For the Love of Bikes

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Court Date

September 6, 2012 /

My day in court to contest my ticket (for proceeding through a traffic light that failed to detect me on my bike) is almost here – finally.

Originally scheduled for July 12, 2012, it was canceled and rescheduled for August 9th which didn’t work for me (out of town) so rescheduled again for September 13th.

In the meantime I’ve been busy working with the City of Edmond’s Bike committee, the City Attorney and fellow cyclists to get an ordinance passed similar to the Affirmative Defense statute in Missouri. It isn’t a city ordinance yet, but we’re close.

Once again I have found the Edmond Bike Committee and city officials (in this case the city attorney) to be responsive and willing to take necessary action to correct problems.

All that I wanted when I posted the $119 bond to have “my day in court” was to have something good come from it for those of us that ride bikes.

I hope to have the fine waived because given the circumstances I feel a ticket was not warranted, but if not, having an affirmative defense ordinance in place as a result of my ticket will be a positive outcome for me and every other cyclist navigating through traffic lights here locally. 

With any luck and some justice I’ll get my $119 back and the ordinance!

advocacy, cycling

6 Comments

  1. Nathan Lorenz

    Good luck and thanks, from all of the area cycling community, in seeing this through to a court date!

    • Susan (Post author)

      Thanks very much Nathan, I appreciate your kind words.

      BTW, Nathan has a website and blog, OKC Bicyclist: http://www.okcbicyclist.com/

  2. Brian

    Thanks for standing up for cyclists on this one. It would be great if the city could upgrade the signal light to work for cyclists.

    • Susan (Post author)

      Thank you, Brian. Sometimes something like this (getting a ticket) can create momentum to get something done. Maybe you need to go through a light in Okc in front of a police officer like I did, get a ticket, etc… 😉 Seriously, they need to be aware of those stoplights that don’t recognize cyclists, we all need to notify city official when we encounter a light that doesn’t recognize us, they can sometimes tweak them to-sometimes not but at least they are aware.

  3. Kim

    My hopes…. you get the $119 back, your city adopts the Affirmative Defense, and we increase awareness and common sense in officers who would write a ticket in a situation like this. I’ll be thinking of you on the 13th.

    • Susan (Post author)

      Thanks Kim, I appreciate that. Check out the post about our NEW Affirmative Defense ordinance! Woo-hoo victory for cyclists!

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