Santa Rosa police on Thursday will conduct their sixth operation of the year enforcing motorcycle safety, targeting in particular dangerous riders and careless motorists.
Sgt. Lance Badger said there hasn’t been any common motorcyclist violation in any of the previous operations, saying they range from helmets not government approved to modified exhaust systems to excessive noise to mechanical issues, such as bald tires, improper license plates and inoperable lights.
Five of the city’s motorcycle officers will be deployed for Thursday’s operation, he said. It’s the second one this month, and two more are planned through September.
The all-day enforcement is funded by a grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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The Big Guy
Thanks to Santa Rosa for taking steps to improve our safety and NOISE! Motorcycle riders are growing population and need to obey the laws for the common good. NOISE! Wow, the public is enduring, at its frustration, excessive noise from all those motorcyles and vehicles, demanding our attention from their loud exhaust. Just think…a quiet Sonoma County morning, daytime or evening…with the loud call of a Harley nearby or in the distance. There’s nothing like it, is there?
June 28th, 2012 8:00 am
Anthony Angry
This is discrimination! Where are the SUV safety days?! I see those idiots careening around paying no attention to the road, on their phones! What a crock, what an abuse! Hell, how about a Prius safety day? I’ve seen plenty of Prius drivers making erratic lane changes and failing to yield. How about focusing on bad drivers?! If they have a favorite vehicle, it’s SUVs! They can’t hear Motorcycles, have massive blind spots and a variety of distractions in their mobile living-rooms! Plus, they just change lanes and then look to see if they hit anything. How many times have YOU seen a driver turn on the turn signal during, or even after, the lane change?! Cagers don’t let us riders in the lane no matter how long we signal, they just aren’t paying attention to anything but who’s texting. Riders aren’t texting!
June 28th, 2012 8:10 am
Roger W. Hamilton
It sure would be nice if the police could stop motorcycles lane splitting and reduce their noise pollution by requiring motorcycles to be no louder than a police motorcycle.
Roger W. Hamilton
June 28th, 2012 8:38 am
wp
Mr, Hamilton,
“Lane splitting” legally known as “lane sharing” is entirely legal and brought about by the LA police dept. It is also universally accepted in virtually the rest of the world. Europe’s traffic would come to a grinding halt w/o it.
Loud pipe’s are a nuisance. Just a matter of enforcement. How about texting? Cell phones? At least lane splitting helps ease traffic congestion.
June 28th, 2012 9:54 am
Rider 1
Why do you want lane splitting to stop? Its legal, and causes you no problems if you are an attentive driver. If you zoned out, or on phone you are the problem.
June 28th, 2012 10:08 am
Brad
If the local municipalities are so greedy for money why don’t they shake down the bicycle wobblers who cause accidents on the streets? A large portion of these dorks have absolutely no knowledge of traffic laws and wouldn’t bother to obey them if they did. The complete lack of attention from the cops has made these scofflaws secure in being able to do anything they please. The only wake up call they ever get is being knocked down when they illegally cut in front of a car.
June 28th, 2012 10:59 am
Rider, wife and mom
Loud pipes are an important safety mechanism for a rider… Sadly, drivers just aren’t “aware” of bikes on the road. I can’t tell you how many times careless drivers have started to pull out in front of us without looking!! My husband gives one quick rev and they hit the brakes, FAST. That maneuver has probably literally saved our lives more times than I care to think about. So sorry your peaceful Sonoma County morning is more important than our LIVES.
June 28th, 2012 11:22 am
Tim
Guess I’ll wait to ride my un-registered,un-insured,noisy,turbocharged,lane-splitting 185mph Hayabusa tomorrow….when the officers get back to chasing real problems…sheesh.
June 28th, 2012 11:39 am
rider2
as a rider on the 101 every morning and afternoon i do lane share. for a rider it is safer to share the lane than sit in stopped traffic and get rearended by someone that is texting or just not attentive to their surroundings.
i also agree with the complaint about loud exhaust but extend it to cars and the black belching smoke from the deisels. it would benefit everyone if they just enforced the traffic laws than singling out one class of vehicle. how about targeting distracted drivers.
June 28th, 2012 11:59 am
Q213
Find a real issue to be upset about Roger. Lane splitting is legal and not all riders are out there tearing it up. Those riders usually end up getting hurt if not worse. I would think the big trucks with oversize tires and headlights in your face would be more of a gripe.
June 28th, 2012 6:36 pm
Motorcycle Injury Attorney
It isn’t discrimination. We all know that getting in a wreck on a motorcycle is more dangerous than in an SUV. So picking a day for motorcycle enforcement makes sense.
July 18th, 2012 12:42 am