8:58 PM: Another citation roundup on SPD Blotter tonight; at first glance, we thought, nah, we’ll skip this one, nothing particularly major. Then we took a second look, and noticed this SW Admiral Way stop:
1 bicycle at 42 mph
First time we’ve seen them mention a bicyclist.
ADDED 11:02 AM THURSDAY: Just talked to Sgt. Sean Whitcomb of the SPD media-response unit, to follow up on this. One point of clarification: The bicyclist received a “warning” ticket, not one with a price tag – as an opportunity for awareness-raising, according to Sgt. Whitcomb, who adds that the rider, an “adult male,” was “very surprised” – both at being stopped, and once he heard how fast he was going (indeed, detected by LIDAR). This isn’t the first time ADRT has stopped a bicyclist, notes the sergeant, but more commonly, it’s for “rules of the road” type violations.
3:07 PM THURSDAY: A comment just in from Kevin, who says he’s the cyclist that was “pulled over”:
As the cyclist involved… I figure I should give my 2 cents.
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I was fine with being pulled over. I could have gotten a ticket and would have been OK with it; however, the SUV gaining on me from behind should have also been given a ticket. Going 42 (and by the way… why does everyone assume I was going downhill) on Admiral just keeps you with the flow of traffic. This morning, I was going about 30 mph and had a car zoom past on the right hand side and cut over right in front of me just before the merge to Spokane. Like it or not, it’s safer for a bike to break the speed limit and keep up with traffic (if possible) than to try to obey the law.
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The officer was nice about the whole situation (and seemed to get a kick out of pulling over a bike). He said he had been looking for a bike to pull over for a while (apparently, I was the first going fast enough). He told me he was careful to write a neat contact report so that I could frame it. If only I had known I was going to be clocked…
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