News Column

King of the road? Bikes need license plates just like cars

On the Town

By phil stanford

The Portland Tribune, Sep 5, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (114 Reader comments)

In case you had any lingering doubts about who is winning the bike wars here in P-town, you might want to check out a little story in the current Willamette Week called “DIY Justice” — which, I am informed, is texting language for “Do It Yourself Justice.”

The story is about a bicyclist – a fellow named Brion Barnett – who was riding home one night last December on Southwest Scholls Ferry Road, when his elbow was bumped by the passenger-side mirror of a passing car.

Although, as Barnett notes in the story, he nor his bike suffered any injury or damage, he was disturbed enough to contact noted bike lawyer Ray Thomas to see if there was anything he could do about it.

As it turned out, there was, indeed.

As Thomas informed him, there happens to be an obscure Oregon law – Oregon Revised Statute 153.058 – that allows any ordinary citizen to be his or her own traffic cop.

All you have to do to initiate legal proceedings against someone who you believe has broken the rules of the road is to file a complaint with the local police.

• • •

So at Taylor’s direction, Barnett filed a complaint with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office against the driver of the car – whose license plate number he had had the presence of mind to memorize – for “unsafe passing on the left.”

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