Early this week, I saw another youngster on an electrified two-wheeled vehicle blow through one of the four stop signs at 6th & State with no apparent fear of being killed or getting caught by the police. No helmet, dressed in black, on a hybrid type scooter with seat. Then he zipped past two DO NOT ENTER signs on his way to Columbia, Warren, or Union. I'm almost certain I've seen this person do the same thing on at least two other occasions recently. And what would or should a Hudson cop in a multi-ton vehicle do if they see such a clear traffic violation? Chase the violator down a one-way street headed the wrong direction to somehow stop him and have a talk with him, perhaps issue a ticket of some sort?
Stand at 6th & State any day of the week for ten minutes and you're bound to see at least one person -- young or not so young -- do something really stupid and dangerous on a two-wheeled electric vehicle they're treating like a toy. If you want to witness the scary scene, just listen for the whine of an electric motor and you're bound to see something that you rarely, if ever, could see before this year. The other day, late in the afternoon, I heard the whine coming from the east. A second or two later, I saw an E-bike approaching the intersection headed west in the eastbound lane passing a stopped car at his right. Instead of waiting behind the car for it to proceed past the stop sign, he went around the driver's side of the car and through the intersection without stopping, probably moving at 15 mph. With no vehicles headed his way, the rider remained traveling in the wrong lane well past the intersection, closer to the parked cars on his left than to the middle of the road. Somehow there is nothing uncommon about this kind of insane, disrespectful and lawless behavior. A police officer in a vehicle was not waiting in the empty parking lot of the empty county building at the northeast corner, as they occasional do. But had a cop been there, I wonder what, if anything, their response would have been after seeing such a dangerous and illegal maneuver directly in front of them that was clearly a ticketable traffic violation and possibly a multiple ticket offense.
During the so-called police report at Monday's meeting of the so-called SAFETY Committee, the issue of E- bikes was discussed for nearly 4 minutes (last month there was no discussion of the issue at all). Even head Code Enforcement Officer Nick Fox weighed in on the discussion (and committee chair Henry Haddad allowed him to). Here are the highlights.
As always, Dominic Merante had an important question to ask, this one for Chief Franklin. "I thought I did hear that someone on an E-bike got a ticket."
(How much does Dominic get paid to ask such a ridiculous question?)
Franklin responded, "Umm, did we? That I don't remember specifically."
(How much does the police chief get paid to offer such a ridiculous response as this?)
30 seconds later, Franklin, after looking at her laptop or papers, said, "Ahh, here's one on the 18th. E-scooter failed to yield the right of way. There we go."
Greenport resident and fraudster "2nd ward council member" Dewan Sarowar then tried to get involved in the discussion to show he cares. "What about riding E-bike without permission?" was his one effort for the night.
Parking Captain (PC) David Miller answered the fraudster's important question with nonsense police-speak gobbledygook I won't bore you with.
Then, during a critical discussion about enforcement of traffic laws aimed at E-bikes and scooters, PC Miller said, "We have to do that extra step, cus it's gettin' a little crazy out there."
That's when the head of the Code Enforcement Department, Nick Fox, who has absolutely nothing to do with traffic enforcement, asked PC Miller, "What kind of infractions are you looking for? Are you stopping them without helmets or just if they're blowing through stop signs, red lights, things like that?"
(How much was Nick Fox paid to ask such a useless question, the answer to which has no bearing on his job?)
Police Chief Franklin responded to Code Enforcement Officer Fox, "Any of it, really. I think we all see it." And she followed with more diversionary nonsense that I won't bore you with.
As if that weren't enough absurdist theater, the issue of E-bikes/scooters also came up briefly at the end of Thursday's Legal Committee meeting, just 3 days after the SAFETY people had their 4-minute nonsense stab at the issue. This attempt began rather awkwardly, with three people at the table and two attending online. (As above, what follows is transcribed from the video of the meeting, with horrible audio and lots of interrupting and talking over one another. I've done my best. This is not a scene from the sitcom The Office. This took place in Hudson City Hall just days ago!)
Jason Foster: There was something brought up about E-bikes, is that not on the...
Margaret Morris, who wears hearing aids: I'm sorry?
Foster: E-bikes. Are we talking about that, or is that...?
Morris (interrupting): It's not on the agenda for this evening. If you want it...
Jen Belton (interrupting): I would love for it to be next time.
Morris: Okay.
Foster: It came, I don't know where, I don't remember. I thought...
Belton: We had started talking about it in this committee.
Morris: We were talking about it. It was going to go to SAFETY.
Belton (confirming and interrupting): SAFETY, and nothing happened.
City Attorney Ken Dow, online*, 27 seconds into the discussion: I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said. What subject is this?
(Don't you love that one of the two people "attending" a Legal Committee meeting was the council's attorney! Claire Cousin was the other. More surprise!)
Belton and Morris, in unison: E-BIKES!
Morris, who chairs the committee, then told the other two members that she had to be done with the meeting by 7:00, which was a few minutes away. (Gee, chief, thanks for telling us five minutes before you have to go! So considerate and professional of you!)
Belton: I'll send you whatever research I have, cus' I've put some stuff together.
Margaret: And also scooters?
Belton, nodding: And also scooters.
Before Margaret could flee the meeting, Jason Foster said, I think we could enforce bicycle laws and take care of a great deal if we enforce laws that already exist. You can't run stop signs on bicycles.
Jen Belton: I would like to see everybody that's on a bike, E-bike, scooter, whatever, anything that's moving to be wearing a helmet. It's scary.
Morris: Some of these things really belong in the SAFETY Committee. That's where that discussion belongs.
Foster (speaking to the council president and two fellow council members, one of them online): Does anyone here belong to the SAFETY Committee?
(By all means, take a minute or two to laugh and/or weep and go get the liquor bottle...)
Don't you just love the smugness of Jason Foster proclaiming, "We could enforce bicycle laws" and "if we enforce laws"? Who is this we Jason spoke of? Were they in the room? Are they part of the committee? Is Jason Foster a Hudson cop? Of course, there's never anyone from HPD involved with meetings of the Legal Committee. Everyone knows, or should know, that the police are only involved with the meetings of the so-called SAFETY Committee.
The legal and E-bike safety experts.
No one should be surprised if next month's half hour Legal Committee meeting involves the following discussion.
"Hey gang, has anyone here ever attended a SAFETY Committee meeting? Do the police show up to those meetings? What do they talk about?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they show up. I'll send an email to Chief Franklin and find out for sure. I'll ask her about E-bikes. Scooters, too. You know, helmets, bicycle laws, safety, tickets, riding without permission, all that important stuff. She should know. Maybe we should invite her to our meeting to help us out. Whadaya think, guys? She can just attend virtually if she wants to. Make it easy for her."
"Sure, why not? Sounds great, let's do this! I'll email her right now."
The council's committee structure that was created by Margaret Morris this year has only worsened the already existing abysmal communication between members and departments. The situation is nothing less than pathetic and embarrassing, even rising to the level of frightening. You just have to pay attention to the words these people speak to understand how bad or non-existent the communication is and how much worse it is getting.
* Ken Dow delayed the start of the meeting by 5 1/2 minutes. He "arrived" 2 1/2 minutes late but could not unmute himself for another 3 minutes. Between long pauses of nothing being said, Margaret Morris twice asked out loud, "Ken, can you unmute yourself?" The picture above shows Jason Foster and Margaret Morris waiting for the council's attorney to figure out how to join them virtually so they can proceed with the monthly meeting. One minute after Mr. Dow was "attending," he was offline again for several minutes, returning at minute 10. 30 minutes later, Margaret announced that the meeting needed to end soon because "I have a serious hard stop at 7:00." According to the minutes of the meeting, Morris wrapped things up at 6:40 pm.
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