I’m working on a new “card” – a 4×5 card that cyclists can carry with them. Sort of a colorful, calming piece of real “bike art” on one side and a summary of Ohio’s bike laws on the other… I picture you looking at the pretty picture to calm you down as you eloquently educate the police officer on the fact that you CAN ride two abreast on any road, at any time, in Ohio…
The artist, Talia Lampert, is a New York artist who does “Bike Paintings.” Gorgeous, colorful paintings of … well… real bikes. Not high-end $20,000 bikes made of the latest mode of unobtainium, but real people’s bikes. You can see her work here.
I purchased the right to use one of Talia’s paintings for one of my cards. I’ve been sitting on it for over a year… This week my artist-in-residence, my step-son’s wife, designer extraordinaire Teresa Johns, put the thing together in grand fashion. You can see the results below.
The back of the card will offer, in a much more lawyerly font, a summary of Ohio’s Bike Laws, with reference to the Ohio Revised Code sections.
As you can tell, we put one of those cool, funky, hip, groovy QR thingamagoochies in the lower left corner. If you aim your iPhone or SuperDroid at it, you are instantly transported to H.G. Wells’ Bicycle Utopia …er.. well… maybe not… it actually completes the Circle of Life and takes you right back here to the website through the magic of iFairies, pixel dust and the InterWeb…
Let me know what you, the reading public, thinks of this… I understand “spoke cards” are very hip right now… maybe that’s next on the list…
THANKS!
Steve Magas
© 2024.
Steve:
Your cards are beautiful and are a great service to Ohio cyclists. I have done similar cards from NY and I am ashamed that they are not as pretty as yours! 🙂 Time to get back to the drawing board……
Keep up the great work!
Jim Reed
NY & PA Bike Accident Lawyer
Nice!
We need to do that down here. Nice job.
So, when and where can we get one (or a dozen)? I’d love to hand these to drivers who don’t seem to understand cyclists’ rights…
Samuel – send me an email at bikelawyer@me.com and include your address… I ship a bunch over!
Just new to biking to stay in shape. Thanks so much for summarizing the Ohio Revised Code. I plan to make a copy and keep it on the bike. Making “spoke cards” is an excellent idea.
interesting … under what circumstances are any of those laws tricky
Good Question – Every case is fact specific. What is “AFRAP”? There’s no definition in the code… so one officer’s “far enough” is the next one’s “not far enough”- we’ve had a couple of those cases, both victories- Passing a bike improperly can lead to a ticket, or worse… or not – I spent two years in litigation on a case where the issue was whether the cyclist had signaled a turn before starting to turn and whether the truck was roared up from behind should have seen the signal – You can’t begin to cover all the goofy things that happen in real life – but knowing the basic rules, and being confident enough to talk to a cop about them, puts you WAY ahead of the curve! That’s why I created the card, to give cyclists some confidence when dealing with motorists or cops in situations which will be, undoubtedly, stressful for the rider!