Is The Idaho Stop A Racial Justice Issue?

In previous posts, I have advocated "Idaho Stop," which allows cyclists to roll through stop signs at empty intersections and to treat stoplights as "stop" signs.  As the name indicates, it was first codified into law in The Gem State--in 1982. Despite proof that it does more than almost anything else to promote cycling safety--after all, an intersection is the most dangerous place for a cyclist--it's been slow to spread to other jurisdictions. 

Now, Colorado might be ready to join them.  A few cities and towns within the Centennial State have already legalized it, or modified versions of it.  But a bill that would allow the "Idaho Stop" statewide is about to go to Governor Jared Polis' desk, having passed both the state's House and Senate.  A spokesman for the Governor did not say whether or not he'll sign it.

Massimo Alpian hopes he does.  A lifelong cyclist, he surely understands how such a law will help to make cycling safer by reducing the risk of, say, being clipped by a right-turning vehicle in front of him.  But the also believes the "Idaho stop" could be a racial justice issue.

Photo by Hart Van Denberg, from CPR News

Years ago, he recalls, he was riding blazing down a road near Boulder.  Three cyclists in front of him shot through a "Stop" sign.  He followed, "right around the same speed," he says.  Then "I was pulled over and ticketed," he recounts.

Now, some might say that as officers in such situations are wont to do, they went after the "low hanging fruit," i.e., the last cyclist in a line.  But Alpian, all of these years later, still wonder whether something else was at play.  You see, he is the son of immigrants from Latin America and the Middle East.  The three cyclists in front of him were Caucasian.  

I get the impression that his diplomacy skills are better than mine.  He says he was "confused" as to why he was targeted. "If I was doing something blatantly egregious, sure, I'd feel bad that maybe I was breaking the law or putting other folks at risk."  But what he did would have been perfectly legal under an "Idaho Stop" regulation and, law or no law, put nobody at risk.  So, it's hard to blame him for harboring any thought that he was stopped because of his brown skin.

That, he says, is one reason why he wants Governor Polis to sign the bill into law.

I wonder whether the cops who stopped him went on to become Senators from Texas and Tennessee.

Lighting A New Way Forward?

 How would you like a lamp that gives off as much light as five 100-watt bulbs but weighs less than two?

Yes, for your bike.

Well, BYB Tech is promising with their Focus One light.  What's more, the Italian start-up says you'll be able to regulate the amount of light and how often it flashes from a small button on the device, or from a remote handlebar control.

Those aren't the only promises or claims BYB Tech is making.  While they don't claim to be the lightest bike light of all, they say that the Focus One is the "world's smallest 5000 lumens light" and that it will allow cyclists to be "seen like a car."

Of course, like almost any new technology, it isn't cheap to buy--or produce.  To address the latter, BYB Tech has opened a Kickstarter campaign that will help them, well, kickstart production. If you want to buy one now, making a donation to the campaign will reduce your price for a unit.

Tell Me: Who's Impeding Progress In D.C.?

Senate Judiciary Committee hearings can be all kinds of fun to listen to.  Sometimes you get to hear good uses of the Socratic method.  Other times, though--like yesterday--they're a unique spectacle because they bring a brilliant mind or a bold spirit in contact with the damndest asses this country has to offer.

To wit, I would have found Marsha Blackburn's lecturing of Ketanji Brown Jackson hilarious if the esteemed judge didn't have to endure the vapidity of the most ignorant member of Congress on this side of Louie Gohmert.  Ms.Blackburn completely butchered a speech Judge Brown-Jackson gave a few years ago.  Of course, almost any time a member of the Evangelfacist wing of the Republican Party utters the term "critical race theory," it never takes more than four of five more words to show that a) they don't know what it is and b.) they are making an issue out of something that isn't.  (I know a number of teachers at every level of education and have some familiarity with what they teach.  Not one of them has ever taught "critical race theory," and only one--who taught a graduate seminar--even mentioned it.)  

If she is the ditziest member of Congress, then Ted Cruz might be the most gratuitiously mean--and most sactimoniously dishonest.  That is, when he sticks to the topic at hand.  Thankfully, he didn't.  Instead of asking actual questions about the judge's  history or judicial philosophy, Cruz gave a speech or went on a rant, depending on your point of view.  But what really got me was when he said, "Supreme Court confirmations weren't always controversial" and gave the example of Bushrod Washington (George's nephew), whose confirmation took only one day. Surely he must have known about the nominee's relationship to our First President, the fact that he was a slaveowner, and that there were far fewer members of  Congress two centuries ago.  Oh, and has it occurred to him that Supreme Court confirmations are controversial, in part, because of folks like him.

I guess I shouldn't be so hard on them. After all, they found ways to express their racism without actually coming out and saying that Brown-Jackson is unqualified to be a Supreme Court judge because she's black--or, at least, because  the way she's black isn't like Clarence Thomas or Candace Owens.

I mention the proceedings for one very good reason:  They provide a contrast to something else that went on in Washington, DC.  What I'm about to mention actually served a purpose and may well have helped to accomplish something useful.  And the person responsible for it is one of my new heroes.

Zachary Petrizzo may not have brought the so-called "People's Convoy" to a standstill all by himself.  However, he did manage to slow down and frustrate the truckers who tried to do what their Canadian counterparts did in their country's capital:  tie it up to express their frustration with COVID rules.  While the haulers north of the border brought their city to a standstill to the point that citizens had difficulty getting to and from school, work and other everyday activities, the ones in the good ol' U S of A have been hobbled by breakdowns, permit denials and D.C. commuters whom the truckers believe are members of antifa.  And a lone bicyclist who did what even John Forester, the late author of "Effective Cycling" couldn't have done better.

You see, Mr. Petrizzo did exactly what any cyclist should do in his situation.  There was no bike lane or even a sidewalk, so he had to ride on the road.  And, he understood that "riding as far to the right as possible"--which most motorists believe cyclists are supposed to do--can get you "doored" or put you in other kinds of harm's way.  

What I especially love about what Mr. Petrizzo did, however, has nothing to do with whether or not he was giving a clinic on safe cycling.  When the road widened into multiple lanes, a driver pulled up alongside him and yelled, "JHey, what are you doing?  You've got a bunch of trucks behind you."

Petrizzo's response: "What's that?  I didn't hear you?  What did you say?"

"You've got a bunch of trucks behind you," the driver repeated.

Petrizzo cupped his hand to his ear.  "Can't hear you, sorry, it's too loud," he yelled as truck horns blared away.

His responses would have been just as appropriate if the estimable Ketanji Brown Jackson used them on two grandstanding politicians who, instead of interviewing her, lectured and tried to browbeat her