With the help of Bunny Hop bicycle shop’s new location, Oregon Hill is becoming more well known as a bike neighborhood.
In a recent “Why Richmond, Why?!?” Richmond.com column, Phil Riggan supplied the goods on “dead bikes” and more.
Some informative excerpts:
I bike often and consider myself a cyclist, so I feel qualified to say that the cycling community is it’s own harshest critic. Many of the questions I get about cycling issues and traffic violations come from cyclists. Usually, the conversations will lead to a need to have drivers and pedestrians improve their knowledge of the rules of road for bikes. Questions like “can bikes ride on sidewalks (yes),” “can bikes ride against traffic in roadway lanes and on one-way streets (no),” “can bikes ride through stop signs and red lights (no),” and more. Check VDOT for more biking tips and regulations.
It seems like a majority of the complaints about bike violations centers around the Virginia Commonwealth University campus, a place flooded with students who — surprise! — bike, walk, run and even skateboard all over the place.
As for traffic violations, RPD shared figures on citations were issued to cyclists:
In 2012: 47 citations issued to cyclists. Of those 21 were for code section 46.2-1015, which is not having lights and/or reflectors on the bike.
In 2013: As of this past Friday, 83 citations issued to cyclists. Of those, 20 of them were for code section 46.2-1015, which is not having lights and/or reflectors, and 21 were for code section 46.2-833, which is for a Signal Light Violation.
That is a big jump in violations and I hope this is satisfactory for anyone who doubts that cyclists are held responsible for their behavior on the roads. I’d like to think that there has been a correlating increase in the number of cyclists in accounting for the rise in citations, but no way to know for certain as we currently don’t have a bike census.
One more thing for you James River Park System trail riders (and anyone else who uses the trails): The system to utilize the flexible brown trail emergency locator markers (pictured at left) are not yet operational. You may have noticed the markers, they have ID marks for locations that 911 operators could use to dispatch responders for injured users.
“Regarding the trail marker signs, they are not yet fully operational. We are currently working with the James River Park System, the Richmond Fire Department and the Richmond Ambulance Authority to make sure everything is all set up and working properly,” according to Dionne Waugh of the Richmond Police Department.