watch as they discuss a proposal of the iowa state association of counties to require any group ride of as few as ten cyclists to register, get a permit, carry signed waivers of liability, AND show proof of a MINIMUM of $1,000,000 liability insurance for the ride. you'll learn that the dallas county engineer is PRESIDENT of the group that developed this model ordinance, and be further dazzled by the fact that the dallas county attorney is the current president of the state county attorney association. [anyone ever read "the peter principle"?]
there will be eleven of this clips. at present, i have eight completed and posted; the other three will be linked here as the slow process continues.
enjoy, and then write to the board of supervisors and give them your opinion.
.....
please watch these, leave comments either here or on the youtube pages, and them contact the dallas county board of supervisors to give your opinion on this proposal.
remember, as a matter of fact,
you DO own the road.
2 comments:
Thanks for putting the videos up on the web for us to see. I have been one that has sat on the fence not sure how I feel about the purposed ordinance in Dallas County. I had been looking for your’s or other’s report on this meeting to help formulate an educated position in which to take.
Prior to this meeting and after the reading of this ordinance I kept running over one conflict that the ordinance had with the Iowa code 321.234. Of course you know that this is the code that gives rights to bicyclist, animals, or animal-drawn vehicles the same rights on the road as motor vehicles. It was not one specific part of this law; it is the fact that because we have this law and the right to be on the road, we have the same right to a road that is maintained to our (cyclist) basic standard. This proposed ordinance seem to me to be saying is even though we have the right to ride on this road, we do not have the right to expect a well maintained road that would be conducive to cycling, therefore the county would not have to maintain the road at that level. In short, the county would be able to shirk some of the responsibilities and expectations when it comes to road maintenance and not held responsible for accidents because of waivers and insurance policies.
It was also clear that the elected officials did not do their homework before drafting this ordinance. Arbitrary numbers and a lot of unintentional consequences were well pointed out leaving them to look foolish.
I sympathize with the counsel on wanting to protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits that may end up costing the tax payers a lot, but to counter frivolous lawsuits with frivolous ordinance will not solve the problem. I am with all of you in saying this is not the solution nor do we need to have a solution to a problem that really does not exist
dude, you are an attorney licensed to practice in the state of iowa. i sure hope you are doing more than just posting stuff on your website. you clearly have plenty of time to devote to this issue, please use your skills/power as an attorney to make this go away. as an attorney, you should be well connected in the community to kill this easily.
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