| A touch of spring in the air, and you know what that
means, bees, flies and mosquitoes start coming out. But there is a far
worse pest emerging in Loudon County, idiot bicycle riders.
Just like clockwork, here comes all those West Knox
riders invading every narrow, back road in the county. Apparently, there
is no way to stop the invasion. Back in October of 2018, commission even
passed a resolution begging Sheriff Tim Guider to take action to turn
back the invasion, just simply enforce current law, "riders shall not
impede traffic." Apparently our resolution fell on deaf ears, they're
back and worse than ever.
In my opinion, they're as bad as any Virus.
If we don't do
something about this problem, eventually we're not even going to be able
to drive the roads on the upper end of the county.
The 2022
sheriff's election is already underway. This might be a good topic to
ask the candidates. What if anything do you plan to do about all these
bicycle riders? Do you intend to enforce the laws, already in place, to
address the bicycle problem?
Below is the
resolution county commission passed back in 2018.
Where as, Loudon County is one of the
greatest places to live with an unequaled, high
quality of life, and:
Where as, the Loudon County Commission is always
interested in working to keep Loudon County a great
place to live, and:
Where as, the invasion of bicycle riders,
mostly from outside Loudon County, is causing chaos,
mayhem and considerable traffic problems on Loudon
County roads, endangering both the bicycle riders
and motor vehicle occupants with blatant
disregard of traffic laws and regulations such as
running stop signs and red lights, giving no turn
signals and worst of all, impeding the normal
and reasonable movement of traffic, and:
Where as, current state law, TCA 55-8-175, clearly
lays out rules of the road for bicycle riders and
TCA 55-8-172 clearly states that Traffic laws apply
to persons riding bicycles and any violation of this
law is a Class C misdemeanor, and:
Now therefore be it resolved, the Loudon
County Commission suggests, requests, supports and
pleads for Loudon County Sheriff, Tim Guider, to
instruct his deputies to immediately begin enforcing
existing state laws pertaining to bicycle riders on
Loudon County roadways and the writing of
citations to the bicycle riders who violate these
laws especially TCA-55-8-175(b)(1) Persons
riding bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more
than two (2) abreast except on paths or parts of
roadways set aside for the exclusive use of
bicycles. Persons riding two (2) abreast shall
not impede the normal and reasonable movement of
traffic and, on a laned roadway, shall ride
within a single lane. The definition of impede
being; "to delay or prevent (someone
or something) by obstructing them; To
hinder" and bicycle riders shall
ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb
or edge of the roadway with few exceptions.
Our hope is that enforcement of existing state laws
will discourage bicycle riders from riding their
bicycles on Loudon County roads that are far too
narrow, winding and dangerous and will improve the
safety and welfare of the traveling public on Loudon
County roadways.
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