Jogging on the cycletrack

[Dickie]

VA Code 46.2-928 is the one most often stated:

Pedestrians shall not use the roadways for travel, except when necessary to do so because of the absence of sidewalks which are reasonably suitable and passable for their use. If they walk on the hard surface, or the main travelled portion of the roadway, they shall keep to the extreme left side or edge thereof, or where the shoulders of the highway are of sufficient width to permit, they may walk on either shoulder thereof.

Since in my case there was a very suitable sidewalk directly next to the runner I believe the law was being broken. However, I certainly do not condone verbally abusing runners who occupy bike lanes, but I always find it laughable that the most commonly sited excuse a runner provides for being in the bike lane is that the sidewalk is uneven or has cracks in it….. trust me, a head on collision with a cyclist moving at 30mph would be far more catastrophic than a possible fall. It may be more convenient to run in the street, just understand that your convenience in endangering the lives of others.

[mstone]

Also, most of the joggers are invisible in the darkness.

[dasgeh]

@nsfnsfdave 94447 wrote:

I’m a cyclist, my wife is a runner. A couple weeks ago she was “blessed out” by a cyclist for running in the street in the residential area just east of Washington-Lee HS.

Given how you’ve misstated the law (as others noted), I wonder whether you’re a troll… but hoping you’re not, I’ll engage. I live just NE of W-L and almost ran into a runner who was illegally in the street running in the direction of traffic. I encountered her right after I turned (safely and legally), giving me little time to correct to get around her. I slowed to ask her to please get on the sidewalk, as required, or at least run against traffic. She yelled at me for a bit, but after a bit of an exchange, calmed down, and did admit that if she was going to run in the street, she needed to be on the opposite side. She said she had called ACPD to ask where she should run, given the state of the sidewalks, and was told it was ok in the streets when the sidewalks were in bad shape, but only against traffic. Unfortunately, I’ve seen her running and walking in the street since, and more times than not, she is heading with traffic, i.e. the wrong side of the street. *Sigh* Given her actions, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the woman I encountered and that she said I “blessed her out”, though I assure you I was quite calm and polite, and she was the only one in the conversation to use profanity or raise her voice. Two sides.

Look, I agree that the state of some sidewalks in Arlington is atrocious and a real shame. We should be able to report those and have them fixed as quickly as pot holes. But that doesn’t excuse unsafe behavior – like running in the street when there is an acceptable sidewalk, as in Dickie’s situation, or running in the street in the same direction as traffic, as in mine. The rules are there for the safety of others.

[baiskeli]

@nsfnsfdave 94447 wrote:

She runs home from work and often is running after dark, and the sidewalks are frequently very uneven and over the years she has tripped and been injured several times, so she mostly runs in the streets now.

Forget about what’s legal for a moment – is running at night in the roadway actually safer than on a sidewalk? It wouldn’t be my choice.

[thucydides]

@baiskeli 94478 wrote:

Forget about what’s legal for a moment – is running at night in the roadway actually safer than on a sidewalk? It wouldn’t be my choice.

Yes

[runbike]

@baiskeli 94478 wrote:

Forget about what’s legal for a moment – is running at night in the roadway actually safer than on a sidewalk? It wouldn’t be my choice.

It depends. I tend to run in the road more often than not after many, many bad experiences at stop-signed intersections. You know that white line that’s usually painted next to the stop sign? The one cars are supposed to come to a complete stop behind BEFORE moving out? Yeah, for most drivers it doesn’t seem to exist. I’ve had way to many scary situations where I’m either in or about to enter the intersection on foot and encounter a car that clearly wants to stop fully across the cross-walk. By running in the street (against traffic of course) I find this gives me that extra buffer zone that I’d normally have if drivers actually adhered to normal stop sign rules.

[nsfnsfdave]

@dkel 94449 wrote:

§ 14.2-65. Riding and Parking Regulations.
E. Riding on sidewalk. Persons of any age may ride a bicycle upon any sidewalk, .

dkel, Thanks for correcting me, and to dasgeh, I don’t think I’m a troll and it’s entirely possible it was my wife you encountered.

The real point here is that it’s not illegal to run in the streets, except for I-66 where it’s no doubt posted that pedestrians and bicycles are prohibited (OK, I’m paraphrasing here).

We all need to get along. Each of us enjoys a different activity and we are all entitled to use our county facilities to enable that enjoyment. I’ve had several run-ins with pedestrians/runners myself, and I’ve certainly been guilty of more than one bone-headed maneuver vs. a car or two while riding. But I don’t expect to be denied the legal use of the streets and trails because another contingency thinks I shouldn’t be there.

Let’s just all get along..:o

[creadinger]

I don’t run often, but when I do, I will often run contra-flow in the street. Since I live in Del Ray, I’ll most likely be found on Commonwealth Ave. If you know it, you know that Commonwealth is wide, flat, and straight. You also may know that the sidewalks in Del Ray are often filled with pedestrians, strollers and dogs making sidewalk running a challenge. If some of you ride by and want to politely wave, please do. Or if you want to take a different tack and drone on about VA codes because you think I’m a scofflaw ruining your day, that would be welcome too I guess….

As a novice runner who thinks running a 30 minute 5K is a worthy fitness goal to maintain, I’ve been monitoring this thread with an open mind for strong arguments for or against. However, nothing presented here has persuaded me that running in the bike lane is a bad idea. Particularly wrt Commonwealth Ave. As a cyclist I’ve come across joggers in bike lanes without incident, although I greatly appreciate it when they acknowledge my presence and move over. It’s a respect thing.

Comments that may sound like a Mexican beer ad/internet meme are purely coincidental.*

[Dickie]

@creadinger 94493 wrote:

I’ve been monitoring this thread with an open mind for strong arguments for or against. However, nothing presented here has persuaded me that running in the bike lane is a bad idea.

Well, that’s disheartening coming from a fellow rider. I guess my experience can be chalked up to…. what exactly? bad Luck? Had I have crashed, which is surprising that I didn’t, the results would have been very bad. Am I to blame somehow here? If you have ever ridden with me you would know how annoyingly legal and polite of a rider I am. The only cause of my near miss was a runner in my lane not thinking how his actions would effect others. If my incident alone has done nothing to persuade you than I wish you the best of luck when faced with a similar situation as it seems luck is all we are supposed to count on.

[creadinger]

If I read about your experience correctly, I saw elements like steep hill, on a curve, at night…. I would chalk up your experience to bad judgement on the joggers fault. Not realizing what a steep hill on a curve actually means.

If you read what I wrote, I said Commonwealth Ave is flat, straight, and quite wide. It’s also pretty well lit at night, though I don’t think I’d run at night. If you can’t see the difference here then I have nothing else to say.

[rcannon100]

Does

Lets all get along

translate to “my convenience is more important than your safety“

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Runners running in the bike lane have an obligation to run with their head up and jump out of the way in a moment of danger. The only law that needs apply is physics. Just as a bike at certain speeds is more nimble than a car, a runner is more nimble than a bike. A runner can change direction 90 degrees in a split second. A runner can take one step to the left to avoid a collision. A runner can slim up against a parked car if they have to. If runners want to borrow the part of the road–the only part of the universe of roads dedicated expressly to cyclists–runners need to be good guests and get out without overstaying their welcome.

On the other hand, any time a cyclist can hold 20 mph in a 25 zone (like eastbound between Courthouse and Rosslyn), the cyclist should be outside the bike lane and in the full lane of traffic with the cars.

[baiskeli]

@nsfnsfdave 94489 wrote:

The real point here is that it’s not illegal to run in the streets, except for I-66 where it’s no doubt posted that pedestrians and bicycles are prohibited (OK, I’m paraphrasing here).

Well, no, it’s not normally legal to run in the streets either. As Dickie cited in message # 32:

“Pedestrians shall not use the roadways for travel, except when necessary to do so because of the absence of sidewalks which are reasonably suitable and passable for their use.“

Of course, that leaves alot of room for interpretation if you don’t think a sidewalk is “suitable.”

We all need to get along. Each of us enjoys a different activity and we are all entitled to use our county facilities to enable that enjoyment. I’ve had several run-ins with pedestrians/runners myself, and I’ve certainly been guilty of more than one bone-headed maneuver vs. a car or two while riding. But I don’t expect to be denied the legal use of the streets and trails because another contingency thinks I shouldn’t be there.

As cyclists, we couldn’t agree more. But this is not about whether runners should be banned from the roads – its about whether they are legally allowed there NOW — and whether the rules are about safety, not just convenience.

Let’s just all get along..:o

Yes, but a big part of getting along is following the rules that are created to make it easy for us to get along.

[Crickey7]

This difference is whether it’s okay as a matter of custom (and not an an exception to a general pattern) to run in the cycletrack, and why not? It’s pretty clear it’s illegal wherever there is a sidewalk, and I’d further say that the combination of the narrow track, the mismatch with the travel speed of the general purpose road lane next to it, and the quietness of the bike’s approach that make it unsafe.

[dasgeh]

@nsfnsfdave 94489 wrote:

dkel, Thanks for correcting me, and to dasgeh, I don’t think I’m a troll and it’s entirely possible it was my wife you encountered.

The real point here is that it’s not illegal to run in the streets, except for I-66 where it’s no doubt posted that pedestrians and bicycles are prohibited (OK, I’m paraphrasing here).

I’m glad you’re not a troll, though you seem to have missed a few posts about how it IS illegal to run in the streets where there’s a sidewalk. If that is your wife, I hope there’s a way to politely explain to her that the cyclists of Cherrydale would very much appreciate it if she would run opposing traffic where she insists on running in the street. (I’m not the only one who’s encountered her, and I’m not the only one that SHE has yelled out. I’m talking parents with kids on their bikes)

BTW, to the point about running in the bike lanes, Arlington County Code designates them for the exclusive use of bicyclists (with limited exceptions for motor vehicles in the preceding section):

Arlington County Code 14.2-65.1
The County Board hereby establishes bicycle lanes upon and along the following streets, at the following locations, which lanes shall be of such dimensions as determined by the County Manager and which lanes shall be for the exclusive use of bicyclists:

My reading of the state law and the County law together is that, even in the event that running in the street is legal, it is NOT legal in the bike lane.

[Author]

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