A note of appreciation for Councilmember Todd Gloria
One of the city's most popular thoroughfares is 30th Street. A few days ago I noticed that the street was getting torn up in preparation for resurfacing.
As one of the main thoroughfares for bicyclists connecting North Park to South Park, I was curious whether any bicycle facilities would be installed as part of the resurfacing project.
This morning, District Three Councilman Todd Gloria announced that his office was instrumental in getting the City to commit to installing sharrows as part of the resurfacing project which will be completed within the month.
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This being election year, I have to write a short note of appreciation for the tremendous amount of work that Councilman Gloria and his dedicated staff has done for the bicycling community. His work has not been appreciated enough and the work he has done has benefited not only District Three residents, but everyone who chooses to visit or pass through the District.
Gloria was instrumental in setting up a meeting between the San Diego Police Department and myself along with others in the bicycling community which led to the SDPD training all their patrol officers on the laws affecting cyclists. Councilmember Gloria was also receptive to actually riding with the city's cyclists which allowed him a first hand look at how our terrible infrastructure makes for unpleasant riding conditions and he has been very vocal in calling for our road infrastructure to be repaired.
I can confidently state that no other individual at the City Council has been this responsive, this engaging nor this proactive. Todd Gloria is currently running unopposed. He is only just getting started and it would be wonderful to have him serve for another term. So I hope all of you who live in District Three will consider voting for Todd Gloria on election day. I hope that Gloria serves as a role model to all his peers at City Council because next time around I'd like to have a difficult time picking favorite City Councilmembers. I would vote for Todd, but thanks to the redistricting process I am now part of District Nine where I can only hope that my new Councilmember is as effective as Councilmember Gloria has been.
San Diego Police Department to Train Officers on Cyclists’ Rights and Laws
Within the next two weeks, all patrol officers in the City of San Diego will receive training on the full text of CVC 21202, the bicycle law that applies to cyclists in California. This section of the vehicle code is the one that addresses where cyclists can be positioned when riding on the street and the specific exceptions to the code that have been the subject of two citations we’ve written about here. This has been the section of the vehicle code that has been oft cited when bicyclists in San Diego have been ticketed. Not surprisingly, the lack of understanding of the vehicle code has been a source of much consternation among the region’s cyclists. But with this new training, the patrol officers in the City of San Diego will now be better able to serve the region’s cyclists.
Yesterday, I met with Assistant Chief of Police, Patrol Operations, Boyd Long, and the Lieutenant of Traffic Division, Rick O’Hanlon. Also attending the meeting were Dion Akers, Council Representative to District Three’s Councilmember Todd Gloria, Andy Hanshaw, the new Executive Director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, Linda Peter from the City Attorney’s Office, Jim Baross, the former Interim Executive Director at the SDCBC and William Karstens, a fellow bicycle advocate.
The meeting was the fruitful conclusion of a discussion that began with a series of emails between me and Todd Gloria’s office. District Three was where two of the CVC 21202 citations had been issued. Because the recipients of the two citations were trained under the curriculum set by the League of American Bicyclists on how to ride safely, it was disconcerting when they were being cited for riding in a manner that was both legal and recommended. Having officers patrolling the streets and issuing tickets to cyclists without an understanding the vehicle code that applied was causing a lot of confusion and I wanted to be certain that all of San Diego’s police officers were clear on what the law was.
At our meeting yesterday, Assistant Chief Long understood my concerns and understood how the lack of clarity in understanding the law was causing much confusion. He stated that within the next two weeks, he would be instituting a department wide training on the full text of CVC 21202. In response to my concerns that some officers may have unfairly been targeting cyclists on their beat, he offered to look at trends to analyze whether his officers were indeed doing so and to take remedial action to prevent such a trend from continuing. Furthermore, the Assistant Chief and his Lieutenant was open to the idea of reducing the cost of tickets issued to cyclists.
In an attempt to continue this positive dialogue, Lieutenant O’Hanlon committed to attending the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition monthly (SDCBC) meetings so he could continue the dialogue that we began yesterday. He admitted that being aware of all issues that affected San Diego’s cyclists would allow him to take the proper steps to ensure that appropriate proactive steps could be taken to prevent problems further down the road. The Lieutenant assured us that he would take proactive measures to ensure that negative interactions wouldn’t escalate.
Our discussion yesterday was both positive and encouraging. Knowing that all patrol officers will be briefed on CVC 21202 for all oncoming shifts as well as on their yearly training, is assurance that the San Diego Police Department will be able to enforce the law both fairly and accurately.
At the conclusion of this meeting, the common theme underlying the conversation was how we all could work together to interact with all road users safely and cordially. I’m grateful to Assistant Chief Long, Lieutenant O’Hanlon, and Dion Akers for starting this dialogue and I look forward to seeing this continue.
Beginning a Constructive Dialogue with San Diego's Law Enforcement
A few months ago, a League Certified Instructor with the League of American Bicyclists, Scott Dion, contacted Bike San Diego asking us for permission to use our name as a media organization as part of completing Form MC-500. Form MC-500 is a Media Request to Photograph, Record, or Broadcast. Dion wanted to record his court proceedings as he wanted to fight the improperly cited CVC 21202(a) ticket. Bike San Diego agreed to be listed as the media agency in the request as we felt it was important for cyclists to know how the law was being interpreted in court.
Unfortunately, that request was denied:
The court finds as follows: "According to it's website, Bikesd.org is a community organization with activities including "...street level activism..." It is simply NOT a media organization."
The denial was intriguing in part, because we have been unable to find accurate guidelines on what constitutes a media organization in the City of San Diego. Additionally, we were unaware that "street level activism" would result in us being not being a media organization. Given that all media organizations including newspapers, television stations and online publications have clear biases on issues they report and support - this denial struck us as being a bit odd. This website was begun, in part. to join forces with all the various cyclists that inhabit our region especially considering that news organizations in the region almost always reported on the negative aspects of bicycling and focused too much on bicycling fatalities or injuries.
We were further angered when the Judge presiding over Dion's case found him guilty of violating CVC 21202(a).
At this point, we wrote to District Three Councilmember's office as the citation had occurred in his district. Over two years ago, in 2009 when Andrew Woolley was similarly cited improperly and then had the charges reversed on appeal, Councilmember Gloria's representiative responded back by stating the following, in part:
Councilmember Gloria is aware of this issue and has been in touch with members of the cycling community, the San Diego Police Department, and the City Attorney's office about it. The last we heard was the City Attorney's office was working with SDPD to ensure that officers do not wrongly ticket cyclists. This was at the end of June. Has there been any further incidents of citations since the end of June? If so, I would be happy to follow up.
We were unaware of any additional citations until Scott Dion contacted us. We then contacted Todd Gloria's office again. His office has been very proactive in communicating our concerns to the City Attorney's office and the San Diego Police Department. We will now begin a constructive dialogue. Councilmember Gloria has begun this dialogue by stating:
I have recently been corresponding with the City Attorney’s Office and Assistant Chief Boyd Long about this issue and how we can ensure that cyclists are not being improperly cited. In short, we want to be sure that this section of vehicle code is being properly enforced, everyone involved is on the same page, and that cyclist and police officers are keeping safety above all.
I believe Chief Long has also reached out to you to discuss this, and he has graciously offered to meet with us in person to go over this concern. If you are interested in meeting about this, please let us know and we will coordinate a time that works best.
We will be asking bicycle advocates and instructors well versed with the laws pertaining to cyclists to join this dialogue. And, we will be keeping your abreast of how this will progress.
In the meantime, please contact us if you are cited or have additional concerns you would like raised. It is certainly time that we ensure that all bicyclists are treated fairly, and with courtesy especially by those are called to uphold the law.
Councilmember Todd Gloria's Bike Ride Through District Three
As promised, on July 25th, District Three's Councilmember joined a group of bicyclists in District Three for a casual bike ride through the District. The ride began in South Park and went through the neighborhoods of North Park, Normal Heights, and University Heights. Members from the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition were also in attendance.
Councilmember Gloria and his representative, Anthony Bernal, were very attentive in listening to the bicyclists concerns and thoughts on what riding through District Three entailed.
Below are a few photos from the day.
All in all, it was a fantastic ride and very inspiring to have a Councilmember ride with us. It is just the first step in what the city can do to acknowledge the many cyclists in San Diego.
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I thought I noticed other riders (including the owner of Thomas Bikes) with cameras on the ride but have not seen them posted online. If you do have them available online, please do join our Flickr group or our Facebook page and we'll be happy to give you credit for your photos.
City of San Diego decides to (finally) pave it forward
District 3 Council member, Todd Gloria, along with Mayor Sanders announced news that will be welcomed by bicyclists all over the city: Roads are finally going to be paved.
In statement this morning, Council member Gloria stated how much the city of San Diego's infrastructure had been ignored. The investment to repair the streets has been increased by 400% to 79.2 million dollars for 2009. This is a huge change because in 2005, only 5 miles of roads were repaved in the city. This year, 65 miles of roads are going to be repaved. To watch the announcement, click the video below.