Assualted by Pedestrian – 31st and Q St NW @ 3:45PM on 7/15/2021

Did the car traveling next to you also fail to yield to the pedestrian? From your description it sounds like you should have stopped, but that his reaction was completely insane

I finally had a crash in Central Park. 10 year old kid veered out of the bike lane without looking and my avoidance maneuver was unsuccessful. I keep telling myself not to do laps in Central Park after 3 pm because of the crowds and less than experienced riders you encounter, but just did that today while running Midtown errands to avoid the similar conditions in the 1st Ave cycletrack. Would have been better off with the double parkers on Park Ave.

It’s possible the pedestrian had right of way, but that’s not 100% clear to me given the description. In DC, the only specific law I could find is that “The driver of a vehicle shall stop and remain stopped to allow a pedestrian to cross the roadway within any marked crosswalk, or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, when the pedestrian is upon the lane, or within one lane approaching the lane, on which the vehicle is traveling or onto which it is turning.” If the pedestrian was indeed speeding up to create a conflict by entering the crosswalk (and therefore was not ” upon the lane”), it isn’t clear to me that they are entitled to right of way. If it’s accurate that the pedestrian “quickened his pace” and even then was only able to force contact by extending an object into the back wheel after the bike was through the crosswalk, then I don’t know that I buy the cyclist was in the wrong. It is certainly possible that we’re not getting a great description of the incident, and the pedestrian had to stop short to keep from getting hit and only then proceeded to assault the cyclist.

The Virginia law is a bit clearer about this, though not much, prohibiting pedestrians from entering a crosswalk “in disregard of approaching traffic” – which I always interpreted this to mean that a pedestrian (or cyclist) can’t dash into a cross walk in front of a car at speed, get hit, and claim the driver was at fault. They could enter “in regard of traffic” while the driver was far enough away to react even if that required the driver to slow/stop to allow them to finish crossing. I didn’t find any similar language googling DC law.

In any event, the pedestrian’s actions are so over the top unhinged that they really should be reported and absolutely constitute assault consummated by battery and probably a bunch of other charges too. Attempting to hit someone with a heavy bike lock chain seems pretty close to assault with a deadly weapon, though IANAL. There are traffic cameras all over DC, not to mention home security cameras and video doorbells, so there may well be video of the incident if you act quickly to file a report.

I can’t see how having or not having the ROW justifies the actions of the ped in this scenario.

@jrenaut 211069 wrote:

It doesn’t at all. The pedestrian clearly could use professional help. However, I have no use for the type of person who injects him/herself into an established community to complain about an admittedly terrible experience, misrepresents events to avoid taking any personal responsibility, and then leaves, never to return.

Good point.