Stories by Bob Mionske

• Posted: Thu, Dec 27th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: When to stop; when to go
  Dear Readers,A couple of weeks ago, we had a question from J.C., who asked what the law requires when a club is riding through an intersection and the light changes (see "One single group (ride), or a ...
• Posted: Thu, Dec 20th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Look! It's a bike; it's a pedestrian; it's a...
  Dear Readers,
• Posted: Thu, Dec 6th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: One single group (ride) or a collection of individuals?
  Dear Bob,Here’s a question for ya. I was wondering what the law is as far as in a group ride while crossing a street if the light changes to yellow then red with cyclists still in the street crossing: What is the law as far as a whole group crossing? Are the riders required ...
• Posted: Thu, Nov 29th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Traffic activism
  Dear Readers,In my lastcolumn, I promised a report on the “WeAre All Traffic” rally in Portland. To recap a bit, in Bicycling& the Law, I wrote that "gaining the right to the road was thecycling cause of the late nineteenth century; securing that right willbe the cause of ...
• Posted: Thu, Nov 15th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: The risk of the road
  Dear Readers;When I wrote Bicycling& the Law, one of my main goals was to tackle the problem of anti-cyclistbias. As I discussed in "Bicycling & the Law," there is an institutionalizedsocial bias against cyclists, which is manifested in a road infrastructurethat ...
• Posted: Thu, Nov 8th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: A fatal bias?
  Dear Bob,Thank you for penning the column. I read with interest your notes on cycling deaths notes on cycling deaths . You raise an interesting point: many cycling deaths result in no criminal legal accountability. I think we all know cyclist who have died on the road. In every ...
• Posted: Thu, Oct 25th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: The lawful (?) order
  Dear Readers;It’s been a beautiful autumn here lately; blue skies, sunny days, the leaves turning beautiful hues of yellow, orange, and red before falling. The leaves haven’t been alone in falling this autumn. In the past few weeks, we’ve lost too many cyclists to ...
• Posted: Thu, Oct 18th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: The break-down lane
  Dear Bob,I have a question about getting harassed by police here in the NewYork/New Jersey area, and wanted to ask what you would do in that situation.First incident, I am waiting at a light, it turns green, and as I proceedthrough the intersection, I drop my chain. No cars ...
• Posted: Thu, Oct 11th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Free Bird
  Dear Readers;In my last column, "Themthere's fightin' words, boy," we looked at two cases—Chaplinskyv. New Hampshire and Cohen v. California—as backgroundfor revisiting the question of whether “flipping the bird” is constitutionallyprotected speech. To recap ...
• Posted: Thu, Oct 4th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Them there's fightin' words, boy
  Dear Readers,In Deliveranceof the bird man, a reader wrote in to ask about an incident in which his group ride was buzzed, and in response, the ride leader flipped the offending driver “the bird.” As you may recall, this immediately led to an altercation between the ...
• Posted: Thu, Sep 20th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: More thoughts on the bird man
  Dear Readers,Last column (Deliveranceof the bird man), we had a letter from C.W. in “deepest darkestWest Virginia” asking about self-defense, after his club ride was buzzedby “the clan from deliverance.” In response to the buzzing, the club’sfearless leader extended a ...
• Posted: Thu, Sep 13th
  Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Deliverance of the bird man
  Dear Bob,I thought you might like to address this in your column. We were ona group ride in deepest darkest West Virginia and a car passed with oncomingtraffic, mere inches from our handlebars.This yahoo move was obviously for the purpose of aggression in thatthere was a stop ...