PORT TOWNSEND — A split City Council late Monday passed a bicycle ordinance that includes a mandatory helmet law, but it won’t be enforced until July 2007.
However, the helmet requirement will take effect when the new Port Townsend Skate Park opens in a few months.
The council vote came after it conducted a public hearing with many bicyclists pedaling against the helmet law.
Mandatory helmets would be considered a “local rule” beyond existing state laws covering cycling, said City Attorney John Watts.
Watts outlined an ordinance that could ultimately fine a repeat offender for the third offense in a year.
The helmet law, however, did receive support from health officials, including a physician who used an egg in a carton demonstrate how the egg wouldn’t crack.
“Parents must supervise their children,” said cyclist Bill Dentzel, wearing a specially decorated bike helmet with signs stating: “Helmet good, helmet law bad, don’t need big brother in PT.”
The youngest resident to testify, Anna Smith, 17, urged the council to encourage helmets through education.
“Most kids don’t see the risk of not wearing a helmet,” Smith said, adding that a helmet saved her mother’s life.
Education over police
A second wave of cyclists came forward to tell council members that education would be preferred over police enforcement.
As proposed in a timetable, law officers would not enforce the law until January 2007.
Then they would issue a verbal warning, written warning, then a citation — in that order — during three violations in a year.
Ahead of enforcement, however, is a formal education process that would involve the Police Department over the next several months.
As proposed, helmets would not just apply to cyclists, but to skaters and equestrians.
The proposed law, as it now stands, does not require bicycle licensing or registration.
