Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Police Enforce Bike Law To Combat Crime

Hey, any of y'all been "just ridin' around" in West Memphis?

Police Enforce Bike Law To Combat Crime

West Memphis, AR -- Police in West Memphis, Arkansas are enforcing a decades old bike law in effort to fight crime.

The law requires bikes to have a white light on the front and a red reflector on the back. The light must be visible from at least 500 feet.

Police say someone committed a rash of residential car break-ins in the city’s North Ward from August 6, 2008 to September 10, 2008. They believe the same person committed the crime and may have used a bike to get a away. They believe enforcing the state bike law will help keep would be criminals on the right path. “E
nforcing the bike laws, the restrictions on the lights, gives you legal opportunity to make contact with people to see what they're doing,” said West Police Captain Donald Oakes.

Anyone not abiding by the bike law can be cited and fined. Anyone with information about the recent car break-in is asked to contact the West Memphis Police Department.

4 comments:

myshoeshurt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
myshoeshurt said...

Memphis police have much better things to do than stopping anyone without a flashing front light on their bicycle. If it is really going to come down to this, then police are going to have to stop everyone with a car that doesn't use a turn signal. While I think that would be great, it's just not feasible. First, let's set up an education program that teaches cyclists WHERE and HOW to ride and motorists how to SHARE the road with cylcists.

d said...

That is Memphis Law as well if you did not know. Memphis laws states that you have to have a light in front and a reflector in back. When I lived in Colorado, the police in Steamboat would stop you and give you a ticket if you did not abide by this same law. If you were drunk, they would take you to jail.

Cliff H. said...

When I lived in Germany it was just a given that you would be stopped and ticketed for riding a bike at night without a headlight. So, we all had lights.

I like the law- While riding my bike at night I have nearly hit a few cyclists (On Cooper, on Southern) who were riding on the wrong aide of the road with no lights or reflectors- And, once, while driving a car, I nearly hit a cyclist at night who had no headlight (Mendenhall).

Light up the night!

An ambulance ride to the Med in Memphis costs about $550 these days-- that is more than enough to buy a decent headlight. You can get a 'be seen' headlight for about $15-20, and a decent commuter headlight starts at about $40.