Park police disturbs me

[Cataboo]

You forgot to add wonderfully witty sarcasm!

I've seen her admonish a helpful shaggy man in a kilt.

[crazycanuck]

Yep our original Zen has a wicked sense of humour & plays an accordian

[Zen]

I've seen her admonish a helpful shaggy man in a kilt.

He was a hazard in himself.
But that's another story.

[Cataboo]

He was a hazard in himself.
But that's another story.

True that.

I'd've kicked him in his kilt if he'd run over my litespeed.

[SadieKate]

Here you go. http://stonemountainpark.com/faq/

Do you have bike trails or somewhere for me to ride my bicycle at the Park?
Bicycles can be ridden along the roadways inside the Park. There is a dedicated bicycle lane on Robert E. Lee Blvd., on the back side of the mountain. Bikers must ride single file and follow all traffic laws.

I'm guessing that since the park is owned by the State of Georgia, state traffic laws apply and that there is traffic through out the hours of operation.

What time do the Park Gates open? What time do the attractions open? Park Gates are open daily, 6:00 a.m. to Midnight. Attraction hours vary. Visit the Operating Dates & Hours page for attraction hours on the day of your visit.

[OakLeaf]

But there are really two things here.

(1) Are the cyclists creating a hazard? Sounds like possibly yes.

(2) Does the hazard created by the cyclists rise to the level that police officers are authorized to use DEADLY FORCE to stop them? Uh, no.

Shooting out a car's tires is considered deadly force. Running a motorcycle off the road, same thing. Intentionally causing a bicyclist to crash at high speed - that's deadly force too.

Sure the cyclists need to cool it. But this is basically the same scenario as a cop shooting a shoplifter. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

[Geonz]

I agree. I *hope* that the "standing in front" tactic was done out of ignorance and that the resulting crash wasn't expected. (I know, that sounds ridiculous from those of us who know from peletons and physics.) Cops don't swerve in front of speeders to get 'em to stop - and that's just one speeder, not a large group. Seems it would have been far, far more efficient to follow 'em and get out the ticket book.

[Cataboo]

How is a police officer different from a pedestrian standing in the middle of the road? Or a kid darting after a ball? You should be riding so that you can react to something like that when you're not riding in an organized event or have permission from authorities.

There's been 2 incidents at least (or at least 2 that are being objected to here...) I'm assuming that the first time it happened, the cyclists were told to follow the rules and weren't just told "haha, we made you stop!" ... So were the cyclists continuing to break the rules when they were stopped a second time?

And have the cyclists been told several times before that by nicer means not to do whatever they were doing? Or were road blocks set up the very first time that someone wanted to tell them to obey the park rules?

[PscyclePath]

There's no law in the country that allows a group, or peloton of cyclists to behave like a swarm of bees. Unless you've got a permit that allows for road closure and racing, then everyone on the ride must comply with Georgia traffic law... which means riding no more than two abreast, riding as far to the right of the traffic lane as is practicable, if there's a usable bike path or bike lane present then you have to ride on the path and not in the trafic lane, keep at least one hand on the handlebars at all times, use a mechanical brake which can cause the braked wheel to skid, and have pedal reflectors. No tall bikes or "freak bikes" allowed, and no "chopper" style handlebars. (http://www.bicyclegeorgia.com/galaw.html)

And no excuses.... Bicycles are legally defined as vehicles in Georgia, so traffic laws apply to cyclists in the same manner as they do to car & truck drivers, unless a particular rule explicitly applies to "motor vehicles," such as the need to have a driver's license before taking to the roadways.

All the above-cited offenses are misdemeanors under Georgia law, unless you want to go for the bi one, "Racing on the Highways..." which technically they could cite the pack for as well...

As for the stopping technique, just how do you stop a howling pack of 40 riders at once? If they won't pull over for the blue lights, then you're going to have to set up some sort of road block, or those little strips that punch holes in your tires...

How about obeying the law instead of playing like Smokey and the Bandit?