Begin forwarded message:



>  Police Ticket Cyclists, Some in Charity Event, for Running Stop Sign

> Posted by: "Lanny Lambert"  llambert@...     llambert1958

>

>  Tue Jul 7, 2009 5:58 am (PDT)

>

>

>  More than 700 cyclists were on the roads of Loudoun County over the

>  weekend, some pedaling up to 150 miles, trying to raise money for a

>  debilitating disease, multiple sclerosis.

>

>  But as they made their way Sunday in the untimed event, several rolled

>  into an obstacle few foresaw: the long arm of the law.

>

>  According to cyclists and Loudoun authorities, several cyclists failed

>  to come to complete stops at some intersections, and a county

> sheriff's

>  deputy was waiting to pounce. Eight cyclists were ticketed for running

>  stop signs that day in the Lovettsville and Purcellville areas,

>  authorities said.

>

>  To several who took part in the annual event - which is estimated to

>  have raised more than $700,000 for research and assistance for those

>  with the incurable illness - the tickets were poor form, even if

>  cyclists had rolled through the signs. To authorities, who said they

>  received numerous complaints from motorists about cyclists crowding

> the

>  roads and running stop signs, the citations were necessary to ensure

>  safety on the roads.

>

>  "After I picked my jaw up off the ground, my feeling was, 'You've got

>  nothing better to do at 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning than sit there

>  and wait for people to run a stop sign?' " said David Jennings, 47, of

>  Vienna, a cyclist who did not ride for charity but was ticketed in

>  Lovettsville while out with his biking club.

>

>  Jennings said he and another cyclist, a charity participant, slowed to

>  about 1 mph before proceeding through a stop sign in Lovettsville,

> only

>  to find a sheriff's deputy nearby, who flagged them down.

>

>  "What was amazing to me was it seemed to me they were there because of

>  the MS ride," Jennings said. "They've donated their time and all their

>  money, and they've donated to a charity, and you've got the Loudoun

>  County Sheriff's Office just sitting there waiting to hand them a

>  ticket. It didn't seem right."

>

>  Loudoun Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said raising revenue had nothing to

>  do with the citations. He mentioned two cyclists who were killed

> within

>  days of each other in summer 2005 and said rolling through a stop sign

>  on a bike can have the same consequences as doing so in a car.

>

>  "They forget the fact that they're sharing that road with motor

>  vehicles, and by not respecting the rule of the road, they're putting

>  themselves in huge danger," Simpson said. "They get into a collision

>  with a motor vehicle, they're going to come out the loser in that

> deal."

>

>  "Bike MS: Beyond the Beltway" was organized by the National Multiple

>  Sclerosis Society's National Capital Chapter and took place mostly in

>  Loudoun on Saturday and Sunday, said chapter President Chris

> Broullire.

>  The two-day course totaled 150 miles, but not everyone rode the entire

>  length, he said.

>

>  Broullire said safety precautions were taken, including motorcycle

>  escorts and reminding riders to obey traffic rules. He declined to

>  comment on the citations, saying he was looking into them.

>

>  Cyclist Bill Dwyer, who received a ticket near a square in

> Lovettsville,

>  said he thinks the citations were emblematic of a larger tension

> between

>  motorists and cyclists.

>

>  "The fact that there were people in that square running stop signs

> isn't

>  the problem," said Dwyer, 53, of Alexandria. "The finger was unfairly

>  pointed at the MS bike riders and myself in particular. . . . But I

> got

>  a ticket. It's not a big deal. I'll pay it."

>

>  Another ticketed charity rider, Charles Rothrock of Oakton, said he

>  agrees that safety is paramount but that authorities could have taken

>  better steps to "proactively warn cyclists" to obey road signs.

>

>  The tickets carry a prepayable $30 fine and a $61 fee. If someone

>  chooses to fight the charge, a judge can raise the fine to as much as

>  $250.