The Kirkland City Council’s consideration of a proposal for a new ordinance imposing a fine on drivers who park in bike lanes is yet another example of how they and the Kirkland Police Department (KPD) “just don’t get it.” Parking in the bike lane is already illegal. The bike lane is a right-of-way, reserved for bicycles by signage and pavement markings, and it is a ticket-able offense to park in the right-of-way.
I can readily believe that no one in the KPD believes this to be the case. But this is the same department that believes that it is legal for a motorist to use the bike lane as a travel lane. This is exactly the kind of dubious, illogical thinking that we need a strong mayor to correct. It’s a waste of our City Council’s time to work on writing ordinances that simply reiterate what the code already says.
To add insult to injury, Traffic Sgt. Nathan Rich is quoted as saying that “incidental encroachment” into the bike lane “is not a factor.” Classic KPD thinking. Fact is, it’s bad enough that Kirkland stripes bike lanes between parking and the main travel lane, putting cyclists right in the “door zone” for careless motor vehicle occupants to open their doors into a passing cyclist’s way. Or, as I have complained to the KPD in the past to no avail, for their own officers to stand in the bike lane with their patrol car door open while they operate their speed radar. But on top of that, motorists who take this bad situation and make it even worse are considered simply “not a factor.”
Maybe it’s about time the KPD gets out of their patrol cars and gets on bikes, city-wide. Let them use the so-called “infrastructure” Kirkland purports to have provided for bicycles in the city for a month and let’s see how they like having to dodge inconsiderate and careless motorists, deal with unmaintained bike lanes with debris and potholes, or have motorists tailgate them in the bike lane. Maybe they’d finally start looking at the existing laws in a more objective light, instead of treating cyclists as folks who ought to be happy they’re allowed on the roads at all and forcing the City Council to write new laws so explicit that not even the most obtuse person could misinterpret them.
Peter Duniho, Kirkland
