‘We had absolutely no intentions of breaking the law’: Cyclists caught in illegal traffic zone

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A local cyclist is warning others after her riding group was ticketed for riding through a “road closed to through traffic” zone in St. John’s County.

“We’re all being very polite and respectful to him, and we definitely did not get that same respect back,” Joy Murphy recalled of the interaction with a St. John’s County Sheriff’s deputy.

She and ten other cyclists were out for a ride last Saturday when they came upon the “no through traffic” sign. She says one of the cyclists had biked the road a week before, and knew about the sign but had reportedly had no issues.

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“I think we were just more concerned about the road itself, like, what was wrong with the road, was it passable, would we be able to get through?” Murphy recalled. “Our water stop was on the other side of that barricade. We were all really low on water, we really just wanted to get past so we could get to our water stop and refill our water bottles.”

Two miles later, the group came upon a barricade.

“There were 13 cyclists that had gone through that barrier 30 minutes before us, allowed by a [public service aide],” she said.

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Murphy says after the group passed the barricade, a deputy came up behind them and yelled on his speaker that they’d all be getting citations.

10 cyclists were given $166 dollar tickets, and Murphy says everyone could be getting three points against their driver’s licenses as well. She says the whole ordeal was shocking, and that the deputy’s anger made the group feel that he simply disliked cyclists.

“We were all just very confused,” she said, adding that she’d seen cars going through, too. Action News Jax Law and Safety Expert Dale Carson says travel would be restricted to anyone other than those who live or work on the stretch of road.

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As for the cyclists’ punishment, Carson added, “I do think that’s a little harsh... I certainly agree that there’s a difference between a bicyclist and a vehicle driver... But it is the uniform traffic code; everyone’s subject to it.”

“We had absolutely no intentions of breaking the law,” Murphy told Action News Jax. “I think we’ve all learned our lessons about the law with this event.”

Action News Jax reached out to the sheriff’s office about the incident. We also messaged the public service aide Murphy said let the first group of cyclists through. We’ll update this story with a response.

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