4-25-2007

If you happen to be near the Rose Quarter and head towards the center of town on Broadway, a few blocks before the bridge, to your right, you will see Flint Ave. Turning right from Flint to Broadway has cost some local bike riders close to $250.00. A piece.

A posting on Craigslist.com first tipped us off about the issue. Cyclists are required to come to a full and complete stop at a stop sign going from Flint to Broadway before turning right. (as is the case with ANY stop sign) However, the number of cyclists who burn through the stop without . . stopping . . . is so high, cops have started staking out the location.

The Bike Transportation Alliance has kind of a cloudy stance on the issue. They say they are in favor of enforcing the rules . . . but are LESS in favor of enforcing things like stopping at the stop sign. The rep we spoke with said that the fines are high and, most of the time, stop signs are not in high traffic areas. He also wondered how often accidents in the area are caused by cars, not bikes, and whether cops were also pulling over those cars. (That information was not available to KXL news . . . all we were told from the Portland Police was that there was a concern about the number of wrecks in the area and general bike safety)

As an experiment, I stood at the corner of Flint and Broadway for twenty minutes today. 11 bike riders went by me. 10 breezed through the stop sign without a pause. The one who DID stop told me she was PLANNING to buzz through until she saw me standing there.

I talked with some riders passing through and the message seemed to be the same. Blowing through stop signs is commonplace among the bike riding community. Generally, they say they can see whether traffic is coming and keep on pedaling if there's no cars around. They tell me stopping and starting on a bike is tough because you have to hault or recreate momentum (especially difficult on a slope).

Reps from the Transportation Alliance and riders I spoke with in person all agree the enforcement is a good thing in GENERAL because it helps keep riders paying attention to the road.