Is anyone actually paying taxes anymore? For whatever reason, it certainly seems like the Eugene Police Department is finding innovative ways to raise funds for the city of Eugene.
Instead of investigating violent crimes and patrolling the more notorious sections of town for drug traffic and the other forms of vice that pervade Eugene, a rather large section of the police department spends time camping out by the University Bookstore and Starbucks targeting students for such insidious crimes as not having the proper kind of bike light. The punishment: $135 in reparations and a fun trip to court.
Certainly Eugene is not L.A., and bicycle equipment mandates should be enforced. But it seems utterly ridiculous for the EPD to enforce them to such an extent that students are forced to walk to work and other nighttime destinations because they are afraid to break some mysterious traffic code.
Perhaps the EPD should concentrate on making the area around campus less dangerous, so that students with wrongly colored or broken bike lights will feel comfortable walking alone after sunset rather than risk getting slapped with a traffic citation. That goal has certainly not been reached yet.
As a music student, a worker and a woman, I hesitate to walk past the graveyard or down Hilyard Street after 10 p.m. when heading to the residence halls after practicing or work. Is this so much safer than riding a bicycle with a functioning set of reflectors and a red (oops, not white) light?
And just how well-advertised are the bicycle traffic rules in Eugene? A large number of University students come from towns other than Eugene where the traffic codes are different. For example, in many towns, bicyclists are required to wear helmets. In Eugene, they are not.
Given the bicycle-riding culture of this town, maybe incoming students should have local traffic laws drilled into their heads at orientation, lest they find themselves caught up in the ridiculous bicycle war that seems to have started.
If any reader feels compelled by this article to participate in this war, cruise down Hilyard Street after 8 p.m. I’m sure there’ll be a cop there eager to recruit you.