The Bicycle Ticket

There was an interesting discussion on the Cascade Bulletin Board speculating whether a ticket received for a bicycling infraction would cause your auto insurance rates go up? Short answer… no.

A close personal friend with my good looks and rapier-like wit received a citation from motorycle Officer Tomlinson of the City of Bellevue PD last May for a violation falling under the very generic RCW 46.61.755. Said friend, happy that the officer toned it down a bit, was concerned more about the blemish on his respectable Permanent Record than the $58 contribution to the city general fund, called both the DMV and his insurance company.

The DMV pointed out they only care about violations involving motorized vehicles. Right. That’s the M in DMV. However, they also added that occasionally, through poor handwriting or opportunistic smudging, the “motorized vehicle” box might be ticked but, should this happen, it would take merely a telephone call attention to the “Bike” part of the description of the vehicle and it would be striken from the record.

The insurance company’s reaction was “yes, it goes on the Permanent Record, What was your name again?” Then, upon realizing that Heywood Jablome wasn’t really a customer, admitted they had no fracking clue. As Hans said, what in Sam Hill was my, uh, friend thinking in contacting his auto insurance company without caller ID blocked?

My friend’s auto insurance rates actually went down this renewal period because of newly discovered discounts for multiple policies and a mold-free claim history. (And, later, saying he bikes to work most of the time.) However, his driver’s license, up for renewal next month, was curiously ineligible for the mail-in-sticker option (bypassing the DMV entirely) afforded to drivers with clean permanent records. (Update: this was because the social security number was incorrect.)

So, in the interest of settling this once and for all, my (ahem) friend sent for a copy of his driving record from the DMV. My friend is not pregnant. The record is clean.