cyclezealot

If one's bike is an instrument of a crime, it should be confiscated . Just the crime need by a serious crime. Not just a minor infraction of the traffic code.

Rex G

OK, if a cyclist stuffed his bike's frame with illegal drugs, in such a way that the bike was the container, or the drugs had spilled into the frame, the narc supervisor might direct me to submit the whole bike to the crime lab, and it might be a challenge for the owner to get the bike back. There are also laws allowing the seizure of vehicles involved in narcotrafficking, but I have not heard of bicycles being seized. I don't think the Boulder roadies are smuggling weed in their frame tubes.

GuitarWizard

Of course I didn't read the 10 pages of this thread...who the hell has time to do that....

Engraving your DL number, however, CAN get your stuff back to you if it's recovered, as if an officer sees a 9 digit number engraved into something (at least in CT...not sure how many digits are in other states), they will run it as a DL number. I'm not saying that people DON'T memorize other peoples' info, but if you can recite a few different sources accurately, then there's a good 90% chance the person is who they say they are. Most people carry cell phones, and that can also be traced (unless it's a work phone, which is more difficult).

I ran the stop sign in my car, not on my bicycle.

Tulex

Ok, but isn't the idea to just get fast enough so none of this matters?

BillyD

Only that Lance feller could outrun a police cruiser.






He could, couldn't he?

duff1301

i carry id & med card

Pedaleur

For those idiots who can't stay away from the references to Nazi Germany, I will be giving a seminar on the subject, entitled:

On Oxygen Tents and Gas Chambers: The Road Nazi's Guide to the Third Reich.

In it, we will cover such topics as:

- Using carbon fiber to save weight on the Panzer tank.
- The Aerodynamics of the German U-Boat.
- Drop the Hammer or Drop the Bomb?

and, most importantly,

- For god's sake, Levi, whose idea was the "then they came for me" crap.

patentcad

Any notion that the term 'Road Nazi' has any link whatsoever to the atrocities of the Third Reich is the real definition of idiocy.

References: see 'Soup Nazi'.

Carusoswi

That's just wrong. You are not "technically" required to carry ID when "walking around." If you commit an infraction, you need to identify yourself to an arresting officer. Commit no infraction, then LE has no legal right to interact with you, period.

What bothers me about the story I read here is that this officer seems out to require two-abreast riding, period. If I were riding two abreast, I probably would drop to single file if a car were approaching. OTOH, if these are rural Colorado roads, what would be so terrible if the one or two cars that might be overtaking you were to simply pull left into the opposite lane and go by. How obstructive to traffic are a couple of cyclists riding two abreast on such a lightly travelled road?

I wouldn't ride two abreast up a hill or around a bend in the road and force traffic to slow to my pace. But on level ground where there is virtually no other traffic, why are motorist (apparently) complaining to LE about cyclists riding two abreast. There is more going on here than just some wacko Sheriff making noise.

Caruso

Pedaleur

Which derives from...oh, nevermind. References to you redacted. Parody stetted.

LTFU

patentcad

If I LTFU any further I will be airborne.

BillyD

So that's how they lost the war . . . fast tanks but vulnerable to rocks and bullets.

Coyote2

Fixed that for you.

c_bake

+1

deco101

my brother went to jail for this actually. They stopped him because he was riding on the sidewalk on the wrong side around the apartment complex. Some jackass cop pulled him over and my brother didnt have an ID. He was across the street from the apartment and I just drove passed him and he got up and started waving at me. so I parked my car to see what's going on. I look over and my brother was getting his ass tackled by three cops. This was right outside of a police precinct so there was abundance of them. Long story short, my brother went to jail for resisting arrest and no id as well as riding on the wrong side of the road.
I know there are good cops and i've been lucky enaugh to see this but mainly they are ****in ******bags with huge issues.

SoreFeet

I've been stopped many times without ID for other activity. I always give my real name, they show me on the computer devoid of warrants and let me go. Perhaps I will carry my ID now.

I think the problem with Cop VS Cyclist is that we often see cars breaking the law and there simply isn't an officer around to deal with the problem.

Many of us will run stop signs,lights etc...

Club rides are nice but often they do break laws. Riding in single file is a simple and logical rule. I don't think a club ride of 25 should have to stop individually at a stop sign and most don't but if they did traffic would be a nightmare.

Tulex

More likely it was more like:
guy gets up.
"Sir, stay where you are"
guy keeps moving away, toward his bro
"Sir, sit back down"
guy keeps moving........
THEN, they tackled his @ss.

Accordion

Around 1986 I was 20 years old and was driving my Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme around 9pm at night to go play basketball at our high school gym on a Sunday night. I was wearing a hoodie (with the hood on) and was pulled over. I was too young and too naive to even ask why. I don't think the cop even told me.

He asked what I was doing and for my ID. Well I forgot my wallet and told him. I recited my Driver's License number, my Social Security, birthdate and address. He started laughing at all that information and said "Have fun playing basketball" and I was off.

I don't know, if a guy wanted to get in his face about why he was pulled over, or start challenging why he asked for ID, etc. etc. I could see getting an attitude back. I frankly don't care enough. I try to be honest, do the right thing and hope law enforcement will do that same. They always have.

The world needs extremists. You gotta have them. You need guys that will fight tooth and nail over why they need to produce identification in a Free Country, you've got guys who are complete pacifists and will wilt under any type of authority and you've got guys in the middle who will roll with the punches. Without all three types the world would suck and nothing would get done.

For me, carrying my Driver's License in my seat pack during my nightly commute is no big deal at all. If I am stopped for something I'll be more than happy to prove who I am and try my best to work with the officer.

Again, I have never had a bad experience with the police but I don't know if that's just good fortune or a good attitude. My parents always taught me to revere law enforcement so I think that has something to do with it too.

Best to you all. And keep on fighting. Or not.

Pinyon

I live in Fort Collins, and ride a lot here, and this is getting blown way out of proportion. There is a rather large university here in town, Colorado State University, and the police pretty much leave the myriad of bike commuters and lone riders alone. You practially have to get hit by a car while rolling through a stop sign to get a ticket here (if there is an accident, and it is your fault, you get a traffic ticket).

I've never seen or heard of anyone stopped here for riding two-to-three abreast when there is a paved shoulder on the side of the road either. There are more than a dozen local club rides here every week, and I've never met anyone that has gotten a ticket, or was even stopped. But the riders that I ride with are mostly careful and conciencious.

The riders that they keep having problems with are a couple of serious racing groups (way too fast for me), and some rider-groups based to the south in Boulder, County that ride 3-4 abreast on narrow county roads and are pretty obstinate about holding up automobile traffic on a regular basis. They don't bother to give tickets for practicing paceline riding, as long as you don't have 5-10 cars backed up behind you for a half mile or more. Well...I've also heard that the sheriff has started picking on this one angry Boulder group that wears a team kit, and rides the same route just about every week.

Oh, and they give farm tractor driver's tickets if they hold up traffic along no-passing zones as well (there are usaully graveled areas or turn-offs for them to pull over every 1/2 mile or so).

As for the ID thing...well, I don't think that you don't have to have an ID to walk around in America, but since they consider anything that can go over 20 mph a "vehicle"...any driver of a "vehicle" has to have an ID. This was primarily put into law to cut down on insurance fraud associated with accidents. I think that taking them to jail is stupid and wrong, but I also think that not carrying your ID and medical insurance information while riding is pretty stupid too. They won't let you die or anything, but you could lose an appendage while they dicide what course of action to take at the hospital emergency room following an accident, if they are not sure that you are "covered" by insurance. Cruel, stupid, but also true.

orcanova

I instinctively go from two abreat to single file when ther's a car back, to avoid getting hit...

If I need to take the lane to keep the cars from passing, for safety reasons, I do it, then let them pass when its clear...

ZXiMan

It is a group of private banks. They are locally controlled by their member banks, though they are heavily regulated. Employees don't get any federal "perks". They hire their own employees. They get no funding from the government. They carry their own liability insurance and handle their own claims. Because they print and circulate the countries currency, they are exempt from state taxes.

The "Federal Reserve" has nothing to do with our government DIRECTLY. It is an independent entity. This is fact. They are a group of PRIVATE banks that our own government BORROWS money from with interest. They are NOT associated with the U.S. Treasury or any other U.S. government agency, although they work closely together with a board of governors (nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate). As far as whether the Federal Reserve is private or not, see: Lewis v.s. United States, 1982(see also Federal Tort Claims Act, 1946).

Our government does not directly control the value of the dollar or interest rates, but the banks do. The U.S. Treasury hasn't printed, coined or circulated our currency since 1913 when Congress gave the banks the power to do so. The "Banking Act of 1935" removed the last REAL remaining government entity from the Federal Reserve by removing the U.S. Treasury from the board of directors. Likewise, the board of "governors" is a joke (and a bad one at that). Congress does have some limited oversight over the Fed and they also have the power to get rid of the Fed.

Paper money is only a "promissory note". Unfortunately when the Feds decided to remove gold reserves that backed the dollar (and gave it some kind of worth), our "money" became just a worthless piece of paper. The "banks" can print money whenever they want and in whatever quanity they see fit... the more money they print and circulate with nothing backing it, the less it is worth. Hence one very good reason the dollar is sinking faster than a leaky ship.

Interesting debate about the Federal Reserve and and the value of the dollar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldETRlhiXk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4kxTkhwR_Q

kraftwerk 

Makes Boulder seem like a NOT- fun destination, cops are "getting though on crime" most likely because of nervous, frowning drivers...

Pedaleur

Send it to me. I'll see to it that it gets properly recycled...

Landgolier

Of all the things this could degenerate into...

Money is worth something if someone will give you something for it. Whether this someone is another private citizen, a government, or a federally chartered bank is actually rather irrelevant. Monetary policy necessitates a floating currency value, however; if government is in the business of setting what the dollar is worth, it can't also be in the business of macroeconomic policy management and stabilization.

Also, independent central banks work much better than the other kind (think Zimbabwe)

ZXiMan

I have a $1,000 bill from Zimbabwe...

I wonder what it's worth in U.S. dollars...