[Bill Sweetman]

Three pages into the thread:

I’m accused of “looking for a fight” when my initial post was responding to a snide, demeaning mis-reading of what I had written.

Two contributors here concede that the biker may have been at fault, although one goes on to accuse me of writing garbage.

(In fact, I’m now convinced he was 100% at fault. He was not on a dedicated bike trail; well marked bike lanes were available to his destination; and consequently he should have been prepared to concede right of way to any pedestrian. He should no more have expected bike-trail rules to apply than if we was on a sidewalk.)

Pretty much everyone else seems to think bikers can do no wrong and are maligned martyrs to the cause of Mother Earth. Brendan von Buckingham doesn’t care that I got knocked over as much as he cares about The Cause.

I have no intention of shutting down biking. I still think it’s fair to ask why an experienced bike commuter has no sense of how long he’s going to take to stop, doesn’t carry insurance and/or doesn’t acknowledge legal responsibility. I think it’s fair to suggest that if you are riding a machine that can injure someone, you ensure that you can deal with the consequences of any accident you cause.

[Bill Sweetman]

Seriously, Crickey, do you think that any of your comments (here or on WAPO) actually increase non-biker support for WABA’s policy and spending recommendations?

Because I would be extremely surprised if they did.

And Leprosy: Have a nice day.

[Bill Sweetman]

I am truly sorry you were hit,

I accept that. You’re the only one here who is.

I didn’t intend to imply that riding on the sidewalk is illegal, but to do so at speed shows poor judgment (of the kind for which car drivers can be legally liable).

And I checked the “washcycle” forum, and there’s Crickey, accusing me of “launching an unhinged anti-cyclist rant” here, when I was merely responding to an attack on my competence to walk anywhere, based on unjustified assumptions.

I think Crickey may be a false-flag who works for the local Caddy dealer, by the way.

[Bill Sweetman]

Creadinger:

I don’t work for Bezos, and if you read the piece you will find nothing to suggest as such. Making stuff up reduces your credibility.

A subset of 778 comments is not “thousands” as is obvious to anyone who can count. Also, the most prolific commenter was a fanatical pro-biker.

There is absolutely NO analysis here because for that you’d need data.

I half-way agree with you. There is no data because accidents involving bikes and no cars seldom get reported to police, and usually avoid the gaze of the insurance actuaries. So neither you nor I have a clue about the incidence of bike-caused injuries (which as I showed can have major costs, and could be life-altering), let alone whether these are more or less frequent on a per-trip basis than auto-related injuries. Multiple comments in the WAPO bang on about how many auto-related deaths and injuries occur, but logic should tell you that the relative number of bike and auto trips (or vehicle miles, or whatever) is a factor.

And it seems from many comments that the bike community does not want to see changes that would allow such data to be gathered. It might be a bit awkward if it showed that “nudging” (i.e. coercing) people on to bikes would actually result in more injuries for the same number of trips.

[Bill Sweetman]

That sucks for him.

Thanks for your sympathy, ENTIRELY APPROPRIATE EPITHET REDACTED

The details are a little unclear to me, and not to victim blame, but

But here I go victim-blaming, because smug biker.

it seems like he was walking on the left side of the MVT against traffic flow

What part of “when I walk the bike trails, I’m careful to the point of paranoia about hugging the right side of the path so bicycles and joggers can pass…. I was walking in a park within sight of the Washington Monument, using a footpath that didn’t seem likely to have many bicycles on it” seems to have overmatched your reading skills?

To be specific: I was in Long Bridge Park, which with one exception (connecting to Boundary Channel Drive to the Pentagon) is a dead-end at the north of Crystal City. And if you’re riding towards the Pentagon there are perfectly decent bike lanes on 12th and Long Bridge Drive.

This article’s suggestion that any of this has anything to do with whether or not cycling advocates have worthwhile things to say about traffic safety in an autocentric culture is unappreciated.

The hostile and ignorant commentary from much of the cycling community rather proves my point.

[Author]

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