Waving protest signs is a great way to catch a politician’s eye (who doesn’t love a child flaunting a little “OMG CRC WTF”?), but next week there are a couple events gearing up to get people talking face-to-face with politicians.
First up, the entire Ways and Means Committee is meeting in Portland next week for a special public session on what the budget looks like with a $4-6 billion hole in it. “This will be the most depressing three hours since The English Patient,” laments Bus Project lobbyist Henry Kraemer. But if you’re wondering what programs will get cut and how the state will use taxes to patch the hole, head on down to the PCC Cascade Campus Arts and Humanities Auditorium next TUESDAY from 6-9PM. It’ll be just like our March Sadness Brewhaha but less drunk and probably with no jokes about “shovel-ready grandparents.” “The idea is to inform the public about out dire situation and, to put it lightly, our imperfect revenue structure,” says Kraemer.
Meanwhile, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance is packing Salem with bike advocates for two days next week for the Oregon Bike Summit. The BTA scheduled workshops and half-hour meet-and-greets with all Portland representatives (their full lobbying agenda is a pdf here). The big things they’re hoping citizen bike wonks will bring up with legislators is bike funding in the governor’s massive Jobs and Transportation Act and consideration of transit options for new public schools siting. And of course, you could put in your two cents on the Columbia River Crossing bridge. Email Margaux at the BTA for more info.
Oh! And! Transit nerds! Check out this cute video about the Idaho Stop Law. The BTA is currently racing to find 31 legislators to vote “yes” on the controversial law before it dies in committee. The group is in a tough lobbying situation after fired its only Salem lobbyist two weeks ago. But, hey, head out to next week’s events and cut yourself a fat check – you’re an independent lobbyist now!
More talk on TAXES below the cut.
Between yesterday’s crazy anti-tax protest and the Gresham poverty forum last week, there’s been a lot of speculation on how the state can get some cash. I asked Kraemer and Our Oregon advocate Scott Moore what taxes the legislature is likely to increase. Both pointed to taxes on corporations. “Corporations pay a lower rate than people,” says Kraemer, pointing out that business pay 6.6% income tax regardless of their income, while Oregonians in the upper income tiers pay seven and nine percent. Moore noted that taxes on corporations made up 18 percent of the state budget in the 1970s. Today, due to decades of tax breaks, corporate taxes make up only six percent. “The burden to pick up the rest of that tab has fallen to us individuals,” says Moore.
The problem with this law is that drivers do not have confidence in what a biker will or won’t do. I am not convinced that Idaho is a good test scenario.
A biker since I was 4 with two pretty close calls after being hit by cars pulling out of driveways/parking spots, I don’t mind stopping at signs, or doing anything that increases my survivability in a world of cars. There is almost no condition in a city where a rolling stop is guaranteed to keep you safe. You just don’t have the capacity to look three directions, while rolling, and know the state of cars that may or may not be in movement. More importantly, they don’t know whether or not you are stopping when you are rolling, so your life is then based on their guess. We of course will have iffy laws where one persons roll-through is another persons law breaking. There’s no easy determination by an officer to tell what is safe and what isn’t.
Why do we stop–period–in cars? In theory it is to get eye contact. You are checking to make sure the drivers across and to the side of you SEE you. I just can’t see a rolling stop allowing for such a situation in all cases.
Now let’s get to the social aspect. Cars already see bikers blow through control devices, either red lights or stop signs. This law gives bikers, already a somewhat hated group because of this blatant disrespect for the law, further leverage to blame the biker in any crash. “I hit him because I thought he was going to stop, but apparently he rolled through.”
There are no federal laws that are in planning for this. Perhaps if the whole country was planning this, it might work.
Idaho, as mentioned in the video, is vastly rural, and biking isn’t necessarily centered around metro areas like Portland and Eugene are.
And quiet side streets are where I am much more petrified of cars. I can’t see them pulling out of driveways, foliage, intersections where vans/suv’s block corner visibility, the inability to determine the sign conditions in changing residential areas. Dedicate bike thru-ways maybe with priority for bikes? That seems like a better experiment than this.
As a biker, that wants biking to flourish, I think full stops should be required.
You’ve got a good point. As a bicyclist myself I’ve been kinda wary about this idea. I’ve nearly been hit by assholes who think because they are on a bike they don’t have to follow ANY traffic law. I’d rather be inconvenienced than smeared all over the road.
This whole bikes VS cars things is childish on both sides. That said, I’ve been keeping tabs on how many times I’ve rolled through a stop sign on backstreets around town and I’ve been doing it a lot.
I think the problem here is more of teaching people COMMON SENSE when they are using a bike or car. Why do the lawyers in bike racing gear types insist on riding down Hawthorne during rush hour??? There are 2 backstreets to use on either side that have little or no stop signs and very little traffic. Taunting drivers will end up getting you your own commemorative Ghost Bike.
Idaho has rural areas but it also has large cities. In very dense areas traffic tends to be controlled by signals, which this law does not apply to so they are less relevant. If Boise were a City in Oregon it would be the second largest city in the state. Even if you add in all of Springfield’s population, Eugene which you referred to as one of Oregon’s metro areas has a smaller population than Boise.
27 years of success in Idaho is a valid reason to think that it would also work well here in Oregon.
if you feel unsafe about not stopping, dont not stop! (double negative) its not like they are making it illegal to do so.
I mention Eugene because it is a top bike city in this country, not because of population size.
“if you feel unsafe about not stopping, dont not stop! “
This is like saying if I don’t like this country, leave it. Yeah, well, I don’t like it, but there are alternatives, such as working to make it better.
I’m not going to freak if this law is passed, I just won’t have sympathy for bikers when they are creamed at the same rate as previously. This law does nothing to improve safety, regardless of Idaho history with it.