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News article from Willamette Week (Portland, Oregon) - July 11, 2007
After the 2007 Oregon Legislature failed to fix the "fixies" law, the
tickets continue to fly in Portland.
Like in a Richard Scarry book, downtown Portland on a weekday afternoon
bustles with many forms of transportation. Buses pass pedestrians who
just got off the MAX, and taxis roll through stop signs while cars line
up on Burnside.
Unlike a children's book utopia, however, not everyone's happy with all
the ways to get around. Zipping through traffic, fixed-gear bikes, or
"fixies," continue to be ticketed by Portland police for what the cops
consider equipment violations.
The ongoing ticketing highlights the Legislature's recent failure to
clear up legal ambiguities around the bikes, which are brought to a stop
by the application of back pressure on the pedals instead of more common
hand or coaster brakes. The legs of the cyclist, coupled with the bike's
gearing, act as a brake.
Local bike advocacy lawyer Mark Ginsberg worked with Oregon legislators
in the just-concluded session to fix matters with Senate Bill 729. That
bill included a provision that said fixed-gear bicycles are "not
required to be equipped with a separate brake."
"We just spent a lot of time in the Legislature, and we thought we had
it clarified," says Ginsberg.
But the fixies clause in the larger bill dealing with bikes died in the
Judiciary Conference Committee after Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Southwest
Portland) stripped it out. A local bike blog, bikeportland.org, reports
that Burdick's daughter lobbied her not to green-light the surge of
inexperienced fixie riders.
"After it initially went through, I had a lot of reservations," Burdick
said in an interview with Jonathan Maus, editor of Bikeportland. "My own
daughter (who works at River City Bicycles in Portland) rides fixies on
the velodrome. She jumped on me pretty hard and said there were a lot of
people on fixies who really don't know what they're doing, so changing
the standard across the board would not be a good idea."
River City Bicycles sells one type of fixed-gear bicycle without brakes.
All its other models come with brakes. Most bike shops in Portland that
offer fixies, including Bike Gallery and Bike N' Hike, sell them with
brakes.
Sleek and simple, fixies have become popular with everyone from couriers
to a hipper sect of the bike commuter set. At the same time, some of
these cyclists claim police, exploiting a vaguely written fixies
provision left untouched by the Legislature, are targeting them.
"They're real selective about who they give tickets to," says Matthew
Henry, 23, a bike messenger who has been ticketed five times for riding
a "brakeless" bike. Citations cost $97 apiece.
"They're focusing on the messengers," says Tab Bamford, an independent
bike courier. "And they're the ones who actually know how to ride these
bikes."
Portland police estimate that they give anywhere between four and 10
citations a week for "bicycle equipment violations," the infraction
given to fixed-gear bicycles not equipped with a standard brake. But
police insist they do not target specific people.
"Most of these guys are messengers running from building to building
downtown, and that's where I am," says Officer Bret Barnum, a motorcycle
cop. "We're not out to target people."
Bamford, 30, has been a messenger for over six years and has twice won
the North American Cycle Courier Championships, first in 2002 in Houston
and then in 2003 in Washington, D.C. While he feels that messengers are
being unfairly penalized, he realizes the bikes can be dangerous under
the heels of the inexperienced. Without the proper strength, the bikes
are hard to stop. Portland police say legs aren't brakes.
"In the interest of public safety, you do need a separate mechanism,"
says Barnum. He and Officer Bill Balzer, another Portland motorcycle
cop, hand out over 90 percent of the citations in question. He says the
way the law is written "leaves it open for interpretation" and that he
reads the law as requiring "an independent mechanism that allows the
bike to stop."
Not everyone, however, reads it that way. Currently, Oregon Revised
Statutes 815.280(2)(a) says a bike "must be equipped with a brake that
enables the operator to make the braked wheels skid on dry, level, clean
pavement." On Jan. 1, SB 729 clarified the law a bit. Instead of
skidding, cyclists must show they can stop within 15 feet going 10 mph.
"What does 'equipped' mean? What does 'brake' mean?" Ginsberg says.
"Nowhere does it say you need a mechanical caliper brake."
State Sen. Jason Atkinson (R-Central Point), who worked closely with
Ginsberg on SB 729 last session, raced bikes professionally for eight
years before he "went through a windshield and went into politics."
"A large number of people don't understand how many fixies there are and
how safe they are," says Atkinson, the original sponsor of the bill.
But Barnum disagrees, saying that it's "about safety for everybody."
"The silent majority have said, 'Hey, guys, put your brake on and you're
good to go,'" he says. "The vocal minority are the same 20, 25 people
who refuse to do this."
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