[zsionakides]

Watched a guy wipe out on the Trollheim on my commute home. I was coming down the hill from the TR bridge. He passed me going pretty fast and then low sided out as soon as he hit the wooden part. If I had to guess he was going 18-20 mph. He got up quickly and said he was alright. He was definitely going too fast for the wet conditions, but that’s not always well known.

[zsionakides]

@josh 178413 wrote:

Couldn’t resist — https://www.strava.com/activities/1525666006

Looks like he hit 30mph a bit before Ashburn Village Blvd.

Max power of 920W on the W&OD on a Sunday afternoon. Wow.

[zsionakides]

@trailrunner 178337 wrote:

http://wjla.com/news/local/police-track-trail-attack-suspect-through-fitness-app

They found him through Strava.

Suspect says he reached out to get the other riders attention. Though after clotheslining him, he fled the scene.

They did say the injured rider passed two other bikes (abreast or in line?), but at minimum this means he was riding in to on-coming traffic pretty aggressively when he got hit.

[zsionakides]

The guy that did this would be lucky if he didn’t break his hand or wrist. If you figure both cyclists are each going 10-20mph, that’s a hard impact on whatever he hit the guy’s helmet with.

[zsionakides]

I’m interested in trying this, but wanted to know how safe racing around a garage is.

[zsionakides]

Has there been consideration of turning one of the Columbia Pike lanes east of Washington Blvd in to a 2-way PBL – maybe the eastbound lane, since most the eastbound traffic is going to 27/395. There isn’t much traffic east of 27 even at rush hour. This PBL could connect in with the 27 bike ways and the future connector through ANCC.

[zsionakides]

@Judd 175466 wrote:

Everything about the ramps on Washington Blvd as evidenced by the number of crashes involving cyclists there in the past year. Cars exiting Washington Blvd on the Pike frequently do not stop and drivers frequently do not look both ways before rolling through. The Google Maps Streetview illustrates this: https://goo.gl/maps/weP1YXu9NRJ2 Shuttle driver pulled into the crosswalk, looking left so that he can make a right on red. This could be helped by adding stop strips before the light, barring right on red, raising the crosswalk, and squaring off the turns with a curb bump out or the installation of flexposts. Some targeted enforcement from ACPD every once in a while might be nice as well.

Heading eastbound, the variable lane signals to exit on to 395 are frequently disobeyed. Here’s the street view: https://goo.gl/maps/bygXKqm5Hw12 During morning rush cars can exit on to 395 from either lane. During most other times, only the right lane can turn right, but cars will still frequently turn from the left lane even though the right lane goes straight (or can turn right). This means that every time I bike here, there’s a strong possibility that a car will right hook me when I’m legally using the right lane to go straight. This could use some enforcement.
.

At Washington Blvd, turning right from the Westbound Washington Blvd ramp to Westbound Columbia Pike, it is very hard to see bikes going eastbound on the north side, and even pedestrians. The bridge blocks the sight line for anyone coming through. No right turn on red would probably help.

For eastbound Columbia Pike to 395, it would be best to get rid of the stripes on the road and just go with the visual signals. The striping confuses the situation and forces someone driving to comprehend the sign ahead of time.

[zsionakides]

IIRC, there’s been some other temporary narrowings there while they fix that bridge. Traffic isn’t too heavy in that location, so it should be manageable.

[zsionakides]

@lordofthemark 173090 wrote:

I rode through around 6:15 PM, came up to the part where the trail is adjacent to the road, saw a LOT of police cars, fire trucks, even some Alexandria police cars. It was north side of Glebe, so I just rode home (I had been passed earlier by a fire truck on Eads SB).

Today ArlNow says a trail user was stabbed at 5:00 PM after an altercation with a group of suspects, was given aide by other trail users. Injuries now considered non life threatening. Police are investigating.

It would help to know if this was people who knew each other or a random attack. Scary if it’s the latter.

[zsionakides]

This seems like something that WMATA should just outsource. Lease the space in stations that they see fit and allow the vendor to build and manage lockers. If they wanted to make it competitive at stations, put two vendors in place at each station and let them compete on price/service.

[zsionakides]

@huskerdont 167405 wrote:

Begs the question of what *would* work in the real world though. Leaving aside the issue of whether it’s fair to all users, a complete ban might potentially be slightly easier to enforce, but it’s still not going to be enforced. I have yet to see a suggested action that would keep any class of eBike off the trails (the same goes for speeding). So legally prohibiting those classes of eBike that can do the most harm makes the most sense to me: since we’re not realistically going to be able to stop them anyway, then the liability issue becomes much more important.

The liability issue would probably be the best deterrent. As ebikes are pretty expensive, those who can afford them have the most to lose. Also legal prohibitions on them, would allow for impoundment to deter misuse on trails.

[zsionakides]

@Steve O 167393 wrote:

I somewhat disagree with this. As a former runner, I could run a steady 9 mph, somewhat faster downhill and when doing intervals. A runner is a pedestrian I believe. There is no such thing as “against the flow of traffic” when a pedestrian. An attentive driver should “expect” that. The OP was moving at a similar speed and had the walk signal.
If the driver had hit me, running at 9-10 mph, would you assign fault evenly, too? What if I were jogging with a jogging stroller and a baby?

My understanding is that Virginia is a contributory negligence state, so even if the OP is shown to be 1% at fault, he can’t collect from the other party (who probably doesn’t have money anyway being uninsured).

[zsionakides]

I noticed that you have Green Valley as your location. Have you considered riding on Army-Navy drive or even going the longer way around 4 Mile Run and the MVT. Both are much less congested than Columbia Pike.

[zsionakides]

If you were on the south side of Columbia Pike, the light has a no turn on red sign, which would give you much better claim on the vehicle being entirely at fault. On the north side, right turns are allowed on red, so if you were going at a decent pace, then it’s possible the driver didn’t look back right for bikes and could claim they didn’t see you.

Based on your accident and the others you describe, I would advocate for a no turn on red coming off the ramp and possibly bike crossing signs as well.

[zsionakides]

You can get a better lawyer, but you probably won’t get much in damages from an uninsured motorist. There’s a reason they are uninsured, and it’s not due to having enough assets to self insure.

What will probably matter is how large your uninsured motorist policy is, if your insurance covers while biking. This is an area that is easy to overlook in coverage as the minimums are really low.

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