[Brendan von Buckingham]

The logic of the reg is universal: if you don’t have it, no cyclist would be allowed to pass another cyclist.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Paving parts of the median to look or act like pedestrian crossings, and then posting a sign that says “No pedestrians. Use crosswalk” (but providing no sidewalk to safely get you to the crosswalk) is terrible design. Or entrapment. Sue everybody.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I only go through that intersection coming back from Anacostia and going north on 11th (I don’t like the layout of the bike lanes coming off the bridge). I’m not clear which direction you’re going on 11th, but if you’re going downhill and have some speed, I’d get out of the bike lane and take the lane so cars can’t overtake you just to cut you off for a bike lane drop off.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@Steve O 167604 wrote:

One possibility is that the driver decided to change his story (“He popped out of nowhere!”). He may have done this at the prompting of his lawyer or insurance company.
Then the question becomes, why did they accept his changed story? Does he know someone in the PD or County? Or is it just sympathizing with the windshield perspective?

It’s probably simpler than that. Cop on the scene took his reports and notes, probably didn’t write a lot of it down. Finished his patrol shift and got back to his desk a couple hours later. Wrote up his report based on his notes and memory; maybe even talked with his colleagues or chief. They had a debate about how fast is too fast for a cyclist using the crosswalk, just like many of the posts in this thread. Cop decided that 12 mph was too fast. He changed his mind before he made it final.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

There will always be a lot of pedestrians there. It has markings like a bike lane but it also has park like landscaping and is along commercial storefronts. It’s more promenade the transportation. Bikes will have to use it like any multi-user trail (Custiss, W&OD, etc.) when they come up on pedestrians and slow down, just more often. Maine Avenue is 25 mph and 2 lanes each way of smooth, new paving. You can’t ask for a better roadway for a cyclist.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I hate being the turd in the punch bowl, but if your claim of no fault includes going 12 mph in the crosswalk against the flow of traffic, the officer’s revised claim of excessive speed will be accepted without much pause by any judge or court. Probably enough that the fault is shared pretty evenly. I know cyclists in crosswalks are supposed to be treated as pedestrians, but pedestrians walk 3 mph. A vector moving at 12 mph is not moving like a normal pedestrian. It’s very unexpected. It allows the driver to claim with some reason that “he came out of nowhere.” I would claim you were moving at 3 mph if you can.

Your account sure sounds like the driver was only looking left when they gunned it to turn right on red, and that really sucks, I face that same situation every evening near the Arlington Cemetery Metro, so I sympathize. In my case even, the cars are coming off of VA-110 so they roll through without stopping because they treat it like an exit ramp. I’ve been commuting 25 years and that sort of crossing is my most dangerous. I don’t proceed until the car is stopped and I make eye-contact.

So I really do sympathize, but it’s hard for that to not sound snarky on an anonymous message board. So I’m saying it: I’m sorry this happened to you. I just don’t think you’re going to be able to reel this one back in your favor. I hope you do, I just don’t think so. Good luck.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@Harry Meatmotor 166260 wrote:

Awww Yissss!!

Finally, normal people are riding e-bikes! Just yesterday I saw a nice fellow riding an Icon e-Flyer on the MVT!!!

http://iconelectricbike.com/

3500w Race Mode, FTW! That’ll easily make all of our bike/ped infrastructure headaches disappear!

I’m done. If that’s a bicycle it’s only because it has pedals. And in that case I’m gonna crazy-glue some cranks and pedals to the hood of my car and use the MVT express lane to drive to work.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Man, things got intensely theoretical since I’ve been away from this thread.

I just came back to say I saw my first e-bike in a couple of weeks yesterday. Woman was walking it up Carillon Hill by Iwo and I asked how she was doing. (I know, chauvinist monster). She grumbled back that her battery was dead and she couldn’t get up the hill. Hunh.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Virginia: “Old Dominion” by Eddie from Ohio, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9-7VVP5WTM

She’s the best of 13 sisters and 37 more.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@Crickey7 164348 wrote:

Wow, I found that article elitist and off-putting. You have to earn your commute? Maybe one small segment feels that way.

That one sentence might have been, but the article as a whole explored the whole gamut of feelings on the topic. Reflective of this whole thread really. Even had admissions from old guard cyclists how neat ebikes were to ride. Maybe that sentence should get the most attention. It’s not hard to understand that ebikes are the same but different. The parts that are the same are easy to like. The parts that are different are harder to like.

I also learned that the PR folks for ebikes want them to be called electric assist bikes which is a long phrase. So e-ass bikes it is.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

That article captured my feelings of inevitability and loss. e-bikes will inevitably become dominant. bicycles will go the way of the penny farthing and be lost. The starkest “inevitable loss” is death. And death makes me sad. I am better than death, but death will win. I am better than ebikes, but ebikes will win.

And they should get in the road with other motorized transport.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

You might not know it but I was the Hero of the Commute for Monday. Woman ahead of me on Memorial Bridge had something bounce out of her panniers. Turned out to be car keys. I scooped them up and reeled her in around the AC metro. It took her a second to compute what happened when I showed her her keys.

And Hero of the Commute for Tuesday too. At Rhode Island and 7th a guy asked me how to get to Key Bridge. I noticed his fully loaded rig and asked him how long he had been riding. He started at Conowingo Dam, about 90+ miles for the day. He was on a Florida, Niagra Falls, Erie Canal, DC, Pittsburgh insane bicycle meander. He was actually looking for the C&O towpath. I gave him an escort to the canal, but bought him a beer first.

I’m shooting for Hero of the Commute for the whole week. Don’t bother trying to take that away from me; so don’t do anything nice for anyone. It’s mine, all mine.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

This. This exactly is what I try to tell myself.

@hozn 163675 wrote:

Certainly when the thousandth person passes you up Rosslyn Hill without exerting any effort, without breaking a sweat, it will be attractive to admit “it’s not a race.” Or if cat6 matters, then at least, “I’m not racing them”.

But yet I still can’t help when this happens. E-bike ahead, who because the bike is doing all the work, isn’t exactly pedaling. Yeah, sure the pedals are lazily being turned over, but the cyclist isn’t doing anything measurable. It’s why he’s only going about 14 mph. That’s fine. I catch up. I take a moment to decide whether to stay in line or pass. Then e-bike realizes I’m behind and he decides to go full agro and rocket off at 25 mph. That’s fine too I suppose because It’s not a race. It’s not a race. It’s not a race.

A few minutes later, because e-boy has remembered that the ebike does all the work he has stopped really pedaling again. I catch up again. He zooms away again. Repeat and repeat. I try to be zen about it, but it still kind of strikes me as kind of dickish in a non-fraternal, that’s not how we do things, sort of way.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Timing the lights on Clarendon Boulevard inbound. No cars behind, none in front, but the lingering green light at Highland tells me I gotta get up and hammer it to keep up with the synchronized lights. Get up to about 25 mph when the jaywalker herd starts, then the light goes yellow so I ease off into a coast.

Approaching, with my light still yellow, a jaywalker bleats, “Please stop!!!”
Me: “I am”
Jaywalker: “I’m confused!”
Me, light finally red, standing in pedals: “I know. That’s why I stopped.”
Jaywalker: “You’re an asshole!”
Me: blink blink

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15304[/ATTACH]

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@ab20854 162667 wrote:

What about the ride through DC and Georgetown when the only part of me that’s visible to cars is my light?

What makes you think they see you in the daytime? Most of them don’t. You’re not in their direct line of sight, or their brain has categorized you as a static vertical landscape feature, like a sign or a tree that’s not likely to move and get in their way.

[Author]

Posts