News 4 at 11 Story on Scofflaw Cyclists

[MFC]

It is based on their review of traffic camera violations since 2015. Link: http://www.nbcwashington.com/traffic/transit/Bicyclists-Triggering-DC-Red-Light-Cameras-But-Wont-Get-Tickets-391955121.html. It seems pretty pointless, however.

[Sunyata]

In very small print, the article states that during that same time period, 60,000 red light camera violations were made by motor vehicle drivers. Someone should do an article on that.

Oh wait… Nobody cares if drivers break the law… 😡

[jrenaut]

I talked to the reporter, Adam Tuss, on Twitter a bit. He acknowledges the shortcomings of the report, sort of. It’s still junk.

[americancyclo]

I wonder how many of those 1500 were legal because the cyclist was proceeding with an LPI

[Crickey7]

Even though I don’t (usually) run red lights, I actually might be regularly triggering one of those cameras. They mention a red light camera Eastbound at 27th and K. I think that’s right where Water Street comes up and joins with the Whitehurst Freeway to become K Street. Going east from Water Street, there is a long cycle where Eastbound traffic off the Whitehurst proceeds and left turns off K Street Westbound are not allowed. I’ll often scooch over from Water to the median strip on K, across the red, since I know there is no chance anyone can cross my path and I can simply wait out of the path of legal traffic.

[Anonymous]

1) I’m actually surprised at how low the numbers are.

The red light camera pointed in the westbound direction at Rhode Island Avenue and First Street NW in the Bloomingdale section of D.C. saw 276 violations between January 2015 and April 2016.

The red light camera at 16th Street and Oak Street in Northwest saw 201 violations by cyclists during that time.

The red light camera eastbound on K Street at 27th Street in Northwest saw 173 violations.

In a 16 month period, these numbers could be racked up by a single commuter (per intersection) who runs the red almost-daily. There are a lot more crappy cyclists than that, imo. (Even assuming they are all real legal infractions, taking americancyclo and crickey’s comments into account).

2) If red light cameras can pick up cyclists, why the #%$$% can’t the sensors that trigger greens for waiting traffic do so?

[creadinger]

60,000! 60,000 red light camera violations by drivers. Please let that sink in for a moment. How is this hard hitting news story not about that?! Yay, I bet some of them got tickets… But that still means 60,000 drivers ran red lights!

This whole thing is BS because the whole story is clearly not about the red light running. It’s about jealousy and, “Hey, they can run red lights and not get tickets… but when I do it in my car, I have to pay $150.”

How about we talk about safety Adam Tuss! Who needs more education here? The 60,000 drivers triggering red lights cameras or the 1500 times it was triggered by cyclists?

[bentbike33]

@Amalitza 145242 wrote:

2) If red light cameras can pick up cyclists, why the #%$$% can’t the sensors that trigger greens for waiting traffic do so?

I suspect these are entirely different technologies. The detectors for changing signals are induction loops embedded in the road requiring a large magnetic object to move over them to produce a signal. The red-light violation detectors are probably motion detectors of some kind aimed at the middle of the intersection.

[bentbike33]

@creadinger 145246 wrote:

How about we talk about safety Adam Tuss! Who needs more education here? The 60,000 drivers triggering red lights cameras or the 1500 times it was triggered by cyclists?

I saw the TV version of the report last night. Lots of traffic camera footage of cyclists making real dumb@$$ moves potentially endangering themselves, but no pictures of cyclists endangering others.

Yellow journalism at its finest.

[dasgeh]

@bentbike33 145251 wrote:

I saw the TV version of the report last night. Lots of traffic camera footage of cyclists making real dumb@$$ moves potentially endangering themselves, but no pictures of cyclists endangering others.

Yellow journalism at its finest.

At least one of the moves in the video is legit safety: a cyclist pulling up into the crosswalk to position himself to be directly in front of cars, as there were parked cars on the next block in the lane he had been riding in.

[americancyclo]

@creadinger 145246 wrote:

60,000! 60,000 red light camera violations by drivers.

So does that mean that Ddot brought in $9million in 2015 from red light running drivers?

Anyone know where i could find a map of all the LPI locations in DC? I saw a post on ddotdish from 2012 that said they had 40 and were aiming for 100. It would be interesting to cross-reference these.

[sethpo]

@Crickey7 145241 wrote:

Even though I don’t (usually) run red lights, I actually might be regularly triggering one of those cameras. They mention a red light camera Eastbound at 27th and K. I think that’s right where Water Street comes up and joins with the Whitehurst Freeway to become K Street. Going east from Water Street, there is a long cycle where Eastbound traffic off the Whitehurst proceeds and left turns off K Street Westbound are not allowed. I’ll often scooch over from Water to the median strip on K, across the red, since I know there is no chance anyone can cross my path and I can simply wait out of the path of legal traffic.

That specific light on K is one of two I regularly run on my commute. Both cases are irregular three-way intersections that are far safer for me to run the light (at the right time) than go with the flow of traffic. Needless to say, no drivers are put in harms way by my actions.

[mello yello]

@americancyclo 145267 wrote:

So does that mean that Ddot brought in $9million in 2015 from red light running drivers?

Anyone know where i could find a map of all the LPI locations in DC? I saw a post on ddotdish from 2012 that said they had 40 and were aiming for 100. It would be interesting to cross-reference these.

Seems low. The one speed camera location on I-295 alone brought in $7m… but that is built like a 65mph road in MD right before the bridge, not the 50mph road inside the district.

[Steve O]

@sethpo 145271 wrote:

That specific light on K is one of two I regularly run on my commute. Both cases are irregular three-way intersections that are far safer for me to run the light (at the right time) than go with the flow of traffic. Needless to say, no drivers are put in harms way by my actions.

So you are, like, a couple hundred of those violations by yourself! Go Seth!

[KLizotte]

@bentbike33 145251 wrote:

I saw the TV version of the report last night. Lots of traffic camera footage of cyclists making real dumb@$$ moves potentially endangering themselves, but no pictures of cyclists endangering others.

I wouldn’t say that is entirely true. A car that swerves or stops suddenly because of a scofflaw cyclist does pose a real risk to other users of the road. Recall the P part of PAL – predictable!

[Author]

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