You know how sometimes you can go to traffic school instead of having a driving infraction put on your record? Well a proposed new bill suggests that those folks who go through traffic and safety courses be taught about bicycle and pedestrian traffic safety as well.
House Bill 1129, sponsored in part by our own Representative Andy Billig, would require traffic schools conducted in connection with a condition of a deferral, sentence, or penalty for a traffic infraction or a traffic-related criminal offense. This bill goes in front of the House Transportation Committee at 3:30 today. We'll follow it and let you know if it goes anywhere.
What do you think? Good idea or bad? Why?
4 comments:
Great Idea, and then they also need to send all the kids that ride bikes on the wrong side of the street and through stop signs without bike helmets.
And the folks who almost knock you off the sidewalk downtown because they're riding where they aren't supposed to.
It makes sense because lots of drivers haven't had to revisit traffic laws since they got their licenses, which could be many years. Questions about bike laws were added in recent years but they didn't have to answer those and thus may not know the rights and responsibilities of people who ride bikes, walk or drive.
I agree that people on bikes who break traffic rules should have to relearn them, as should pedestrians.
But I have a question no one will be able to answer: Why is that every time--EVERY time--someone writes about driver behavior with respect to cyclists people have to come back with something about bad behavior by a few people on bikes? Both comments above mine on this post do so.
I could have added to the list of complaint targets "And the pedestrians who step into the street without looking because they're too busy texting" but it isn't about their chosen form of transportation.
It's that SOME people follow the laws, SOME people are considerate, and SOME people are jerks or ignorant or not paying attention or uninformed or or or....
This is not because they ride bikes, drive or walk--it's because they're human.
If we stop seeing people as faceless group members and instead see them as individuals maybe we can get away from "all the XYZ who do ABC" language and instead see each incident with its own separate reality. Then maybe we can treat each other with a little grace and humanity and de-escalate some of the conflict.
@BarbChamberlain
You've got a point Barb. I complain about bad drivers too, I just usually forget about them once I'm out of the car. I'm on foot in downtown Spokane all the time though so you mention 'bicyclists' and the first thing that pops into my head is the guy who almost ran over me on the sidewalk last week, even though I've seen countless responsible riders following the rules of the road since then. Including one nice man on a bike who said good morning to me this morning while we were both waiting at a light. He to go through the intersection and me to cross in the cross walk.
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