Found Connection

[Drewdane]

@cvcalhoun 100942 wrote:

I am officially dumbfounded! On my way home tonight, I was biking up Old Georgetown Road when I saw a police car, lights flashing, stopped ahead of me. As I approached, the police officer walked back and put his hand up to stop me. Needless to say, my first reaction was to review everything I’d done in the preceding several blocks to figure out what I’d done wrong. But when I stopped he told me that the reason he was stopped was that he had just stopped a car because the driver had cut me off. He said he was aware that I had the right to travel anywhere I wanted within the right lane of the road, and that the driver was totally at fault, but that he wanted to warn me of this dangerous driver just in case I preferred to be on the sidewalk (which he was at pains to explain I wasn’t required to be).

A police officer who actually understands the laws relating to bicyclists? And is willing to enforce them against an errant driver? Perhaps having been once hit by a police car (and had the officer threaten to give me a ticket, even though I was doing absolutely nothing wrong at the time) has made me cynical, but I definitely didn’t expect this.

I hope you got his name and badge number to call in a commendation.

[Lt. Dan]

Tonight, I got caught off-guard by the darkness while riding back to my car on the W&OD. In Leesburg, I picked up a tail from another cyclist with a headlight, and he stayed on my 6 almost all the way to Sterling. Without his help, I wouldn’t have been able to keep a decent pace, and probably would have taken a while longer to get back… Never stopped to get his name, and he never pulled up beside to talk… So, if you read this- THANKS A LOT!!!

[cvcalhoun]

@Drewdane 100960 wrote:

I hope you got his name and badge number to call in a commendation.

Alas, I didn’t have the presence of mind to get the name and badge number at the time. However, I left a message today on the Facebook page of the Montgomery County Police Department, and got back this reply:

Thank you for the compliment and for taking the time to write this thoughtful message. We will pass this message along to the district and hope that we can determine who the officer was that offered assistance. (So we can pass this compliment his way). Thank you again!

I’m hoping they’ll locate the police officer involved. But even if they don’t, I figure this will result in the higher ups in the district learning that citizens really appreciate the training the officers are getting.

[rcannon100]

To the dude riding the MVT this morning just after 5 am, in the freezing rain…. Rule #9.

(I was driving my wife to a rendezvous for a very pleasant 4 hour drive to WV)

[Dickie]

To the teenager walking in the rain on the WOD this morning around Ohio Street: Thank you for looking back before crossing the trail, and then signaling your intentions before running to the walk bridge so as to not slow me down…. you have more wisdom and sense than most of the adults on the trail. Kudos!

[Birdstrike]

@Dickie 101549 wrote:

To the teenager walking in the rain on the WOD this morning around Ohio Street: Thank you for looking back before crossing the trail, and then signaling your intentions before running to the walk bridge so as to not slow me down….

That’s why peds hate us.

[Arlingtonrider]

@Birdstrike 101576 wrote:

That’s why peds hate us.

Peds do not hate Dickie. He is as considerate a cyclist as anyone can be, not one of the people you are thinking of.

Added later: If you knew Dickie at all, you would be very embarrassed by that post. He is one of the best, and was trying to say something nice, but you totally missed the point. Knowing that you don’t know him at all, or the vast majority of us, i’ll try not to judge. We all know about the type of folks you were talking about. The people who are active on this forum are not that group of people. Also, not all peds hate us. If we weren’t out there with our watchful eyes, they could be a lot less safe. Cyclists are often the first ones to offer help when someone has a problem.

[baiskeli]

Please don’t slow Dickie down, he’s still chasing the d-bag who almost hit my daughter.

[sjclaeys]

@Birdstrike 101576 wrote:

That’s why peds hate us.

As the philosopher Taylor Swift said “haters gonna hate” but this thread is dedicated to only positive posts and thoughts.

[pfunkallstar]

To the gentleman who passed me right by the Falls Church Firehouse on the W&OD this morning saying “Do you smell that?” No, I hadn’t until you mentioned it.

What in the name of god is that smell? Did someone throw some rotten durian out by that playground? Is that where Frank the Marmalade Cat keeps his not-so-fresh kills?

[Birdstrike]

@Arlingtonrider 101587 wrote:

Peds do not hate Dickie. He is as considerate a cyclist as anyone can be, not one of the people you are thinking of.

Added later: If you knew Dickie at all, you would be very embarrassed by that post. He is one of the best, and was trying to say something nice, but you totally missed the point. Knowing that you don’t know him at all, or the vast majority of us, i’ll try not to judge. We all know about the type of folks you were talking about. The people who are active on this forum are not that group of people. Also, not all peds hate us. If we weren’t out there with our watchful eyes, they could be a lot less safe. Cyclists are often the first ones to offer help when someone has a problem.

I don’t know Dickie, no disrespect meant, but anyone making the comment, “…so as not to slow me down…” referring to their usage of a multi-use trail might indicate a problem in our thinking is all I’m saying.

We should be willing to be ‘slowed down’ and to slow down when peds are sharing the trail with us. It’s easy to get into that “I don’t want to have to slow down for anyone” mode and, while we may not think it’s a problem, I guarantee you it’s a problem as far as walkers’ perspectives who share the trails with us. They are constantly concerned about being plowed into by a cyclist who is trying to avoid slowing down when doing so would clearly be in the best interests of safety. It’s no fun seeing a mass of steel, arms, and legs bearing down on you when you have as much right to be on the trail as the biker does.

Step back, take a breath and think about it. “Not to slow me down” is going to get somebody hurt some day. We should all slow down when we’re around peds on these narrow DC metro trails.

Dickie too.

[mstone]

I think it’s more of a dick move, if someone goes out of their way to be considerate and allow you to pass safely, to slow roll them to demonstrate that you don’t trust them to not do something stupid rather than thanking them.

You simply picked the wrong example to make your point by jumping all over a couple of words and ignoring the context.

[Arlingtonrider]

@Birdstrike 101631 wrote:

I don’t know Dickie, no disrespect meant, but anyone making the comment, “…so as not to slow me down…” referring to their usage of a multi-use trail might indicate a problem in our thinking is all I’m saying.

We should be willing to be ‘slowed down’ and to slow down when peds are sharing the trail with us. It’s easy to get into that “I don’t want to have to slow down for anyone” mode and, while we may not think it’s a problem, I guarantee you it’s a problem as far as walkers’ perspectives who share the trails with us. They are constantly concerned about being plowed into by a cyclist who is trying to avoid slowing down when doing so would clearly be in the best interests of safety. It’s no fun seeing a mass of steel, arms, and legs bearing down on you when you have as much right to be on the trail as the biker does.

Step back, take a breath and think about it. “Not to slow me down” is going to get somebody hurt some day. We should all slow down when we’re around peds on these narrow DC metro trails.

Dickie too.

You’re preaching to the choir. None of us would disagree about being careful and considerate toward pedestrians. Keep in mind that the forum includes only a very small percentage of the riders out there, and I’ll venture many of the much more considerate ones.
Let’s move on now. Any good news or nice events to share on this special thread? I had a pedestrian actually thank me today for always calling my pass.
Oh, and welcome to the forum. We have a great group of people here.

[cyclingfool]

@pfunkallstar 101630 wrote:

To the gentleman who passed me right by the Falls Church Firehouse on the W&OD this morning saying “Do you smell that?” No, I hadn’t until you mentioned it.

What in the name of god is that smell? Did someone throw some rotten durian out by that playground? Is that where Frank the Marmalade Cat keeps his not-so-fresh kills?

Playground rules: He who smelt it dealt it.

Sure the gentleman didn’t do it?

[Mikey]

@Arlingtonrider 101587 wrote:

Peds do not hate Dickie. He is as considerate a cyclist as anyone can be, not one of the people you are thinking of.

Added later: If you knew Dickie at all, you would be very embarrassed by that post. He is one of the best, and was trying to say something nice, but you totally missed the point. Knowing that you don’t know him at all, or the vast majority of us, i’ll try not to judge. We all know about the type of folks you were talking about. The people who are active on this forum are not that group of people. Also, not all peds hate us. If we weren’t out there with our watchful eyes, they could be a lot less safe. Cyclists are often the first ones to offer help when someone has a problem.

Dickie is Canadian, so by definition he is considerate.

[Author]

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