Because there’s NOTHING BETTER TO DO in the Mission at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday, I got pulled over by a cop for rolling through a stop sign at 17th and Harrison. Yeah, happy Bike to Work Week to you, too.
Two other cyclists blew through the intersection at the same time, but the cops picked on me, with a $166.96 fine for violating vehicle code 22450(a). Why? Because I was “the closest to getting hit,” Officer McBride told me.
At this point I just had to mention that the only time I’ve ever been struck by a vehicle it was by a cop on a motorcycle who failed to use his blinker before he plowed me down in a crosswalk.
But Officer McBride didn’t feel like chatting about that, so I asked him and his partner, whose name I didn’t catch, how many cyclists they’d pulled over that morning. I was the second. I asked how often they did stings on cyclists and McBride’s partner said they never did that.
He quickly corrected himself, adding, “to my knowledge.” (Is this true? I’ve never seen a bike trap, but I’ve heard rumors about the Wiggle. Anyone out there have some deets on that?)
I also asked about their protocol for Critical Mass, when thousands of bikers just flow through the lights and stop signs. They both said they didn’t work Critical Mass, so they don’t know how or why the law is magically suspended then.
But it wasn’t magically suspended for me, and I’m pissed. In effect, I’ve been punished for riding my bike.