You say that you are safe, and that you will notice, and stop for a little kid; but your keen observational skills missed 7 cops wearing safety yellow.

The speaker was a cop. He was speaking to a bicycle rider while writing a ticket for running a stop sign. The statement occurred during a recent sting operation in Portland’s Ladds Addition. The message, or the $242 ticket, got through to the rider. Since then he’s been “super careful” about stopping at all stop signs. This behavior has generated a couple of comments from pedestrians. As the rider tells the story “twice pedestrians have told me that I was one of a very select few that actually stopped to let them cross at a stop sign.” The comments from the pedestrians have caused the rider to wonder just how safe he used to be. He thought he was riding safely, giving pedestrians space as they deserve. Now that he’s actually stopping, he’s being told he’s riding safely.

Anyone commented on your riding lately?