Once again being our own worst enemy….

[justasaintz]

Actually, I was told a year ago that there was cop handing out tickets to cyclists who did not stop at stop-sign outside kalorama park. Luckily I have not seen them and hope not to! though I stop at all stop signs

[MCL1981]

@washcycle 15266 wrote:

None of which is illegal.[/quote]
I didn’t say it wasn’t. It is stupid and dangerous.

@washcycle 15266 wrote:

I’m not sure how exaggeration is helpful. Cyclists rarely hit pedestrians. And certainly not “usually”. Have you even seen a cyclist hit a pedestrian. I have exactly once – on a trail.[/quote]
And making the peds have jump out of the way, dodging the nutcase on wheels is much better? Making cross traffic have to weave or slam on the brakes is better? Running the red light is better?

@washcycle 15266 wrote:

They don’t give me a bad name.

Yes, they do give you a bad name. You’re just in denial about it. Whatever makes you feel better.

[mstone]

@MCL1981 15374 wrote:

And making the peds have jump out of the way, dodging the nutcase on wheels is much better? Making cross traffic have to weave or slam on the brakes is better? Running the red light is better?

Yes, all of those things are better than actually killing people. Which, for some reason, garners less attention from police and “reporters”.

[MCL1981]

That could be because murder is common enough to be considered normal behavior. Think about it, if someone gets murdered, people “oh, again?”. If someone on a bike cuts them off in an intersection, they say “Damn WTF is wrong with that guy, he’s going to cause an accident and hurt someone.”

[StopMeansStop]

Someone should do a story on how the WJLA traffic van causes rubberneckers on the side of the road while reporting a story.

[washcycle]

@MCL1981 15374 wrote:

It is stupid and dangerous.

I disagree on both counts. Can you cite a time when someone in DC was injured doing it?

@MCL1981 15374 wrote:

Yes, they do give you a bad name. You’re just in denial about it. Whatever makes you feel better.

Well, we have an old-fashioned disagreement here. Can you prove they give me a bad name? Since you seem so sure.

If every time someone in a group I’m associated does something bad it gives me a “bad name” then I’m in trouble, because I’m half German. And you know who else is German right?

That’s right, Roland Emmerich. Did you see “Day After Tomorrow”? Talk about giving me a bad name….

[MCL1981]

If you think that what I described is not dangerous and reckless behavior, then I’m not even going to bother responding to your followup. You’re not worth it. You aren’t looking for a solution to the problems. You are the problems. And nothing I or anyone else says on the internet will change the mind of someone so thickheaded.

[CCrew]

How about we agree to disagree.

[rcannon100]

I only read the article, didnt watch the vid…. but I gotta say, I think you are over reacting.

This is a transportation infrastructure made for cars and trucks. We do not make cars comply with truck laws. We do not make trucks comply with train laws. We do not make trains comply with plain laws. We do not make vehicles comply with transportation infrastructure laws for an infrastructure not built for them. And yet, miraculously, a 50 lbs bike that has a foot print a fraction of a car, and a maximum speed a fraction of a car – and which can cause damage a fraction of a car – must comply with car laws.

No. I am a rogue cyclists. I dont stop at stop signs in my neighborhood where I can see all ways (of course none of the cars do). I bicycle the wrong way down the road at work – because that is the only way the infrastructure lets me get to work. Yes, I will go through a pointless red light.

When bike infrastructure starts getting built for bikes – when the custis trail is under the transportation dept and not the park dept – then maybe.

[MCL1981]

I do all that too. Rolling a stop sign in a rural neighborhood when you can clearly see there are no cars coming in either direction is not the same as pedaling down the dotted white line on Penn, splitting moving traffic, running a red light cutting off buses, and making pedestrians jump out your way.

[mstone]

@MCL1981 15408 wrote:

That could be because murder is common enough to be considered normal behavior. Think about it, if someone gets murdered, people “oh, again?”. If someone on a bike cuts them off in an intersection, they say “Damn WTF is wrong with that guy, he’s going to cause an accident and hurt someone.”

I’m talking about killing people with cars. Until something is done about automobile road safety, it is foolish for a single dime or a single news story or a single thought on all the scary dangerous cyclist behavior that, statistically/factually, doesn’t kill people the way cars do. Now, if you want to, you can buy into the dangerous bicycle meme, but I’m not going to waste time thinking about that versus SUVs flying off 66 onto neighborhood streets in Arlington without slowing down–it is just so incredibly less likely that I could get killed by a bike hitting me in an intersection than that damn SUV that it simply doesn’t bear consideration. If you are really interested in pedestrian safety, then push for a cop to stand at every major intersection and ticket every car that cuts off pedestrians in an intersection so it can make a left turn on yellow. THAT will make us ALL safer.

[MCL1981]

I’m not suggesting that we’re a larger problem than bad drivers. Obviously, I think WE all know the bad drivers are the more dangerous and widespread problem. But the fact remains we’re UNIQUE and that means we get the spotlight. Do you really think bad cyclists causing bad press is going to help when our politicians want to cut funding from biking infrastructure?

[baiskeli]

We should never defend bad behavior by cyclists.

[mstone]

I think encouraging the tendency to focus hyperbole on ultimately unimportant problems is equally unlikely to help anything. Would it help if I wrung my hands and shouted “WOE IS US”? Then I’d be allowed to get past something I can’t do anything about and which doesn’t hurt society as a whole and get back to focusing on something that actually matters?

[dasgeh]

@rcannon100 15419 wrote:

We do not make cars comply with truck laws. We do not make trucks comply with train laws. We do not make trains comply with plain laws.

I think this gets closer to the point here, but doesn’t quite get it — the LAWS aren’t written with bikes in mind. There are laws generally applicable to all vehicles on the road, including cars, trucks and bikes. There are sometimes differences in those laws for different classes of vehicles — e.g. speeds limits on certain highways, licenses, passing laws that apply only to bikes (i.e, DC allowing bikes to ride on the left of stopped cars up to a red light). Personally, I think we should continue to look for ways to change the laws to make everyone safer. I think having an Idaho stop and a reasonable go-on-red-if-you’ve-stopped-and-waited-for-a-minute-and-it’s-safe law would make things more safe, primarily because it would make the sensible and efficient way of cycling legal. If you look at the NBC coverage of the accident at U & 11, you see that cyclists basically saying they do the Idaho stop. It’s a short hop from “this makes sense but I have to break the law to do it” to “why not break all the laws that inconvenience me, since they’re not written for me in mind”. Write laws with cyclists in mind, and you take away that excuse.

BTW, I love the Freudian slip at the end — I agree that we don’t enforce PLAIN laws, like obeying speed limits, stopping at stops, yielding at crosswalks. But I think we should.

@MCL1981 15413 wrote:

You’re not worth it. You aren’t looking for a solution to the problems. You are the problems. And nothing I or anyone else says on the internet will change the mind of someone so thickheaded.

MCL1981, more importantly, you seem to be personally attacking those who disagree with you. How is Washcycle “the problem”? I’ve pleaded with you before and I’ll plead with you again, please be civil on this forum. I like this forum. I hope we can continue to realize that we’re all people, and while we may not always agree with one another, we all deserve respect.

[Author]

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