Woman charged again after she rides her bicycle on busy U.S. 27

Cherokee Schill, the bicyclist fined last week after a judge found her to have violated traffic laws, was jailed Tuesday on a new charge.

A police report said that Nicholasville police officer Erik Cobb, who previously ticketed Cobb, responded to a report of a cyclist riding on U.S. 27. Cobb saw the cyclist traveling north in the center of the right lane near Kohl's Drive.

The report says Cobb "observed several vehicles braking hard and switching lanes erratically in an attempt to dodge the violator. Violator was wantonly engaging in conduct she knew would create substantial danger to the motorists attempting to avoid her."

[Read an extensive BikeForums conversation about the Cherokee Schill case]

Schill was arrested at 5:19 p.m. Tuesday on a charge of second-degree wanton endangerment. She was being held in the Jessamine County jail Wednesday; no bond had been set for her release.

Schill, 41, a mother of two, was scheduled for arraignment Thursday in Jessamine District Court. Second-degree wanton endangerment is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

Schill has been at odds with authorities for riding in the travel lane of U.S. 27, one of the busiest roads in Central Kentucky. She travels from her Nicholasville home to classes in Lexington, where she is learning to be an EKG technician.

Previously, she rode U.S. 27 on the way to work at a factory on Lexington's north side; she has since resigned from that position.

After hearing testimony during a one-day trial Friday, District Judge Bill Oliver found that Schill had violated three counts of careless driving and that she had violated three counts of a law requiring slow-moving vehicles to move as far to the right "as practicable." Oliver imposed fines and court costs of $433, which Schill has a year to pay.

Video taken by Cherokee Schill during one of her rides:

Oliver had warned Schill on Friday: "You want to avoid any further violations of the law. I'm not telling you that you can't have your bicycle out there. We've established that bicycles have some rights out there."

Oliver rejected a defense argument that the shoulder is unsafe for cycling because of debris and rumble strips. Oliver said that, in the specific instances before him, Schill should have ridden in the shoulder.

"I would encourage you to be careful," Oliver said. "Almost every moment there is a different situation where you have to decide whether you have the right to be where you are or if you need to be further to the right. That's not an easy thing for you to do or for anyone else. But it is, I think, under the current law, what you have to do."

Schill has said that she intends to appeal Oliver's decisions, and that "I'm not going to change how I ride."

Steve Magas, a Cincinnati lawyer who was co-counsel in Schill's trial, said Wednesday that "it is a bit of a stretch" for police to charge Schill with wanton endangerment.

"It seems a bit over the top to me," Magas said. "She has the right to use the road. Now whether she is 2 feet to the right or 2 feet to the left, that's what the whole case is about."

This story was originally published September 17, 2014 at 10:31 AM with the headline "Woman charged again after she rides her bicycle on busy U.S. 27."