Beware: Open season on cyclists at the Intersection of Doom

@kcb203 179170 wrote:

I got hit there this morning at about 8:30. I was going eastbound and had the white walk signal. It was white when I arrived, so I was moving when I entered. The car that hit me had blocked the intersection and waited for several pedestrians to cross then pulled forward and hit me on my right side. I went down. There were several cyclist witnesses. The driver stopped and apologized and admitted fault–that she had been in the intersection after it turned red for her and then entered the crosswalk and hit me while I had the white walk signal.

This is what makes me mad: A cop saw the entire thing. He agreed that she had blocked the intersection and failed to yield in the crosswalk. We’re all in agreement on the basic facts. He wrote a report and facilitated the information exchange. But he didn’t give her a ticket–he just called it an unfortunate accident! Why is the cop even there if he won’t cite drivers who break the law and hit cyclists (or pedestrians)?

I hope you’re ok. If you have any injuries or damage, I’d contact an attorney (who will probably advise to not post publicly, and definitely don’t say you’re ok or your bike is ok until you’ve had time/attention). Cory Bilton and Bruce Deming are great.

This is so frustrating. ACPD has gotten a lot better in recent years. That said, they still have a ways to go.

The most important thing, for insurance, etc, is that the report clearly sets fault with the driver. ACPD seems to think that when there’s a collision and the report sets fault with a driver, particularly a driver who seems to feel bad, that there’s been enough “punishment” for the driver. Ugh. It’s not too late for the driver to be cited. Honestly, I’d email (police@arlingtonva.us, if you don’t have the contact for the captain of that district), report what happened, and ask for an explanation. I don’t know if there’s much hope of changing this incident, but you might help the next person.

And I was almost hit at the same intersection at 9:30am today — no police around, and no traffic in the intersection — the first car in the right lane went when we had the white walking symbol and he had the lighted no turn; the driver was chatting on his cell phone. In 6 years of commuting through this intersection, I have never seen enforcement during the evening commute. Not once.

I hope you are okay and that you get to resolve your case in a favorable way.

I have been cycling for about 3 years and have come to learn that as a cyclist you are always the low hanging fruit. The law doesn’t protect cyclists as it does with drivers and even pedestrians. I love speed and try to push as much as I can when parts of the trail are empty and on hills, but whenever I am approaching an intersection, even if I have the right of way, I slow down, and try to cross in the safest way, even if I have to get down off the bike sometimes. Even if I do that, I sometimes get close calls, but the chances I get into a bad accident goes down significantly.

“Sometimes” is the keyword here. I do it most of the time when I need to do a left turn and I have to change lanes with car traffic. I get to the sidewalk and cross as a pedestrian. I get it that it gives drivers the wrong message, but that’s better than being in a hospital bed with no fault of my own and having to pay my own medical bills.

I have never dismounted at the IOD, but do cross slowly. The drivers will try to run you over most of the time anyway, but you have more time to completely stop if you need to.

Go slow enough to take evasive (but not too slow in case evasive involves needing speed), don’t proceed after the hand starts blinking, and have one hand ready at all times to raise the one-fingered salute if needed.

If going westbound, I do like bentbike and go behind the box blockers, often then proceeding up Lee until the next block or the hotel instead of using the trail in order to avoid conflicts jumping back on.

@kcb203 179170 wrote:

I got hit there this morning at about 8:30. I was going eastbound and had the white walk signal. It was white when I arrived, so I was moving when I entered. The car that hit me had blocked the intersection and waited for several pedestrians to cross then pulled forward and hit me on my right side. I went down. There were several cyclist witnesses. The driver stopped and apologized and admitted fault–that she had been in the intersection after it turned red for her and then entered the crosswalk and hit me while I had the white walk signal.

This is what makes me mad: A cop saw the entire thing. He agreed that she had blocked the intersection and failed to yield in the crosswalk. We’re all in agreement on the basic facts. He wrote a report and facilitated the information exchange. But he didn’t give her a ticket–he just called it an unfortunate accident! Why is the cop even there if he won’t cite drivers who break the law and hit cyclists (or pedestrians)?

This makes me mad, too. What is the whole point of the police officer being there if he wasn’t going to enforce blocking the box or help protect people on bikes and foot. They really need to do a better job with the box blockers, who clog up the whole thing, not to mention creating dangers like you encountered. Arrrgh.

@baiskeli 179215 wrote:

Sorry to hear that.

You were legally and morally not at fault. I say that because, just to play the game of “what I would do with the benefit of both hindsight and lots of time to think about it,” I think I would want to let the car continue through the intersection and get out of my way even though she had already violated my right-of-way. In essence, it was too late – she had already pulled through – so yielding to her would clean up the mess she made and restore order. For safety’s sake, it would be best to wave her through and get her out of your way instead of crossing in front of a driver desperate to get out of the situation and get out of the way of cars honking at her. Yielding despite having the right-of-way is usually a bad idea, but in this situation it might have been best. But again, that’s just me, and with lots of time to think about what to do after the fact, so I don’t blame you at all for simply proceeding on a green light as was your right to do – no victim-blaming here. Of course, if you waved her through you might also have endangered other cyclists or pedestrians who weren’t going to yield though, so maybe I’m all wrong.

But if you do this, and there are other people crossing, you are putting them at risk. They have the right of way, so they may be going. The driver may see you stopping, and start going, hitting the other people. Also, at this intersection, people crossing only get 10 seconds of protected crossing. By waving the car through, you’d be stranding yourself and others in the crosswalk while the drivers have a green light to turn. Please don’t do this.

@dasgeh 179218 wrote:

Technically, the law says you have to cross in the crosswalk.

Fine. I’ll do like I did in my 20s in Rossyln and pick the bike up and carry it walking over the hood of the BMW in the crosswalk when he was so close to the car in front of him that I couldn’t squeeze through.

Actually, no I won’t. I’m older and calmer-ish and I’ll just go around, law bedamned. When laws don’t fit reality…

@Steve O 179233 wrote:

I cannot tell you how many times I have fantasized about doing this.

I am not worthy