Harassing bicyclists outlawed in Los Angeles
By Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday passed a pioneering new law intended to protect bicyclists from harassment by motorists.
The ordinance, which backers described as the toughest of its kind in the nation, makes it a crime for drivers to threaten cyclists verbally or physically, and allows victims of harassment to sue in civil court without waiting for the city to press criminal charges.
Its passage comes one day after a 63-year-old bicyclist was struck and killed by a car on a downtown street — an incident that bicycle advocates say underscores the dangers cyclists face.
The new law is the latest bicycle-friendly measure to hit L.A., where an increasingly vocal community of activists has been calling for more protections.
Several of them showed up at City Hall on Wednesday to share stories of harassment; they described motorists who threw objects, shouted insults and tried to run them off the road.
As the number of cyclists on L.A. streets has swelled — local census data from 2008 show that about 13,000 commute to work on bikes, a 48 percent increase over the last eight years — so too have conflicts between motorists and bicyclists. Some motorists have accused cyclists of flouting traffic laws, while cyclists have complained that they are treated like second-class citizens.
Just what this state needs: ANOTHER protected class.
Especially a class that flouts the law so routinely.
Let’s see. 13,000 bicylcists commute to work in LA, LA land, a 48% increase in eight years. So in eight years approx. 6500 new bicycle commuters are riding their bikes to work. Therefore in a hundred years you can expect another 85,000 or so new bike commuters. Real progress? That leaves only about two million people who use their cars.
Give me a break.
Dogwoman,
Making a law that one group can not threaten and kill others is hardly creating a protected class. Get out of your car and you will know what the problem is. By the way I am a middle-aged suburban mom and cyclist.. not exactly your idea of a cyclist who “flouts” the law.
Then you aren’t te person I’m complaining about, Lisa. When I lived in town I rode my bike everywhere too. Maybe you need to get INTO a car see what cyclists, not all but way too many, are doing on the roads. Today I only drove two miles on hwy 50 and in that short span I saw a biker (commuter, it appeared) blow through a stop sign and cross directtly in front of a pickup truck and never even acknowlege the truck was there. Never even looked, even though the truck would have killed him if it hadn’t slowed down. Believe me, that cyclist could USE some threats!
I remember when I was a kid, long ago, I had to register my bike and read up on rules of the road. You know walking your bike across the intersection. But bike rules are not the priority to enforce. I even see children under 12 without helmets. I do believe that is a law. So what do we do?