On Friday night, I was headed east on Forbes alongside a police car. When we arrived at the intersection, there was a four-way red light with the four way walk signal. There were no pedestrians in my path, so I proceeded through.
The cop then came through the intersection and pulled me over. I told him I was facing a walk sign, which he told me doesn't matter. Looking through the Pennsylvania code, it appears he may be right in legal terms, although that simply shows me that the law is poorly designed.
He also repeatedly told me, "This is how bikes get hit by cars," which is a fundamentally unreasonably statement, considering there is no situation in which a car could legally be proceeding through an intersection such that it could hit a bike proceeding facing a walk sign.
So, how ought we go about making sure cops don't do unreasonable things like this?
The law is pretty unreasonable, but the cop was just doing his job. The only way to make sure this doesn't happen is to change the law, which will take a long time. This law in particular is meant to protect pedestrians, and I'm sure a prudent law-maker would want to word it in a way to guarantee that a cyclist wouldn't be proceeding through a walk signal at unsafe speeds to pedestrians.
Were you by any chance at Forbes & Murray, or Forbes & Braddock? As you correctly point out, no car could "legally be proceeding through an intersection" when there's a 4-way red light. However, drivers at those two intersections break the law and run the red lights all the time.
The cop may have been looking out for you.
this is one of those "gray areas" that i don't think anyone understands, really. If this wasn't a business district, a bike could be on the sidewalk, but not allowed to go when it's a four way walk?
that doesn't seem to make sense.
i don't know if where you were was considered a biz dist, forbes changes a bunch, i imagine, but i doubt the cop knew either, unless it was in the heart of oakland or sq.hill.
all of the laws regarding bikes were an afterthought really, and obviously not fully thought out.
Yeah, I've always wondered about this, since I make use of the walk signal at the Negley/Centre intersection just about every day. It does seem a bit muddled that I can ride on the sidewalk (in a non-business district) but I can't proceed when given a walk light.
This was at Forbes and Craig, so probably the Craig half of the intersection counts as a business district, while I'm not sure what the side near the Carnegie Museums counts as.
Short term, we should try and get the Bike/Ped coordinator to get the City Solicitor to offer an opinion on this.
Long term, we need to try and find an ally in the legislature to work to improve Pennsylvania's bicycle laws. Is there an effort in this direction presently?
there is a small group of appointed people working on pa bike issues. they've made some small improvements over the past few years
there is no pa advocacy group like bike pgh that can push agendas. but there def should be
i've been pulled over for this too. one thing i've learned is if you argue what seems to be logic with a police officer, you will get a ticket. so i usually thank the officer for pointing out my wrong doings and then ride on. this is a law that could be changed but i see some kids fly through these signals and i worry for the pedestrians. there's a gray area there too, how should a cyclist be allowed to proceed through these signals if at all? i do it all the time but i slow down to a pedestrian pace and if i see a cop i give him a friendly nod, it seems to work for me...
well, it would be the same directive for bikes on a sidewalk, yield to peds and all should be peachy.
