Investigating the new fines, and news of possibile illegality on the part of the CoA

I just sent the following letter to several City of Austin staffers trying to obtain more clarity on the newly-updated City of Austin Municipal Court fine schedule. Thanks go out to DougMC for informing us of these new fines, as well as the possibility that one of them (sidewalk riding) is illegal. On to the letter:

According to the new City of Austin Municipal Court fine schedule there's a bevy of new cycling-related traffic fines. You can check them out here:

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/court/fine_sch.htm

The specific fines I want to point out are the following (first amount is for early payment, second is for late):

Bicycle - No Lights $147 $170
Bicycle - Riding on Sidewalk $146 $185
Bicycle - Wrong Way One Way $201 $251

Now compare these to the same fines in an automobile:

No Headlights $137 $155
Wrong Way on One Way Street $167 $200

Why is it worse to ride the wrong way or without lights on a bike than it is in an automobile? Is it a safety issue? Who with the City of Austin sets these fines?

The reason I mentioned the "Riding on Sidewalk" fine is because the amount charged also seems illegal. According to CoA ordinances regarding sidewalk riding the max is $40:

"§ 12-2-36 PENALTY; ENFORCEMENT.
(A) A person commits an offense if the person performs an act prohibited by this article or fails to perform an act required by this article.
(B) An offense under this article is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed:
(1) $20 on a first conviction; and
(2) $40 on a subsequent conviction."

Who should I contact to get further information about these new, unfair, and possibly illegal fines?

Jason Abels

Should be interesting to see the response. There's been some discussion regarding these new fines in the BicycleAustin forums, including one member who mentioned the following after they were pulled over and ticketed at 45th and Guadalupe (well outside the downtown "crackdown" area):

A bicyclist friend of mine asked an APD friend of hers about (the incident), and she was told that indeed "an email had gone out" instructing APD officers to step up citations for bicycle traffic violations, apparently in response to the recent bicycle deaths. He also told her that there was a separate, lower fine for bicyclists than for car drivers. (I'm relating this second- or third-hand so I don't know for sure about that.)

So to decrease the number of cycling deaths in Austin they've decided to make it more of a hassle to operate a bicycle? I guess that's ONE way of dealing with the problem, albeit in a rather backwards-thinking and heavy-handed fashion. AustinonTwoWheels also picked up the story this morning, so it should be fun to read the discussion surrounding this rather egregious and prejudicial change in the fine schedule.