De Soto, KS is a terrible place to raise children

Because it's illegal to ride your bike!

Last night, I was riding my bike on a 2-lane country road where the speed limit typically ranges between 35 and 45 mph. I was about 15 miles into a 25 mile ride when I heard a siren behind me. I turned around and saw lights flashing, but kept going. Sirens again. WTH? So I pulled over. Yup, I got pulled over last night on my bike.

Apparently it is illegal to ride a bike on 83rd street in De Soto. They ran my license, wrote me up, and literally hauled my butt out of town. If you look, you'll see the ticket says I was unlawfully operating an '08 Trek bicycle.


The cops were nice even though I was being a little bit of a smart ass, not beligerent, just trying to make light of the situation. In my defense, from the east there are no signed posted until you're in town but it's illegal to ride 6 miles east of town as well. Ironically enough, where they dropped me off at the adjacent town's border there is a bright yellow sign "Share the Road" with a bicycle on it. Same road, just a few miles down. FYI, the town of Lenexa IS bicycle friendly.

And before you start to lecture, I get it. Road safety, line of sight, blah, blah, blah. We're not talking about a 4-lane road where the speed limit is 65. The bottom line is residents complained about having to slow down to pass cyclists so the city passed an ordinance. Just post more damn signs and an alternate route for us non-motorized vehicles.

The ticket cost me $100. I haven't decided if I'm going to go to the court date or not.