Is Anybody Safe?

The Mules are reading a number of comments regarding the issue of safety following our recent truthful account of our arrest on I-5. Nobody or no one exists or operates in total safety mode. Life on earth by its very nature is unsafe. To be completely safe, you need to be dead. Life on earth is rife with risks.

With regards to the Mules walking down the side of the highway, are we perfectly safe? No.

Are motorcyclists darting in and out of traffic at high speeds perfectly safe? No.

Is the high-speed motorists moving at speeds of 65 to 80mph bumper to bumper in heavy traffic distracted by alcohol, drugs, texting, eating, etc. perfectly safe? No.

Is a bicyclist peddling along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway or on I-5 from San Clemente to Oceanside perfectly safe? No.

So it behooves the Mules, to walk over to the safety scanner, walk through and get a reading as to our degree of safety.

The Mules walk at 3mph, weigh about 1000lbs, have never been in a wreck or caused one, as opposed to the high speed motorist who moves at 65 to 80mph, weighs from 1500lb to 40,000lbs and kills and maims itself and others by thousands every year.

The degree of safety at which the Mules operate is by far much higher than the high speed motorists, the gap between the two is huge. For the CHP to stop and order the Mules off I-5 using the pre-text and guise of safety to justify their order is illegal.

To any common sense mind, the Mules by far operate at a much higher degree of safety than the high speed motorist. When non-motorists (pedestrian, bicyclists, equestrians, wheel chairs, etc.) step onto I-5 because there is no other alternative route, that section of I-5 immediately becomes subject to the same rules and regulations that apply to all state, county, city roads.

California vehicle code law 21949 passed by California legislature and made effective January 1, 2001 states that “it is the policy of the State of California that safe and convenient pedestrian travel and access, whether by foot, wheelchair, walker, or stroller, be provided to the residents of the state. It is the intent of the Legislature that all levels of government in the state, particularly the Department of Transportation, work to provide convenient and safe passage for pedestrians on and across all streets and highways, increase levels of walking and pedestrian travel, and reduce pedestrian fatalities and injuries.”

California’s Department of Transportation (CalTrans) can easily post a mandatory speed reduction to 50mph on their overhead flashing neon signs bringing this unlawful section of I-5 into compliance so cyclists, pedestrians, equestrians and all other legal users can exercise their constitutional right to move freely on the state public thoroughfare.

A mandatory speed reduction of 50mph in this section of I-5 where no alternative route for non-motorist is present will bring this section under the same rules and regulations as all roads we travel every day.

The Mules

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Department of Transportation pedestrian warning sign

This sign is a good start for the Department of Transportation showing some willingness to use its resources for promoting safety on the Public Thoroughfare. It needs to go much further in notifying the High Speed Motorist that the Public Thoroughfare is for all rightful users, which include bicycles, equestrians, and pedestrians and not the exclusive domain of the High Speed Motorist.

The High Speed Motorist and its prevailing attitude – jump in a ditch, run for the bushes, I’m coming through, I don’t slow up for nothing or nobody – must come to an end.

The Department of Transportation using its resources and many signs placed all over the state can hammer down, stamp down, the message that the High Speed Motorist will no longer rule our roadways. For the Department of Transportation to shirk its duty and responsibility any longer in this regard will surely bring on the wrath of all California citizens who understand the extreme value of a multi-use Public Thoroughfare promoting freedom and respect and enjoyment for one and all.

The Mules

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Highway 41 Coarsegold Roadside Memorial

While walking to Oakhurst along Highway 41 to buy groceries, we came upon the latest roadside memorial for a fatality brought about by the High-Speed Motorist (HSM) on one of many highways and roads which are totally unsuitable for the speeds being driven.

The Mules, cyclists and pedestrians have the absolute right to use Highway 41, a public thoroughfare, but are put into a suicidal type circumstance when doing so.

The state of California has built and continues to build and maintain a public thoroughfare that is suicidal for the other venues, equestrians, cyclists, and pedestrians, therefore denying those venues their rightful tax-supported use.

The State of California has trapped itself into a totally illegal condition. It must act immediately to build alternative trails for those other venues for not to do so will open the courthouse doors to a lawsuit in size and scope which will dwarf anything herefore ever seen.

The Mules

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