L St. Cycletrack Woes this morning

[Bilsko]

Before anything else: *Please everyone remember to call out your passes. On the road, on the trails, and in the cycletracks.*

This morning I was making my way down L St – between NH and 21st. It was busy with riders and there were two in front of me and another guy behind. As we were approaching the garage entrance to 2101 L St., the rider immediately in front of me (about 10ft ahead) signaled a left turn with his hand out. I slowed – because I too, was about to make a left there.
The rider behind me passes me *on the left* without calling his pass, and starts to pass the guy up ahead just as he makes a *second* signal to warn of his left turn.

At this point, I’m a little unclear as to what happened – in part because I was yelling at the guy “Call out your Passes!”

Either: a) when guy-in-front put out his left hand, guy-passing ran into it and tried to veer off to the left, up the curb cut (which, at 1.5-2″ is pretty bad) and in doing so caught his 23s on the curb and fell, hard.
-or- b) he was already planning on hopping up onto the sidewalk at that point anyways, and still, caught his skinny tire on the curb and fell, hard.

Either way (evasive maneuver or planned sidewalk jump), it was awful to see another rider go down hard. I felt bad for yelling at him to call his pass -just as he’s about to fall- but with as busy as it was with other riders, we all need to be a little lighter on the pedals.

Hope he’s OK, hope he calls out his passes more consistently from now on.

Topic

[americancyclo]

That cop had his signal on too.

[jnva]

@GuyContinental 57693 wrote:

Can you post one of those where everything goes perfectly? I’m trying to convince my better half to commute up L and the videos of woe aren’t helping things… maybe under a separate thread entitled “How the Perfectly Safe and Sane L-street cycletrack changed my life for the better while saving me $300/month in parking”

I’ve been trying to get a video where everything goes perfect, but it hasn’t happened yet. 99% of my commute is on separated bike/ped infrastructure, it’s just these last couple of miles that gets interesting.

[mikoglaces]

This morning I was crossing L St. NW on foot at 22d just right of the crosswalk when a car entered the cycle track. So I stood there and told him and he wasn’t supposed to be there and I stood in his way with my hand up indicating he couldn’t proceed. He said (1) he was entering a driveway on that block, and (2) he had a baby in the car but I didn’t see the relevance of either argument. I didn’t budge and he didn’t run me over or threaten to. He eventually had to back up to go forward in the car lane. That forced him to wait a light cycle because he had missed a whole cycle while arguing with me.

[Bilsko]

@mikoglaces 59287 wrote:

This morning I was crossing L St. NW on foot at 22d just right of the crosswalk when a car entered the cycle track. So I stood there and told him and he wasn’t supposed to be there and I stood in his way with my hand up indicating he couldn’t proceed. He said (1) he was entering a driveway on that block, and (2) he had a baby in the car but I didn’t see the relevance of either argument. I didn’t budge and he didn’t run me over or threaten to. He eventually had to back up to go forward in the car lane. That forced him to wait a light cycle because he had missed a whole cycle while arguing with me.

1) Nicely done informing them of the rules. Do be careful though, you never know how crazy the person behind the wheel can be.
2) Both the driveway and baby are entirely possible – The garage entrance to 2101 L St (the offices above the Citibank at 21&L) is halfway down the block *and* there is a daycare on 21st right next to the entrance to the offices – and a lot of people use the garage to pickup/dropoff their kids at that daycare. This *does not* justify or excuse the guy from following the rules of the road, as you did well to point out.

[dasgeh]

@mikoglaces 59287 wrote:

This morning I was crossing L St. NW on foot at 22d just right of the crosswalk when a car entered the cycle track. So I stood there and told him and he wasn’t supposed to be there and I stood in his way with my hand up indicating he couldn’t proceed. He said (1) he was entering a driveway on that block, and (2) he had a baby in the car but I didn’t see the relevance of either argument. I didn’t budge and he didn’t run me over or threaten to. He eventually had to back up to go forward in the car lane. That forced him to wait a light cycle because he had missed a whole cycle while arguing with me.

Last week, I was waiting to turn left into our work garage when a lady driving a 4-door buzzed by me with barely inches to spare– driving in the left lane even though there wasn’t another car in our direction in sight. She then turned left into our garage (car entrance in beside the bike entrance). When she rolled down her window to speak with the security guards, I calmly and nicely pointed out that in DC, drivers were required to leave at least 3 feet while passing cyclists, and she had not.

Her response: “I’m a cyclist”.

(We went around a few times. Me: “but in your car you passed very close to me”. her: “but I’m a cyclist”)

[jnva]

Some work was done on the L street cycle track between 23 on 20th. A couple of the bollards at the beginning of the block were moved from the center to the right, exactly where I used to ride. Nearly had an accident. What’s up with that?

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Does anyone else think that with the new traffic lights on Washington Circle that, coming out of Georgetown, it’s faster to use the circle to get to New Hampshire and then turn right on L? That’s instead of the old way of turning left off of Penn at the beginning of L.

[mikoglaces]

@Brendan von Buckingham 92407 wrote:

Does anyone else think that with the new traffic lights on Washington Circle that, coming out of Georgetown, it’s faster to use the circle to get to New Hampshire and then turn right on L? That’s instead of the old way of turning left off of Penn at the beginning of L.

I doubt it. I have found that the traffic lights on the circle have slowed traffic through the circle.

[jnva]

@jnva 92386 wrote:

Some work was done on the L street cycle track between 23 on 20th. A couple of the bollards at the beginning of the block were moved from the center to the right, exactly where I used to ride. Nearly had an accident. What’s up with that?

I was wrong about the bollards, completely backwards. It looks like the cycle track is being narrowed so that cars and more importantly, trucks can not drive in it!!!

[Author]

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