The Portland Police staged an unannounced stop sign enforcement action this morning in inner southeast Portland. Unlike previous “enforcement actions” that were highly publicized beforehand and with signage in the road, this morning’s operation was more covert and unexpected.
Check out the reaction to it on the Shift email list and a bit more, including a poll in the forums.
So how did it go? This just came in from bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg:
- Car tickets – 29
- Car warnings – 5
- Bike tickets – 20
- Bike warnings – 12
While many folks will complain about cops wasting time and money on this type of enforcement, I think it’s important for them to send a message to road users that stop signs need to be obeyed. Now whether or not bikes should have to come to a complete stop at all stop signs…that’s a debate in itself that I’ll save for another day.