Missed connection

[mstone]

@KLizotte 90098 wrote:

Peds don’t have to signal their turns but they do have to look first otherwise they are doing a crazy ivan. She may or may not have called out audibly; we can’t judge. My experience has been that most peds have earbuds in or are in their own little world and don’t hear my bell or voice.

And let’s face it. If you were passing a cyclist in a car and he suddenly pulled out in front of you without looking and you hit him, you’d surely be blaming the biker.

There’s a really important difference in law and expectation between what someone does on a road and what someone does on a glorified sidewalk. A pedestrian not in the street can stop, cross a trail to look at something, take a different path, etc. That’s all good and legal because the sidewalk simply isn’t restricted the way a road is. There are some guidelines on the MUPs about staying to the right, etc., but those are guidelines for good social interaction, not laws. The guy wasn’t running, it took him a noticeable amount of time to move from his lane toward the yellow line, then over the yellow line. As soon as it was apparent that the guy wasn’t either moving right or going straight, the cyclist should have immediately reacted. When passing pedestrians on a trail a cyclist should always expect that a pedestrian might do something unexpected and plan accordingly (this often means slowing down, being prepared to brake, etc.) I think you’ll find that I’m pretty consistent in that position. I do not think this was a crazy ivan (generally defined as a runner suddenly making a u-turn) because the speed of the pedestrian was so low, and the change in direction gradual. (I suggest blowing the movie up full screen and watching in slow-mo.) I fear the crazy ivan because there’s a certain point at which a collision is unavoidable–but I don’t think this accident rises to that level, and should have been avoidable. Again, watch in big screen in slow-mo; if I was about to hit someone you’d see me ditching off the side of the road, hitting the brakes, doing something, but I’m not seeing that here. Even if the pedestrian should have looked, the cyclist had a much greater responsibility to pay attention, and there’s just no sign that was the case. (To be fair, it’s a pretty low quality video between the resolution and the shadow under the bridge so it’s possible more happened than can really be seen. But on it’s face I’d certainly consider this to be a better example of why cyclists need to be really careful around pedestrians than that the cyclist was doing the right thing and the pedestrian screwed up.)

[TwoWheelsDC]

You: Three (yes three) Maryland drivers who decided to drive into the Bon Air picnic area.
Me: guy with a dog yelling at you. I know now that you’re in the park you have to drive out, but I’m still going to yell at you and then shame you on Twitter.

[Steve O]

@TwoWheelsDC 90138 wrote:

You: Three (yes three) Maryland drivers who decided to drive into the Bon Air picnic area.

Where did they get on the trail? Did they drive over the bridge just east of the kiosk and bench and then turn R on the Custis? Did they enter at Arlington Mill or all the way down at Wilson?
Or did they come down from Westover Park through the Underpass of Eternal Darkness?

I wonder how the bike counters account for the cars?

[TwoWheelsDC]

They were there for a BBQ or something and I came on them as they were leaving. They drove off toward the trail exit at 9th Rd/Lexington on the south side of 66.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Vicegrip]

@KLizotte 90081 wrote:

Looks to me like the cyclist was completely over in the left hand lane to pass and the ped just turns (presumably to go up the trail on the other side) and walks right into her. He actually crosses the yellow line before he walks into her. Definitely looks like the ped is at fault for crossing the yellow line without looking. Sigh.

a frame by frame make it look like the cyclist was already left to pass the ped. The rider likely stayed left after passing the bent. The ped seems to simply turn and walk across the path can without looking.

[americancyclo]

@TwoWheelsDC 90144 wrote:

They were there for a BBQ or something and I came on them as they were leaving. They drove off toward the trail exit at 9th Rd/Lexington on the south side of 66.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

But isn’t there a bollard there to keep people from doing just this?

[TwoWheelsDC]

[HTML][/HTML] @americancyclo 90155 wrote:

But wasn’t there a bollard there to keep people from doing just this?

Fixed. To the best of my knowledge, there is, but I haven’t walked through there in a while. I think it was just a flex post, though.

[Fast Friendly Guy]

@KLizotte 90098 wrote:

Peds don’t have to signal their turns but they do have to look first otherwise they are doing a crazy ivan. She may or may not have called out audibly; we can’t judge. My experience has been that most peds have earbuds in or are in their own little world and don’t hear my bell or voice.

And let’s face it. If you were passing a cyclist in a car and he suddenly pulled out in front of you without looking and you hit him, you’d surely be blaming the biker.

When voice and bell fail to work or a ped (or cyclist) is wearing headphones I’m mighty glad I have my lifeguard/police whistle ready before I pass…and I’m not afraid to use it!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6186[/ATTACH]

[Geoff]

So, I’m at a crosswalk. Car approaching from the left is slowing to a stop. I wait to see what the car on the right does; it rolls right through the crosswalk. Let’s see what the next car on the right does; OK, it’s stopping. Both cars stopped, I start to cross.

But no! The driver on the left, the first to stop, has grown impatient and now is going through the crosswalk! Startled, I stop and give thanks for avoiding a trip to the emergency room.

[Terpfan]

@mstone 90102 wrote:

There’s a really important difference in law and expectation between what someone does on a road and what someone does on a glorified sidewalk. A pedestrian not in the street can stop, cross a trail to look at something, take a different path, etc. That’s all good and legal because the sidewalk simply isn’t restricted the way a road is. There are some guidelines on the MUPs about staying to the right, etc., but those are guidelines for good social interaction, not laws. The guy wasn’t running, it took him a noticeable amount of time to move from his lane toward the yellow line, then over the yellow line. As soon as it was apparent that the guy wasn’t either moving right or going straight, the cyclist should have immediately reacted. When passing pedestrians on a trail a cyclist should always expect that a pedestrian might do something unexpected and plan accordingly (this often means slowing down, being prepared to brake, etc.) I think you’ll find that I’m pretty consistent in that position. I do not think this was a crazy ivan (generally defined as a runner suddenly making a u-turn) because the speed of the pedestrian was so low, and the change in direction gradual. (I suggest blowing the movie up full screen and watching in slow-mo.) I fear the crazy ivan because there’s a certain point at which a collision is unavoidable–but I don’t think this accident rises to that level, and should have been avoidable. Again, watch in big screen in slow-mo; if I was about to hit someone you’d see me ditching off the side of the road, hitting the brakes, doing something, but I’m not seeing that here. Even if the pedestrian should have looked, the cyclist had a much greater responsibility to pay attention, and there’s just no sign that was the case. (To be fair, it’s a pretty low quality video between the resolution and the shadow under the bridge so it’s possible more happened than can really be seen. But on it’s face I’d certainly consider this to be a better example of why cyclists need to be really careful around pedestrians than that the cyclist was doing the right thing and the pedestrian screwed up.)

Yes and I think the key point is to always expect everyone else to do the dumbest thing possible. That’s how I ride and also how I drive. I can’t even count how many collisions I’ve avoided because of it driving and cycling. But in this case, no audible signal and the pedestrian doesn’t hop so that’s at least a solid few steps for him to get from A to B.

[mstone]

@Geoff 90165 wrote:

So, I’m at a crosswalk. Car approaching from the left is slowing to a stop. I wait to see what the car on the right does; it rolls right through the crosswalk. Let’s see what the next car on the right does; OK, it’s stopping. Both cars stopped, I start to cross.

But no! The driver on the left, the first to stop, has grown impatient and now is going through the crosswalk! Startled, I stop and give thanks for avoiding a trip to the emergency room.

Best thing to do in that case is roll out a bit into the crosswalk before the car on the left starts moving again, regardless of car on the right. (Obviously, don’t go into the far lane before the traffic on the right has also stopped.)

[baiskeli]

@Geoff 90165 wrote:

So, I’m at a crosswalk. Car approaching from the left is slowing to a stop. I wait to see what the car on the right does; it rolls right through the crosswalk. Let’s see what the next car on the right does; OK, it’s stopping. Both cars stopped, I start to cross.

But no! The driver on the left, the first to stop, has grown impatient and now is going through the crosswalk! Startled, I stop and give thanks for avoiding a trip to the emergency room.

I noticed this phenomenon at the GW crossing of death. It’s even worse there because cars in the far lane may not see someone crossing because the first car is blocking the view. Gotta watch for this. Of course, waiting and watching also encourages their impatience….

[jrenaut]

Me: Waiting in front of my house, in between the parked cars, for an opening in traffic so I could pull out
You: Cyclist who nearly hit me when I got the break in traffic because you were riding the wrong way on a one-way street.

Don’t do that.

[Emm]

me: woman on a road bike with AWESOME HOT PINK HANDLE BARS coming up fast behind a jogger on the MVT.
you: Guy with an adorable baby on the front of his bike coming the opposite way on the MVT.

Instead of trying to shoot the gap and potentially kill your baby, I slowed down to let you go by before passing the jogger. It’s cool–you had the right of way AND a cute baby. When you slowed to almost a stop to let me pass the jogger, you confused the daylights out of me.

At first I was a little ticked since instead of just slowing down I was now stopped and unclipped…but then I realized: I do this to people on road bikes all the time when I’m on my hybrid . This is because on NUMEROUS occasions people on road bikes have knocked me off the trail or nearly knocked me off the trail while shooting the gap around joggers. After nearly getting knocked off the MVT and onto GW parkway a few months ago by a road biker shooting the gap, if I see a road bike coming up fast behind joggers, I now slow down to let them pass instead of staking my claim to the right-of-way. Just like you did for me…

So yea…now I’m paying for other bikers being jerkfaces. Thanks jerkfaces*.

*Assuming none of the jerkfaces are on this discussion board

[Geoff]

@Emm 90210 wrote:

…all the time when I’m on my hybrid. This is because…

I’m missing something. Why does this only happen when you are on a hybrid? Do jerkfaces show more respect to roadbikes?

[Author]

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