Another Rear-Ender on GWP

[jrenaut]

What that road needs is speed-activated missile launchers.

[rcannon100]

Lasers mounted on Sharks, swimming in the Potomac 😎

[PotomacCyclist]

@jrenaut 13624 wrote:

What that road needs is speed-activated missile launchers.

Or a Line of Death.

[video]http://www.hulu.com/watch/274040/saturday-night-live-line-of-death[/video]

[baiskeli]

Narrow it to one lane. Would slow traffic, eliminate the visibility problem, and require crossing only one lane.

[pfunkallstar]

Any legal opinions on doing some citizen watch speed camera monitoring there? I would be more than happy to video tape a speed gun (gotta find one but how expensive can they be?) for an hour or so then post the video online. NPS would pretty much have to do something then…right?

[DaveK]

@pfunkallstar 13684 wrote:

NPS would pretty much have to do something then…right?

lol

[jrenaut]

@pfunkallstar 13684 wrote:

Any legal opinions on doing some citizen watch speed camera monitoring there? I would be more than happy to video tape a speed gun (gotta find one but how expensive can they be?) for an hour or so then post the video online. NPS would pretty much have to do something then…right?

I think pointing a speed gun at cars when you aren’t a police officer is illegal, but otherwise that sounds cool

[rcannon100]

Well, I get legal advice from Hunter S Thompson. And as he wrote in Fear and Loathing, “Dr. Gonzo: As your attorney, I advise you to…” not point speed cameras at anyone and just go for a nice bike ride.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Walk off 100 feet. Time the rate from start to end. Calculate and get average MPH. Good enough to make a point, even if it’s not scientifically calibrated. But what others said, NPS still won’t care.

They might care if all bike commuters somehow managed to group together and cross GW parkway one every 15 seconds for a half hour or so around 8:30. Wonder if anyone would notice that.

Nice YTP crosswalk you have here. It would be too bad if something bad happened to it.

[pfunkallstar]

@Brendan von Buckingham 13722 wrote:

Walk off 100 feet. Time the rate from start to end. Calculate and get average MPH. Good enough to make a point, even if it’s not scientifically calibrated. But what others said, NPS still won’t care.

They might care if all bike commuters somehow managed to group together and cross GW parkway one every 15 seconds for a half hour or so around 8:30. Wonder if anyone would notice that.

Nice YTP crosswalk you have here. It would be too bad if something bad happened to it.

Since everyone seems down on the vigilante approach – I was thinking roaming drones would be easier. I think a nice alternative would be to have a “BBQ in the park” day when the weather gets nicer. Set up camp next to the crosswalk and start treating the park like, well, a park.

[rcannon100]

Another accident today NB GW Parkway Memorial Bridge at the MVT Bike Path crossing. Looks like a rear ender – two cars involved. Did not see a bike involved. The accident had already happened, was pulled off to the side onto the grass – aaaaaaand managed to run into the yellow traffic sign warning of the trail crossing. One driver was talking to a cyclists but the cyclists was on a bike standing – pretty clear the cyclists had not been hit.

Talked to a NPS guy last week whose excuse was “hump back bridge took ten years to get done” and “oh the historic preservation concerns.” That of course is BS. We cyclists have been interacting with NPS about memorial circle for – well I’ve been bike commuting for 2 decades so at least that long. And historic concerns? Getting those damn roads right will have ZERO impact on historic concerns. Those roads can easily be adjusted to make them safer without any impact on view shed or the bridge or anything. It’s just BS.

[SpokeGrenadeSR]

im glad to have never needed to cross that highway.

[Terpfan]

@rcannon100 19414 wrote:

Another accident today NB GW Parkway Memorial Bridge at the MVT Bike Path crossing. Looks like a rear ender – two cars involved. Did not see a bike involved. The accident had already happened, was pulled off to the side onto the grass – aaaaaaand managed to run into the yellow traffic sign warning of the trail crossing. One driver was talking to a cyclists but the cyclists was on a bike standing – pretty clear the cyclists had not been hit.

Talked to a NPS guy last week whose excuse was “hump back bridge took ten years to get done” and “oh the historic preservation concerns.” That of course is BS. We cyclists have been interacting with NPS about memorial circle for – well I’ve been bike commuting for 2 decades so at least that long. And historic concerns? Getting those damn roads right will have ZERO impact on historic concerns. Those roads can easily be adjusted to make them safer without any impact on view shed or the bridge or anything. It’s just BS.

I would suggest NPS forgoe their 10 mile long by 8ft wide paved bike path project for Bryce Canyon National Park at the cost of $2.17 million and instead build us a bridge. Realistically it’s probably more money than that (I would guess ballpark $6-8 million for it), but the sad reality is to get it there will have to be some immense lobbying to Interior, Environment, Approps: http://appropriations.house.gov/About/Members/InteriorEnvironment.htm. And Senate-side http://www.finance.senate.gov/about/subcommittees/ . Otherwise in a tough fiscal climate we’re just tossing snowballs at the sun.

[Greenbelt]

Not to be all radical or anything, but why not just install a stop sign at the crosswalk? I’m guessing that nowhere in the NPS authorization does it say they’re obliged to build and maintain free speedways for commuters. The problem seems to be this unchangeable mindset that the NPS parkways are supposed to be like interstates or something. It seems like a faulty assumption that won’t die. A stop sign would slow traffic down at a very dangerous crossing. Why not? Is it really authorized from Congress that it’s supposed to be a speedway with no stops?

[DaveK]

@Greenbelt 19429 wrote:

Not to be all radical or anything, but why not just install a stop sign at the crosswalk? I’m guessing that nowhere in the NPS authorization does it say they’re obliged to build and maintain free speedways for commuters. The problem seems to be this unchangeable mindset that the NPS parkways are supposed to be like interstates or something. It seems like a faulty assumption that won’t die. A stop sign would slow traffic down at a very dangerous crossing. Why not? Is it really authorized from Congress that it’s supposed to be a speedway with no stops?

A stop sign at that crosswalk would require constant enforcement – compared to vehicles going through there 24/7-365, cyclists and peds cross far less often. As a result drivers would learn that most of the time they don’t have to stop. It would lead to widespread ignoring of the sign to the point where some people would be just used to slowing to a roll and then flooring it despite a ped or cyclist in the crosswalk. Similar situation in the slip lane off 110 on to Memorial Drive. Drivers making that right turn on Memorial Drive look out for cyclists maybe 10% of the time because they’re just so used to flying through the stop sign.

What the parkway crossing needs is a actuated pedestrian signal. That would get used only when needed and provide constant guidance to vehicles, cyclists, and peds.

Good luck getting anything like that (or anything else there) installed in our lifetimes though.

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