Missed connection

[Geoff]

@Harry Meatmotor 90782 wrote:

I dunno – Whispering Ln is pretty fierce, too.

I’ll grant you that. But Jay Miller is the one I go up to see what kind of shape I’m in.

[Terpfan]

Me: The tool who made a poor pass selection at the northern end of Reagan Airport right before Gravely Point.
You: Cyclist coming the other way who rightfully said something, although I couldn’t understand what.

So to you I say, sorry.

[KWL]

@Terpfan 90793 wrote:

Me: The tool who made a poor pass selection at the northern end of Reagan Airport right before Gravely Point.
You: Cyclist coming the other way who rightfully said something, although I couldn’t understand what.

So to you I say, sorry.

I always worry I’ll end up on the wrong end of a “Missed Connection”. So far either the other person doesn’t frequent here or is too kind to call me out.

[CaseyKane50]

The following missed connections all happened on Sunday in Old Town Alexandria in the span of 10 minutes

1. Union Street

Me: Southbound on Union Street approaching Franklin Street
Car: Eastbound on Franklin Street, stopped at stop sign with left turn signal on
Me: Stopping at the stop sign
Car: Starting to execute their turn after confirming my stop
You: Cyclist heading southbound on Union Street blowing through the stop sign
Car: Braking to avoid hitting you
You: Waving to the driver and preparing to blow through the stop sign at Jefferson Street

2. Royal Street

Me: Northbound on Royal Street
Pedestrian with dog: Crossing Royal Street in the crosswalk at Franklin Street
Me: Stopping at the crosswalk to wait for the pedestrian to get across the street
You: Cyclist heading northbound on Royal Street blowing through the stop sign, forcing the pedestrian to stop

3. Royal Street

Me: Northbound on Royal Street approaching the intersection of Royal and Duke
You: A group of eight cyclists headed westbound on Duke Street approaching the same intersection
Me: Slowing down to stop
You: All eight cyclists blowing through the stop sign

A short while later I caught up with this group of riders on Jamieson Avenue. They were in the process of running the red light at Jamieson and Holland.

[Terpfan]

@CaseyKane50 90992 wrote:

The following missed connections all happened on Sunday in Old Town Alexandria in the span of 10 minutes

1. Union Street

Me: Southbound on Union Street approaching Franklin Street
Car: Eastbound on Franklin Street, stopped at stop sign with left turn signal on
Me: Stopping at the stop sign
Car: Starting to execute their turn after confirming my stop
You: Cyclist heading southbound on Union Street blowing through the stop sign
Car: Breaking to avoid hitting you
You: Waving to the driver and preparing to blow through the stop sign at Jefferson Street

2. Royal Street

Me: Northbound on Royal Street
Pedestrian with dog: Crossing Royal Street in the crosswalk at Franklin Street
Me: Stopping at the crosswalk to wait for the pedestrian to get across the street
You: Cyclist heading northbound on Royal Street blowing through the stop sign, forcing the pedestrian to stop

3. Royal Street

Me: Northbound on Royal Street approaching the intersection of Royal and Duke
You: A group of eight cyclists headed westbound on Duke Street approaching the same intersection
Me: Slowing down to stop
You: All eight cyclists blowing through the stop sign

A short while later I caught up with this group of riders on Jamieson Avenue. They were in the process of running the red light at Jamieson and Holland.

I almost got hit by a car, but I was a pedestrian there Sunday evening. Dared to cross Columbia with a crosswalk at King, but an impatient driver decided they get to go right on green regardless of pedestrians crossing.

Despite living close to OT, I do my best to avoid it on weekends. Between tourists, cars, pedestrians, and fellow cyclists, the place is just a zoo. Especially on nice spring/summer/fall evenings.

[bobco85]

The bad news: a ninja jogger pulled a Lazy Ivan on the MVT where it runs between the airport fence and GW Parkway just south of Gravely Point last night

The good news: I was able to avoid him because I was barely able to make him out in the distance with my lights

The extra good news: This incident served as an inspiration for a new addition to the forum dictionary: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?p=91001#post91001

[cyclingfool]

@Terpfan 90996 wrote:

I almost got hit by a car, but I was a pedestrian there Sunday evening. Dared to cross Columbia with a crosswalk at King, but an impatient driver decided they get to go right on green regardless of pedestrians crossing.

Despite living close to OT, I do my best to avoid it on weekends. Between tourists, cars, pedestrians, and fellow cyclists, the place is just a zoo. Especially on nice spring/summer/fall evenings.

Do you mean Columbus? Just making sure there’s not some special street street a la Diagon Alley (Harry Potter reference of the day) that I am unaware of. Or perhaps I just can’t see it, since I am sadly most definitely a muggle.

[dkel]

I was walking with some friends in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania today when a dude on a bike swerves at high speed up onto the sidewalk at a curb cut, sees one of my group is just ahead of him, and runs smack into a light pole instead of hitting my friend. He seemed fine, oddly, and so did his bike, though the front reflector was destroyed. He asked if my friend was alright, which was very kind, made an offhand remark about how he “does that all the time,” and then rode off down the sidewalk at breakneck speed. Totally bizarre.

[PotomacCyclist]

Last week: While walking near New York Ave. NW, I saw a small group of other pedestrians walking through a crosswalk. They didn’t have the WALK signal but the road was completely empty, since it was well past evening rush hour. Then a driver approaches, heading westbound. He sees the yellow light and speeds up. He doesn’t come close to reaching the intersection on the yellow light and blows through the red light. He clearly sees the pedestrians in the crosswalk but continues with his acceleration. He nearly strikes the group of pedestrians, honking his horn as he misses them by less than a foot. I didn’t see a bike terrorist anywhere, but for some reason, Courtland Milloy doesn’t consider this act outrageous or road terrorism.

A couple days ago: While walking near the galleries and Verizon Center at Gallery Place, I waited for a WALK signal at a crosswalk. The light turned green and the WALK signal lit up. But then a large PEPSI semi truck rolls right through the intersection, against a red light. The driver reached the intersection after his light turned red but still continued through the light and intersection. The driver rolled through for several seconds. It took that long for the large truck to make it through the intersection. Several pedestrians had started to proceed through the crosswalk when the WALK signal lit up, but stopped suddenly as the PEPSI truck rolled through. Again, why doesn’t Courtland Milloy find this objectionable? I see this situation happen ALL THE TIME.

Yesterday: While riding on F St. NW near the 15th St. intersection, a group of 8 or 10 kids on bikes came rolling along. They were taking up the entire road, including the lanes on the other side of the yellow line. One of the kids did a wheelie while he was riding in the wrong direction right into me. He wasn’t going that fast, but it was still obnoxious. Funny enough, none of these kids were “white millennials.” I do have to say that in addition to this group of kids, I saw another cyclist riding the wrong way on a downtown street in midday and another cyclist riding on the sidewalk downtown. Given Milloy’s rant, I do have to say that every single one of these cyclists was African-American. I don’t say this to slam any particular group. Just to point out again how outrageous and unfair Milloy’s rant against “white millennials” was.

[mstone]

@PotomacCyclist 91121 wrote:

Last week: While walking near New York Ave. NW, I saw a small group of other pedestrians walking through a crosswalk. They didn’t have the WALK signal but the road was completely empty, since it was well past evening rush hour. Then a driver approaches, heading westbound. He sees the yellow light and speeds up. He doesn’t come close to reaching the intersection on the yellow light and blows through the red light. He clearly sees the pedestrians in the crosswalk but continues with his acceleration. He nearly strikes the group of pedestrians, honking his horn as he misses them by less than a foot.

A couple days ago: While walking near the galleries and Verizon Center at Gallery Place, I waited for a WALK signal at a crosswalk. The light turned green and the WALK signal lit up. But then a large PEPSI semi truck rolls right through the intersection, against a red light. The driver reached the intersection after his light turned red but still continued through the light and intersection. The driver rolled through for several seconds. It took that long for the large truck to make it through the intersection. Several pedestrians had started to proceed through the crosswalk when the WALK signal lit up, but stopped suddenly as the PEPSI truck rolled through. Again, why doesn’t Courtland Milloy find this objectionable? I see this situation happen ALL THE TIME.

This is the appropriate behavior. Roads are for cars. Or trucks (unless they’re in the way and a car wants to go faster). I don’t understand your confusion.

[Terpfan]

Me: The cyclist riding down Wisconsin Ave south by the Russian Embassy around 5:20 pm-ish.
You: The suv with a bicycle rack on the back with VA tags Hanknz.

It helps to look before suddenly moving over a lane. The reason your female passenger seemed to scream was because you were just moving over laterally into me. Had you bothered to even attempt to glance right, you would have seen me. I had my front strobes, rear blinky and was wearing my neon greenish-colored BTWD shirt–it was pretty hard to miss me. What bothered me more was that you didn’t swerve back, no, you kept going even after realizing I’m there. You’re lucky I was taking the full lane and had room for evasive maneuvering all the way to the right. And the worst part was that you’re obviously involved with cycling given the bike rack. So yes, I definitely gave you the one finger salute for nearly planting me into the asphalt last night.

[Phatboing]

Me: tired cyclist executing a dead stop at the W&OD and West St crosswalk in Falls Church.
You: Lady person driving a black refrigerator on West St.

As you went by, you shot me a confused “why didn’t you cross” look, and made a dismissive gesture of some sort.

I feel like I should explain. You see, I stopped dead and didn’t cross because YOU WEREN’T SLOWING DOWN, you preposterously silly person.

[chris_s]

@Phatboing 91230 wrote:

You: Lady person driving a black refrigerator on West St.

To be fair, have you ever seen a refrigerator with brake pedals?

[Drewdane]

To the guy who yelled “Watch It!” at me because I was in his lane while passing some folks on the WOD this morning: I do apologize, that was my bad.

I was just so dumbfounded and distracted by the gas-powered engine mounted on the bike of the guy I was passing, and so busy trying to formulate a constructive way to communicate that his assist was probably illegal, stank to High Heaven, and that I didn’t appreciate having to gulp his fumes for the previous 200 yards, that I completely forgot to move back into the correct lane.

Oops.

[jrenaut]

You: leaving the 14th St bike lane multiple times to pass slower cyclists with absolutely no regard to the car traffic

Please be more careful. You’re lucky the two cars I saw you essentially cut off were paying attention. It’s okay to leave the bike lane but you should at least look behind you before you do it.

[Author]

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