Missed connection

[lordofthemark]

To the WMATA bus driver I chatted with about the rider on Annandale Road who was jumping between the lane (right side) and the sidewalk – I was glad to hear you say you are fine with him riding in the lane OR riding the sidewalk as long as he is predictable. You seemed to “get it”. To the rider – I sympathize, as its a hard road for us newbs and semi-newbs – but it is very important to be predictable.

To the two folks who “drafted” me for a very short stretch of the W&OD heading into Shirlington – it was an honor indeed. The first time anyone has done that.

To the King Street NIMBYs – you can take your signs down now. This battle is over.

To the pedestrian trying to cross King street at that spot. I hope you eventually made it across, and safely. We can all benefit from traffic calming.

To the woman staring down at her cell phone while walking in the center of the little connecting path between Duke and Jamieson who thanked me for ringing my bell – actually, no, you wouldn’t have walked right into me – I would have evaded any collision. But it was still nice to be thanked.

To the folks who drive on Cameron Street in Alexandria. Its two lanes westbound with not that much traffic (at least on Saturday afternoon) and the sharrows is in the right lane. You can easily pass me in the other lane. I see no excuse for the close passes. And, no, you (and this was several vehicles) weren’t about to make the next right – I watched to check. Oh and half the time I caught up to you at the next light anyway.

To the guy who couldn’t put his bike on the bus at Landmark Center cause there were already two bikes, filling the racks – I am truly sorry. I didn’t realize what had happened till the bus was pulling away. Had I known I would have taken my bike off and ridden home – I don’t like the ride from there, but I could have done it. This shows what a popular service this is – but also how far we have to go (in enforcement, education, AND infrastructure) in making our streets bikeable – not everyone who uses the racks is doing so because of distance or hills.

[jrenaut]

To the gentleman who honked at me at the light on 7th just north of PA, then honked again, then rolled down your window to tell me this wasn’t a bike lane:

It sure was nice of you to roll the window back up and leave me alone after I pointed out the sign identifying the lane we were both in as bike/bus only. As you weren’t on a bike or in a bus…

I do wish you’d given me a chance, however, to point out that every lane is a bike lane.

[cyclingfool]

Not involved, but witnessed the following:

Two cars approach Constitution Avenue in the left lane of northbound 17th Street. The light turns yellow. Front car slows to stop. Rear car lays on horn, changes lanes (still blaring horn), runs what is now most definitely a red light and makes a left turn onto Constitution from the right lane, horn still blowing for half a block, gas pedal floored. The only thing that would make this story better is if it were before 9:30 when left turns aren’t allowed yet, but I was running late to work and would be lying if I said it were earlier.

Oh, and no offense to my Maryland friends and colleagues here, but I was not at all surprised to see Maryland plates on the offending vehicle. It was also a Beemer. Again, no surprise.

This all happened about 5-10 seconds before I arrived at the intersection and is one of the reasons I always look twice before crossing, even with the light, at 17th and Constitution.

[jnva]

Poor feathered dude ran into me. Sorry guy. [ATTACH=CONFIG]5032[/ATTACH]

[DCAKen]

One of my fellow bike commuters in my agency sent out an email yesterday detailing his un-missed connection.

Since I realized you may not have heard about Monday’s events, I was the one WAMU reported as Car-Bike Collision on Eastbound Randolph Road at Serpentine Avenue.

While bike commuting to the office Monday morning, an idiot rear ended me at full speed, launching me into the air, and then apparently ran over my bike while I was busy flying up the road. I landed on my back ending up smashing my left shoulder down onto the curb. I was given a neck brace and strapped to a backboard and rushed to the trauma center at Suburban Hospital. There I got a chest/back x-ray, 3 views of my right ankle, 3 of my left shoulder, 3 of my left hand, and two types of CT scans of my pelvis, abdomen, torso, and neck/head. After these and blood work had all been run, they finally took the neck brace.

I’m very sore, bandages on various parts of my body, and have a sausage for a left pinky finger. I’m great compared to the condition of the bike (probably totaled) and my now dead laptop. In looking at how badly the bike fared, I feel quite lucky to be in as good a shape as I am.

The other good news is that the driver stuck around and there was another witness. The Police supposedly have all his information, etc. but I have yet to hear from the officer.

I’m in the office today for the first day this week and doing pretty well, all things considered.

As the weather warms and days get longer — be careful out there!

[Arlingtonrider]

Ken – sending you a PM.

[sethpo]

You: Weaving randomly on the CCT while distracted by the sounds and sight of a helicopter flying over the river and ignoring…

Me: Dinging my bell and calling out “on your left” and narrowly avoiding a shoulder-to-shoulder impact that frankly, would not have gone well for you (being smallish and distracted and all)

Ride safe, all.

[brendan]

@DCAKen 80730 wrote:

One of my fellow bike commuters in my agency sent out an email yesterday detailing his un-missed connection.

[story of rear-end collision]

Oh man. Besides trying to be as visible as possible (clothing, lights, lane placement), getting hit from directly behind you is just one of those things that’s plain out of your hands.

Send him healing well wishes from the forum.

B

[bobco85]

I was going to post just a description of this missed connection at the intersection of Thomas Street/Carlin Springs Rd until I remembered that I got video footage of it:

[video=youtube_share;Gqkw9YCzqms]http://youtu.be/Gqkw9YCzqms[/video]

I awkwardly thanked the driver for waving me through (I put a hand up as thanks but had a look of confusion on my face). Drivers, they are such interesting creatures!

[slowtriguy]

You: Guy wearing big can headphones, riding EB on the W&OD near the Ohio overpass yesterday about 1800.

Me: Riding WB in my lane, thinking “Don’t pass now, don’t make that pass, no no no.”

Guy, you need to learn when it’s OK to pass and when it’s not.

Here’s a clue: if you have a bike coming toward you fully in his lane, and you have two folks running single file in front of you, and you are not going to be able to complete the pass before you reach the other cyclist, it is NOT a good time to make a pass around the runners. You’re lucky the runners and I were able to react quickly enough to avoid what would otherwise have been a really unpleasant crash.

Next time, just wait the 5 seconds, m’kay?

[sjclaeys]

Me: Going northbound on Ohio Dr. approaching a red light at the intersection of Maine Ave.
You: White car trying to cut me off, causing me to swerve to avoid contact but getting to the light before you
Me: Sensing an aggressive driver and based on past experience of aggressive drivers trying to squeeze by when the light turns green, starts to roll when the cross light turns red but before our light turns green in order to get some distance from said aggressive driver
You: Revealing yourself to be part of an unknown federal agency, uses your loud speaker to tell me to follow traffic laws (after violating DC’s three foot law and almost hitting me before).
You: Then going well over the 15 mph speed limit on Jefferson Dr and not signaling your left turn on 3rd St.

[consularrider]

@slowtriguy 80807 wrote:

You: Guy wearing big can headphones, riding EB on the W&OD near the Ohio overpass yesterday about 1800.

Me: Riding WB in my lane, thinking “Don’t pass now, don’t make that pass, no no no.”

Guy, you need to learn when it’s OK to pass and when it’s not.

Here’s a clue: if you have a bike coming toward you fully in his lane, and you have two folks running single file in front of you, and you are not going to be able to complete the pass before you reach the other cyclist, it is NOT a good time to make a pass around the runners. You’re lucky the runners and I were able to react quickly enough to avoid what would otherwise have been a really unpleasant crash.

Next time, just wait the 5 seconds, m’kay?

Makes me glad I turned off right before that.

[jrenaut]

@sjclaeys 80809 wrote:

Me: Going northbound on Ohio Dr. approaching a red light at the intersection of Maine Ave.
You: White car trying to cut me off, causing me to swerve to avoid contact but getting to the light before you
Me: Sensing an aggressive driver and based on past experience of aggressive drivers trying to squeeze by when the light turns green, starts to roll when the cross light turns red but before our light turns green in order to get some distance from said aggressive driver
You: Revealing yourself to be part of an unknown federal agency, uses your loud speaker to tell me to follow traffic laws (after violating DC’s three foot law and almost hitting me before).
You: Then going well over the 15 mph speed limit on Jefferson Dr and not signaling your left turn on 3rd St.

Don’t know if it applies here, but do you know they just changed the law in DC so that bikes can legally go with the leading pedestrian interval (that is, when the crosswalk light turns green before the traffic light)?

Also, he’s a jerk.

[NicDiesel]

@slowtriguy 80807 wrote:

You: Guy wearing big can headphones, riding EB on the W&OD near the Ohio overpass yesterday about 1800.

Me: Riding WB in my lane, thinking “Don’t pass now, don’t make that pass, no no no.”

Guy, you need to learn when it’s OK to pass and when it’s not.

Here’s a clue: if you have a bike coming toward you fully in his lane, and you have two folks running single file in front of you, and you are not going to be able to complete the pass before you reach the other cyclist, it is NOT a good time to make a pass around the runners. You’re lucky the runners and I were able to react quickly enough to avoid what would otherwise have been a really unpleasant crash.

Next time, just wait the 5 seconds, m’kay?

I never had that happen on the W&OD but that used to happen all the time on the MVT and it would drive me insane. Right before I left town this completely oblivious needledick with a bumblebee helmet, TT bike, and BMC team kit ran the dude in front of me off the trail doing that exact same thing. Nobody crashed, fortunately, but situations like that just should not, under any circumstance, happen.

[brendan]

@sjclaeys 80809 wrote:

Me: Going northbound on Ohio Dr. approaching a red light at the intersection of Maine Ave.
You: White car trying to cut me off, causing me to swerve to avoid contact but getting to the light before you
Me: Sensing an aggressive driver and based on past experience of aggressive drivers trying to squeeze by when the light turns green, starts to roll when the cross light turns red but before our light turns green in order to get some distance from said aggressive driver
You: Revealing yourself to be part of an unknown federal agency, uses your loud speaker to tell me to follow traffic laws (after violating DC’s three foot law and almost hitting me before).
You: Then going well over the 15 mph speed limit on Jefferson Dr and not signaling your left turn on 3rd St.

Not really familiar with the intersection, but was there a protected pedestrian walk signal (with delayed traffic signal)? Because it’s now legal in DC to start forward motion on your bike as soon as the pedestrian signal activates instead of waiting for the green. Just FYI.

[Author]

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