Park Police Giving Tickets to Cyclists Salmoning In Front of Jefferson This Morning

[dbb]

I came through about 0650 and saw a Park Police ignore one salmon (full disclosure: that was my “crime” last week) while talking in the middle (dead center) of the sidewalk with a Park Service employee. They didn’t seem to acknowledge my presence until I hollered “track” in at them from about 25 feet away.

The enforcement seems to be quite inconsistent. Must not be much of a priority.

[Terpfan]

@essigmw 18456 wrote:

I saw that the park police were out this morning. One of our bretherin was getting a ticket right off of the crosswalk from the 14th street bridge ramp. On a happier note, construction crews were pouring the concrete pad for what I assume will be a large CaBi station. Hope it was just a warning.

I saw them probably an hour later. They were giving a guy on a green maybe more teal framed bike what looked like a ticket. Maybe it was just a warning. I guess to their credit, at least the PP officer was on a bike too. What amuses me is that many times a PP cop car will be blocking one of the two curb cuts where today’s PP officer was presumably telling the guy to go. I’ve also seen the PP on bike salmon at least twice in that same area.

The PP are almost as bad as the SS with their inconsistent enforcement of “don’t ride here” or “ride here.” I’ve been yelled at on two occassions by SS to go ride on the sidewalk by the ellipse, which I find amusing since legally you can’t do that there.

[JeffC]

Yup I saw it too this morning about 8 am. The PP were giving two people tickets.

[acorn]

Um- what is “salmoning” ?

[jrenaut]

@acorn 18493 wrote:

Um- what is “salmoning” ?

Riding “upstream” – wrong way on a one way street, or on the wrong side of the street.

[Justin Antos]

What is the ‘correct’ route to ride there? If you’re coming off the 14th St. Bridge northbound, headed up towards the Mall/downtown, where are you supposed to ride?

[Mikey]

I slow down, and take the first (westernmost) curb-cut, cross to the right diagonally to the caty-corner curb cut and roll down the sidewalks (counter-clockwise around the basin) to get to the mall.

I do it this way to avoid taking any 90 degree turns on the stone curb cut ramps. They are very slippery when wet, and I have almost wiped out a few times. This method allows for a more shallow angle approach to the opposite curb cut, and usually works unless there is a lot of traffic on the street, or like today construction crews have blocked the first ramp.

[dbb]

@essigmw 18504 wrote:

I slow down, and take the first (westernmost) curb-cut, cross to the right diagonally to the caty-corner curb cut and roll down the sidewalks (counter-clockwise around the basin) to get to the mall.

I do it this way to avoid taking any 90 degree turns on the stone curb cut ramps. They are very slippery when wet, and I have almost wiped out a few times. This method allows for a more shallow angle approach to the opposite curb cut, and usually works unless there is a lot of traffic on the street, or like today construction crews have blocked the first ramp.

That is made more exciting by the placement of the traffic cones on the north side of E Basin between the curb cuts. I picked one of them up while riding yesterday and applied it to the jersey barrier yesterday. Alas, it returned.

[Terpfan]

@Justin Antos 18501 wrote:

What is the ‘correct’ route to ride there? If you’re coming off the 14th St. Bridge northbound, headed up towards the Mall/downtown, where are you supposed to ride?

Since you’re south of Constitution Avenue you’re either supposed to ride on Ohio Drive properly (meaning you would go all the way around) or you are permitted to ride on the sidewalk there (you can ride on sidewalks in DC south of Constitution and north of Mass, I forget E/W boundaries). Not to say that folks don’t salmon here all the time, myself on occassion included. Early in the morning the only people driving down this way in non-Cherry Blossom times are trash trucks and PP cars, the latter of which are sometimes conveniently parked blocking the very curb cuts they want you to take.

I couldn’t think of the technical name for Ohio Drive right there so I gooled ‘Jefferson Memorial’ and the map it shows is hilarious, they have the Jefferson Memorial in the placee of the Washington Monument.

[MCL1981]

I was pulled over (lights and siren pulled over, pretty funny) on Little Falls Parkway in Bethesda for that on Monday. Me of all people, the one who yells at people on here for breaking the law and being jerks. I legitimately thought the shoulder in this 1/4 mile piece of road was twice as wide for that reason. Rather than crossing 10 lanes of traffic, I just ride up the wrong way in the southbound double wide shoulder between bike paths. Apparently the letter of the law does not agree with this concept and crossing 10 lanes of speeding traffic is the preferred method….

I agreed with the police officer completely. We chatted for a while about various bike safety stuff in that area. No ticket, didn’t even take my information. I even thanked him for sitting at the crossing and keeping people in check. It really is mostly the peds and cyclists creating the hazard there, not the cars. But it is an example of the pavement markings not jiving with reality and creating a legal conflict.

[Terpfan]

@MCL1981 18514 wrote:

I was pulled over (lights and siren pulled over, pretty funny) on Little Falls Parkway in Bethesda for that on Monday. Me of all people, the one who yells at people on here for breaking the law and being jerks. I legitimately thought the shoulder in this 1/4 mile piece of road was twice as wide for that reason. Rather than crossing 10 lanes of traffic, I just ride up the wrong way in the southbound double wide shoulder between bike paths. Apparently the letter of the law does not agree with this concept and crossing 10 lanes of speeding traffic is the preferred method….

I agreed with the police officer completely. We chatted for a while about various bike safety stuff in that area. No ticket, didn’t even take my information. I even thanked him for sitting at the crossing and keeping people in check. It really is mostly the peds and cyclists creating the hazard there, not the cars. But it is an example of the pavement markings not jiving with reality and creating a legal conflict.

Reading your post made me think that I don’t think there is a sign at East Tidal Basin Drive saying it’s a one way street right there by the Jefferson. In fact, I’m nearly positive there are no do not enter signs right there. If that’s the case, then PP’s tickets would never hold up anyway since there is no signage indicating which way the street runs. Albeit, all of us know, so when you say you know you thereby admit guilt, but still, it’s something for the lurking NPS to consider at the MVT/Jefferson Memorial junction.

[KLizotte]

@Terpfan 18560 wrote:

Reading your post made me think that I don’t think there is a sign at East Tidal Basin Drive saying it’s a one way street right there by the Jefferson. In fact, I’m nearly positive there are no do not enter signs right there. If that’s the case, then PP’s tickets would never hold up anyway since there is no signage indicating which way the street runs. Albeit, all of us know, so when you say you know you thereby admit guilt, but still, it’s something for the lurking NPS to consider at the MVT/Jefferson Memorial junction.

I go through there every day. There aren’t any signs at all indicating that it is a one way when coming off the G. Mason Bridge though the lack of a yellow line does hint that something is up.

I always salmon the 20 or so feet when coming from Hains Pt back to the G. Mason Bridge to get on to the sidewalk. That could be easily fixed via a curb cut before you get to the G. Mason Memorial.

What in the world is NPS going to do when all the tourists hit town this summer and start riding CaBi all over their properties!!!?! It’s gonna be the wild, wild west out there. Start sharpening your spurs folks!

[MCL1981]

I was thinking about hanging boat bumpers all over me and my bike.

[rcannon100]

You have to remember, at our request, we just went through a period of “enhanced enforcement.” Some senior keystone told the junior keystones – ‘enhance your enforcement.’ And this is what we got. Enhanced enforcement of laws that make no sense and have little to do with safety – in traffic scenarios where the infrastructure design is flawed.

Well the period of enhanced enforcement is, I believe, over.

And we are once again met with the terrible separation between compliance with traffic laws – and anything that actually has to do with traffic safety. The two are only occasionally in alignment.

[dbb]

@rcannon100 18576 wrote:

You have to remember, at our request, we just went through a period of “enhanced enforcement.” Some senior keystone told the junior keystones – ‘enhance your enforcement.’

I would be cool with “enhanced enforcement” if the Park Police enhanced the enforcement on all users of Park Service property. Getting sped by by motorists on the mall, cut off by busses, and enjoying the traffic mess that is the mall in the afternoon as it serves as a commuter route (all with no apparent enforcement enhancements), I get the idea cyclists are the only targets.

[Author]

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