordinance that

 requires businesses that buy or sell bikes to “report to the police chief every bicycle purchased or sold … as well as the name and address of the person from whom it is purchased or to whom it is sold.”

Police officials argue that the provision helps them keep track of stolen bikes as well as more easily identify thieves and the owners of recovered bicycles. Although the longstanding section of the code was never enforced, officials hope to set up a registry in the near future.

But bike shop owners said such a registry would prove onerous to implement as well as inefficient compared with databases that they already recommend to buyers.

Some store owners want to see the city use the National Bike Registry the way DC does. It is cheaper and it does carry a network effect advantage. What if you buy a bike in Alexandria but it's recovered by the Arlington Police Department? When my wife bought her bike, it came pre-registered with the National Bike Registry. 

Bruce Dwyer, a member of the Alexandria Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, said that although the committee has not taken an official position on the issue, he thinks using the national registry would be a better solution for police.

Furthermore, the police don't currently have a registry or a timetable for getting one. 

The AlexTimes weighs in

We could make the case that this is an invasion of privacy — there’s probably a bad NSA joke in here somewhere — but the logical and practical arguments strike us as compelling enough. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel — just encourage cyclists to sign their ride up with the National Bike Registry.

The proposed ordinance BTW

makes changes to the City code regarding riding bicycles on the sidewalk, sets up a process for demarcating sidewalks on which bicycle riding would be prohibited, eliminates antiquated and unused bicycle registration procedures and makes changes to rules for riding that are consistent with state law, which applies in neighboring jurisdictions.

There's a lot of good stuff in there besides removing registration and allowing sidewalk cycling. It redefines a bicycle and defines things like paths and bike lanes. It removes the requirement to ride right. It removes the requirement to use a bike path when one is available (who knew?). It allows for riding up to two abreast. It allows for parking bikes in more places. It requires front and rear lights, but removes the requirement for bells. And finally it changes the standard for helmets that those under 14 must wear.

Friday Afternoon Commute - chopsticks

Good afternoon

• The original K Street Transitway included 5 foot bike lanes on each side. The new one does not
• PG County Trolley Trail update "A $226 million mixed use development complex in Riverdale Park is moving ahead with the permit application process, despite the status of a key approval condition still up in the air." Since the whole project is being held up by an additional road connection, there is probably something in there one could say about car culture and subsidies. 
• Bike some of the Boundary Stones - this is not WAGBRAD. 
• Other NPS bicycle related projects I just found
  • US Park Police Bicycle Storage shed
  • NPS Pedicab operation requirements.
• My latest Green Lane Project post - on Sustainable DC. 
• CaBi in Del Ray. And more on CaBi's record-breaking day this week
  • only 2,140 rides, or about 22 percent, were by people who purchased one- or three-day memberships.
  • Dockblocking wasn't much of an issue. Bikeshare stations were full for just 6.46 percent of the time and completely empty 7.74 percent of the time.
  • Peak ridership came at 6:02 p.m., right in the middle of evening rush hour, when 502 people were on Bikeshare
• A not-too-serious proposal to tax bikes in Maryland. 
• Ray LaHood on respecting cyclists (are you listening US Attorney's Office?) 

•  
  • “If someone is not respectful of cyclists, there’s a penalty,” he said. “That’s it in a nutshell.”
  • "We need to develop zero tolerance for people who don’t respect cyclists,” Secretary Ray LaHood said yesterday at the first of two national bike safety summits hosted by U.S. DOT this month. “That’s the campaign we’re kicking off today.”
  • Also  “When you build a road, build a bike lane. When you’re fixing up your street, build in a bike lane. Do that, and we’ll be supportive of that at the national level.”
• The World Health Organization is increasingly recognizing mass transport and urban design as traffic safety solutions. " Mayor Bloomberg, who spoke at the launch of this year’s report, cited sustainable transport solutions, such as advanced bus systems, increased pedestrian space, and protected bike lanes, as proven examples of “what works”."
• Pedestrians and cyclists just don't mix. 

Wednesday Morning Commute - Seatless

Good morning

• Don't ride a bike without a seat, or you could get ticketed. 
• Newtown 26 arrive at Capitol Hill. 
• WeMoveDC meetings - you should go.
• $32,000 bicycle looks like this. 
• Summary of this LTTE: Some cyclists behave badly, so all should be registered.
• Charles Hurt - the Washington Times writer/sexist who called Capital Bikeshare "broken-down socialism" is now going after Pittsburgh's bike share program. 

"here’s another clue for something to cut. Turns out, you are paying $1.6 million to subsidize freeloaders in Pittsburgh who are too cheap to buy their own bikes. Under the “bike-share” program announced this week, freeloaders and freeloading tourists get 500 fat, ugly, red bikes to ride around on — bikes that you paid for....Why not just “repurpose” all those fat, ugly, red bikes away from the freeloaders in Pittsburgh and give them to the freeloaders here and make them pedal their sorry butts into work every day? It would fix but a tiny fraction of the damage they have cause but it sure would be funny to watch them sweat a little for a change." 

$1.6 million is coming from Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality money. I'm not sure if he thinks that bikeshare will not improve those things, or if he thinks congestion mitigation and air quality improvements are not noble goals, or if he thinks that that they are not the job of the federal government or if he thinks. Hurt's share of that $1.6 million (and on average, every taxpayer's) is about 7/100 of a penny. So if he's really bothered about it, I'll reimburse him for his share (and then some). He can stop by my house anytime and pick up a penny.

Also, just because DC's bikes are red, does not mean Pittsburgh's will be, but red = communist.

Saturday Morning Ride - $40 value

Good morning

• VASA ride registration is open. 
• Tour DC Breweries by bicycle. 
• WABA has a flickr pool
• George Mason University wants students and staff to register their bikes. It's not mandatory. And it's free. Oh, and they'll give you a free bike lock if you do. 

 

Friday Afternoon Commute - Retraction

Good afternoon

• WAMU re-writes the Alexandria bicycle registration story. As noted in the comments yesterday, Alexandria is moving to end longstanding regulations requiring bicycle owners to register their bikes with the city, and pay a fee. "The need for local registration of something like a bicycle is probably no longer necessary," Deputy City Attorney Chris Spera  says. "If an owner is concerned about his or her bicycle being stolen and being able to track it, there is a National Bike Registry that serves that function."
• This isn't really news. We've known the M Street cycle-track wouldn't come until later this year for some time. 
• A map of states with dooring laws. Even Florida has one Virginia! Yeah, that Florida.
• "The Town of Williamsport will use a $10,000 state grant to create a 1.3-mile circuit of bike lanes on town streets, with enough funding expected to be left to mark South Conococheague Street for cyclists down to a new park-and-ride lot to be built near the Interstate 81/Md. 68 interchange, Town Clerk Donald Stotelmyer said" This is to get people riding the C&O Canal to get off and ride around town. "Local businesses already have experienced increased business since the town added bike lanes in both directions on Potomac Street,"
• True. And I was robbed of 155th place.
• The Open House on the MacArthur Blvd Trail shift was last night. Did anyone go?

Alexandria considers enforcing registration law

Note: Since originally running this story, WAMU has released another story with an opposite conclusion. Namely that Alexandria is looking to removing the registration requirement. 

Bucking the national trend against bicycle registration, Alexandria is considering modifying and enforcing its long ignored mandatory bicycle registration law. If you're riding an unregistered bike in Alexandria, you're a scofflaw cyclist and you're making the rest of us look bad.

As it turns out, nobody registers their bicycle because nobody knows about the provision, which dates back to 1963. Wilson says city officials are now looking at the existing policy to determine what kind of changes might be needed to enforce the measure.

The only change needed is to get rid of the law. It doesn't raise any revenue, it doesn't improve safety and it doesn't help with stolen bike return (besides, we don't require anyone to register other oft-stolen items like cell phones or purses). It does lead to abuse by the police though. Which is why DC got rid of the law. 

During a recent public hearing, Old Town resident Kathryn Papp said mandatory registration would be a good idea.

"Cars are registered and charged a fee. Motorcycles are registered and charged a fee," Papp says. "Almost every vehicle on the roadway is registered and charged a fee."

Papp says registration would also make stolen bicycles easier to recover, and revenues from a small annual fee could go towards building addition bicycle facilities.

Here's another person making the false fairness claim. We could just as easily extend that claim to pedestrians. It doesn't make any sense to decide on the one hand that we want more people to bike and fewer to drive - and that is what government repeatedly says - and then tax biking. 

As for recovering stolen bikes, there are plenty of things that Alexandria could do to make this better. They could start by posting photos of recovered bikes online like Arlington does. 

Maryland MVA: Bikes may use full lane so give them three feet.

The brown mailing envelopes in which Maryland drivers receive their registration or drivers license renewal forms this month include the message "Give bikes THREE FEET when passing, IT'S THE LAW" along with the standard sketch showing a cyclist to the right of a compact car. The message runs about 30% of the length of the envelope, right above the address window, so alot of people will probably notice it.  Running along the bottom of the envelope the entire length of the address window is the message "Share the road,  You could save a life."

The Motor Vehicle Administration has also created a public service message in which MVA director John Kuo explains that cyclists may use the full lane before he introduces himself.  That explanation is provided over about 18 seconds of video shot from a bicycle while cars pass safely.  Mr. Kuo goes on to explain the importance of leaving three feet while passing a bike, with more footage of cars passing bikes, including a bike in the middle of a door-zone bike lane. 

Although some advoates have argued that the presence of a double yellow line allows drivers to ignore the three-foot rule, that is clearly not the view of the Maryland Department of Transportation: several of the shots show drivers crossing the double yellow line to leave a safe passing distance.

 

Barry Childress deserves credit for regularly speaking with Mr. Kuo during 2010-2011 to get MVA to promote bike safety.  Then last year, the highway safety office was moved to MVA, which put Mr. Kuo in a position to do more. 

 (Jim Titus is on WABA's Board of Directors and represents Prince George's County on the Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.  The views expressed here do not represent the official position of either WABA or MBPAC)

Thursday Morning Commute - New Bridge

Good morning. The new 11th Street local bridge opens today. It should be a better ride than the old bridge.

• The Montgomery County fiscal 2013-18 capital improvement program is scheduled for formal adoption Thursday after receiving tentative approval from the nine-member county council this past week. The budget includes $49.5 million for the Capital Crescent Trail and funding for the Metropolitan Branch Trail. There's more at the County website. It lists the following: "Funded the design and construction of the Capital Crescent Trail, costing $49.5 million. Retained construction funding for the Metropolitan Branch Trail and the Silver Spring Green Trail.  Funded construction of new bike trails along Frederick Road in Clarksburg, Needwood Road in Derwood, and Gold Mine Road east of Brookeville."
• Streetsblog has a story about how bicycle registration is used for profiling, which is part of the reason registration was ended in DC. I'll say that I used to get results from leagle.com in my automatic searches ( but not anymore) and that 95% of them were drug or weapon busts that started with a cyclist [almost always male and black or hispanic] being stopped for not having a light or a bell or a helmet or some trivial law that you didn't even realize the police enforced.
• "a man on a Bikeshare cycle punched a pedestrian and snatched her iPhone during daylight hours on a busy Capitol Hill street." You'd think they could narrow down who it was to a pretty small number of people. Everyone who had a bike checked out at that time and could reasonably have gotten to the place of the crime.
• Olney's Ride of Silence took on special meaning after a recent bicycle fatality in the community. Diane Whitman's crash is still under investigation. Also, it appears that DC had a Ride of Silence and I apologize for not advertising it here, but I didn't know about it.
• A junior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School wants to make sure that every kid at Rachel Carson Elementary School in Gaithersburg has a bike. And so he's repairing donated bikes for those who don't.
• TE is an issue for Tea Party members in the House working on the new transportation bill. Though the Senate bill is a step backwards for the program, some members just want it killed.