[rek]

@PotomacCyclist 86336 wrote:

FYI only, not legal advice, re videotaping:

http://www.martindale.com/family-law/article_MichieHamlett-Attorneys-at-Law_1229920.htm

According to this, there are only two main potential issues with videotaping from a legal perspective. If the video picks up oral communications, then it could be prohibited under wiretapping laws (unless all parties give their consent to the taping). This shouldn’t be a problem with video taken from a distance. There may also be an exception when there is no reasonable expectation of privacy (such as someone shouting in public).

(The other issue normally wouldn’t apply, but you never know. It relates to videotaping someone who is in a state of undress and that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Normally you aren’t going to be seeing half-naked or naked people at the intersection. Even if you do, would that person have a reasonable expectation of privacy? Likely not, at least if you are filming cars and bikes in a normal manner. In other words, you would still get in trouble for filming upskirt videos, whether or not you are also filming cars and bikes.)

IANAL, but I am pretty sure that Virginia’s wiretapping laws do allow the proposed video collection (even with audio as well). Virginia is a one-party consent state, and the one party may be the person clearly visible in public holding the video camera. As I understand it, you would probably run afoul of the law if you set up such a recording device and then left the scene, but as long as you are with the camera in plain public view then you are considered a party to any recorded communication.

See paragraph B2 within § 19.2-62: “It shall not be a criminal offense under this chapter for a person to intercept a wire, electronic or oral communication, where such person is a party to the communication or one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception.”

There are some states where public audio/video still requires all parties to consent. Illinois comes to mind; I think some people have been jailed there for filming the police.

[rek]

bobco85,

Thanks for doing the legwork and for sharing your research both here and for the LRT bridge! I’ll have to try the Gallows-to-CCT connection sometime.

[rek]

Ah too bad. Thanks for the heads-up everyone! I was hoping that the HOT lane project might have brought some improvement to the Gallows interchange to facilitate cycling.

Did they at least add pedestrian sidewalks to the bridge? Might that serve as a safer alternative? (just to cross the bridge, essentially to go from Holmes Run Drive to Holly/Woodburn Roads along Gallows)

[rek]

@krazygl00 42398 wrote:

I’ve tried many times to figure that one out myself; I think I’ve arrived at the conclusion that the fabled passage from Lake Barcroft to the CCT necessitates riding on at least a few hairy stretches of road. For me going from Seminary/Beauregard it makes more sense to ride up through Bailey’s Crossroads to the W&OD.

Coming from Alexandria, I’ve been out that way a number of times. I’ve ridden as far west as Luna Park / Fairview Park almost entirely on residential streets. (No more than a couple hundred feet on Sleepy Hollow or Annandale Rd).

I’m interested to try going further soon. Crossing the Beltway seems like the toughest part. Not many options and all of them are interchanges. Is Gallows to Woodburn to Tobin reasonably safe?

[Author]

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