Overheard: "People are riding their bikes year-round in Iowa and so these hardy souls deserve to ride their bikes safely." -- Matt McCoy, state senator, backing bills that would require drivers to maintain a "five-foot bubble" around cyclists and be fined as much as $1,000 if they happen to kill one.
So Steve Cohen, how about some cycling justice in TN?
6 comments:
A thousand dollar fine if they kill a cyclist? Fuck that. Don't you get fifteen thousand plus several years in the state pen for killing a road worker? That will just be used as an excuse not to prosecute for vehicular manslaughter.
yeah, if I could kill someone and only have to pay $1000, I'd empty out my savings account and have at it! : ) ....... just kidding. But yeah, that sounds pretty lax to me!
For not having any laws at the moment, a 5 foot bubble and mandatory $1000 fine seems like a good place to start to me. It is a fact that no human life is worth only $1000. It is a fact that the fine should be much higher. It is also a fact that we, as cyclists, are fighting an uphill battle. So, in order to triumph, we must accept small victories. I would personally settle for simply the 5 foot bubble. The fine would come with the crimes of vehicluar manslaughter, attempted vehicular manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon, etc etc etc. A 5 foot bubble would mean that anytime a cyclist is hit, the car driver is in the wrong.
We do have laws - 3 feet, vehicular manslaughter, etc - what we don't have are police who enforce them or district attorneys who prosecute them. Five feet seems excessive to me, and $1000 insulting.
Turns out the "3 Foot" law is only enforceable in Memphis by state police. It is a state law--not ratfied by the city council and this local jurisdiction--so it cannot be enforced by local police. If someone took a case to the supreme court from the local level, they would win. But currently, the a MPD police could not write a ticket for violation of "the three foot law."
That is the most retarded thing I have ever heard. Aren't Memphis Police cross deputized to enforce state laws? I'm not questioning you, Taco, that just sounds absolutely preposterous.
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