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Permalink Reply by David Farin on August 3, 2012 at 5:23am

What is practicable is determined by a judge or jury in a courtroom. The police officer may have no clue about what is practicable for you given your situation. Given the statistics on getting doored and the serious injuries that may occur, you might hope that it would be ruled practicable to remain at least 3 feet from another vehicle, but that depends upon the prejudices of the jury or judge and your legal representation. If he pulls you over again, it may be to write a citation for you.

It seems to me that you were dealing with an uneducated police officer who is viewing things with prejudice. Unfortunately, so may be a judge and jury. Any of them may view you as endangering your child by taking them onto the road since they may view a bicycle as a toy. That is not my view, but people are all across the board on what parents should or should not allow kids to do these days. 

Although a lot of information is available on the internet, you may want to prepare yourself with knowledge from the following book. It is excellent, and although it won't detail Chicago ordinances or Illinois statutes, it will help you understand them when you look them up, and understand the history and principles of law related to cyclists. And it may help any of us deal with unreasonable police officers, drivers who collide with us, and city and state officials who write the laws that affect us. In fact, now that I have pulled it off of my shelf to share this information with you, it is about time I read it again. FYI, in Wisconsin where I live, maintaining a distance of at least 3' from other vehicles is the law. That would include a police vehicle that is overtaking a cyclist. To not do so and collide with the cyclist would be a traffic violation. Riding a bicycle into the door of a parked car as it is opened would also be a traffic violation.

Bicycling & The Law: Your rights as a cyclist by Bob Mionske, JD

copyright 2007

velopress@insideinc.com

$18.95

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Permalink Reply by O on August 3, 2012 at 7:07am

It would be great if a PDF version of this document were available for download online. Can that be arranged? People need to have copies available to carry if desired.

Suzi said:

There used to be a handy bike pamphlet published by the mayor's office. I would offer to drop some off at the station and/or offer to host a "safe riding" portion at the next CAPS meeting.

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Permalink Reply by Koltraned on August 3, 2012 at 9:29am

The pamphlet from the city of Chicago regarding safe biking says that you should ride 4 feet away from parked cars to avoid being doored. Pretty good start for what is considered "practicable," if the city is already telling you to keep that distance.  

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on August 3, 2012 at 9:40am

Yup.  If there are parked cars they city has already told you to be a minimum of 4-feet away from them.   If one ends up fighting a ticket for the offense of not "riding as close to the curb as practicable" having said pamphlet from the city should pull a bit of weight.  Don't pull it out until the cop has said his piece first and placed you within 4 feet of the parked cars (but not the 1-foot he is citing you for not being.)

Koltraned said:

The pamphlet from the city of Chicago regarding safe biking says that you should ride 4 feet away from parked cars to avoid being doored. Pretty good start for what is considered "practicable," if the city is already telling you to keep that distance.  

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