A red light, a cop in the crosswalk, and what not to do

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Clarendon Blvd EB at Uhle St is barely an intersection. But it has a light and lots of pedestrians crossing to get to a Courthouse Metro entrance. I pause and go through that red nearly every morning. But only after I’m sure I see everything. This morning one of the things I saw was a cop standing in the crosswalk looking right at me. So unclip, foot to ground.

The cyclist behind me did not. He was too busy shoaling me, or racing me, to see the cop. He didn’t even see the cop as he barely missed running him over. I don’t know if the cop was on heightened enforcement duty, but he did hail the cyclist over to the curb.

The last I saw was the cyclist laimly pointing to the light as if to say he had a green (no, not even close), then an exchange of papers.

Topic

[Tim Kelley]

I ride past the same spot and noticed the officer this morning as well (wearing a bullet proof vest?!). I always make a point to stop at that light so I didn’t get the opportunity to see if he was enforcing traffic rules.

Thanks for sharing!

[baiskeli]

I saw him too. I was just as careful as I would be in a car. They’ll pull bikes over too, as they should.

[DismalScientist]

Saw the same thing this morning, but I had a green. What would be the reaction if I put my foot down, checked for traffic, and hopped through the intersection? I prefer to take my standing start at Courthouse rather than Uhle.

[consularrider]

I don’t see much point in running that light because you just end up stopping at Courthouse with the light timing. I don’t care where I make my standing start.

There must have been some kind of enhanced enforcement or incident going on in the area. There was a patrol car stopped on the GW Parkway verge between the Aviation Circle overpass and the on ramp/MVT crossing. As I was at that crossing three DC Metro cars (2 K9) passed, did any of them yield to the two of us stopped there, no. Then there was the police boat out on the Potomac and helicopter overhead. It did look like all the GW traffic along that stretch was actually obeying the posted speed limit. Also a Park Police partol pulling up to two cars stopped off the side of the roadway by the crossing just south of Memorial Bridge. Hmmmm.

[MCL1981]

I generally handle stop signs and red signals in a similar manner. I slow and I’m prepared and able to stop at the signal. However, if I can clearly see that the intersection is safe to cross, I keep rolling without stopping. Careening into an intersection against a red signal or stop sign without the ability to stop at the signal is suicide. Or at best, it’s stupid, especially if there is a police officer sitting there waiting for you .

@Tim Kelley 3066 wrote:

I ride past the same spot and noticed the officer this morning as well (wearing a bullet proof vest?!).

Most officers wear their vests all day every day. Normally it us UNDER their uniform so you don’t see it. If he was wearing it outside the uniform, it is probably due to being a temporary assignment and he doesn’t normally wear one all day (like working in the office for example).

[Author]

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