Police Car Strikes Cyclists in Alexandria

[MFC]

Coverage on FABB’s response to the Fairfax County Police Chief from Covering the Corridor.

https://coveringthecorridor.com/2019/05/fabb-letter-fcpd-chief-roessler/

[huskerdont]

Outside Magazine article about this that uses words that fit my feelings on ticketing someone for being run over.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2395560/its-time-ban-right-red-drivers

[dasgeh]

@huskerdont 190590 wrote:

Outside Magazine article about this that uses words that fit my feelings on ticketing someone for being run over.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2395560/its-time-ban-right-red-drivers

“The whole “same rights and responsibilities” thing is a load of crap, and the few remaining vehicular cyclists who espouse it are the advocacy equivalent of those weird cats who use the toilet.”

[Crickey7]

One can agree about no right on red without thinking that Idaho Stop is anything but an awful idea. Idaho Stop is like if the worst enemy of cycling had a mind ray that convinced us to fixate on the most ill considered piece of advocacy possible.

[DismalScientist]

@dasgeh 190640 wrote:

“The whole “same rights and responsibilities” thing is a load of crap, and the few remaining vehicular cyclists who espouse it are the advocacy equivalent of those weird cats who use the toilet.”

Thanks for the gratuitous insult. Perhaps one should ask whether reducing cyclist responsibilities will help or hurt driver/cyclist relationships.

[n18]

@DismalScientist 190652 wrote:

Thanks for the gratuitous insult. Perhaps one should ask whether reducing cyclist responsibilities will help or hurt driver/cyclist relationships.

I don’t think that dasgeh meant it as an insult, her entire post is a quote from the article that huskerdont posted.

[DismalScientist]

Sorry, I apologize, but I still think Bikesnob’s statement is counterproductive. Judging from Streetview, this looks like a substandard sidewalk only going south from the intersection.
I suggest one thinks of this from a driver’s perspective. To make a turn from a side street (right on red or not) and be perfectly safe, one has to look both left and right simultaneously. One might need to pull into the crosswalk to get the proper sightlines down the sidewalk. If you are travelling at a significant speed, either as a jogger or cyclist, you are at risk of not being seen. My take on this, as a defensive cyclist, I will not ride on sidewalks at any significant speed, particularly near intersections. I will always try to make eye contact with any driver’s that might hit me.

(Yes, I realize that most cycling options in that area suck.)

[AnneLagarde]

Omg! That’s ridiculous.

[mstone]

@DismalScientist 190655 wrote:

Sorry, I apologize, but I still think Bikesnob’s statement is counterproductive. Judging from Streetview, this looks like a substandard sidewalk only going south from the intersection.
I suggest one thinks of this from a driver’s perspective. To make a turn from a side street (right on red or not) and be perfectly safe, one has to look both left and right simultaneously

Bull. I stand at intersections and watch drivers making turns on red. They don’t come to a complete stop. They don’t look right and left simultaneously, they never look right at all. If they weren’t jerks and they did look right and see someone standing there trying to cross, they’d stop before they entered the crosswalk. But they are jerks and they don’t stop. So don’t talk about how they “need to pull into the crosswalk”–they just don’t GAF and weren’t planning to ever leave the crosswalk open, because their right turn on red is more important than anyone outside a car. As a defensive cyclist/pedestrian I’ve taught my kids to never, ever expect a driver to honor their right of way at a crosswalk, which sucks to have to do. For added irony, I use the intersection next to their school as a demonstration.

This is why “equal rights and responsibilities” is a load of crap–drivers drive like crap, and that’s normal so it’s ok. If cyclists cycle like crap, they’re at fault and should have been following the rules. Or if they were following the rules and the driver wasn’t we’ll either make something up or wring our hands and explain that this is why it isn’t safe to go anywhere except in a car. It’s been more than 100 years since drivers took over the roads that cyclists built, and all the blathering about equal rights and responsibilities hasn’t worked yet. But maybe if we keep doing the same useless crap in the same useless way, next year will be different?

[DismalScientist]

I wasn’t suggesting thinking from the driver’s perspective as an act of empathy, but rather as way to avoid being hurt.

As far as the equal rights and responsibilities stuff, do you think of pedestrians being vulnerable relative to cyclists? If so, you should have problem with a law assigning all blame for cyclist/pedestrian collisions on the cyclist even if the pedestrian stepped off a curb out into the cyclist’s path.

[Author]

Posts