Critical Mass meeting one
2/17/05 3:30-4:30pm
City Hall, Lovejoy Room

Attended by:
Derrick Foxworth, Chief of Police
Stan Grubbs, Assistant Chief of Police
Dave Warboril, Police Attorney
Charlie McKinney, Mayor's office police liaison
William Sinott, Traffic Division Commander
Vince Jarmer, head of the motorcycle officers in the Traffic Division
Mark Ginsberg, Bicycle Advisory Committee chair (and facilitating)
Tom Miller, Chief of Staff for Commissioner Sam Adams
Alex Pollock, Critical Mass
Elly Blue, Critical Mass

[These notes are VERY loosely paraphrased--they look like quotes but they ain't. -Elly]

Introductions all around.
Mark Ginsberg: Three years ago there was an informal working group between the City, the PPD, and Critical Mass. It stopped meeting a couple of years ago and CM has not fared well since.
Derrick Foxworth: We should have ongoing meetings again. I want to hear what the CM folks have to say.
MG: In '02, enforcement of CM changed. We need to hear from both sides. Motorcycle officers are frustrated, and CM participants are also frustrated.
DF: Our enforcement actions are a product of citizen's complaints. Historically a high number of people call the Mayor's office to complain about the traffic tie-ups caused by CM. It started out that CM was policed by Central Precinct. But now the ride ranges farther and more [3 or 4?] precincts are involved, so policing is inconsistent. Our goal now is to assign the ride to the Traffic Division so that we can have consistent policing, and develop more personal relationships between officers and riders.
Stan Grubbs: I've been involved in CM since '97 (policing rather than participating), and have a good grasp of the history since then.
Jarmer: I've been in the motorcycle division for a year and a half. Our goal is to keep the bicyclists safe, even though the citations we give them are not popular. [Something along the lines of: downtown is a multicultural area after dark. So there are safety issues?]. Our concerns are on one hand, enforcement of the law, and on the other, watching out for bicyclists and vehicular problems.
DF: Officers are caught in the middle between the needs of bicyclists and the public who are upset by CM. We are trying to find a balance.
MG: In January, we had 175 riders, the Mayor, and no arrests or citations. In February, we had 100 riders, 15 citations, and no mayor. Are there any differences between these rides other than the mayor's presence?
Alex Pollock: There were no other differences. The riders' attitude was the same in February, at least at the beginning of the ride, but our initial optimism changed quickly when we realized there was going to be a different enforcement strategy.
William Sinnott: I was at CM in January, though not in February. I witnessed a few violations, but they were not enforced. This was not a matter of policy, rather we wanted to let the ride to proceed and see what would happen. It looked good to me. I wasn't on the February ride, but police response was the same except for the citations. Most of the citations were issued on the southeast side.
DF: What would you CM'rs like to see? We would like to have key designated individuals to work with.
AP: We would also like a liaison. Also we would like help keeping the riders together. There were a lot of fliers during January and February that suggested good ride behavior. Historically we have had a set of working rules, and we'd like to talk about that again.
SG: I started the working rules. [Something about litter being a problem after one large ride, so we needed to do something about that, or change the rules?] The way I've seen it, the ride always turns into chaos because riders don't listen to their self-appointed leaders. So there's no accountability among riders. There are equipment issues too--riders need to all have lights.
MG: Corking was included in January. But it is not legal.
SG: Definitely not legal. We're working on the permit issue, too, but CM is too unruly. The self-appointed leaders usually aren't the fastest riders, so they aren't able to guide where the ride goes.
DF: How will you [CM reps] communicate what we are talking about here to the group?
AP: Through email--we have a list with about 50 people on it. The way we really communicate with everyone is through fliers passed out at the start of the ride. There are always some people who won't comply, though, and that's the challenge. The way to deal with that is not the current enforcement scheme--heavy ticketing only fans the flames.
DF: So what do CMrs want to happen?
AP: We want police on bicycles.
SG: Bicycle officers are in the Central Precinct--they supplement the Traffic Division.
AP: Bicycle officers are more effective, less intimidating, and better able to communicate with other bicyclists. Another thing we would like to do in cooperation with the police is keep the ride mainly on multi-lane roads, so that we can keep one lane clear for faster vehicles to pass us. [clarification is made that this means one direction of traffic, not the whole road]
SG: Burnside was a problem in January
AP: There were no clear guidelines in January.
DF: What is an acceptable threshhold for citations?
AP: Let's see, there were citations issued for rolling through stop signs.... It's reasonable to continue to enforce the light requirement.
MG: There were also citations for improper use of lane and failure to signal--these strike me as discretionary.
DF: The problem with discretionary citations is that enforcement is supposed to change behavior.
AP: Another example of things that are not enforced and shouldn't be is "failure to use bicycle seat."
EB: Do we need a set-in-stone enforcement threshhold? On the January ride, minor violations weren't enforced, and everything went great. CM is a good opportunity for police to do outreach and education, for riders to learn the law that way and not just through citations.
WS: The January ride was different.
GS: Totally different. Let's face it, it's because the mayor was there.
MG: There was also different enforcement in January because there were more bicycle officers.
DF: How do we do that outreach?
AP: What about written warnings rather than citations?
Jarmer: We give verbal warnings but they are not heeded.
AP: We have a listserve, we have fliers, and there has been some talk about having advocates who are scattered throughout the ride for communication about things like legal stuff and safety.
DF: That is great. Could they be clearly identifiable, with reflective vests?
AP: Some people are concerned that vests might target people for enforcement.
WS: Motorcycle officers have the important function of keeping riders safe. If we weren't there [in January, going down a particular busy road?], bicyclists might have been run down by cars behind them that didn't see them.
EB: What about a combination of motorcycle officers for safety and bicycle officers for enforcement?
DF: It might. Let's talk about permitting.
Dave Warboril: The permitting process is important to protect potentially conflicting events from each other.
DF: Until March 20, 2003, we were very tolerant of unpermitted events. Since then we have been ticketing and making selective arrests on spontaneous protests. Now that we are two years away from all that, we might start to rethink enforcement of unpermitted events. One concern I have is that if we give CM preferential treatment, other groups will raise a stink.
EB: CM isn't really a protest. It's more like rush hour than an event per se.
Sinnott: Couldn't it also be like that with a permit?
MG: No. Historically, a routeless model has been necessary for CM to be able to happen in the face of police opposition. That model is not likely to change, though having an pre-determined end destination worked well in January. But essentially, CM riders just want to ride their bicycles--which is legal. Permits don't work. CM varies moth to month, there is no leader, and historically self-appointed leaders haven't been followed.
DW: [Something about federal courts and implicit permitting and precedent--the gist is, permitting doesn't work with CM]
AP: A permit can't be enforced with riders, but other working rules can be, and have been. But just like with motor vehicle drivers, there will always be a small percentage who won't go along. My question now is, though, what has historically been the impetus behind sudden changes in enforcement strategies?
SG: No permitted rides have ever worked.
MG: Let's keep discussing the permit issue in the future.
AP: So what has caused changes in enforcement?
DF: There was a policy decision in March 2003 that affected all groups, not just CM. Let's get back to a threshold for issuing citations.
Jarmer: We give verbal warnings first, but I expect officers to write citations. Warnings are at the discretion of the officers, they can but they don't have to.
EB: Does PPD keep statistics about citations that we could have at meetings in the future?
Sinnott: We do keep records, and we'll do that. One clarification: there is no requirement for officers to write tickets. Officers have discretion in this as well. They go into every situation assuming the law will be followed and then act as needed if it is not.
MG: Let me make an observation. One difference between January and February was that officers engaged CM riders in January at the start of the ride--they walked over, said hello, passed out fliers. In February, the officers kept to a spot across the street from where the riders were amassing, and kept helmeted down--an uninviting scene. It would be a good idea for everyone to mingle more in a friendly way. [nods of agreement] So what is the next step?
DF: Use the list serve. Send word out that we had a meeting and keep in contact with us, too. Also tell people that safety is very important, for CM riders and for other non-riders who are in the vicinity. This includes equipment--everyone has to have lights. Keep the conflict down, officers will focus on that. We will all keep talking about successful approaches--meetings like this every month. I like the idea of officer outreach, and of a combination of bicycle and motorcycle officers. Let's debrief after next Friday, and also talk about anyone else who should be coming to these meetings.
MG: Let's have the monthly meetings be at the midpoint between rides.
DF: Yes. Mark Ginsberg will continue to be the facilitator and contact/hub person for these.
DW: Next time let's talk about things like what happens when the ride gets to a stop sign and wants to turn left. Do they go one by one, or do they all go at once and tie up traffic for a whole block?
AP: You said there are records on ticketing--can we get ahold of those?
DF: Yes, file a public records request.
AP: I will summarize this meeting on the list, and summarize any feedback that results.
EB: My notes are going up on the CM web site, unless any objections. [none]