close call this morning

[krazygl00]

@rsewell19 27849 wrote:

So I made the cardinal mistake this morning of becoming too relaxed about crossing an intersection when a driver waves you through…. I know I know! I generally ride on the roads and have become very strict about stopping at every light and stop sign, but on the trails I have become somewhat lazy as more drivers begin to yield to cyclists. This morning I was on the W&OD trail heading west towards the Great Falls crossing. A driver in the far lane began to slow dramatically as he approached the intersection, I also slowed to a near stop and assumed he had spotted me and was letting me through. I checked to see if drivers in the other direction were on the same page, but in this case he was the only driver on the road so I began to cross. It didn’t take long to realize he was not stopping but simply driving through the intersection at a reduced speed. I hammered the pedals, he finally noticed me and slammed on his brakes and a collision was narrowly avoided. In refection he had not waved me through at all, and I simply assumed his slowing was my cue to cross…stupid mistake. As he eventually spotted me in his path and slammed on his brakes I realized he was not looking at traffic at all, but more likely looking for an intersection or street signs, thus his slowing. he was probably not even aware a bike path crossing was present. The point is (and made numerous times here) that the “waving through” of cyclists is a slippery slope, one I gambled with today and nearly lost.

While this guy was not technically one (since he was not actually waving you through), the driver who eagerly goes WAY out of his way to “wave you through” the intersection is a classification of driver I like to refer to as “Helpy Helperton”. Helpy is particularly devious as he uses trickery, deception and unpredictability in his attacks, often lulling cyclists with a sense of overflowing courtesy or panicking them with uncertainty. Once the cyclist is caught hesitating, unsure of whether to start or stop, Helpy pounces, often using another unwitting motorist to do his bidding.

[GuyContinental]

Glad that you are OK!

One that I’m seeing (or paying attention to) more and more is the behavior of follow-up riders/runners after a car has waved me through one of these intersections. It’s a total crapshoot if the car intended to stop for one ped or many, especially given that they have already treated the intersection as a 4-way stop- reasonably, they yielded to me and now expect the next crosser to yeild to them. When that doesn’t happen, bad things tend to…

#1 Be predicable. #2 When in doubt, yeild and make eye contact and STILL assume the worst

[DismalScientist]

This summer I have the joy to send my kids to summer school by car. I get the joy of crossing the W&OD at both Shreve Road and West Street. The sight lines at both intersections are pretty bad. The actual traffic pattern behaves completely different from the signage. From my perspective as both a driver and cyclist, I am afraid, very afraid.

[Jason]

Glad you are ok! I can see this easily happening to me, as I cross the GW parkway across from the Arlington Cemetary twice a day. On the way home in particular, one car slows down/stops; thus lulling you into a false sense of safety, and another car slows down, then rockets past in the far lane.

[krazygl00]

@GuyContinental 27852 wrote:

Glad that you are OK!

One that I’m seeing (or paying attention to) more and more is the behavior of follow-up riders/runners after a car has waved me through one of these intersections. It’s a total crapshoot if the car intended to stop for one ped or many, especially given that they have already treated the intersection as a 4-way stop- reasonably, they yielded to me and now expect the next crosser to yeild to them. When that doesn’t happen, bad things tend to…

#1 Be predicable. #2 When in doubt, yeild and make eye contact and STILL assume the worst

I have a different take on this scenario. Too many times I have declined to be that “follow-up” rider and have treated the crossing as a four way stop, only to have the hackneyed and farcical “Alphonse and Gaston” scene play out in slow-motion as my stomach begins to turn. The drivers are waving me through, I’m waving them through. THEY’RE insisting, now I’M insisting. Meanwhile, another rider has come up from behind and, with a snort, bypassed the entire tragicomic melodrama that we have decided to stage, and has simply blown through the intersection. Finally either I or the drivers have to relent and accept the others’ courtesy. As I’m fumbling, cursing and clipping in, I’m sure all involved are thinking, “geez, it would have saved me time if you had just GONE!”

So now, if I see drivers stopped, with a healthy dose of good judgement and discretion, if I can follow-up and save everyone some time, I do. I figure some assertiveness just expedites the whole exchange.

[krazygl00]

@Jason 27856 wrote:

Glad you are ok! I can see this easily happening to me, as I cross the GW parkway across from the Arlington Cemetary twice a day. On the way home in particular, one car slows down/stops; thus lulling you into a false sense of safety, and another car slows down, then rockets past in the far lane.

See? It’s Helpy, just waiting to strike.

[Jason]

@krazygl00 27858 wrote:

See? It’s Helpy, just waiting to strike.

Yes, I think he is out to get me about twice a week.

Helpy, when I find you walking in the streets of arlington, walking in your brown flip-flops wearing your untucked business shirt and khaki shorts, your ass is mine. You will know me well as I will be the guy with the shaved head, dark glasses, black hardcore shirt, and wearing closed toed shoes (NOT FLIP FLOPS). There is only one of me in this land of Arlington, and I know you well. Oh yes I do.

[eminva]

@DismalScientist 27854 wrote:

This summer I have the joy to send my kids to summer school by car. I get the joy of crossing the W&OD at both Shreve Road and West Street. The sight lines at both intersections are pretty bad. The actual traffic pattern behaves completely different from the signage. From my perspective as both a driver and cyclist, I am afraid, very afraid.

Yes, those are bad intersections. At Shreve in particular, the cars can come along pretty fast. As a cyclist, I might think the coast is clear and proceed, and then someone comes flying over that hill. And if I’ve come to a complete, clipped out stop, it takes some time to get going. The sight lines are too short to really know if it is safe.

Liz

[Dickie]

@krazygl00 27857 wrote:

I have a different take on this scenario. Too many times I have declined to be that “follow-up” rider and have treated the crossing as a four way stop, only to have the hackneyed and farcical “Alphonse and Gaston” scene play out in slow-motion as my stomach begins to turn. The drivers are waving me through, I’m waving them through. THEY’RE insisting, now I’M insisting. Meanwhile, another rider has come up from behind and, with a snort, bypassed the entire tragicomic melodrama that we have decided to stage, and has simply blown through the intersection. Finally either I or the drivers have to relent and accept the others’ courtesy. As I’m fumbling, cursing and clipping in, I’m sure all involved are thinking, “geez, it would have saved me time if you had just GONE!”

So now, if I see drivers stopped, with a healthy dose of good judgement and discretion, if I can follow-up and save everyone some time, I do. I figure some assertiveness just expedites the whole exchange.

I am going to use “tragicomic melodrama” from now on… love it… it will replace my “Catastraphuck” from now on!

[Dickie]

@DismalScientist 27854 wrote:

This summer I have the joy to send my kids to summer school by car. I get the joy of crossing the W&OD at both Shreve Road and West Street. The sight lines at both intersections are pretty bad. The actual traffic pattern behaves completely different from the signage. From my perspective as both a driver and cyclist, I am afraid, very afraid.

Yep, those two crossings give me hives, I almost always hold my breath when crossing….. I never know what’s coming over that hill!

[KelOnWheels]

@Jason 27862 wrote:

Helpy, when I find you walking in the streets of arlington, walking in your brown flip-flops…

He’s at the Starbucks.
And the Starbucks.
And the Starbucks.

[Terpfan]

@krazygl00 27857 wrote:

I have a different take on this scenario. Too many times I have declined to be that “follow-up” rider and have treated the crossing as a four way stop, only to have the hackneyed and farcical “Alphonse and Gaston” scene play out in slow-motion as my stomach begins to turn. The drivers are waving me through, I’m waving them through. THEY’RE insisting, now I’M insisting. Meanwhile, another rider has come up from behind and, with a snort, bypassed the entire tragicomic melodrama that we have decided to stage, and has simply blown through the intersection. Finally either I or the drivers have to relent and accept the others’ courtesy. As I’m fumbling, cursing and clipping in, I’m sure all involved are thinking, “geez, it would have saved me time if you had just GONE!”

So now, if I see drivers stopped, with a healthy dose of good judgement and discretion, if I can follow-up and save everyone some time, I do. I figure some assertiveness just expedites the whole exchange.

I have this problem with pedestrians too on the 15th St Cycletrack. Often they have the right of way with a crosswalk and I will slow. They will look at me as if questioning why I’m not breezing past them and I will stop saying nicely they have the right of way. Almost every time, not a second passes before someone breezes by me (without a call) and totally ignores them entering the crosswalk. It’s always a mental debate do I follow the law or only slow enough to cut between them. I tend to go the former, but if folks behind me aren’t slowing down and folks are approaching from the other direction, I figure I’ll spare the not-so-nice picture.

[Jason]

They hide in packs, like impala.

[krazygl00]

@rsewell19 27871 wrote:

I am going to use “tragicomic melodrama” from now on… love it… it will replace my “Catastraphuck” from now on!

It’s eight syllables in two words…it does have a kind of cadence to it that is pleasing in a somewhat disjointed way

[GuyContinental]

@krazygl00 27857 wrote:

I have a different take on this scenario. Too many times I have declined to be that “follow-up” rider and have treated the crossing as a four way stop, only to have the hackneyed and farcical “Alphonse and Gaston” scene play out in slow-motion as my stomach begins to turn. The drivers are waving me through, I’m waving them through. THEY’RE insisting, now I’M insisting. Meanwhile, another rider has come up from behind and, with a snort, bypassed the entire tragicomic melodrama that we have decided to stage, and has simply blown through the intersection. Finally either I or the drivers have to relent and accept the others’ courtesy. As I’m fumbling, cursing and clipping in, I’m sure all involved are thinking, “geez, it would have saved me time if you had just GONE!”

So now, if I see drivers stopped, with a healthy dose of good judgement and discretion, if I can follow-up and save everyone some time, I do. I figure some assertiveness just expedites the whole exchange.

Dang if I didn’t have a really close one of these yesterday just hours after chatting with ya’all about it- Van Buren St in Herndon (2 lanes each way, bike specific light, usually not a big deal) For once there was plenty of traffic so came to a complete stop- oncoming traffic in lane 1 (a big SUV driven by a small lady) stops at the crosswalk and waves me on despite her ROW, I see more SUV monsters in lane 2-4 so smile, point to her green and wave her on- at which point a rider from behind me (nice bike, no helmet, no shirt, double ear-bud Fred) jets into the intersection, oblivious to SUV in ln 2, I screamed something along the lines of holysh*&hedoesn’tseeyou and Fred nearly goes down standing on his brakes as Lane 2 SUV makes an emergency stop. Fred recovers, stumbles through the intersection and goes on his merry melanoma way. Lots of honking follows- Lane 1/2 are now stopped and clearly don’t know what to do now… everyone is gesturing for me to go but lanes 3/4 aren’t clear and hell if I’m going out there. Eventually, I fully unclip put both feet on the ground, back up on the sidewalk cutout, make lots of eye contact, smile, point at the stale green and wave them through.

What I find really interesting about this situation is the social/psychological dimension- Lane 1 was doing something she thought was nice and despite the context I felt compelled to acknowledge her courtesy by following her cue. I actively had to resist the urge to do something incredibly stupid because I’ve been socially conditioned to respond in the affirmative to random acts of kindness.

@krazygl00 27857 wrote:

So now, if I see drivers stopped, with a healthy dose of good judgement and discretion, if I can follow-up and save everyone some time, I do. I figure some assertiveness just expedites the whole exchange.

All in all I generally do the same as krazy but it’s super bad form to be the second rider in such a situation where a pattern is already messed up and to chose to “expedite” the process. It’s also a good way to get dead.

[Author]

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