Alexandria PD Ticketing Cyclists

[GovernorSilver]

Wow. I ride past Torpedo Factory every morning that I commute by bike.

Looks like the tickets though were issued during the art festival, which is now over. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get a ticket this morning.

I always stop though if a car got to the intersection first.

[dbb]

When I was at the art festival on Sunday, there was an Alex PD officer at the barrier at the bottom of King Street. I heard him tell a cyclist they needed to stop at the stop sign. When I was there, the area was pretty full of peds so stopping would have been prudent.

[GovernorSilver]

I’m guessing the cops will be ticketing cyclists more than usual near the areas expected to draw big pedestrian crowds during the Papal Visit – eg. tomorrow near Washington Monument (which I guess is pretty much business as usual), and Thursday near the Capitol-area road closure zone.

I don’t Idaho Stop most red lights anyway, except the ones on 3rd St. NW, in the National Mall, in the morning. I’m taking 7th and 6th St on Thursday morning.

[baiskeli]

@GovernorSilver 124743 wrote:

I’m guessing the cops will be ticketing cyclists more than usual near the areas expected to draw big pedestrian crowds during the Papal Visit – eg. tomorrow near Washington Monument (which I guess is pretty much business as usual), and Thursday near the Capitol-area road closure zone.

I don’t Idaho Stop most red lights anyway, except the ones on 3rd St. NW, in the National Mall, in the morning. I’m taking 7th and 6th St on Thursday morning.

I’m guessing the cops will be too busy to worry about issuing tickets. This morning I saw national guard, border patrol, customs and city cops out working security. It’s all hands on deck.

[ejwillis62]

I ride through Old town every day morning and night and have yet to see anyone getting a ticket. I will add that I rarely see cyclist stopping at stop signs too. But it is frustrating to come to a complete stop at a stop sign when there are no cars or anyone around. I slow down to an almost stop but do not put my foot down. I will be watching for them this coming week. There are times when cyclists do fly through the intersections but for the most part I think they are looking to see if cars are coming. The are only a couple that slow down as much as I do.

[GovernorSilver]

@ejwillis62 124771 wrote:

I ride through Old town every day morning and night and have yet to see anyone getting a ticket.

That is because the tickets were only issued during the weekend of the Alexandria arts festival.

[worktheweb]

They have gone on ticketing campaigns periodically, and have done so during rush hours. I’ve seen them set up at Union and Wilkes and also just past Union and Queen getting people who Idaho. They are good at being between cars and then jumping out to wave you to stop. The last full-court press was late September/Early October of last year.

There is a very vocal group of people who live around there who loudly complain about cyclists to the council, so they do this as a way to placate those people, to paraphrase what I’ve heard one officer say. He also mentioned the cyclist’s safety. There was a person (not an officer) last Spring who was using his iPhone to record every single cyclist who was going past Union and Prince, presumably to complain to the council. He was the only person down there at that hour and had a smug smile on his face while I made a full and complete stop … harassing people seems to be his hobby.

Ticketing cyclists during rush hour is like shooting fish in a barrel. There are rarely any cars or any cross traffic, so they just sit there and print money. After they stepped up enforcement last Fall, I made it a point to stop at every … single … stop … sign … and you know what happened? I went from going the average speed of traffic to being a lot slower. Where I previously had peaceful commutes I ended up getting cars passing aggressively, honking, passing unsafely, and generally being idiots. I definitely didn’t feel safer. It sucks that we’re forced into this catch-22 situation. Ride in a manner which makes you safer (traffic fatalities reduced after Idaho implemented the Idaho stop, we’ve got the data) but opens you up to being fined and cited, or follow the law and endanger yourself.

I ride Union every morning and every car rolls through the stops. I have NEVER seen them get ticketed, not once. This is simply a campaign of targeted harassment toward cyclists at the behest of a small group of residents. Even more frustrating was that WABA had that campaign asking cyclists to stop, further strengthening the local view that we’re scofflaws that need to be convinced to not break the law. We’re not the only violators, and we’re the most likely to incur injury from cars and trucks when they roll through their stops. You don’t see AAA standing around with signs to ask people to stop at stop signs. We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot and justifying our victimization. I’d like to see them advocating for stop as yield in Virginia. It is being considered in the District and elsewhere, the tide may finally be turning, but if we keep blaming ourselves, we won’t see change.

I fully acknowledge that there are cyclists who just blow through stops at full speed failing to yield to traffic already in the intersection, and yeah, they should get tickets. But slowing, looking both ways, and then proceeding through an empty intersection on a bike should not be the subject of enforcement.

[scoot]

Union and Royal Streets quickly lose their appeal if one is required to put a foot down at every stop sign. I always do a careful Idaho, and most of the time there is no one to yield to.

If Alexandria PD is serious about enforcing foot-down stops on these heavily traveled bike routes, I’ll take a lane on Washington Street instead.

[Terpfan]

@worktheweb 124778 wrote:

I ride Union every morning and every car rolls through the stops. I have NEVER seen them get ticketed, not once.
.

^^^ This.

Last night, I made an effort to physically stop at each stop sign. The cars were not please and were doing ridiculous passes to get around me. I’ve never once seen the police doing any form of non-hov or non-dui enforcement in OT except speed traps (bottom of Rt 1 rail bridge and south Washington St right before GWMP) pretty much ever. I’ve also never seen them ride around on bikes themselves. I have been passed over double yellow lines by an Alexandria cop. I’ve seen them write tickets once.

But it’s all a bunch of silly shenanigans. If they plan to keep this up, then I’ll take Washington St as I did the other week. I’m sure they will appreciate that more.

[americancyclo]

@worktheweb 124778 wrote:

Ride in a manner which makes you safer …or follow the law and endanger yourself.

Safety trumps legality

[Anonymous]

If they really want to catch people rolling through intersections, they can set up at Church and Washington and ticket all the cars rolling through and blocking the crosswalk coming off the beltway trying to make a right-on-red onto Washington/GWP. Not to mention making the right turn with eyes glued left looking for car traffic w/o ever bothering to look to their right to see if cyclists/pedestrians are coming through*. If I ever saw that happening, I might consider believing any argument that they’re just trying to enforce traffic laws or improve safety vs. target cyclists for tickets. Union and Franklin? That is a sting targeted at handing out tickets to MVT users. Period. No safety benefit, and a location that deliberately targets bicycles rather than cars.

*I come through there all the time coming off the pedestrian bridge along Rt. 1 over the Beltway (which is why I’m on the sidewalk at that point) and I am frequently afraid to cross Church with the walk signal because there is a car halfway or completely blocking the crosswalk w/ driver not once even glancing my way. I have no idea if I try to go past the car if they will start moving and run over me. (I also frequently come through in a car making that right turn, so I see how that intersection is designed in a way to encourage this behavior, but that does not excuse it– it is unsafe and needs to be stopped).

[bobco85]

I’m seeing a lot of anecdotes about cars acting more aggressively when cyclists stop at every stop sign, and I would venture a guess that the council does not know about these types of situations. I think it would be very useful to have cyclists with cameras (facing backwards, perhaps) to document the reactions we are getting when trying to avoid tickets. Perhaps a presentation of video evidence to the council would help in easing these crackdowns and maybe even leading to incorporation of Idaho Stop rules.

I do not commute through Old Town (I live on the western outskirts of Alexandria off Holmes Run and commute north into Arlington), so I would not be able to contribute to documenting the rush hour shenanigans, but I could help in gathering data for weekends.

[Terpfan]

@bobco85 124791 wrote:

I’m seeing a lot of anecdotes about cars acting more aggressively when cyclists stop at every stop sign, and I would venture a guess that the council does not know about these types of situations. I think it would be very useful to have cyclists with cameras (facing backwards, perhaps) to document the reactions we are getting when trying to avoid tickets. Perhaps a presentation of video evidence to the council would help in easing these crackdowns and maybe even leading to incorporation of Idaho Stop rules.

I do not commute through Old Town (I live on the western outskirts of Alexandria off Holmes Run and commute north into Arlington), so I would not be able to contribute to documenting the rush hour shenanigans, but I could help in gathering data for weekends.

I can get some from the front angle. Maybe it’s worth asking the council to join folks on a ride so they can see everything occuring.

[Crickey7]

I can’t agree with this forum advocating lawbreaking. Changing the laws, prioritizing enforcement, fine.

[worktheweb]

@Crickey7 124797 wrote:

I can’t agree with this forum advocating lawbreaking. Changing the laws, prioritizing enforcement, fine.

I don’t think anyone is advocating breaking the law. I certainly am not. The problem is that the enforcement is discriminatory and negatively impacts the safety of those subject to said enforcement. Enforcement should never be focused on a minority group (or any individual group) and it should never reduce public safety. Ostensibly the laws are there to protect the public, if they end up doing the opposite they should be scrapped in favor of laws that further the public good. There is plenty of data that shows that stop as yield reduces the number of crashes, as our understanding of safety evolves, our laws should evolve as well.

[Author]

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