Stop signs at crosswalks. Do you yield to cars?

[5555624]

Natural selection — let the cars take care of the nimrods on the trail who refuse to stop. (This is also the solution for cyclists who run red lights.)

Making it safer involves common sense and that’s no longer common. If there is a STOP sign, then stop — whether you’re a driver or a cyclist. Just slowing down or a “rolling stop” (and that’s akin to “a little bit pregnant”) doesn’t cut it. That said, on the MVT, if there are no cars or a sufficient gap, I don’t stop. but I always plan on stopping. If there are cars, I stop. If a car stops and motions me across, I usually motion for it to go ahead. (I don’t trust the cars in the other lane to stop.) I rarely ever actually dismount and walk my bike across,

Before proceeding, after stopping, look both ways. If the road is one-way, as a cyclist, you can ignore one direction, although I see drivers ignore one-sway streets all the time. (Yes, daily.) As a driver, the trails are two-way, so a cyclist can be coming from either direction. All to often, a drier making a right doesn’t look to the right. (In fact, I assume they will not, whether I am on my bike or walking.)

You mention the W&OD and MVT, but the Custis Trail is where cyclists blow though intersections and drivers, especially at Lynn Street, don’t even bother to look at the crosswalk when they’re making a right on red.

[Dirt]

Saw someone get naturally selected today. Not a pleasant experience for anyone involved. It was at an intersection where someone was questioning why there was any enforcement at all. I guess that answers the question.

Love,

Pete

[WillStewart]

I always yield to cars, unless they stop and wave me on. This ONLY works if all other lanes of cars have no traffic or follow suit in the same manner. I always give a hearty thumbs up and cheery “Thank you!” to return the thoughtful gesture.

[acc]

I don’t mean to be blunt. Well, yes I do but it’s early and I am undercaffeinated and upset that a cyclist is hurt. I have a simple approach.

I don’t want to die on a bike.

That means I ride within my limits.

I use my own judgment at an intersection no matter how many times I hear “clear.”

I am always ready to stop at an intersection. And yes, this slows me down a lot — tough.

I will lay my bike down if I have the slightest doubt about whether a car is coming up on me too fast and what looked clear a moment ago suddenly looks iffy.

I don’t tangle with things bigger than I am.

(Hooking up the caffeine bolus now)
Please watch yourselves.

ann

[CCrew]

@acc 5953 wrote:

I don’t mean to be blunt. Well, yes I do but it’s early and I am undercaffeinated and upset that a cyclist is hurt. I have a simple approach.

I don’t want to die on a bike.

That means I ride within my limits.

I use my own judgment at an intersection no matter how many times I hear “clear.”

I am always ready to stop at an intersection. And yes, this slows me down a lot — tough.

I will lay my bike down if I have the slightest doubt about whether a car is coming up on me too fast and what looked clear a moment ago suddenly looks iffy.

All fair statements.

I don’t think any of us can say we’ve never rolled a stop, or in retrospect done a boneheaded maneuver. And Ann’s right… You can’t trust anyone but yourself to determine what’s safe.

As to cars. They don’t have to stop in most cases especially on the W&OD. There are a lot of very courteous drivers however that will. That can be deceptive in that unless you can be sure that ALL lanes involved are stopped proceeding can still render the accident your fault. When I first started commuting I saw a guy hit in just that fashion. Two lanes of traffic stopped and someone in the rear of the line was inconvenienced and cut right around the stopped cars hitting the rider. As a result I will frequently wave on a stopped or stopping car. It’s not fun seeing a fellow rider down and even less fun being that rider. I’ve beaten enough statistical odds in my lifetime that I try not to tempt too many any more.

[eminva]

I have no experience on the MVT or GW Parkway.

On the Custis I always obey the bicycle traffic signals (and stop at Quinn), but coming outbound I look over my shoulder at N. Oak Street even if I have the green light to make sure I don’t get right hooked.

On the W&OD — At a minimum, I do a rolling stop and am always prepared to come to a full stop. In Falls Church, there are a lot of intersections and some of them have little traffic so if I can go through with a rolling stop, that’s what I do. When motorists stop and motion me through, I check the other direction and if clear, I proceed. If not clear, I’ll wait and often the oncoming motorist will see the first guy stopped and come to a stop, too.

Not sure what can be done to make it safer. I’ve long thought that public safety officials need to do a better job of educating the public about what those zebra-stripey lines across a street mean (and not just limited to places that are trail crossings, the same holds true in marked crossings across the city and suburbs).

Liz

[Dirt]

I stop at the red lights. I come very close to stopping at the stop signs. If there are obviously no cars or cross traffic, I’ll roll through. I come close to getting rear-ended almost every day on the Custis trail when I stop at signs and red lights.

[5555624]

@Dirt 5971 wrote:

I stop at the red lights. I come very close to stopping at the stop signs. If there are obviously no cars or cross traffic, I’ll roll through. I come close to getting rear-ended almost every day on the Custis trail when I stop at signs and red lights.

Change “almost every day on” to “most of the time when I ride” and that describes my experience, too.

Just the other day, I was waiting for traffic — not on the Custis Trail — when someone rolled up behind me. Obviously impatient, I told him to go ahead. (I’ve seen this nimrod before and he routinely runs red lights.) He zipped right out and almost got hit. The driver looked at me and I just shrugged my shoulders and shook my head.

[StopMeansStop]

The GW parkway situation is the scariest. Someone died a few months ago because a car slammed on the brakes and the car behind went off the road and took a jogger out.

[5555624]

@StopMeansStop 5975 wrote:

The GW parkway situation is the scariest. Someone died a few months ago because a car slammed on the brakes and the car behind went off the road and took a jogger out.

Was that at a designated crossing? The other big problem with the GW Parkway is the people that decide to cross it, like just north of Memorial Bridge.

[txgoonie]

I was actually thinking about exactly this issue this past weekend while on the WOD! Made me wonder what the exact rules of crosswalks are.

It was later morning, prime time. Tons of ped and bike traffic. At one of the crossings in Falls Church, cars were stopped as a steady stream of walkers and cyclists on the trail ignored the stop sign and happily proceeded across the street. It was a total roadblock. Meanwhile the cars were backing up, and drivers were getting frustrated. I felt their pain, honestly. People were being seriously oblivious. I stopped and waved the waiting cars on (and then went when it was safe, of course:).

I’ll hook onto the heels of a walker in the crosswalk if the cars are already stopped b/c I’m not costing them anymore time and they’re not a danger (I will cop to that infraction). But a stop is a stop no matter the type of traffic.

Here’s a question for clarification, though: a crosswalk gives you protection once you’re in it, but it doesn’t give you permission to walk out in front of cars, right? I’ve seen so many people not even look up from their cell phones b/c they’re entering a crosswalk. Wonder if I’m missing something.

[Jsnyd]

I rode the WOD yesterday for the first time. YAY!. There are plenty of drivers who are very courteous to all people on the trail and I am pleased by that, but that kind of irritates me as well. Ill explain. Having had my time in the service, I like to follow the rules if there are rules set. I may roll a stop sign if I can obviously see there is nothing around me, but other than that I come to a complete stop. At least really really close to one. So when I come to a stop sign, unclip and stop just to find a car stopping for me at a place he/she doesn’t have a stop sign, I get irritated when it happens over and over. It creates confusion. Since it happens so frequently, I almost expect cars to stop now. I even came to a few stop signs stopping and waving cars on (like I thought I should in the first place) to see what would happen. Even if they already stopped I would wave them on, and that seems to irritate drivers even more haha! Madness. Sorry you had to put a 1/2 pound of pressure on your break to stop your hybrid while the entire day I’m gaining momentum and wasting energy knowing I have to stop just to be waved on. Thank you for being so kind and patient to allow me to pass through, but I would much rather see you slow a bit just to be cautious and then continue on. Then I can time it out so providing there aren’t any other cars, I can just roll through after you pass. Just my two cents haha.

[eminva]

@Jsnyd 5986 wrote:

I rode the WOD yesterday for the first time. YAY!

Welcome to the W&OD!

@Jsnyd 5986 wrote:

Having had my time in the service, I like to follow the rules if there are rules set.

In Falls Church, there are signs in the middle of the street at all the W&OD crossings reminding drivers that by state law, they should yield to trail users. And yet trail users have stop signs. Even if everyone tried to follow the rules, there would be confusion, or a lot of people stopping and waiting for someone else to go. Add to that the fact that so many drivers and trail users make no attempt to follow the rules, and it can get complicated quickly.

I have also experienced near misses at intersections where I am stopping and the cyclist behind me wants to speed ahead. I’ve started to anticipate this scenario and if I hear or see another cyclist right behind me, I slow down as I approach the intersection so they have the opportunity to pass me before we get there. I go so slowly down the hill at Rosslyn that no one could possibly be surprised that I stop at the intersections, too.

Liz

[RESTONTODC]

YES. According to a city of Falls Church police officer, the cyclists must stop and yield for the cars because we (cyclists) have the stop sign and cars don’t have the stop sign. There are the signs in the middle of the street said “Yield for pedestrian”, not for cyclists. The Virginia law also says yield for pedestrian in crosswalk, it doesn’t say anything about the cyclists.

About three weeks ago, I stopped at the stop sign on WOD at N West St in Falls Church. A lady saw me and stopped but guy in rear slam into her hard and pushes her car through the crosswalk. It looks like he didn’t even apply his brake.

He got out and yelled at her “why did you stop?” She was scared and shocked. I got my bike and yelled back to him and tell him to get back in his car. I called the police. When the police arrived, he asked why she stopped. It was her fault that she stopped. He told her that the cyclist has stop sign not her. Luckily, there was a jogger in the crosswalk on the opposite street. I provided my information as a witness and move on. Hopefully, she doesn’t have to be responsible for the accident. I wish know the outcome of it.

Now, I learned that the drivers yield for us are taking a risk. They could be responsible for an accident.

[StopMeansStop]

@5555624 5977 wrote:

Was that at a designated crossing? The other big problem with the GW Parkway is the people that decide to cross it, like just north of Memorial Bridge.

It was at a designated crossing, which like the trails have STOP signs for the trail users. The problem is that drivers either don’t realize the pedestrians are required to wait, or they want to be nice and allow them to cross. While I applaud their civility to their fellow man, they are really making the situation far more dangerous.

No good deed goes unpunished….

[Author]

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