Word on the street is that police will be ramping up traffic enforcement along the streetcar in the month leading up to it’s launch.
The police will be targeting motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
If the police setup on University Boulevard and Park Avenue, they will be writing a lot of tickets for motorists failing to stop behind the bike box.
Perhaps the driver who sarcastically said she must be color blind since she didn’t seen any green pavement (probably because she was parked on it) — when I informed her she was parked in the bike box — will take the police a little more seriously.
I’m not however holding my breath.
Make sure you are stopping at the stop signs along the route and don’t pass on the right when the streetcar is waiting at the stops.
Has TPD issued any information listing what actions for which bicyclist can cited. You mention not passing a stopped streetcar … what about passing a moving streetcar?
I’d be curious to know what violation a motorist would be guilty of when not stopping before a bike box?
Drivers of vehicles need only stop before entering the intersection according to the red-light statute 28-645(3)(a) “vehicular traffic facing a steady red signal alone shall stop before entering the intersection…”.
So not stopping before a bike box, or crosswalk, or stop line for that matter, isn’t a violation of the red-light law.
Interestingly, it is explicitly required to stop before a crosswalk or stop line at a stop-sign controlled intersection (which seems logical to me): 28-855B “A driver of a vehicle approaching a stop sign shall stop before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection, or if there is no crosswalk, shall stop at a clearly marked stop line…”
Ed, I agree that the law reads pretty squishy in that section. I think they need to be more direct like they are in 28-645 B which states: “If an official traffic control signal is erected and maintained at a place other than an intersection, this section applies except as to those provisions of this section that by their nature can have no application. Any stop required shall be made at a sign or marking on the pavement indicating where the stop shall be made, but in the absence of a sign or marking the stop shall be made at the signal.”
That’s pretty plain, they should do that for A (3) (a) and take out all the traffic school mumbo-jumbo.
@Robert Lane And the ‘on road’ mumbo-jumbo, too. Some bike boxes have the stop bar moved back, some don’t and some have two – one at the bike box and one at the crosswalk. Drivers: take your pick at which one you want to stop at. Cops: take your pick which one you want to cite for. And I don’t think bike boxes have any legal standing at all.