Seattle’s Mayor McGinn was elected using his “Mike Bikes” campaign slogan.\u00a0 His detractors sometimes call him Mayor McSchwinn.\u00a0 And yet, despite the rhetoric, Seattle remains a dangerous place for bicyclists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n
The Stranger<\/em> was instrumental in electing McGinn and has been pushing him to embrace the bicycle-focus on which he was elected.\u00a0 Bethany Jean Clement’s recent piece calls for bike-only streets running north-south and east-west through the city. \u00a0 \u00a0 A Modest Proposal for Mayor McGinn: “I Know You Like Bikes” | Slog<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ms.\u00a0Clement’s idea\u00a0 is worth talking about, but in the unlikely event that the City actually made two bike-only arterials, it would probably just increase tension between motorists and those who have reason to fear motorists.\u00a0 Instead, Seattle should improve our laws to protect pedestrians and bicyclists everywhere in the city.\u00a0 We could do this without closing down routes to cars.\u00a0 How?\u00a0 By changing the burden of proof to determine who is at fault when a motorist hits a bicyclist or a pedestrian.<\/p>\n The burden of proof should be changed so that drivers are presumed to be at fault if they hit a pedestrian or a bicyclist.\u00a0 It is already the law<\/a> that bicyclists are required to yield to pedestrians when riding on the sidewalk.\u00a0 That is a good idea.\u00a0 We should extend this concept.\u00a0 For instance, it is also the current law<\/a> that drivers must yield to pedestrians and bicyclists in crosswalks.\u00a0 Yet, many people, including far too many Seattle Police Officers, are unaware of this.<\/p>\n What we need is a simple concept that everyone can understand.\u00a0 Here it is:\u00a0 Protect the vulnerable.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> Bikes should yield to pedestrians on sidewalks because bikes are faster than pedestrians and pedestrians can be injured if bicyclists fail to yield.\u00a0 The same should go for our streets:\u00a0 Divers should yield to both pedestrians and bicycles because cars are faster and are far more likely to seriously injure or kill people than the most crazed bicyclist on a sidewalk.<\/p>\n I’ve talked about changing the burden of proof against motorists who hit bicyclists and pedestrians at the Road Safety Summit<\/a> in 2011 and wrote about it in the King County Bar Bulletin<\/em><\/a> in 2009.\u00a0 This<\/a> is the handout I’ve provided to Mayor McGinn and others.\u00a0 My proposal is not perfect, but it is doable.\u00a0 Numerous European countries have similar laws.\u00a0 I have reached out to Cascade<\/a> and to the Bicycle Alliance of Washington<\/a> on this issue but they have yet to bite.\u00a0 I’ve heard nothing from our mayor.\u00a0 Interestingly, in 2012 the League of American Bicyclists<\/a> contacted me to help work towards these laws nationally.<\/p>\n Seattle could and should lead the US in protecting bicyclists and pedestrians.\u00a0 Clarifying our laws to protect bicyclists and pedestrians could prevent numerous injuries and deaths.\u00a0 Let’s not just be known for digging big holes… let’s be the city that best protects bicyclists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seattle’s Mayor McGinn was elected using his “Mike Bikes” campaign slogan.\u00a0 His detractors sometimes call him Mayor McSchwinn.\u00a0 And yet, despite the rhetoric, Seattle remains a dangerous place for bicyclists and pedestrians. The Stranger was instrumental in electing McGinn and has been pushing him to embrace the bicycle-focus on which he was elected.\u00a0 Bethany Jean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bicycle-advocates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/wa-logo-wp.png?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}