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VOLUME 48, NO. 5 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015 $1.25
LOANS TO FOREIGN NATIONALS
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What’s Inside
See RULES p.7
See POLICE p.6 See VILLAGE p.6
By: KELLY [email protected]
By: KELLY [email protected]
New Year’s Resolution Time! Repaint your Home with Ben Moore Paints.
In the wake of another cyclist death onthe Rickenbacker Causeway, Key BiscaynePolice plan an all-out education blitz on thedangers of drunk driving and importanceof knowing and obeying the rules of theroad.Police Chief Charles Press said enforce-
ment will also be enhanced and law en-forcement officials throughoutMiami-Dade County are discussing newDUI checkpoints.Press said the effort has support from
politicians and police officials throughoutSouth Florida. “Everyone has a stake in this game, and
the stakes are high,” Press said. “All of theentities that own the causeway are stronglyin support of education, enforcement,warnings – taking back control of thecauseway and reining in the traffic chaos.”
Press said education “needs to play animportant role,” and to that end, he’s plan-ning a town hall meeting in Key Biscaynein early March. A specific time and datewill be announced soon.The meeting will be aimed at parents, but
everyone is urged to attend. “We encouragepeople to finally step out of their homesand show up and have a real discussion,”Press said.The bottom line, the Chief noted, is that
adults have to set the right example foryoung people – and everyone needs to un-derstand just how serious DUI is.In the recent incident on the causeway, he
pointed out, two families were destroyedforever: that of the victim and that of theyoung man arrested for four felony charges. “There’s no winning here,” Press said.
“There’s nothing but losing in that.”Meanwhile, police will also take their ef-
forts to local schools. Press said he plans to
Police: Education campaign, DUI checkpoints By: KELLY JOSEPHSEN
From Key Biscayne’s Village CouncilChambers to local cycling shops to the bikelanes of South Florida, conversation continuesabout bike safety on the Rickenbacker Cause-way in the wake a January 21 crash that killedreal estate executive Walter Reyes.Local leaders discussed the issue at their
meeting Tuesday, January 27.The Everglades Bicycle Club hosted a
meeting with the Florida Bicycle Associa-tion’s executive director at South Miami’sMack Cycle & Fitness.Bike Key Biscayne, the local cycling
group, continued its efforts to educate driversand cyclists to safely share not only the cause-way, but Village streets as well.While everyone shares the same goal –
making sure no family ever gets the news thatdevastated Reyes’ loved ones just over twoweeks ago – their approaches, admittedly, dif-
fer:Everyone wants DUI checkpoints, but some
Council members favor putting them on theMacArthur Causeway to nab impaired driversleaving South Beach clubs while some cyclingadvocates want the operations on the Ricken-backer – and they want them there perma-nently for seven days a week.A barrier between bike and car lanes is uni-
versally popular, but preferred specifics vary:cyclists like flexible posts, while the Councilleans toward an actual concrete wall.And the design of the causeway continues
to be an issue. Cycling groups fear it is de-signed as a “speedway” and that needs tochange, whereas local leaders warn againststeps that make vehicle traffic even more con-gested than it already is.But as the conversations continue, the com-
mon ground remains: safety must be im-proved.“We recognize a pattern of both behavior
Village Council: from barriers to enforcement
The Rules of the Road: know them and follow them
For the most part, it’s pretty safeto assume no motorist sets out in-tending to hurt a bicyclist, and no bi-cyclist hits the road planning tocause an epic traffic jam.But for members of both parties,
there’s plenty of confusion regard-ing the law of the land: where cy-clists can legally ride, how motorists
should proceed when bikes are inthe area, which traffic laws apply tobikes and which apply to cars.Everyone agrees education is a
key to making the RickenbackerCauseway safer for all users. In re-sponse to questions from The Is-lander News, members of Bike KeyBiscayne, the local cycling group,provided information based on statestatutes about how things are sup-posed to work:Question: When it comes to traf-
fic laws, which laws apply the sameto cyclists and motorists? Answer: In Florida, and in most
other states, bicycles are vehiclesaccording to the statute that definesvehicles, and a person riding a bicy-cle has all of the rights and duties ofthe driver, except those provisionswhich by their nature can have noapplication. Q: Are there any laws that only
apply to cyclists, or that only applyto motorists?
A: Bicyclists are required to havespecific types of front and rearlights. Cars are assumed to havesuch lights, and the law simply re-quires motorists to use them be-tween dusk and dawn. A bicycleoperated between sunset and sunrisemust have a lamp on the front ex-hibiting a white light visible from500 feet to the front and both a redreflector and a lamp on the rear ex-hibiting a red light visible from 600feet to the rear. Additional lighting
is permitted and recommended.Many laws that apply to motor
vehicles, like laws related to speed-ing, cannot and do not apply to bi-cycles. Also, bicyclists are notpermitted to ride on limited-access
WORKING TO PREVENT ANOTHER TRAGEDY
