Self-regulation or County Regulations - We have a choice

http://host.madison.com/news/local/iowa-county-mulls-bicycle-event-ordinance/article_055a5aa7-cc25-52f6-9e3f-eaf3a0377975.html

Iowa County Wisconsin has some of the finest road cycling anywhere, and the cyclists should be smart enough to regulate themselves. But they aren’t. So they face this kind of heat.

Let me explain why: A lot of racer wannabe’s, even some licensed racers, treat large group rides in Wisconsin as closed-road road races, taking over the roads.  I’ve written about it before, as have a lot of other people. The cyclists take up the whole lane, run red lights and stop signs, sometimes even cross the center line into the other lane, even across a double yellow. Certain tough organized rides have become de facto races, with riders looking for a fast time, riding against their friends or their time last year, or some other ideal. And when you get clusters of them together, they forget that they are on open, public roads and need to follow the rules of the road.

Several events every year draw hundreds of bicycles to Iowa County, and the ride organizers don’t always work with local authorities to keep things civil. That leaves the local citizenry angry at the cyclists and angry at the local authorities for not reigning in the cyclists.

The solution should not be a county ordinance restricting rides and making it more expensive to run large events. It should not be incumbent on the local authorities to keep things legal on the road. The organizers of the rides should take care of enforcement themselves.

Here’s my modest proposal: For the big rides, the Horribly Hilly Hundreds, the Dairyland Dare and the Wright Stuff Century, get some more volunteers, or even paid workers. Maybe work with a motorcycle club to exchange support for one of their events. However it is done, get a lot of eyes on the road – at controlled intersections, curvy downhills and other spots where cyclists abuse their right to be on the road. When a cyclist runs a red light, blatantly crosses a center line or rides 3 or more across the road, take their number, call ahead to the next check point, and when the offending rider pulls in, take his/her number, wrist band and/or timing chip.

“Sorry, you violated the rules of the ride that you agreed to, you are off the ride.” Any official record of the ride should list the rider as “Did not finish, violated road rules.”

For smaller rides, agree ahead of time that there is a responsible ride captain. The ride captain and a second keep an eye on the group, and should a rider get out of line, send that rider home.

We as cyclists HAVE to be good citizens on the road. It does not take much for a motorist to have a “tragic accident” and kill a cyclist or two or ten, and probably get away with a slap on the wrist. We owe it to ourselves to obey the rules of the road, especially when there is a huge mob that can get away it, this time. That’s because some county is going to decide this time is the last time and make it really tough to have a ride with even three people in it.