Hit my first car today. Thank you, Rossly Circle o’ Death!

[TwoWheelsDC]

Well, “hit” the car…it was more like a gentle brushing against the car. I was coming up from Roosevelt Island and there was a large landscaping truck with a long trailer turning right on Lynn to cross Key bridge…he was being very conscientious and the other guys in the truck were spotting for him. He had pulled up in such a way that he was waiting at the crosswalk, but blocking about two lanes worth of Lynn, so I proceeded through the intersection slowly. Because he was so nice about making his turn, I looked at him and gave him a wave, but just as I was almost clear of him–still with no line-of-sight to my left because the truck was so big–a car screams around to the left of the truck and appears magically in front of me. Had I been about .25 seconds further into the intersection, he would’ve broadsided me, but thankfully I was able to slow down just enough (remember, I had one hand off the bars to wave to the truck driver) to have my tire just barely rub his rear quarter panel as he sped off toward the bridge. Un-freaking-believable.

**edit, pretend I spelled Rosslyn correctly in the title

Topic

[sjclaeys]

Yesterday at about 5:45 pm I saw two Arlington County employees in yellow vests who seemed to be timing the signals at Lynn and Lee Highway.

[consularrider]

@sjclaeys 27478 wrote:

Yesterday at about 5:45 pm I saw two Arlington County employees in yellow vests who seemed to be timing the signals at Lynn and Lee Highway.

But there was nothing different in the light timing this morning from yesterday morning. Maybe it was just noting information?

[dasgeh]

I was so hopeful coming back from vacation that the timing of the lights at Lee and Lynn would be fixed. I’m hoping the way they are now isn’t the way they’re supposed to be.

From the past few days of riding, it seems the light cycle runs:
1) leading pedestrian walk for peds heading East/West (from the MVT onto the Custis or the reverse) (all cars have red)
2) green light for cars heading West (from ramp to Lee) & walk for peds heading East/West (cars heading North on Lynn towards Key Bridge have red)
3) green light for cars heading West & countdown for peds heading East/West (cars heading North have red)
4) green light for cars heading West & hand for peds heading East/West (cars heading North have red)
5) yellow light for cars heading West & hand for peds heading East/West (cars heading North have red)

6) leading pedestrian walk for peds heading North/South (along Lynn) (all cars have red)
7) green light for cars heading North & walk for peds heading North/South (cars heading West have red)
green light for cars heading North & countdown for peds heading North/South (cars heading West have red)
9) green light for cars heading North & hand for peds heading North/South (cars heading West have red)
10) yellow light for cars heading North & hand for peds heading North/South (cars heading West have red)

While I could see why you would want the cycle to include a protected right turn for the cars on the ramp, including #4 in the cycle is not the way to do this. It’s not normally seen in traffic design, and it just makes it look like the light cycle is broken. So lots of people cross with the hand.

On the other side of the light cycle, it makes no sense to have #9 — cars headed North can’t turn right onto that one way ramp, so there’s no reason to give peds the hand while the cars have green.

Moreover, with the current timing, it seems impossible to cross through both the lights at Fort Myer and Lynn when heading East without stopping for the long cycle at both lights. That also breeds frustration that leads to red-hand-running.

[americancyclo]

It is different, and worse. I saw four people run against the red hand the other morning. Crossing now is much worse than it used to be. at least for those of us NOT in a car.

[Author]

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