Cyclists breaking the law

[consularrider]

@slowtriguy 17090 wrote:

This is a great example of the bad cyclist behavior that genuinely puzzles me the most. I share this not in an attempt to start or renew any flamewars, but mostly to get this question off my chest.

I’m constantly amazed by cyclists and pedestrians who run the red light at the W&OD crossing of Washington/Lee/Fairfax just west of the East Falls Church Metro. I see this in all weather conditions and in the mornings, during the day, and in the evening rush hour. It’s a really busy intersection and people turning right off the Fairfax highway offramp often don’t notice trail users until it’s almost too late — it’s an accident waiting to happen.

Here’s why I am puzzled. I stop at this light, every time. 90+% of the time, I catch up to and pass all the red light runners within a quarter mile past the intersection. So running the light saves them negligible amounts of time, but risks serious or fatal injury, and gives cyclists a bad name. So — why run *this specific* light? What am I missing?

And yes, I recognize that I should no longer be puzzled by this — after all, I see it every day — but still, it puzzles me.

The light at this intersection is one of the most illogical in the area. The trail there gets so much use, neither pedestrians nor cyclists should have to push the button to activate the walk light, especially for those heading west since Washington Blvd is one-way heading east and there is no other signal that a trail user can see to judge the light. Arlington’s traffic engineers don’t seen to be interested (or the similar lights at Four Mile Run and Shirlington Rd or Four Mile Run and Columbia Pike).

Most (again that’s most, sure there are some who go at any break in the traffic) of the cyclists I see go through the red wait until the the northbound traffic on Lee Highway gets a red light. I rarely see anyone turning left off Lee Highway onto Washington Blvd and the length of the red is overly long. This is probably another intersection where the left turn arrow should get an induction loop to activate.

[americancyclo]

The East Falls Church Area Plan Recommendation 32. would take care of all these issues, providing a grade separated crossing of Lee Highway/Washington Blvd. up past the EFC metro and down to meet up with East Falls Church park just before the hill at Brandymore Castle. That would be ideal!

Undertake a study of options, in cooperation
with the City of Falls Church and the
Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority,
to connect the W&OD Trail from west of Lee
Highway to east of Sycamore Street, including
possible grade separations.

[dasgeh]

@JeffC 17111 wrote:

It reminds me of reading about the recently deceased UCLA Political Scientist James Wilson and his “Broken Window” theory, namely that the more decay such as broken windows and grafitti one sees, the more it acts as a green light for others. There is something similar with driving/biking behaviour. When one constantly sees moronic behaviour as described in this thread, it seemingly gives a pass to others to act that way, e.g. everybody else is texting and driving even if it is against the law so why can’t I?.

In my mind, the part that we can control is rationalizing the law. For example, stop signs. On a bike, the Idaho stop makes the most sense, but isn’t the law. So as I roll towards a stop sign, then roll through either when it’s my turn or there’s no one around, I am technically breaking the law. So jumping the light doesn’t seem that bad, because it’s the same class of “breaking the law” that I do with the stop sign. Or take light timing — around here, I have little to no faith that the lights are timed to be efficient, and from my experience I think they disadvantage cyclists and peds. So as I cyclist/ped, I am more likely to ignore them. This is in stark contrast to my experience in Germany, where most of the time if the ped light is red it’s because there are cars coming. As a ped, you don’t bother to look around for cars — if you see the red ped sign, you stop. Compare to the area around the Lincoln, where there are light cycles where there is no way for a car to be coming (because of reds at other lights, and no other feeder roads), yet the peds have red. So it makes sense to look around for cars even if the ped signal is red.

If the law — and the timing of the lights — were such that the rules really did make sense for safe and efficient cycling, then I believe most people would follow them.

I give you that there will always be a few morons who break laws just to break laws. And a small percentage who follow every law because it’s the law. I think the majority of people do what they _think_ is in their best interest – i.e. safe and fast. The best solution is for what’s fast and safe to be the actual law, because then others would know to expect it.

[pfunkallstar]

@consularrider 17127 wrote:

The light at this intersection is one of the most illogical in the area. The trail there gets so much use, neither pedestrians nor cyclists should have to push the button to activate the walk light, especially for those heading west since Washington Blvd is one-way heading east and there is no other signal that a trail user can see to judge the light. Arlington’s traffic engineers don’t seen to be interested (or the similar lights at Four Mile Run and Shirlington Rd or Four Mile Run and Columbia Pike).

Most (again that’s most, sure there are some who go at any break in the traffic) of the cyclists I see go through the red wait until the the northbound traffic on Lee Highway gets a red light. I rarely see anyone turning left off Lee Highway onto Washington Blvd and the length of the red is overly long. This is probably another intersection where the left turn arrow should get an induction loop to activate.

I live about a mile up from that in the middle of Falls Church and will gladly lump myself into the greater whole of “red light runners” – especially heading back home in the evening. There are of course a number of things to be mindful of, will the drivers notice the “no turn on red” signal, will those making a right onto Lee Hwy yield, has someone actually pushed the button? I filled out a survey, along with many other frequent forum users, about six or eight months ago regarding this intersection and there seems to be little or no movement on it.

[eminva]

Another intersection that seems to invite scofflawery (is that a word? If not, it should be) is the W&OD and Gallows intersection. I am eternally grateful for the light there, but it is timed so that the wait seems interminable. Indeed, many cyclists don’t wait. I admit, on those rare days when I get a LONG break in traffic both ways, I will cross against the light. However, I’ve seen cyclists go when a line of cars is stopped at a light further down the road in either direction. This seems kind of dangerous to me, because if the light changes and traffic starts moving while you are in the middle of the intersection, they might not necessarily be expecting you to be there when they hit the gas pedal, to say nothing of the two lanes of traffic issue (e.g., a car may stop for you in one lane, but who knows what the driver in Lane #2 will do).

Liz

P.S. I saw no signs of the big law enforcement push this morning.

[americancyclo]

@pfunkallstar 17149 wrote:

I live about a mile up from that in the middle of Falls Church and will gladly lump myself into the greater whole of “red light runners” – especially heading back home in the evening. There are of course a number of things to be mindful of, will the drivers notice the “no turn on red” signal, will those making a right onto Lee Hwy yield, has someone actually pushed the button? I filled out a survey, along with many other frequent forum users, about six or eight months ago regarding this intersection and there seems to be little or no movement on it.

I think the NVRPA study about that intersection was supposed to provide input to the East Falls Church Master Plan supporting the ‘realighnment’ of the W&OD at that intersection, which really just straightens out the kink just west of the intersection, but will probably do nothing for the line of sight or light pattern.
@eminva 17156 wrote:

Another intersection that seems to invite scofflawery (is that a word? If not, it should be) is the W&OD and Gallows intersection. I am eternally grateful for the light there, but it is timed so that the wait seems interminable.

Have you ever timed it? I timed the Lynn St Death Zone once, and the light at Lynn was 40 seconds. I decided I don’t ever need to jump that light again, although I see many others cut it close. I know gallows is a longer wait, but it would be interesting to know exactly how long.

[mstone]

@eminva 17156 wrote:

Another intersection that seems to invite scofflawery (is that a word? If not, it should be) is the W&OD and Gallows intersection

That’s one that’s quite clearly configured to not interfere much with motorists. It will not give pedestrians a signal more than once ever N minutes. If you see the cross signal lit while you’re approaching, you know you’re screwed because it’ll be red by the time you get there and you’ll have to sit a couple of minutes. Yet while it makes sure cars don’t get inconvenienced too much, it has a very short cycle for pedestrians, and quite often there’s a scramble to clear the road when it’s backed up on both sides. What’s even more hilarious about the timing is that it is quite clearly possible to give peds their 20s in periods when there’s no traffic coming due to light timings up and down the street–quite often it doesn’t change until the cars from the next light turning green are just starting to reach the crosswalk. So I’ll bet it also generates a lot of motorist complaints. Ignoring the signal is pretty safe at slack times because the sight lines are good and it’s a mid-block crossing so there aren’t any turning cars. The only upside to the signal is that it gives people a chance to cross at times when the traffic is heavy enough that there are no breaks. Oh, and it’s out on a fairly regular basis, so everyone has to learn how to cross without the signal anyway.

[off2ride]

Yes, that intersection (Gallows and W&OD) is dicey if the cyclist was to cross it RED. After pacing with with this rider, he decides he wasn’t going to wait for the light to turn green to cross Gallows. Guess what happened after he crossed?

@mstone 17161 wrote:

That’s one that’s quite clearly configured to not interfere much with motorists. It will not give pedestrians a signal more than once ever N minutes. If you see the cross signal lit while you’re approaching, you know you’re screwed because it’ll be red by the time you get there and you’ll have to sit a couple of minutes. Yet while it makes sure cars don’t get inconvenienced too much, it has a very short cycle for pedestrians, and quite often there’s a scramble to clear the road when it’s backed up on both sides. What’s even more hilarious about the timing is that it is quite clearly possible to give peds their 20s in periods when there’s no traffic coming due to light timings up and down the street–quite often it doesn’t change until the cars from the next light turning green are just starting to reach the crosswalk. So I’ll bet it also generates a lot of motorist complaints. Ignoring the signal is pretty safe at slack times because the sight lines are good and it’s a mid-block crossing so there aren’t any turning cars. The only upside to the signal is that it gives people a chance to cross at times when the traffic is heavy enough that there are no breaks. Oh, and it’s out on a fairly regular basis, so everyone has to learn how to cross without the signal anyway.

[consularrider]

@pfunkallstar 17149 wrote:

I live about a mile up from that in the middle of Falls Church and will gladly lump myself into the greater whole of “red light runners” – especially heading back home in the evening. There are of course a number of things to be mindful of, will the drivers notice the “no turn on red” signal, will those making a right onto Lee Hwy yield, has someone actually pushed the button? I filled out a survey, along with many other frequent forum users, about six or eight months ago regarding this intersection and there seems to be little or no movement on it.

It does seem to me that the southbound left turn arrow is just a little shorter than what I remember from last fall (I go through this intersection at least weekly). Maybe it’s just wishful thinking.

[pfunkallstar]

@americancyclo 17159 wrote:

I think the NVRPA study about that intersection was supposed to provide input to the East Falls Church Master Plan supporting the ‘realighnment’ of the W&OD at that intersection, which really just straightens out the kink just west of the intersection, but will probably do nothing for the line of sight or light pattern.

Things get that much more crazy in the evening at the Lee Highway intersection when you have bikers merging from the left after cutting over on Westmoreland street. Frankly, having taken both routes, the route up Van Buren is faster and usually works out pretty well with the light.

[americancyclo]

@pfunkallstar 17173 wrote:

Things get that much more crazy in the evening at the Lee Highway intersection when you have bikers merging from the left after cutting over on Westmoreland street. Frankly, having taken both routes, the route up Van Buren is faster and usually works out pretty well with the light.

heading both directions, I used to take Westmoreland, but now I’m strictly Van Buren. I haven’t noticed any change in my commute time, but I do feel safer going in both directions.

[elcee]

@mstone 17161 wrote:

That’s one that’s quite clearly configured to not interfere much with motorists. It will not give pedestrians a signal more than once ever N minutes. If you see the cross signal lit while you’re approaching, you know you’re screwed because it’ll be red by the time you get there and you’ll have to sit a couple of minutes. Yet while it makes sure cars don’t get inconvenienced too much, it has a very short cycle for pedestrians, and quite often there’s a scramble to clear the road when it’s backed up on both sides. …

There are now traffic light controllers that can automatically track cars, bikes, and pedestrians. Gallows Road and Lee/Lynn are just crying out loudly for such systems.

http://www.aldiscorp.com/solutions/gridsmart/#product (and others)

[StopMeansStop]

[vvill]

@americancyclo 17181 wrote:

heading both directions, I used to take Westmoreland, but now I’m strictly Van Buren. I haven’t noticed any change in my commute time, but I do feel safer going in both directions.

I take a pretty big detour around this intersection… going west, I take a left at Van Buren and then follow Columbia, cross Washington with the light (which never seems to take as long as the main W&OD light), and then take a right at Little Falls.

[pfunkallstar]

@elcee 17182 wrote:

There are now traffic light controllers that can automatically track cars, bikes, and pedestrians. Gallows Road and Lee/Lynn are just crying out loudly for such systems.

http://www.aldiscorp.com/solutions/gridsmart/#product (and others)

A friend of mine used to work on traffic modeling, her take was that no matter how many data inputs you get, and no matter the granularity of that data, a lot of it still boils down to luck.

[Author]

Posts