Missed connection

[dkel]

The Gallows bike lane is not there to make for tighter turns for metro buses. Particularly when there’s a bike in the bike lane. With me on it. 😡

[TwoWheelsDC]

@dkel 165568 wrote:

The Gallows bike lane is not there to make for tighter turns for metro buses. Particularly when there’s a bike in the bike lane. With me on it. 😡

Silly…everyone knows that the Gallows bike lane is there to store all the gravel FFX puts on the road itself during the winter.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@TwoWheelsDC 165571 wrote:

Silly…everyone knows that the Gallows bike lane is there to store all the gravel FFX puts on the road itself during the winter.

Don’t exaggerate. Not ALL the gravel — some of it is stored on sidewalks.

[kcb203]

Two from Monday:

1) You: Secret Service Police car at 17th and Penn.
Me: On my bike westbound on Penn. just beyond the security barricades, waiting at the light at 17th to make a left turn to go south.
You: Light turns green, you immediately accelerate full speed with a right turn to go north on 17th and miss be by a foot or two. Umm, I know it’s a weird intersection because Penn is closed to cars, but you still don’t go right from the left side of the roadway without looking or warning. I’m getting sick and tired of riding past the White House these days. Why was Penn closed in the morning when Trump was in NY?

2) Me: Going WB on K St under the Whitehurst. I stopped at Wisconsin then kept going.
You: Going south on Wisconsin, blowing through the stop sign while turning right and missing me by a couple feet.
Me: “Hey, watch it.”
You: “Sorry, didn’t see you, you were in my blind spot.”
Sorry, dude, I appreciate the apology but: 1) you blew through the stop sign when there was approaching traffic that had already stopped and had the right of way; 2) the blind spot in a car is not looking out the drivers side window; 3) if there was a blind spot, you still can’t assume there’s nothing in it and go full speed ahead.

[Judd]

@kcb203 165583 wrote:

Two from Monday:

Why was Penn closed in the morning when Trump was in NY?

I had this same thought. The closures on Penn seem random most of the time. The Secret Service at least has been leaving the sidewalk open which makes it a bit easier to get through.

[Tania]

@Judd 165590 wrote:

I had this same thought. The closures on Penn seem random most of the time. The Secret Service at least has been leaving the sidewalk open which makes it a bit easier to get through.

My favorite is when it’s closed halfway through so you have to backtrack. Yeah, that’s awesome.

[huskerdont]

@Tania 165595 wrote:

My favorite is when it’s closed halfway through so you have to backtrack. Yeah, that’s awesome.

I’ve developed improved pattern recognition skills to see distant yellow horizontal lines or one lone person in black standing where normally there would be folks milling about. No one is going to save the world with this superpower, but I can now just turn around at the intersection of 15th Street without having to get shouted at to ride on the sidewalk by said person in black.

I really don’t like getting shouted at by law enforcement. Way way low on my list of favorite things.

[americancyclo]

Eastbound: Take H St. It’s always faster
Westbound: Never ride behind the white house, it’s always slower.

[Steve O]

@kcb203 165583 wrote:

1) You: Secret Service Police car at 17th and Penn.
Me: On my bike westbound on Penn. just beyond the security barricades, waiting at the light at 17th to make a left turn to go south.
You: Light turns green, you immediately accelerate full speed with a right turn to go north on 17th and miss be by a foot or two. Umm, I know it’s a weird intersection because Penn is closed to cars, but you still don’t go right from the left side of the roadway without looking or warning. I’m getting sick and tired of riding past the White House these days. Why was Penn closed in the morning when Trump was in NY?

When I am going to turn left onto 17th, I move to the SE corner of the intersection with the peds and go on the walk signal.

[Judd]

@Steve O 165633 wrote:

When I am going to turn left onto 17th, I move to the SE corner of the intersection with the peds and go on the walk signal.

I do the same. It helps avoid being hung out in the middle of the intersection at a busy crosswalk. It also helps avoid cars turning right from the other direction that are looking for the peds to clear and not ahead to see a bike.

[TwoWheelsDC]

This morning I witnessed a driver *just* missing a connection between his car and the Tidal Basin. I was on my moto on Independence heading west at the merge with Maine. Light turns green, and the driver like two cars in front of me slowly pulls away, but kinda swerves to the left almost perpendicular to Maine, jumps the curb, mows over a few bushes and then hits the only tree between him and the water. He was only going like 10mph, but if that tree hadn’t been there, he’d have gone off the edge and right into the water. I stopped, but the drivers in the car in front of me got to him first and were talking to him, but I couldn’t hear with my helmet on…but it seemed like maybe he blacked out or had a minor seizure of some sort, since he was seemingly coherent by the time we all got to the car. Thankfully, there were no peds on the sidewalk, as they easily could’ve been caught unaware.

[consularrider]

Dingbat walking into the Fairfax Drive bike lane without looking (wearing earbuds, and sipping his coffee) and opening his car door just as I ride by, and I had a car in the right lane to my left.

[Tania]

Watched a police car run a red light (no flashing lights or emergency, the light had turned before he entered the intersection and he just didn’t feel like stopping) at 13th and G and almost hit a cyclist who had already started to proceed through the intersection on her green light.

We shared a “WTF?!” look.

[DCAKen]

Me: Riding the 14th Street bike lane in front of DCUSA in Columbia Heights
You: Straddling the bike lane and an open parking spot

It’s not bad enough that you couldn’t manage to move into the empty spot. You had to make it even worse by flinging open your door while all your attention was on your phone call. It’s only because I was slowly squeezing between your car and the traffic jam on 14th Street that I avoided getting doored. Your dumb grin as I pointed out that your terrible parking was just icing on the cake.

[jrenaut]

Screaming “Sorry” inaudibly from inside your car is great and all, but maybe next time try checking to your right, merging into the bike lane, and THEN making your right turn.

[Author]

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