What's this?

On Saturday, Kristina and I made our annual trip out to the Mogollon Rim to cut our Christmas tree.  A wonderful day was spent out in the woods thanks to the NFS and a $15 tree permit.  The sun was out, and it warmed to a balmy 50 degrees.  We found a nice, not-so-treefarm-perfect-but-close white fir tree...  homegrown, hand selected, and cut with my bare hands (well maybe not bare, I did have gloves on).  The route to the designated tree cutting area takes us out of Flagstaff via Lake Mary Road, a popular road biking route.  It was spring the last time I traveled out Lake Mary Road, during a period of road construction to see how full the lakes were.  The City/contractor did a nice job.  Fresh, new pavement and widened with a bike lane on each side of the road.  One thing really caught my eye, though.  A new road sign.  A sign that made my mind wander back to a small incident in town regarding a bus and a bicyclist.  DC and the AZ Daily Sun reported about this incident and even posted the videos from the bus surveillance camera (click on the links).  An incident that pitted a cyclist against, first, a bus driver and, secondly, the City of Flagstaff.  The feud was brought about by a passing bus that appeared, at least to cyclist Randy Mason, too close for comfort...  even illegal.  It brought to my attention a rule of the roads that I had never even heard of before - The Three Foot Law.  Also referred to as Brad Gorman's Law, named after a Tucson cyclist run over from behind, it was passed in 2000 in Arizona and requires motorists to abide by the following:  "When overtaking and passing a bicycle proceeding in the same direction, a person driving a motor vehicle shall exercise due care by leaving a safe distance between the motor vehicle and the bicycle of not less than three feet until the motor vehicle is safely past the overtaken bicycle."  Aside from the cyclist involved, the law seemed to be a mystery to all involved including the bus driver, responding police officer, and city attorney.  And so, as the law was interpreted and the whole ordeal seemed to fizzle out, it resulted in a ticket for the bus driver and a new awareness to a law that existed, but was never really enforced...  But it was brought to my attention once again as we traveled down Lake Mary Road.  Apparently, Randy got one more thing out of the ordeal, the first one of these I've seen in the state...

Randy's Sign, Lake Mary Road, Flagstaff, AZ