Should I report this bad DC cop?

[KLizotte]

Grrrrrrr….I’m still seething with anger as I write this. Please tell me if I’m being overly sensitive or if I should report this cop to his superiors. I think his actions were highly disrespectful and unprofessional.

This evening at 6:00 pm I was riding down the Pennsylvania Ave bike lanes heading west. There was a young guy about 12 ft in front of me (helmet on, riding responsibly/legally, no more than 9-10 mph). We passed thru the intersection at Penn and 14th with no problem. While we were on the straightaway, a westbound car suddenly decides to do a U turn on Penn Ave in order to get a parking space on the other side of the road. She didn’t even look or slow down before performing this manuever and aimed straight at the guy in front of me who miraculously managed to avert catastophe by doing a sharp defensive manuever. I still can’t believe he pulled it off. She missed him by inches and she was moving fast, very fast.

He stopped, I stopped, another driver who saw the incident slowed down and said “wow, that was insane. You should report it to the cop back there.” I looked and saw that there was indeed a cop just a few car lengths away talking with someone (the cop had his back to the street so didn’t witness the incident). Unfortunately this witness drove away (don’t even get me started on how irresponsible that was).

The other biker appeared to be shell shocked so I took command of the situation. I said let’s go tell the cop what happened before the crazy person drives away (she had parked near the intersection). Turns out she wanted the space so she could help some folks empty out one of those little sidewalk carts selling pizza, ice cream. She seemed completely oblivious to what had just happened and had also parked illegally next to a fire hydrant halfway in a tow zone. She didn’t even to seem to notice that the biker was still in roughly the same spot where she almost squished him. Did she see him at all?

The cop was dealing with a fender bender car accident (this was not immediately obvious to me). All I see is a cop standing by the road talking to someone. The cop looks up at me and says “yes?” I say that I just witnessed “that driver over there nearly ran over this biker by doing a U-turn and I want to report it.” I also mention that all of the other people sitting on a bench nearby must have seen the incident as well. I was breathless and upset at the crazy driver but that was about all at this point. I just wanted the cop to know that a very bad thing had just happened and the “perp” was standing right over there (did I mention parked illegally?).

This is when the trouble starts. 😡

The cop immediately puts the biker and me “in our place” since “can’t we tell that he is already busy with another accident, that he will get to us later, and to get the heck out of the road (even though we were both on the correct side of the white line).” The tone and attitude was *extremely* confrontational, disrespectful, and unprofessional. The biker and I were both shocked and were like, “what the h*ll”? The cop was clearly pissed off that we had interrupted what he was doing and that we had little right to do so.

We waited, and waited….the fender bender was minor, people were already on the phone with their loved ones/insurance company when we got there, no injuries, it was not a big deal. The cop was only taking statements. We waited patiently for 30 minutes while the admin work continued all the while becoming increasingly anxious that the crazy lady would drive away (they were packing up the cart at that point). All of the other witnesses on the bench had left by then which I was quite disheartened to see.

Finally when the crazy driver got out her keys and looked like she was getting ready to leave I called out to the cop that she was getting ready to drive off. At that point he sort of lost his temper and and with a very ticked off voice said “can’t you see I’m taking care of someone else right now?!”, “I didn’t see anything so I can’t do anything about it.” “I’ll get to you when I get to you.” The entire message/tone was: “get lost, this fender bender is more important” (he’d just called a tow truck).

Finally I started complaining loudly to the biker (by now he was really shell shocked) about how ridiculous this whole situation is; that we simply want him to go talk to the driver and put the fear of god into her before she escaped. How could the paperwork of this fender bender be more important than letting a dangerous driver get away? Why didn’t he call for backup?

I think he overheard us because he finally gave us a look of disgust and said “fine, I’ll go talk to her.” He crossed the street and had a one minute chat with her; they seemed to be discussing how to drive around the block, she didn’t look upset or remorseful at all, and kind of shrugged at the end so I don’t think he said much of anything of consequence.

He then comes over to the biker and me and says “well, I talked to her and I must repeat, I cannot issue a warning or ticket since I didn’t see anything.” At which point I ask point blank, “isn’t it illegal to do a U-turn here (pointing)?” “Yes,” he replies, “it is illegal to do a U-turn in the bike lanes.” Well, “didn’t she admit to doing a U-turn here?” I ask. I then pointed out that he would have had plenty of witnesses if he had simply asked the people across the street. He looks even more pissed off and indignant and continues to repeat that unless he sees something happen, he can’t do anything about it. I then replied, “fine, so that means cars can do whatever the hell they want so long as a cop doesn’t see it irrespective of the number of witnesses or who gets hurt. Unbelievable.” He then goes on a tirade about how I was wrong for interrupting the accident he was attending to, that I should have seen that he was already busy, and for the last time, he couldn’t/wasn’t going to deal with a bike/car incident if he didn’t witness it. Case closed.

At this point, he walked away. I tried to find an identifier on him but only caught his car number (1041). I realized afterwards that I should have asked for his badge number.

The other biker looked at me and said “Good god, would he have done anything if I’d actually been hit?” This cop surely would have found a way to blame the cyclist if such a tragedy had occured I’m sure. Please note that the cop never asked if anyone was hurt so he had no way of knowing whether the cyclist had actually fallen or been pushed over (he clearly didn’t care either way).

I fully admit that I don’t know what the law states about issuing warnings in these situations in DC; however, that wasn’t really the point. I don’t care about some piece of paper a cop might write. What I did expected was the following:

1) Ask if anyone was hurt or hit the ground.

2) If the law really ties his hands: He could have said in a nice, compassionate voice: “Unless I actually see the incident the law doesn’t allow me take action against the accused BUT I still want to take a statement from you so we can have it on record. Are there any other witnesses? Please wait here while I finish up this accident and I’ll get to you as quickly as I can. I’m really sorry about the delay and that this happened to you.”

3) If the law does allow him to do something about the matter: “OK, I need to take care of this accident first but I’ll tell the driver and witnesses not to move until I talk to them so I can take a statement/issue a warning/talk with the driver, etc.” (Personally I don’t think calling a tow truck is that high a priority given that the disabled vehicle was out of the way in a parking lane but what the heck).

Even if he couldn’t issue a warning/ticket, get the facts from the biker and witnesses then have a firm talk with the driver about how she put someone else’s life at risk (this is very important because it seems reasonable to assume she parks there every night to clear out the food cart). Getting her to apologize to the biker would have been a nice move too.

3) At a minimum, issue the driver a ticket for parking next to a fire hydrant (I’m sure he didn’t notice since that fender bender was so darn important!).

4) Don’t treat victims (and witnesses who are trying to do the right thing) like they are both in the wrong for bothering you nor expect them to know the details of DC law. I think it is a rather normal for an ordinary citizen to expect a cop to take a commonsensical and immediate action when you point out that a crime has just occured and that the accused is standing right over there.

5) Write up the incident so at least there will be a record somewhere. Call polie backup if necessary for the paperwork or take name/phone numbers.

6) Don’t treat cyclists like second class citizens. I definitely got the impression that the SUV with the banged up door was far more important than cyclists getting run over. He seemed rather surprised/annoyed that we hung around for 45 minutes trying to get this issue resolved.

In retrospect, the biker and I should have just gone straight to the crazy driver and chewed her out royally. It would have been faster and far more effective and probably would have made us feel much better about the whole situation. Turns out “going thru appropriate channels” is a waste of time. Next time I’ll know better.

Sorry for the rant; I needed to get it out of my system. Helps keep me from focusing on how close I was to getting squished like a bug today. I used to think the Penn Ave bike lanes were really safe; now I think they should install heavy barriers along them to prevent cars from trying to cross over the lanes. This would also prevent cyclists from doing crazy stuff too.

Beware of cop cars with 1041 on the side and avoid Penn/14th at 6:00 pm.

Kathy

Topic

[Greenbelt]

Frustrating to see so many illegal u-turns on Penn. Ave. So unnecessary, since you can usually just go down a block and u-turn legally at the light. Extending the bollards between intersections could help.

The most dangerous (to cyclists) driving I see on my commute usually involves cars or work trucks circling blocks or making crazy turns trying to snag “free” curbside parking spots.

In my opinion, the indifference of the police is infuriating, but the design of streets to create a lottery or goldrush system for “free” curbside parking is what is really crazy. We need those lane-miles for transportation purposes — people can park their cars in parking garages.

I’d love to see some of those “free” parking lanes converted in to traffic lanes, wider sidewalks, or cycletracks, or designated only for bus or taxi pickup, disabled permits only, that sort of thing. Too many drivers just cruising around clogging downtown streets and driving erratically trying to score free or cheap-metered parking at the curb.

Washcycle had a piece on a certain city council member pulling an illegal u-turn through the Penn. Ave. bike lanes a couple weeks ago: http://www.thewashcycle.com/2011/08/wednesday-morning-commute-hes-so-barry.html

[jrenaut]

I sent an email along with a link to this thread to my councilmember (Jim Graham, Ward 1). I’d really like to see enforcement of all modes of transportation. Cars making illegal turns, pedestrians jaywalking, and cyclists blowing lights.

[OneEighth]

Report him to MPDC.

If you don’t report inappropriate behavior, management has no opportunity to take corrective action and I am certain that they would much rather deal with it now than wait until an officer with questionable judgement makes a (pardon me) much more serious and news-worthy mistake.

[jrenaut]

From the WashCycle: DC Council to hold hearing on enforcement of pedestrian and bicycle safety

By the way, Jim Graham has not responded to my email, and will get an annoyed follow-up tomorrow if that doesn’t change.

[KLizotte]

To Greenbelt:

I agree with you 100% and couldn’t have stated the case better myself.

Just before the “incident” I was thinking how great the Penn Ave bike lanes were (out of the way of traffic and peds) – it never even occured to me that someone would even consider driving through them, much less actually do so. I have since googled the topic and found out that it is a common driver practice. Very scary. It’s also aggravating/concerning that the Commission of Fine Arts stopped add’l safety measures from being implemented due to aethestic reasons.

I’m sure that cyclist was shocked to see a car pulling a U-turn with a dragging bumper.

I wonder if there is someway to plant trees in buffer medians along the bike lanes. That would look nice and provide safety.

[KLizotte]

@jrenaut 8513 wrote:

I sent an email along with a link to this thread to my councilmember (Jim Graham, Ward 1). I’d really like to see enforcement of all modes of transportation. Cars making illegal turns, pedestrians jaywalking, and cyclists blowing lights.

Thanks so much for doing this.

I think enforcement is only a stop gap measure though. I think revising the infrastructure so that it completely removes the option to do something dangerous by the driver/cyclist/ped is the only long-term solution. Better car technology should help with that since they are moving to having radar features that automatically slow or stop the car when it gets too close a physical object. Can’t come fast enough!

[Dirt]

I walk across and ride along the Penna Ave Cycleway daily. EVERY time I encounter it, I experience drivers, walkers and cyclists doing stupid and dangerous things. My favorite is the cabby that has figured out that he can hit the fiberglass poles that divide the lanes near some of the intersections and drive over them without visibly damaging his car. This gives him his own “special” lane that others don’t normally use.

Fortunately I see pedestrians and cyclists abiding by the spirit of the rules of the cycleway more and more. Things with peds and cyclists have improved a lot over the last 6 months. Drivers are still a problem…. as is evidenced by this thread.

[americancyclo]

If cars aren’t making illegal u-turns mid-block, then they’re doing it in the intersections, and cutting cyclists off in the process. It’s something I’ve learned to live with riding the Penn Ave lanes almost as much as Dirt. I’ve actually changed my westbound commute pattern so I can avoid these lanes in the evening unless I’m specifically meeting up with someone. Independence Ave has more traffic, but at least it flows better and is marginally more predictable.

[jrenaut]

@americancyclo 8580 wrote:

I’ve actually changed my westbound commute pattern so I can avoid these lanes in the evening unless I’m specifically meeting up with someone. Independence Ave has more traffic, but at least it flows better and is marginally more predictable.

This is infuriating (not you, the fact that you felt you had to make this choice) – experienced cyclists choosing not to use the dedicated bike facilities because they feel safer riding on another street in traffic.

[americancyclo]

@jrenaut 8582 wrote:

This is infuriating (not you, the fact that you felt you had to make this choice) – experienced cyclists choosing not to use the dedicated bike facilities because they feel safer riding on another street in traffic.

It is mostly due to the fact that the signal timing is off, making the bike lanes painfully slow. Independence is timed reasonably well, and from point A to B, it can make up to a ten minute difference. Also, crazy U turn drivers.

[jrenaut]

The signal timing is annoying. Though if it were timed differently I fear it would become a racetrack (more so than it already is) and the u-turns would get worse.

[cephas]

I almost got hit by a u-turn taxi just yesterday morning, about 6:55 am. In my experience, taxis are the worst offenders, and I’ve seen them making u-turns accross the bike lane on more than one occasion. I had to stop defensively and yell at the guy. He was paying absolutely no attention to bike lane traffic.

The bike lanes need to be highlighted more. Maybe yellow lines on either side, instead of white lines, and bright yellow signs to beware of cyclists. Oh, and if it’s not too much to ask, a little enforcement would be really, really nice. (That said, I don’t fault the original story cop much. He was on another call, and there was no emergency at either. I would think protocol would be to continue on the first, even if he does need to learn manners.)

[CCrew]

@cephas 8603 wrote:

I would think protocol would be to continue on the first, even if he does need to learn manners.)

I would think protocol would be to call in another officer to cover it, but maybe that’s too much to ask….

[Tim Kelley]

On the topic of U-turns, I was at a WABA meeting last night, and from what I understand it came up that in DC mid-block u-turns are legal, even through the bike lane. I’ve been trying to find some more information on this, but navigating the DC traffic codes isn’t easy and Google doesn’t help much.

Can anyone confirm??

[KLizotte]

@Tim Kelley 8621 wrote:

On the topic of U-turns, I was at a WABA meeting last night, and from what I understand it came up that in DC mid-block u-turns are legal, even through the bike lane. I’ve been trying to find some more information on this, but navigating the DC traffic codes isn’t easy and Google doesn’t help much.

Can anyone confirm??

I haven’t found anything definitive on Google either though I suppose a thorough reading of DCMR is in order. I read through WABA’s Pocket Guide to Washington, DC Bike Laws this morning and came across this paragraph:

Are cars allowed in bus/bike lanes?

“According to the CDMR Section 2220, the Director of the District Dept of Transportation is authorized to designate any traffic lane on any roadway for the exclusive use of a single class or combination of classes of vehicles during certain hours. During the restricted hours, any vehicle may enter a restricted right curb lane solely for the purposes of taking on or discharging passengers or to make a right turn where a right turn is not otherwise prohibed by any official traffic control device.”

I suppose that might be interpreted by taxi drivers as giving them the right to do u-turns to pick up/drop off passengers.

I strongly suspect that unless there is a sign explicitly forbidding U-turns thru bike lanes that it is legal. I think this is because the laws simply haven’t caught up with the new cycling infrastructure.

[Author]

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