[Fairlington124]

This is also why my eyes glaze over whenever a 20-40 year old able-bodied man tells me that off-street facilities or separated infrastructure aren’t necessary because everyone can just ride as a VC on the streets. The best cyclists in the world won’t stand a chance against a poorly-driven junk car. There’s no mitigation against car crashes. Avoidance is the only safety mechanism.

[Fairlington124]

Whenever cyclists are implied as being Nazis, as an Alexandria-based person wrote in an WSJ letter during the King St bike lane debate (http://alextimes.com/2014/10/the-cycling-crisis-is-engineered/), or are accused of waging a “war on cars” (numerous instances, Lon Anderson comes to mind), please refer the originator to articles like this, which document actual cases of violence within a bike-car dynamic. I have yet to be aware of an instance where a motorist died because of being hit by a cyclist. I do recall one instance where a cyclist killed an old woman on the W&OD a few years back, but I think that’s the extent of bike-caused deaths (https://www.arlnow.com/2012/06/11/woman-seriously-injured-after-being-hit-by-cyclist/).

Of course, the people who write such articles, particularly in the DC area, tend to be relatively smart and I presume they do not actually believe what they write (see the I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some anti-bike lane writers enjoy cycling themselves, in different contexts.

[Fairlington124]

From the statement:

Quote:

The investigation revealed that the 80-year old driver of the motor vehicle was properly licensed and remained at the scene of the accident. Furthermore, there was no evidence that she was intoxicated and she has cooperated fully with the investigators.”

Curious how nothing was said about the actual act of striking the cyclist. It also makes me wonder if the motorist was doing something patently illegal or incorrect, the previous poster suggested running a red light.

The prosecutor talks a lot about what the motorist didn’t do, not nearly as much as what she did.

[Fairlington124]

I can’t recall instances of license revocation which didn’t involve DUI.

[Fairlington124]

@scoot 141084 wrote:

The cagey language employed by the prosecutor in the article suggests that the driver was found at fault, but that the evidence is not strong enough to support a charge of criminal negligence. How could the evidence not be clear-cut? Perhaps witness statements conflicted each other?

What is the legal standard for criminal negligence? Assuming witnesses were in agreement, I have a hard time believing that running over crossing traffic while blowing a red light somehow fails to meet that standard.

My understanding is that the motorist was elderly, and I know that prosecutors tend to not press charges against the elderly for driving errors, perhaps out of sympathy for degrading driving skills. This could have factored in as well.

[Fairlington124]

@ginacico 141041 wrote:

The worst are crosswalks that are NOT at an intersection and cross multiple lanes of traffic. As said above, the crosswalk may be obscured by stopped vehicles. True even if you’re not the one in the crosswalk.

I had just that situation the other day, coming down Clarendon Blvd. I was flying downhill past Courthouse. As I’m in my blissfully clear corridor of a bike lane, I saw cars in the vehicle lanes slowing down just before N Scott St. I figured the cars were just bogged down in traffic as usual, until I saw the stripes for the crosswalk, and I instinctively hit the brakes. Sure enough, a woman with a stroller appeared and finished crossing the road. Gladly, I’d stopped before I ever knew she was there.

Sounds like you were going too fast for that corridor. Your assumption about “stuck in traffic” is the same calculation that drivers make when they overtake at a crosswalk. Please exercise more caution on the crowded streets.

[Fairlington124]

Whenever I see a dude in lycra on a road bike, I take extra precaution. Give me normal people on cruisers any day of the week.

[Fairlington124]

It’s much more than annoying (since you described it as a pet peeve). It’s illegal in Maryland and some other states. Not sure about DC/Virginia.

http://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2005/gtr/21-502.html

Quote:

(c) If, at a marked crosswalk or at an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, a vehicle is stopped to let a pedestrian cross the roadway, the driver of any other vehicle approaching from the rear may not overtake and pass the stopped vehicle.

[Fairlington124]

@lordofthemark 140445 wrote:

Look I really don’t know if there might have been a better spot for a station a few blocks away. But I do know that CaBi expansion has been on the table for a while, and I am pretty sure this location has not been a secret – it is kind of late to ask for a change now.

Are you kidding me? All it will take is for a City councilor, such as squishy Silberberg, to demand a “study” for the station, with claims that the City was “not transparent” and wanted to “ram it down their throats”.

You ought to know the NIMBY playbook by now.

[Fairlington124]

Has property values been brought up before as an argument against Capital Bikeshare?

I know that the King Street bike lanes were going to kill people, but that was a road allocation issues.

When Bluemont Civic Associated opposed the Capital Bikeshare station, their concerns were proximity to single-family houses (presumably the bikes would turn those SFHs into apartments), change in neigborhood appearance (ibid), and parking. http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?8519-Proposed-Capital-Bikeshare-Locations-opposed-by-Bluemont-Civic-Association-vote

[Fairlington124]

Squishy Silberberg will probably make a full-out effort to make sure that our friend doesn’t suffer catastrophic losses in property values.

[Fairlington124]

Let’s do away with sidewalks as well. We can all become vehicular pedestrians after all…

[Fairlington124]

Alexandria’s government webpage underwent a redesign. In addition, it looks like some new content was added to the LocalMotion site.

https://www.alexandriava.gov/LocalMotion/info/default.aspx?id=11092

Namely, the “Glebe Road Bicycle Lanes” and “Kenwood Avenue Bicycle Lanes” projects caught my eye. They do not link to anything, but thinking speculatively, I presume Kenwood bike lanes would run from King all the way up to either Fern or Crestwood. They would almost certainly connect to the King Street facility after the Complete Streets program is enacted on King.

The Glebe Road bike lanes hold more possibilities, because you could be talking about from Valley to Commonwealth, Commonwealth to Potomac Yard, or both, or a fraction of any of those. Would be a nice alternative to the FMR trail.

[Fairlington124]

Ft Ward would get you to near Howard, which is a street I am comfortable riding on all the way down to Holmes Run Trail, but Jesus, Howard is over-engineered as well. Can definitely get the road diet treatment at least between Braddock and Seminary.

[Fairlington124]

All good evidence and fact-finding. Photographic evidence helps a lot.

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