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It’s an incredibly despicable act. This park is half a block from my office. Hell it’s one block from where my kids use to go daycare and they played in this park all the time. This wasn’t a case where someone lost control and jump a curve. The benches that were hit were on the other side of the park from Penn. The driver shot into the park run over trees and then took out two benches. He had to be really moving. I’m not sure any amount of traffic calming solves this sort of problem where you’ve either got someone incredibly malicious or incredibly drunk or both and they have access to a vehicle.

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@lordofthemark 160329 wrote:

1. My understanding is that it is completely legal in all local jurisdictions for cyclists to ride through crosswalks (though in that case in addition to checking for cross traffic, they should also give right of way to the pedestrians crossing with them in the crosswalk, as they would on a sidewalk)

What about the parts of the District where it is illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk. Would this apply to crosswalks since crosswalks are often seen as extensions of sidewalks? I’ve always assumed it was illegal though I see people ride in crosswalks (and ride on sidewalks) every day.

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@KLizotte 157223 wrote:

Since most cyclists are drivers wouldn’t it stand to reason that if they are reckless biking they would be just as reckless driving (especially since the risks are much lower in the latter)? It’s not like people suddenly change personality when they get on a bike. I’m slow and careful on my bike and I’m a slow, cautious driver too though I admit I’m less cautious driving because I’ve got tons of safety goodies protecting me.

But I agree that driving and walking infractions have been internalized as the norm while people go ballistic over a perceived cycling infraction. I can only presume that is because cyclists are viewed as the “other”.

Ooh, a new study idea. Are reckless drivers also reckless cyclists? At some level you’re of course correct since we know that the absolute worst group for reckless behaviors (in all sorts of areas) are young males (~16-24). Comparing cycling and driving behaviors would be hard to study since it likely requires self-reporting and people lie or self-justify, which is one of the problems with the study I posted to start this thread. I can’t think of a way to reliably observe an individual’s cycling and driving behaviors (let alone a large N of people). Nonetheless I do think there’s plenty to the idea that infrastructure affects behavior. Ample studies show that it does with drivers and there’s loads of anecdotal evidence that cyclist’s break the law not just for convenience. I can easily describe a half-dozen spots in my daily commute where I’m breaking the law, but not for reasons of convenience (aside from the inconvenience of injury or death).

[thucydides]

Note that the Arlington-East Falls Church neighborhood association (or least its president) has come out against the project in a letter to the council. It’s cloaked in “let’s slow down and study this language” but the clear intent is to kill it. She cites a hodge-podge of “let’s see if something sticks” reasons. Many if not most are pure non-sequitur, e.g., there are flaws in other parts of the trail so let’s not fix this if we can’t fix it all. A real doozy complaint is that a bridge, “presents a massive visual and functional barrier to the sights and activity of East Falls Church area.”

[thucydides]

Today’s discordant set of stickers on a car: A BMW with I [bike] Rockville , LSU alum, Feel the Bern, and a 1-Star (as in one-star general).

The only thing that could improve it is a Gadsden-flag license plate and an HRC equality sticker. Oh and he knew how to drive around cyclists as well. It almost changes my opinion of BMW drivers.

Almost.

[thucydides]

Yep, gosling season. I had one bite me pretty hard once when I was a kid. Lesson learned. My favorite is when they hiss at you.

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@baiskeli 129246 wrote:

I’m married. I’ve lost all sense of just letting bygones be bygones. Something happened 3 1/2 years ago? That’s fair game.

Dagnammit. Now I’ve got that Garth Brooks song “Buried the Hatchet” stuck in my head.

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Gentrification is a genuine issue, I get that. But I don’t buy that the heat being directed against these bike lanes in these specific instances is really about gentrification. This is about MARYLAND residents wanting convenient parking.

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I don’t want to come across as celebrating people losing their jobs, but i had really awful experiences with their customer service. There’s a location nearish my office but I happily went out of my way to avoid them.

[thucydides]

@PotomacCyclist 125030 wrote:

No national TV coverage this weekend, except maybe Universal Sports (which Comcast still doesn’t carry).

Sat. Sept. 26
Men’s Jr Road Circuit, Women’s Elite Road Circuit

Sun. Sept. 27, Men’s Elite Road Circuit

The women’s is on universal, but the men’s is on CNBC (at least that’s what’s listed on my system, verizon FiOS).

[thucydides]

@DismalScientist 124918 wrote:

Hotelling’s model assumes homogeneous goods. Are we really all that one-dimensional?

That’s a good point, though in this case we’re talking about two very similar types of stores.

[thucydides]

@ctankcycles 124767 wrote:

Well, it’s that time of year again. Last “night” between 6:30-6:45 pm (not actually dark yet) I crossed paths with a number of riders on the MV Trail with their high powered lights set to strobe. If the point of your strobe is to blind oncoming riders then mission accomplished. In fact, the strobe setting, as one manufacturer writes, “alerts night time motorists with pulses.” Key word here is motorists. Cyclists are not motorists and don’t need 800+ lumens of strobing light to see you coming. Are we all in agreement? If not, I’d love to hear your reasoning.

P.S. grr i can’t edit the redundant acronym in the thread title.

I know I’m consistently in the minority on this, but the counterargument is that no one lives and works right on an MUT. Thus they also travel on roads during the same trip. Furthermore, all the MUT’s in the area feature at-grade road crosses where a strobe can make a difference between life and death in dusk-like conditions. I certainly agree that strobing in broad daylight is unnecessary. Plus bikers need more awareness of the impact of their lights and make adjustment accordingly. Personally I just avert my eyes when I come up on on one.

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Heard during a ride yesterday that they are closing. It’s confirmed on their website. September 30. I had mixed experiences with them but sad to see them leave the market, nonetheless.

[thucydides]

Funny. Apparently they have trouble at four-way stops as well because drivers invariably do the little inch-up dance that paralyzes the car. Learning pains. Like the biker in the ad, I think generally I’d feel safer around one of these things than around human-driven cars.

[thucydides]

@dasgeh 121477 wrote:

To be fair, they more than followed the law: they stayed single file. Just doubling up and filtering (as would be legal here) would cut the delays in half.

That said, the Idaho stop does lead to more effiecient transportation outcomes.

My coworkers whine about filtering and multi-file riding all the time. What needs to be demonstrated are the reasons why and how bikes aren’t cars and why changing the laws aren’t part of a zero-sum anti-car equation. Yes this little stunt was provocative and an exaggeration (protests tend to be just that), but it got the point across in an effective way, in my view.

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