February 5, 2009
RE: Village of Barrington Hills Bicycle Ordinances
During the spring and summer months, large numbers of bicyclists ride throughout the Village of Barrington Hills. A 2008 Barrington Hills Police Department survey indicated that bicyclists were a major concern for members of the community. Large groups of bicyclists frequently occupy entire lanes on roadways and impede the normal flow of traffic. Complaints of bicyclists disobeying stop signs and other rules of the road were also raised in the survey. The Barrington Hills Police Department responds to a number of bicycle related complaints during the spring and summer.
In response to these issues and in the interest of public safety for all bicyclists and motorists, the Village of Barrington Hills recently adopted two new ordinances that pertain to bicycles and their safe operation on roadways. The first is the mandate of single file bicycle riding. This ordinance states that persons riding bicycles upon a Village maintained roadway are prohibited from riding side by side and shall only ride single file.
The second ordinance is negligent operation of bicycles which states that it shall be unlawful for any person to operate a bicycle upon any public roadway (Village/County/ State) in a manner which is negligent or creates a risk of bodily injury or damage to or loss of property.
These new ordinances aim to ensure that both bicyclists and motor vehicles can share the roadway in a safe and responsible manner. The Barrington Hills Police Department will be enforcing these ordinances especially during the spring and summer months as the weather gets warmer. Any requests for additional information on these ordinances may be directed to Officer Sabas Parada at (847) 551-3006 or sparada@vbhpd.net
Tuesday 2/10, Robbie Moss reported the following while on a small group ride:
ReplyDelete"On a side note, while I was changing the tire, a Lake County sheriff came over to talk to us, (and observe my "Gary Zaid-like" tire repair skills, he would've been proud), and informed us that this season, due to motorist's complaints, there will be a HUGE crack-down on cyclists, who don't obey the rules of the road.......so we've been warned, and it's NOT just Barrington either."
Can anyone show us this so-called survey? If people are complaining then the cops should enforce. Without better educating motorists about our rights to the roads, any traffic other than auto will be perceived as "impeding traffic" will be legislated off the road.
ReplyDeleteGreat point Anne, I have not seen the survey or for that matter, the actual ordinance yet, but I have asked Officer Parada to provide. No answer yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Anne. That second ordinance, at least as it's been worded here, could mean anything.
ReplyDeleteSection 2 : Negligent Operation of Bicycles.
ReplyDelete(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a bicycle upon a roadway within the Village in a manner which is negligent or creates a risk of bodily injury or damage or loss of property.
(b) Any violation of this Section, by any person, shall constitute a minor violation under Section 9-9-3 of the Village Code.
Dear Mr. Goldstein,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your interest and concern about the Village of Barrington Hills recently adopted bicycle ordinances. I looked at your blogspot link and the information there appears to be correct. You can go the Village of Barrington Hills website at http://www.barringtonhills-il.gov/index.html and on the left side column is a link to the Village Code. Click on that link and it will take you to a page containing the entire village code. Enter the keyword "bicycle" into the search engine and it will bring up the two ordinances.
The single file ordinance applies only to Village roadways. On State and County roadways the state statute which permits two abreast riding as long as the bicyclist are not impeding the normal flow of traffic applies. The negligent bicycling ordinance would apply to people operating their bicycles in a dangerous manner. An example of this would be bicyclist going through stop signs without stopping.
The Village of Barrington Hills' police department takes the issue of traffic safety very seriously. The police department is very diligent in citing aggressive drivers whenever they are encountered. Our officers routinely conduct traffic enforcement details in an effort to keep our roadways as safe as possible.
I hope I was able to address the concerns you expressed in your email. If you have any additional questions for me I can be reached via email at sparada@vbhpd.net or at (847) 551-3006. Thank you.
On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 11:37 AM,
Dear Officer Parada,
I am helping coordinate a North Suburban Cycling Advocacy group. We are made up of the cycling clubs, cyclists and bike shops that sponsor or participate often in rides through your village. We are working in cooperation with the Active Transportation Alliance (formerly the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation) who has 6,000+ members in the Chicago area. You may read about our advocacy work at http://cyclingadvocacy.blogspot.com/ and Active Trans at http://www.activetrans.org/.
Our group was actually formed as the result of an accident that occurred in your village last August. The injured cyclists felt that your police department was particularly uninterested in apprehending the aggressive hit-and-run driver that collided with the cyclist. (The horse trailer the pickup truck was towing was unfortunately not displaying a license plate.) The recent new ordinance for single-file cycling was a disappointing response to what we find to be a dangerous situation. We hope this is part of an action by your department that will also enforce issues such as the use of unlicensed trailers, or aggressive drivers.
We also wish to facilitate coordination between your department and the area cycling clubs. Our group's advocacy work has been able to raise funds that have now allowed Active Trans to hire a North Suburban coordinator who is expected to start work by March 1. One activity such a coordinator might be involved in would be meeting with your department and I hope you can work with us to that end.
In the mean time, I am hoping you can send me the link to the single-file ordinance or insure that the statement on our blog is in fact representative of your village.
Thank you for your help,
Best regards,
Jay Goldstein
The following was provided by http://blog.silentsports.net/?p=628
ReplyDeleteJoel Patenaude, Editor
Silent Sports magazine
600 Industrial Dr.
P.O. Box 609
Waupaca, WI 54981
715/258-4354
715/258-8162 (fax)
editor@silentsports.net
www.silentsports.net
This posting can also be found at:
http://blog.silentsports.net/?p=628
I passed the news of the new biking ordinances on to Bob Mionske, an attorney specializing in bicycling law who wrote the book Bicycling and the Law and writes a column on the subject.
I received Mionske’s response last night:
“Under Illinois law, local governments are authorized to regulate the operation of bicycles. The statute doesn’t explicitly state that such regulation must be consistent with state law. However, state law should preempt local law where they are in conflict. The negligent riding law seems to not be in conflict with state law. The question is whether the single file law is in conflict. I’m not sure if it’s in conflict or not. Argument that it is in conflict: State law prohibits riding more than two abreast, therefore cyclists may ride two abreast, and state law preempts local law. Argument that it is not in conflict: State law only prohibits riding more than two abreast; it does not explicitly allow two abreast. Therefore, local government may specify that single-file is in effect within their jurisdictions. I would have to research this to get a solid answer.”
Barrington Hills police officer Sabras Parada, responding to an inquiry by a concerned area cyclist, wrote, “The single file ordinance applies only to village roadways. On state and county roadways the state statute which permits two abreast riding as long as the bicyclist are not impeding the normal flow of traffic applies. The negligent bicycling ordinance would apply to people operating their bicycles in a dangerous manner. An example of this would be bicyclist going through stop signs without stopping.”
Mionske had a bigger problem with the one-side nature of what Barrington Hills is doing. “I do find it annoying that the village letter states, ‘These new ordinances aim to ensure that both bicyclists and motor vehicles can share the roadway in a safe and responsible manner’ but nowhere is there any discussion about how motorists can operate their vehicles in ways that that help this environment.”
Officer Parada insisted, “The police department is very diligent in citing aggressive drivers whenever they are encountered.”
Mionske’s last point is an important one, especially in light of a Barrington Hills hit-and-run last August that injured a couple cyclists. A couple weeks later, a Barrington Hills trustee asked the police chief to send a letter to the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation urging the organization to remove Barrington Hills roads from its list of recommended rides “out of concern for safety,” according to meeting minutes.
According to this story and this column in The Daily Herald last June, conflict between area resident, motorists, officials and cyclists has been brewing for some time now.
The collision last August prompted the formation of a group that will discuss “new efforts to improve the cycling situation in the north suburbs” at a March 10 meeting of the Active Transportation Alliance (formerly the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation) at Alberto’s Cycles in Highland Park, according to this flyer. For more information, call the bike shop at 847/446-2042.