Take The Lane

Over 14,000 miles of commuting by bicycle and not once have I had any interaction with the Sacramento Police Department, the Elk Grove PD, Sacramento County Sheriff, or the California Highway Patrol.

Until this morning.

According to the DMV, if I am traveling straight through an intersection, I have a right to use the through traffic lane rather than ride next to the curb and block traffic making right hand turns. I do this every morning at the northbound intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Fruitridge.

I passed the parked CHP officer about a hundred feet before the intersection and I took the right hand lane, staying in the left hand side. He pulls up on my right and tells me "you can't ride down the middle of the road."

The fuck I can't, I thought. I've got every right to take the lane under these conditions. And suppose I was intending on turning left on Fruitridge...I can't cross the middle of the road to get into the left hand turn lane, either?

I was immediately defensive. I told him "I have every right, sir." He nodded "no, you don't." I said, "yes I do -- I have the right to take the lane at every intersection, and have the responsibility to allow cars behind me to turn right." By then, the interchange had turned green. I waved him off, he turned right, and I went straight ahead -- end of discussion.


This bugged me all day long. Fourteen years of bicycle commuting and the first and only interaction with traffic law enforcement demonstrated their ignorance of the laws they are supposed to enforce. Not only do I have to content with drivers who wouldn't give me the right-of-way even if they knew the law (and most don't), I have to contend with highway patrolmen who also don't know the law.

Commuting by bicycle, I now surmise, is a lose-lose proposition. Not only do I not save a dime doing it (as I've pointed out here on my blog), law enforcement doesn't know the law, wouldn't or couldn't back me up in an accident, and I risk massive injury or death every time I mount the bike. I got rolled up on by four black guys in a Caprice this afternoon riding home, which might someday lead to an unpleasant outcome. I prolly don't get a real cardiovascular workout, either, as a commuter. Real bicyclists would say "never get on the wheel of a commuter."

This officer -- clearly younger than me -- certainly hasn't ridden a bike since grade school. He's as autocentric as every other Californian; completely dependent on automobiles and has no idea the laws pertaining to the use of the roadway by anything other than cars. Lives in the Sacramento 'burbs, two miles from anything other than other housal units, drives his car to work to drive another car to ticket/assist other cars.

I certainly get discouraged. I suppose I monologue simply to vent, because that's about all I can do...but it works! I'm a little more balanced than I was a half hour ago...