Intersection of Doom story

[dbb]

About 1245 today, I was passed by an Arlington Police officer patrolling the Custis on his motorcycle. He was traveling slowly (<20mph) and was generally being a PAL. An oncoming cyclist waved at me and said there was a police motorcycle behind me - lucky for me I wasn't speeding!. When he got to the intersection of doom (Lynn and Lee), he continued down the trail to the Roosevelt Island lot.

He didn’t appear to have any trouble getting cars to yield to him as he crossed Lynn in the crosswalk.

Go figure!

[consularrider]

@dbb 85830 wrote:

He didn’t appear to have any trouble getting cars to yield to him as he crossed Lynn in the crosswalk.

Naturally, he was an ELITE (in every sense of the word) rider!

[consularrider]

Looks like there was a repeat yesterday just before 5 pm. There was a bike down just north of the crosswalk by the driveway entrance, a police car, and a private car in the curb lane by the bicycle. I didn’t see a cyclist and hadn’t seen an ambulance.

This morning there was a big back up on the northbound GW Parkway starting near Gravelly Point. When I got to the crosswalk of doom I saw a small Ford off on the grass to the right with its rear end stove in and on the left in the grass as a big old Mercedes with its front end stove in (looked worse that the Ford) with a police car blocking the right lane at the crosswalk.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@consularrider 86039 wrote:

Looks like there was a repeat yesterday just before 5 pm. There was a bike down just north of the crosswalk by the driveway entrance, a police car, and a private car in the curb lane by the bicycle. I didn’t see a cyclist and hadn’t seen an ambulance.

This morning there was a big back up on the northbound GW Parkway starting near Gravelly Point. When I got to the crosswalk of doom I saw a small Ford off on the grass to the right with its rear end stove in and on the left in the grass as a big old Mercedes with its front end stove in (looked worse that the Ford) with a police car blocking the right lane at the crosswalk.

Odd… I saw you crossing there this morning but didn’t notice any of this. Maybe I should start drinking coffee before my ride.

[Rootchopper]

This morning I came up from the MVT and turned left on the sidewalk on North Lynn. I had to wait for a red light runner to take a right turn on red without stopping. Then I crossed 19th Street and the same thing happened.

Would it hurt to have a little enforcement on Lynn Street once in a while?

[dasgeh]

@Rootchopper 86063 wrote:

This morning I came up from the MVT and turned left on the sidewalk on North Lynn. I had to wait for a red light runner to take a right turn on red without stopping. Then I crossed 19th Street and the same thing happened.

Would it hurt to have a little enforcement on Lynn Street once in a while?

Please, please, please report your experiences to ACPD. They claim to do data-driven enforcement. I think we all get too jaded about the places where close calls _always_ happen and don’t report them. But then ACPD doesn’t have those data points.

[consularrider]

Since it happens every light cycle, I doubt that the ACPD is unaware. Even when they station officers at that intersection, they never do anything about the right-on-red light runners. Heavy sigh.

[Rootchopper]

Too true. I have watched them ignore this for nearly 3 years. I see this ten times per week, at least. I’ve nearly been hit half a dozen times despite the fact that I am cautious as is humanly possible.

[Steve O]

Okay, Friends of the Intersection of Doom (well, not “friends” really )

Here’s what hasn’t worked much so far:
– Putting notes on this here forum
– Attending decades of BAC meetings and raising the issue with AC staff
– Writing notes and letters to all sorts of “officials”
– Standing at the intersection with ACPD and observing
– Other _____________________ (your favorite ineffective action goes here)

How about this?
Starting on a date TBD, every Monday during rush hours all the cyclists get off their bikes and walk them, single file, across the intersection, effectively taking up most of, or the entire, green light cycle. This is not illegal; in fact, there are plenty of drivers who complain about cyclists “racing into the intersection” or otherwise not behaving like pedestrians. We can call it DisMount Mondays. Traffic would back up onto I-66 and it would piss the drivers off. So be it. At least we’d all be safer crossing the street (maybe).

To get organized, some of us would hand out fliers or cards there for a few days or weeks ahead of time. Then on the first date, we’d be there to remind the cyclists. It might take a few weeks to really catch on, but after a while hopefully, DisMount Monday would become institutionalized. And self reinforcing. We would keep on–like critical mass rides–participating in DisMount Mondays every single Monday until real and effective action is taken. I’d be happy to be there on a Monday for an hour, walking back and forth across the intersection with every group of riders, reminding them to walk comfortably single file to the other side.

None of our other civilized efforts seem to have the tiniest effect. Perhaps some minor civil (dis)obedience would garner some attention.

[Terpfan]

@Steve O 86190 wrote:

Okay, Friends of the Intersection of Doom (well, not “friends” really )

Here’s what hasn’t worked much so far:
– Putting notes on this here forum
– Attending decades of BAC meetings and raising the issue with AC staff
– Writing notes and letters to all sorts of “officials”
– Standing at the intersection with ACPD and observing
– Other _____________________ (your favorite ineffective action goes here)

How about this?
Starting on a date TBD, every Monday during rush hours all the cyclists get off their bikes and walk them, single file, across the intersection, effectively taking up most of, or the entire, green light cycle. This is not illegal; in fact, there are plenty of drivers who complain about cyclists “racing into the intersection” or otherwise not behaving like pedestrians. We can call it DisMount Mondays. Traffic would back up onto I-66 and it would piss the drivers off. So be it. At least we’d all be safer crossing the street (maybe).

To get organized, some of us would hand out fliers or cards there for a few days or weeks ahead of time. Then on the first date, we’d be there to remind the cyclists. It might take a few weeks to really catch on, but after a while hopefully, DisMount Monday would become institutionalized. And self reinforcing. We would keep on–like critical mass rides–participating in DisMount Mondays every single Monday until real and effective action is taken. I’d be happy to be there on a Monday for an hour, walking back and forth across the intersection with every group of riders, reminding them to walk comfortably single file to the other side.

None of our other civilized efforts seem to have the tiniest effect. Perhaps some minor civil (dis)obedience would garner some attention.

I thankfully don’t have to cross, I just turn right over to Key (well I do have the fun exit ramp) or left, but if it’s actually done then I will intentionally cross over on DisMount Mondays and walk across to then cross Key on the other side.

[Phatboing]

@Steve O 86190 wrote:

Okay, Friends of the Intersection of Doom (well, not “friends” really )

Here’s what hasn’t worked much so far:
– Putting notes on this here forum
– Attending decades of BAC meetings and raising the issue with AC staff
– Writing notes and letters to all sorts of “officials”
– Standing at the intersection with ACPD and observing
– Other _____________________ (your favorite ineffective action goes here)

How about this?
Starting on a date TBD, every Monday during rush hours all the cyclists get off their bikes and walk them, single file, across the intersection, effectively taking up most of, or the entire, green light cycle. This is not illegal; in fact, there are plenty of drivers who complain about cyclists “racing into the intersection” or otherwise not behaving like pedestrians. We can call it DisMount Mondays. Traffic would back up onto I-66 and it would piss the drivers off. So be it. At least we’d all be safer crossing the street (maybe).

To get organized, some of us would hand out fliers or cards there for a few days or weeks ahead of time. Then on the first date, we’d be there to remind the cyclists. It might take a few weeks to really catch on, but after a while hopefully, DisMount Monday would become institutionalized. And self reinforcing. We would keep on–like critical mass rides–participating in DisMount Mondays every single Monday until real and effective action is taken. I’d be happy to be there on a Monday for an hour, walking back and forth across the intersection with every group of riders, reminding them to walk comfortably single file to the other side.

None of our other civilized efforts seem to have the tiniest effect. Perhaps some minor civil (dis)obedience would garner some attention.

I want to pretend that I’ll be able to wake up early enough to take the detour and make it for just this, I do.

[ShawnoftheDread]

You know the police will just start enforcing the rule against starting to cross once the red hand appears.

[consularrider]

@ShawnoftheDread 86234 wrote:

You know the police will just start enforcing the rule against starting to cross once the red hand appears.

Well, we can use the 10 seconds of white had and then leisurely stroll the 30 seconds of flashing red hand. With my bad knees it will take me 45 seconds to walk across those five lanes.

[Mikey]

Do we plan a cross-in (kind of like a sit-in) non-violent protest. Get about 200 bicyclists and pedestrians to show up at the intersection at a given time say 8:00 and then have about 10 bikes cross single file slowly during the entire cycle. I figure we could clog up about 20 cycles. Could you imagine 30 min of no one turning right on red there.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@Mikey 86241 wrote:

Do we plan a cross-in (kind of like a sit-in) non-violent protest. Get about 200 bicyclists and pedestrians to show up at the intersection at a given time say 8:00 and then have about 10 bikes cross single file slowly during the entire cycle. I figure we could clog up about 20 cycles. Could you imagine 30 min of no one turning right on red there.

To get other people to solve YOUR problem, you need to make it THIER problem.

[Author]

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