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In

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Ooooh! I mean… Oooooh. Umm… Ooooooh! No wait, I have something thoughtful to say…. Nope. Ooooooooh!

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Maybe we could set up a Dunk-a-Troll at the County Fair. Maybe that Swag Tim has been talking about could be an ELITE bicycling Troll??

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Sorry to hear it Timur. Getting hit stinks. Here is some advice, some of it not useful to you – but is generic.

First, I have a mounted contour camera on the handlebars. The primary goal is to record incidents like this. It avoids He Said / She Said situations.

1.5) Have someone at the scene call the police and possibly an ambulance as necessary.

Second, if you get into an accident, take pictures of everything including the other vehicles plates (assuming it is a car or truck or bus or something).

Third, use the WABA form for if you get into an accident.

** On this form it is space to get the names of any witnesses. Hopefully there might be some cyclists who saw what happened.
** Also take down the name of the police officer if one is there – and ask for a copy of the accident report.

(D) Go to the hospital and get yourself checked out.

[IV] Take you bike to a good bike shop. I took mine to Spokes. The guy at Spokes gave me an itemized estimate of repair – and advised me that my bike was totaled.

> Contact the other person’s insurance (they might contact you). Be prepared to present the other insurance company with your evidence: photos, video, witness statements, estimated costs of repair, medical expenses.

(ii) Hopefully it works out.

WABA has a page of information of what to do when you have an accident.

Final advice: After a few days, think about what is important to you and what you help to get out of this confrontation. I use to be a clerk in DC Superior Court. We were a civil II rocket docket. 1000s of cases were filed, only a ~100 would make it to trial. Those that made it to trial did so for two reasons: (a) really bad attorneys or clients who could not litigate their way out of a paper bag – who could not identify a good settlement and take it and (b) highly complex cases based on complex law or complex facts where the outcome was truly unclear.

Most where (a). Litigation and confrontation become your life – you sell your soul to it. I’ve been there. I was involved in a wrongful death litigation for 10 years. And for 10 years that’s where I lived. It was awful. And after 10 years – we pretty much were given by a jury what the other party was offering as a settlement at day one. Dont be “that guy.” Settle the case – or not – but move on with your life.

A lot of insurance companies are very good to work with. They too realize it is more economically efficient to settle than to litigate, and have turned it into a no-fault payment machine.

Hopefully you will succeed – I did. Two years ago, with photos, police report, witnesses, etc – the insurance company paid for my new bike. But if you dont – dont let it own you. It’s not worth it. Go on living your life.

Good luck.

PS: Note one quibble: you say you have witnesses – having a witness is not the same as having a witness who is willing to testify. Testifying is a time consuming process in someone else’s pissing match – even witnesses dont like litigation.

PSS: How much are we talking. You said $500? When I was in private practice, that would have covered two hours of my time. Consider that you might spend more on an attorney, then you will recover if you have to hire one (doesnt mean you shouldnt talk to one for free – but remember, there are economic choices at work here).

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However we do it, it would clear be a positive contribution to debate and discourse if we turned this forum into a form of a drinking game – to be carried out at the happy hour or perhaps during long rides down the Woe’D.

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@jhr 27655 wrote:

Dear cyclist riding down Washington Blvd (in the actual road) and the GW Parkway toward Memorial Bridge,

I’m impressed by your balls. Please consider donating them to science when a driver you’ve given the finger runs you over in a fit of road rage. I will continue to cheer you on and worry for your sanity from the safety of the path on the path on the side of the road.

Now that’s an excellent first post! Smug. Snarky. Not Declaring all Cyclists are equated to that ELITE cyclist. Humorous.

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Um yeah. Having ear buds is non-verbal communication for “you dont have to bother to call your pass.”

I ring my bell anyway – but I also the 1% (there is an occupy protest taking place in my pannier)

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What… is the color of an Arlington Collard?

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Welcome home. We’ve all been busy posting and liking each other, in the vain hope of catching up with you on the forum leaderboard. Do we get pics of the trip?

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We used to use this when I ran track. Newskin. Ha! The cover picture is a cyclist. Nasty stuff and stings a bit to apply – we would use it on blisters, to put a protective coat on. It works pretty good.

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First, thank you Tim.

However, I would encourage you to contact the Arlington County Board directly. This is a repetitive recurrent problem. It is just not acceptable. Arlco needs to treat these trails as part of the transportation system – that cannot be shut down during rush hour – that when they are shut down, have safe and adequate detours.

Monday evenings are Arlco Board’s Open Door Monday’s where you can apparent talk to the board. This coming Monday it will be at
Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Room #35 (main lobby)
3501 2nd Street S.
Arlington, VA 22204

Also – ArlCo Board members are bound to be at the County Fair – some of them are up for reelection ?

This is the email address of the county manager: CountyManager@arlingtonva.us

County board is countyboard@arlingtonva.us

Another good address is trails@arlingtonva.us

If you want to write a blog piece, I will be glad to post it to my blog Donaldson Run – or maybe I will try to draft up something if I get time.

At one point someone in the forum suggested that jurisdiction over the trails be removed from ParksandWreck and given to Transportation – it seems like that is an amazingly prudent idea as ParksandWreck just cant seem to keep its trucks off the trails during rush hour.

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I cant find something from the park service saying it, but it is my understanding that they swim across the potomac – and here particularly they swim to Roosevelt Island. I have seen these deer. I have also seen deer in these parts walking across the frozen potomac. A very weird site to see. Always deer on TR Island.

[video=youtube_share;TzppMkoy7jE]http://youtu.be/TzppMkoy7jE[/video]

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I admit it. I ogle other cyclists too. Well, okay…. I an ogling their bike-bling. (See COVET thread)

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By the way, there is another race Tuesday evening at 7 pm
http://www.arlnow.com/2012/08/06/2012-bluemont-5k-set-for-tuesday/

Bluemont 5K by DC Road Racers
http://www.dcroadrunners.org/sign-up/bluemont

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I was at the water table and had just the opposite experience.

1. All Lost Dogs were on probably 6 foot leashes. That’s what the rescue league owns – they dont own flexi leashes. If there was someone on something longer than 10 feet – it wasnt a Lost Dog. I saw no dogs “in different zip codes” – people were pretty conscientious to not put the dogs in harms way.

2. It was a large group of joggers. And I would say that vast majority of them stayed on the right. I was actually really impressed by them.

3. Yes, Pacers had bikes leading the race warning people, and had people in high viz yellow at the major turns warning people and trying to control traffic. I was impressed by the care they took to make this safe. They constantly reminded joggers to stay on the right – and told us at the water table that the water table was one way, only on the way back – so that joggers were not crossing and stopping in the trail, blocking traffic.

End of the day, it IS a multi use trail – and this was a permitted event – and we (cyclists) dont own the trail. PACERS did an excellent job. Yeah, there was a clump of people for a few minutes – but with some patience, everyone made it through. At its longest, it was probably a half mile long. Just as we ask people to “share the trail” with us, we must recognize that we share the trail with them. It was a relatively short inconvenience, and there was the 4MR trail just a few feat away that PACERS was not on.

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I like to bike home that way – I have seen a lot of ACPD on the trail. Once on Segways, another time on bikes.

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