Why should bicyclists obey the laws of the road?

Everyone living on a college campus sees things they agree and disagree with, almost on a daily basis, from political activism to the occasional campus streakier. When it comes to safety, one issue in particular needs to be brought to the attention of students who travel on campus. Bikes have been the transportation craze here at the University of Oregon for many years. It is cheap and convenient to get from point A to point B in a short matter of time on a bicycle. It is easy to move at a faster pace than pedestrians and cars stalled in traffic; however, the growing use of bikes on the road makes safety the first and most important issue. There are laws created for our safety that must be enforced upon all bicyclists to the fullest extent to completely ensure the safety of all students on the streets, in their cars, and on their bikes. The laws of the road not being enforced by public safety and the Eugene police, create an illusion that makes it acceptable to break such laws. Bicyclists should obey the laws of the road because the risks they take effect the safety of everyone on campus.

“An unjust law is no law at all.” (St. Augustine) Laws that do not apply to everyone are unjust and ineffective. You would be ridiculed for saying that everyone under six feet tall would have to eat in their dorms while everyone over six feet tall gets to eat where they want. That is called discrimination and I know that we have laws against it. Picking and choosing who can do certain things and who cannot is not the job of the law. The job of the law is to equally enforce the same laws on everyone.

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When I see people risk their own lives by going through a stop sign without stopping or riding in the wrong direction on a street, I start to think about why they would make such a decision. Are they in such a rush that safety just becomes an invisible reality? Running stop signs is not the only law cyclists are disobeying. Wrong-way riding is also against the law. It’s one of the leading causes of crashes, accounting for 15% to 20% of all crashes with cars. First, a large majority of bicyclists seem to feel it is okay to disobey traffic laws because they are not motorists and do not consider themselves to be in the same category. Secondly, most cyclists are completely unaware that the laws which motor vehicles are required to obey are the same laws for anyone who travels on the road including bicyclists. This would include stopping at stop signs, signaling turns, and making yourself visible at night so everyone knows you are there. Thirdly, who will tell cyclists they can’t just ignore these laws of the road? Here in lies the problem. The police and public safety are taking no action to prevent bikers from running stop signs, to address the need to wear safety lights at night, or even signaling to make a turn. Not only does this lack of enforcement of existing laws on campus contradict to the traffic laws, but makes the laws look like a joke or unimportant at best. This choice of non-action by the police, public safety, and disobedient bikers is why I have decided to bring this issue into view for all to debate. Without enforcement of a law, what is law? The way I see it, it is just a set of rules no one needs to abide by because no one is there to enforce them. All the current road laws were made to protect us from ourselves. I drive a car and ride a bicycle during the day and at night, as many people do. Driving a car comes with a set of rules that happen to be enforced every day, all the time. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for riding a bicycle. If I run a stop sign in my

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car, chances are that I will get pulled over and will face a fine anywhere from 75 to 400 dollars. If I ride my bicycle through a stop sign, I break a law and move on without any punishment.

To insure my claims that there is little or no enforcement on bicyclists, I asked the department of public safety office for an interview with a campus police officer, and the one I met with preferred to remain anonymous. The first question I had for her was if she had ever issued a citation or ticket to a bicyclist. In her career she had issued one citation for a bicyclist a few years back. After that statement she informed me that campus police officers are no longer allowed to make traffic stops of any kind without probable cause. I then asked her if campus police are not enforcing the bicyclist law, then who is? Apparently, Eugene police officers are the only authorities who have the consent of the city to make traffic stops regarding bicyclist: however, she added that , even they are rarely found making such stops. Being under staffed is the reason the officer said these laws go unpunished. She believes that if the public safety department was not understaffed, sporadic citations issued to unlawful cyclists would be the way to reduce the violations that are crowding our streets and sidewalks today. Even with good ideas of how to stop the traffic violations, the officer noted that when public safety brought up the issue to the university, they did not take them seriously. The university told them that their job is to focus on crimes not violations. So my question for the university is what happens when these violation create injuries or death? Who is responsible for the violators disobeying a law that is not enforced by public safety? On my way out of the public safety office I managed to grab a pamphlet with the heading “Bicycling and the University of Oregon, a how-to guide for safe, easy bicycling on campus”. Inside this pamphlet I made a startling discovery. After the officer

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told me that the university took away their authority to make traffic stops, I came upon a contradicting section. I quote from the pamphlet, “If you break the rules, you will be cited. Aside from moving violations-which are enforced on campus by the Eugene Police department and the UO Department of public safety”. It states that you will be cited by the department of public safety when I was just told they no longer have that authority. The officer did suggest that if the issue were brought up by a tuition paying student, the issue might create a bit more bang for its buck.

Bike laws need to be enforced because there are too many uninformed, careless bicyclists riding on the streets. This non-action from the University of Oregon cannot be tolerated any longer. No one is going to take the law seriously if it’s never enforced. If no one abides by the law, how safe can we really be? The unjust laws need to become realistic laws, or abandoned all together. Otherwise they should not be defined as law, but rather guidelines that are no more significant than the paper they are written on.