I'm sorry officer, was I doing something wrong?
A friend here in the office alerted me to this story on our local Fox affiliate (channel 7), which looks like almost nothing more than an outright attack on austin cyclists. Well, I would guess it’s about 95% attack on cyclists, 1% reminder to drivers to “share the road” and about 4% lamentation on the lack of bicycle infrastructure.
It’s really interesting that one of the places they focused on in the story was a stretch on Guadalupe where the bicycle lane right next to the University of Texas campus (largest enrollment in the whole country, interestingly enough, so no reason for anything like usable bike lanes in that area of town, right?) abruptly ends with no warning, signage, or any indicator of what the heck a cyclist is supposed to do after that point. Way to go City of Austin!
Instead of interviewing any city cycling officials that could talk about the issues, they interviewed the “angry grownups” in the form of police officials from the City and from the UT Campus, who both indicated their solution to “making cyclists safe” was to apply the MIGHTY FIST OF RETRIBUTION and ticket the hell out of any offenders – and the offenders, of course, are the cyclists. Don’t blame the drivers, don’t blame the city for not investing in appropriate infrastructure (while promoting the hell out of Austin being a “great” city for cycling), just ticket the cyclists until their “behavior is corrected.”
Lovely, just lovely.
By the way, the “ordinary cyclist” they interviewed, is not really all that ordinary – she used to work at Bicycle Sport Shop, Austin’s largest bicycling store chain.
If you want, you can contact our local Fox channel by using their contact form and let them know what you think of their “outstanding journalism.”
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
UT-Austin was the largest campus in the US for many years, but Minnesota-Twin Cities outgrew it in like 2002 or 3. Now there are a handful of campuses larger than UT as the administration tries to “rightsize” it.
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Ohio State is larger, I do believe, but only by a margin of a few hundred enrollments, and while OSU has no bike lanes whatsoever, you definately get the vibe the cyclists in Columbus don’t have as much to worry about as Austin cyclists apparently do.
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Speaking of which, I was totally not expecting to hear something like this from Austin, of all places. You guys are supposed to be one of the progressive gems of this country. What gives? Is it all just marketing?
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Yes, we like to market ourselves as green and progressive, but really it’s only in comparison to places like Dallas and Houston (though at least Dallas has a decent rail system.)
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Actually the Austin Chronicle had a column today where it said the ridership for rail in Houston was around 45,000 per day as well, and us here in Austin? ZERO, of course (and our commuter rail system that goes to nobody in particular won’t be ready until at least March ’09)
on Oct 3rd, 2008 at 12:38 am
One of the interesting things is that there is really no consensus on how to ride a bike in traffic. That is perhaps something of an exaggeration, but you could still get two experienced commuters that might disagree over how to handle a situation.
More importantly, perhaps, is that the “authorities” seem to think that just obeying the traffic laws will do the trick!
A great example in the video is where they show the bike lane just disapearing. If you were in a car and your lane disapeared just like that, with no merge section, you wouldn’t believe it.
I don’t think there are any traffic laws that indicate what to do in that situation.
on Oct 3rd, 2008 at 12:44 pm
As a biker and a driver, it is funny to see my attitude change depending on if I am driving or biking. However, most of the bikers in this city are idiots that think they deserve to do whatever they want. Running lights, signs and lanesplitting is illegal. I do it on my bike though, and I hate it when I’m in my car and I see bikers do it. It is dangerous when a biker does something like that because car drivers aren’t expecting it. Mainly I just think the whole attitude of “it’s always the cars’ fault” is bad. If I run a light on my bike and get wacked, or a car changes lanes into me because I was riding between 2 lanes in a blind spot, that’s my fault.
on Oct 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I do agree, though, that the sol called “bike lanes” are crap. Too often cars are parked there. The bike lane on Duval north of UT has signs: “No parking 7am-7pm” So I guess bikers aren’t allowed safety after 7pm? It actually makes it more dangerous since the biker has to swerve out into the main lane to go around.
on Oct 3rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Roy — it’s true, the bike lanes in a lot of areas are really bad, and allowing cars to park there is ridiculous. I run into one in my neighborhood every day, where at least one SUV is always parked in the bicycle lane, usually in the most dangerous part of that particular block.
That 7am-7pm compromise is just a huge slap in the face. Are we safer driving in the middle of a narrow, twisting, somewhat hilly roadway in the DARK? Hardly.
Mostly, though, we have a huge lack of political will to really make things work around here, we are much happier building half-ass solutions and then patting ourselves on the back.
on Oct 3rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Great photo!
on Nov 3rd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I live downtown, and it’s totally miserable to take the shortest route anywhere. Lamar is downright dangerous unless you want to break the law and ride on the sidewalk.
I’ve heard there are plans to expand bike routes downtown or is this just talk? If so, we should do something about this. There’s no way everyone who is going to move downtown is going to be able to drive.
on Nov 3rd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
NM, just found the post on the plans. What a great blog!
on Nov 3rd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Thanks Michelle, and welcome! I completely agree on the lack of contiguous, safe routes.
on Nov 4th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
regarding Roy’s comment: “or a car changes lanes into me because I was riding between 2 lanes in a blind spot, that’s my fault.”
It reminds me of a SUV driver who told me that she couldn’t see a small car in the lane next to her, so I should be careful when she changes lanes. Should people own vehicles that they know they cannot safely drive?
If you can’t know that its safe to proceed, should you proceed anyway and depend upon others to watch out for you?
on Nov 16th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Dude! Get a grip. I was about to write a comment to Fox7 until I watched the newsclip. Is there a problem with the idea that bikes need to follow the rules just like drivers? I didn’t hear a single statement in the report where cyclists were called out seperately from drivers as part of the problem.
If we expect others to be balanced and objective, we need to be, also. Complaints about a reasonably balanced story just hurt our credibility as cyclists.
on Nov 16th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Sorry, but I have to completely disagree with that, Chris. The story only mentions cars for about ten seconds. That is NOT a realization that both sides need education about coexisting on the road. This story does nothing but reinforce the “outlaw” image of cyclists and deligitimizes them in the eyes of drivers.
on Nov 18th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Marcus – I guess we’ll simply have to agree to disagree on this one. I went back and watched the clip yet again. I agree that the story highlights that some cyclists don’t follow the rules, which is an accurate statement. From the LOBV rep, “You have to obey th traffic laws just as if you’re operating a motor vehicle.” However, the reporter points out that issues with safety, etc. are a bigger problem where no bike lanes exist (an important message reinforcing the need for more bike lanes). When asked a potentially leading question about looking for “violators”, the Austin police officer clearly states that they will be on the look out for EVERYONE violating traffic laws whether they be automobiles, pedestrians, or bicyles.
I get the sense that you’re so used to hearing cyclists bashed that the story has to actually favor cyclists and demonize automobiles for you to consider it to be balanced. Do we need affirmative action for news coverage regarding cyclists to reverse the wrongs?
on Dec 15th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Bikers are a problem everywhere. I live almost 30 miles out, and I can assure they have taken over the county roads and the new Parmer Lane extension on weekends. The solution. Those bikes need to be registered as are cars. $50.00 per year seems reasonable to me. They also need to have insurance. Bike lanes can be built with the registration money.
on Dec 21st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Katherine:
So I pay $46.80 a year to register my car and you want me to pay $50 a year as well to register my bicycle. I’m sorry, but that’s unacceptable under any standard of fairness.
Since a public road is, by definition, for the benefit of ALL of the public, no matter what their mode of transportation, the fact that bicycles have “taken over” the county roads and Parmer Lane just means that, for a change, car drivers are in the minority out there. So drive carefully.
You might also reflect that, by living 30 miles out, you are part of the problem: part of the cause of the national trade deficit, part of the cause of the national military weakness, part of the cause of the region’s looming non-compliance with air quality standards, part of the cause of the regional traffic congestion, part of the reason for new public roads to be toll-ways. Be a patriot – move closer in. Be a superpatriot – ride a bicycle.
on Dec 23rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Chris, I think you need to be a bit more careful. From what organization is the representative whom you quoted?
There is certainly no LOBV rep in that video. Watch it again.
http://lobv.org/
——
Is the news story balanced? Ask yourself this: Would you expect to see a local Fox news story on how 95+% motorists, including the reporter, anchor, former mayors, need to start taking responsibility for 60 deaths/year and 20K injuries/year in Austin? These deaths are caused by motorists, plain and simple. Indeed, non-motorists play a role in a fraction of those, but it takes two.
Why not have a news story that frankly recognizes that the real danger to humans are cars themselves? Yes, it is important to emphasize that bicyclists need to follow traffic laws, but motorists and pedestrians in the UT area are just as misbehaved. The bicycle mode is easy to pick on.
That said, I’ve seen worse from local news stations and this particular Fox News story didn’t stand out as particularly bad.
on Dec 23rd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Just FYI Chris, that was Preston Tyree, a League of American Bicyclist (LAB) instructor….not someone from our organization, the League of Bicycling Voters (LOBV).
on Dec 23rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I’d like to mention that the blog comment medium allows for little subtlety.
I wrote: “These deaths are caused by motorists, plain and simple.” I won’t be able to provide a thoroughly nuanced explanation of this. My primary point here is that: 1) Nearly all multi-person traffic deaths only happened because of a motor vehicle (regardless of whether the motorist is at “fault”), 2) In addition, many or most multi-person traffic collisions require both/all parties to be doing something less than ideally safe in how they are driving/biking/walking — going too fast for conditions, not paying enough attention, not signaling intentions.
on Jan 16th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
[...] In addition to these items, the Council also approved a pilot test of bicycle sharrows and bike boxes in the coming year. This is a major step in making it clear that bikes belong in traffic and will serve as a visual cue to drivers to make room for cyclists. Last night, Rebecca Taylor with KEYE 42 covered this story with video below. Needless to say, this is a much better than the recent coverage of cyclists by Fox 7. [...]
on Nov 12th, 2009 at 10:58 am
You called FOX’s reporting an outright attack on cyclists? Having been part of an organized ride this past weekend I can see EXACTLY where they are coming from.
Over 1100 participants were on hand for this event. All were told to obey the rules of the road and be courteous and they were anything but. Most (not all) violated more traffic laws in the space of 30 minutes than I have ever witnessed in a full day. Stop signs were treated as non-existent. I watched 25 to 30 riders blow through the red light at FM 1327 when cross traffic was coming and clearly had the right of way. Instead of staying to the right and allowing traffic to pass vehicles were blocked in for miles. When you were asked to move to the right you grudgingly did so and as soon as the officer was gone you moved right back out into the lane. One of the police motorcyclists that was shepherding the event had a cyclist pull in front of him and he wrecked his motorcycle rather than hit him. The cyclist involved continued to ride away even though he was clearly at fault in the accident. When I turned around at the county line and began to ride the route backwards checking to make sure things were fine I met several riders head on in a blind curve. Glad I was on my Harley or you would be a hood ornament (if you read this you will know who you are).
You say you want motorists to “share the road” with you yet you hold yourselves to a different standard. When confronted with your behavior you become indignant and use the “but I’m on a bicycle” line. Having ridden two wheeled vehicles most of my life (powered and pedaled) I understand the concept of not being seen and having to be hyper vigilant when I ride. In all of my years however I have never witnessed such a blatant disregard for the rights of other people on the roadway. If any of the foregoing applies to you, Grandpa said it best…”Practice what you, preach.” If it doesnt’ apply to you I’m sure you know riders that it does apply to maybe a friendly reminder from you might help.
I’m off my soap box.
on May 28th, 2011 at 10:24 am
well here goes.article 23.03 code failure to attend school.a lot of the people i know have experience this well what is unfair.is our teenagers under 18 if community service is offered now the problem all community services require 18yrs or older due to child labor law.now the court wants payment in full or the parents well go to jail,or your teenagers well go to jail.the court well not accept payments.the schools must think jail is the answer so does the judge go ahead put us all in jail and see what happens.on this issue.something needs to be done a change or away to make payments offer home school we find this not a criminal matter but there is away this can be changed.your teenagers in jail that just causes more attitude problems put the parents in jail parents well loose there job thats more unemployment you want more problems.be a solution to the problem.i,m still waiting to hear from state rep and state sen on this issue thats been almost over a year. now back to community service the problem there is ins well not cover under age due to company rules.places such as goodwill,caring place,public library well not accept under age teenagers we know we have tried.well good luck to anyone out there that going to experience this.