# Mercer Island Set to Crack Down on Bikers



## borregokid (Jun 9, 2005)

Heres the article below from todays Seattle Times. Mercer Island kind of cracks me up with their own private Police Department. I like Mercer Island and their "private" Police Department. The council apparently tired of complaints from residents about bikers going around the Island has decided to crack down on bikers. Other wealthy communities across the country have targeted cyclists similar to this. What I think their goal is but it probably wont work is to cut the number of cyclists using MI for a workout loop. What I think will happen is a lot of cyclists are going to get tickets. If you live on MI you probably wouldnt get one but anyone else will be fair game. 


Making sharing the Mercer Island loop safer
By Amy Roe

First, education. Then, a citation.

That's the tack Mercer Island is taking to quell conflicts between motorists and cyclists that seems to heat up with the weather each spring.

One City Council member says the initiative targets cyclists unfairly. Another says it's overdue.

The curvy Mercer Way loop around the island is one of the region's most popular bike rides, but there are two persistent problems. Sometimes drivers get stuck behind cyclists, then make unsafe attempts to pass them. And sometimes cyclists don't stop at stop signs.

To dissuade both sorts of scofflaws, Mercer Island police recently sent a letter to cycling groups informing them of stepped-up patrols in areas where violations often occur.

Over the next couple of weeks, officers will warn violators and hand out a brochure. After that they'll include a ticket with the pamphlet, Mercer Island police Sgt. Lance Davenport said.

The fine for blowing through a stop sign on a bike is $91. For making an unsafe pass in a motor vehicle, it's $112.

The new initiative is less stringent than ideas the City Council considered in 2005, which ranged from requiring bikers to ride single file, register large groups with City Hall and staying off the Interstate 90 trail across the island.

The plan "looks good on paper," said David Hiller, advocacy director for the Cascade Bicycle Club. Enforcing laws evenly is difficult, Davenport said, because it's easier to catch a bicyclist going through a stop sign -- a fixed point -- than to observe the driver of a moving vehicle making an illegal pass.

The island's rap for being tough on cyclists is not undeserved, he acknowledged.




"We probably do have a reputation, and yes, we probably make more citations on bicyclists than some of our neighboring communities," Davenport said. Mercer Island's winding roads and popularity with cyclists may make for a high number of violations, he added.

Mercer Island City Councilman Mike Grady disagrees with the emphasis on enforcement. Cyclists aren't a problem, he said: They're a solution to crises like global warming, traffic congestion and childhood obesity.

"We should be bending over backward to have people bike and walk all over the island."

With better bike access to the business district, cyclists might even stop and spend money there, said Grady, a bike commuter who has pushed for bike lanes on the island.

Grady thinks the new enforcement and education effort discourages cycling and is a sign of "this territorial attitude [that] all these bikers come onto Mercer Island as if they're overtaking our community."

But at times, cyclists have taken over the roads, said City Councilman El Jahncke.

He said he's observed cyclists ignoring stop signs "with impunity."

The island's roads compound the risks, he said, and many roads are too narrow to accommodate bike lanes, even if the city could afford them.

Mercer Island has nothing against cyclists, Jahncke said. "We'd just like it to be smaller groups, not the peloton," he added, using the bike-racing term for the main pack of riders.


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## rcnute (Dec 21, 2004)

Maybe that's why they left the spikes in the asphalt in the road by Luther Burbank.


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## giovanni sartori (Feb 5, 2004)

rcnute said:


> Maybe that's why they left the spikes in the asphalt in the road by Luther Burbank.


Am I missing something here? If you do the MI loop south of I-90 isn't there ONE stop sign and ONE light for about 10 miles?? The roads through the S bends are narrow but other than that there's not a problem with passing. I usually do it solo and generally have zero problems. Much ado about nothing IMO if you're solo but if large groups are using it I can see the potential. However, the trail part across the island is a different story and I have seen cops stationed by the stop signs there.


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## tazdag (Apr 9, 2002)

*I don't see a problem here*

I obey traffic laws. As a cyclist, I consider myself to be operating a non-motorized vehicle on the road and do not run stop signs or trffic lights. When I see cyclists doing this and ruining the image for other cyclists, I want to yell at them and wish they would get tickets. 

Fact of life, want respect from drivers, then don't do things that make them want to hate us.


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## MarvinK (Feb 12, 2002)

I agree... if all this is about is running stop signs... it's about time. Cyclists everywhere should stop running stop signs and stop thinking they're being picked on if a cop writes tickets for it. The fact is, if cars rode through signs like many bikes do, they'd get a ticket every time.


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