Police Ticketing on Vermont Ave NW

I've gotten reports that there was a police checkpoint this morning on the section of Vermont Ave between Logan Circle and 12th Q St NW. This section is one way in a northeasterly direction with cars parked on either side.. The officer was stopping bicyclists coming down Vermont from the opposite direction. So, be on the lookout follow the law.

Here's what I wrote about this last time

The MPD would have difficulty explaining why this sting at this location makes sense.  Did they do an analysis of traffic accidents and causes and decide that this location needed targeted enforcement? OK, they should release that. If not it's arbitrary.

Arbitrary enforcement is bad. First of all it's wasteful and second, it opens one up to claims of discrimination. Which is exactly how this appears. Why not a day of written warnings? Actually hitting someone and leaving the scene gets you a $50 ticket. Killing a girl - so far - gets you nothing. But break a rule that hasn't ever been enforced, in a place where it can't be shown to be needed and we'll hit you for $25.

When the police enforce driving laws, they post warnings

Montgomery County does in fact post the locations where mobile and fixed speed cameras are set up. But the locations do change from time to time.

Comments

[Hey is this what I pay taxes for]

Whaaa whaaa! The fat cops are making me follow the rules! How unfair! Me saving the planet and all.

I just thought I'd get the ball rolling.

[Jack]

Even better than being on the lookout, ride in the right direction. When I'm on my bike I don't want someone coming the other way.

[Alex]

Or - hey! - why don't we fix the problem entirely and, instead of doing stings for a pretty minor infraction, have DDOT create contra-flow bike lanes? It's nothing a can of paint can't fix.

[Washcycle]

Right, "be on the lookout" was the wrong phrase. Sometimes I'm in a hurry. Ride in the right direction is a better reminder.

But, I think there are some better questions to ask here. What problem is MPD trying to fix? And "people are breaking the law" is not a good enough answer. Are people being injured (in the all-encompassing sense of the word) here? Is this 'problem' getting undue attention? Is there not some fix that could be instituted to solve the problem? Does Vermont Avenue, which has a northbound lane on one side, back in parking on the other, and a wide space in between, have space for contraflow cycling? If a wrong way cyclists is riding in this middle space, is there any chance Jack will run into him (only if Jack is riding in the wrong place too)?

It seems the plan is this.

Step 1: Poorly plan street
Step 2: Wait for illegal traffic pattern to become institutionalized
Step 3: Ticket scofflaws despite lack of problem

Some plan.

[Jack]

What about taking 14th or 13th street instead? In Silver Spring we're creating a counterflow bike lane, but only because the alternatives are far away or much less bike-friendly.

[ontarioroader]

Does anyone know MPD's "chase policy" regarding pursuing cyclists who might fail to yield for a traffic stop like this? I know they are not allowed to chase automobiles for mere traffic offenses and was told they're not allowed to pursue motorcycles for anything below a witnessed felony. Anyone with knowledge of or access to MPD's protocols care to chime in?

[Eric]

Was it the obese police officer again? Shouldn't he get a ticket for failing to maintain proper MPD weight and heatlh standards? (Please follow my leap of faith in assuming that such standards exist in the MPD)

Way to go MPD! I guess there are indeed not other problems in the city.

[Rich Wilson]

Sorry, I have no sympathy for wrong way cyclists. It's dumb. It's dangerous. It's dangerous to other innocent cyclists. You want to risk your own life, fine. But don't play chicken with me.

[Washcycle]

I agree that it's dumb and dangerous, but I fail to see how it endangers other cyclists. Unless you think they're coming straight at you (so going the wrong way on the left hand side). I've not seen that.

[Tom]

I think they should raise the fine to $50. The $25 "slap on the wrist" doesn't seem to be working.

[Jack]

Without being too dramatic, I think riding the wrong way endangers other cyclists the way running stop signs or red lights does. You risk a collision when cars are around. There are surely bigger risks out there on a bike, but why add to it? I suppose it puts peds more at risk -- they might try to cross the street -- and of course the wrong-way rider himself is the in the most hazardous situation of all. Not suicide, but you don't want to do it every day. I've encountered cyclists doing it on M St. and L St. (or just riding on the wrong side of a two-way street) and my observation is you have no idea which way they'll go and you have to be really careful around them. Plus, well, they look more like drug addicts who just found a bike than anyone who writes on this forum!

[Contrarian]

Before we get up on our high horses about law and order, keep in mind that the Metropolitan Police Department has no regular program of traffic enforcement. Every May, the department does a "Safe Streets" enforcement blitz, and 90% of the tickets the department writes during the year are during that campaign*. For the rest of the year, tickets are normally only written after accidents.

Of course, not every accident results in a ticket. Notable accidents recently that did not result in ticket:

* On Wisconsin Avenue, a police cruiser passed a car that had stopped for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, hitting and killing the pedestrian. In their "investigation," the MPD completely fabricated a rationale that the law prohibiting passing a car stopped for a crosswalk did not apply.

* A driver ran over and killed a police officer directing traffic at the intersection of Wisconsin and M in Georgetown in rush hour bumper-to-bumper traffic.

* Last July, Alice Swanson was run over in a bike lane by a garbage truck.

And let's not forget Bob Novak's $50 ticket for running over a pedestrian in a crosswalk -- putting him in the hospital -- and then driving off with the pedestrian on his hood until the force of going around a corner flung him onto the pavement.

When the MPD has been asked to enforce laws protecting pedestrians and cyclists, their default reaction has been to misinterpret the law and claim they have no authority to act, when the reality is they have all the authority they need, they simply lack the will. We've seen this with double-parking in bike lanes, and also pedestrian right-of-way at crosswalks.

Like most cyclists, I'm all in favor of strict enforcement of traffic laws. But in the current anything-goes environment, this kind of enforcement -- on a street that is used mostly for parking and handles virtually no traffic, of cyclists who realistically pose no danger to themselves or anyone else -- is simple harassment, nothing more and nothing less.

* The safe streets blitz also targets pedestrians and cyclists, and those two groups are ticketed at rates much higher relative to their numbers than motorists during the campaign.

[Chris]

I know this is a minority point of view, but I'm not seeing how riding opposite traffic is dumb or dangerous. Doing it in a dumb or dangerous way is dumb and dangerous.

I don't generally ride the wrong way on a one-way street, but I'll tell you every time I see a story like this, I think about how the resources would be so much better spent keeping the motorists from speeding through my neighborhood, ignoring pedestrian cross-walks and paying no attention to the places where there are kids playing and coming home from school.

[Washcycle]

You're right. I'm generalizing. On average wrong-way biking is dumb (because it's needlessly dangerous). But certainly not in every instance.

Even if they want to enforce some bike laws, I'd rather see them out there writing tickets to people who ride at night without proper lights. That is not situationally dependent. And it'd be better if you could get the ticket waived by bringing the bike into compliance. But this, this is not well thought-out.