Fu@%ing ticket for blowing through a stop sign on the SW Corridor Trail

Three Rivers Park District cops are now sitting in an SUV by the intersection at Wooddale and SW Corridor Trail and chasing violators of blowing through the trail stop sign.

How this came about:
Some dude and his buddy were riding their bikes drunk late at night a few weeks ago. They were going home to St. Paul from drinking in Hopkins and blew through the stop sign in the dark and one of the guys ran into the side of a lady's car and died.

Now because this ignorant biker got killed through stupidity, we all have to pay for his ignorance and of course the ignorance of the St. Louis Park PD because they probably pushed Three Rivers into ticketing, and for Three Rivers because they are assanine enough to follow through.

Why am I upset. Not because I recieved a ticket, but because I am a commuter who was riding in misty rain running an errand to Uptown, dressed properly with safety gear, a blinky light in the front and a blinky light in the rear fully fulfilling my personal standards of safety.

In this process I was keeping a car off the busy streets at a busy time of the day. There were no cars coming in either direction in my line of full sight in both directions when i blew through the stop sign.

This is a problem, because of:
1. MOMENTUM - There is a reason bikes don't fully stop at stop signs. Momentum is the key. Lazy auto drivers can simply push their foot down slightly on an accelerator and off they go. We have to utulize our full energy potential to speedily get ourselves and our bikes back up to cruising speed. Every time I stop I have to utilize vital energy to get myself going again. It is time consuming and frustrating.
2. FREEDOM - I ride my bike to feel the freedom of the road at full potential. I ride so that I do not have to deal with bullshit speeding tickets, road rage, stoplight/signs, etc... Biking is a very free way to get around, in more ways than one. After the ticket, I felt Big Brother breathing down my neck - I was looking around at every intersection, looking behind me incessantly, and I felt the rage I have experienced many many times at the wheel of a car.

Ticketing bikes interferes with the good kharma of riding a bike. If I have to worry about tickets
and rage, I might as well park my lazy stupid ignorant American ass behind the wheel of my Saturn wagon permenantly!