Fenty Story Goes On And Only Cars Are Traffic

First up, Fox News. Which focuses on Fenty riding on the Clara Barton Parkway, which is against the law ($70 ticket with $20 court fee); but as the report points out, there are no signs to let you know. I didn't know it until about a year ago and for a long time was confused by the rule banning cycling on the GW Parkway. In fact Michael writes in that "the Bicycle Place bike shop has a Sunday morning ride that has been running north/west on the Clara Barton Parkway for years," so it is an obscure and unenforced law.

If Fenty can't ride on the the Clara Barton Parkway, where does Fox think he should ride? The Mt. Vernon Trail of course, where he won't disturb traffic. [Because trail users aren't traffic.] The Mt.Vernon Trail, with it's 15 mph speed limit, joggers, dog walkers etc...is the perfect place for a peloton of triathlon speed cyclists to go for a 20-40 mile ride. Be sure to tell the aforementioned joggers and dog walkers that Fox 5 sent you (as they yell at you to slow down).

The previous day they suggested that Fenty should use bike lanes instead of the "open highway". Again bike lanes are not good for this kind of riding and Rock Creek Parkway is not quite the open highway. And they also call AAA "traffic advocates". Huh? They're driver advocates. Are drivers the only one who constitute traffic?

DCist covered it again yesterday too, but more about how cyclists have complained about the very things I've been complaining about here - how the media is insinuating outright stating that bikes belong on trails and bike lanes but not roads.

Also in on coverage, the Washington Post, news8 (which captured the rage "I don't care that he uses his security detail to ride his bike," said Keilon Forest. "They're there to protect him while he's the mayor.") And Mike DeBonis at City Paper points out that he liked the story better when the Examiner did it last year. 

Update: WUSA9 has some details on this too and they also think Fenty should use the bike trail.

"Instead of riding on the bike trail along Rock Creek Parkway, Mayor Fenty and his fellow bikers who train with him often ride in a pack on the main road."

We get more of Seagraves' story and it has some holes in it. He claims to have seen Fenty "clogging traffic" during his commute, but Fenty rides in the noon to 2pm time period. What time does Seagraves go to work? And Seagraves claims noticing Fenty running red lights and stop signs and riding on restricted roadways, but Seagraves seemingly commutes on the Rock Creek Parkway, so he wouldn't have noticed the mayor on restricted roadways until he decided to trail him. I suspect he heard about the rides and decided o follow him, which is OK, I just don't know why he'd be lying about it.

I thought this was interesting too.

"If a governor went hiking. and their hiking equipment went with them, would they take the hiking equipment in their own personal car?" said Fenty. "For this story you're not going to research whether any other governors work out, if they take their equipment with them and how they take that equipment?"

Any other governors? Like Anthony Williams, I support changing the Mayor to a Governor and Councilmembers to Representatives, but I find it telling that Fenty considers himself in the group of Governors and not in the group of Mayors. Also, when in the middle of a mini-scandal, one should not mention hiking governors, considering what happened in South Carolina this past spring.

Comments

[Froggie]

Again, the story shouldn't be about the bicycling infractions (though it appears that's what some are focusing on). It should be on Fenty's apparent abuse of power and misuse of resources...

[Chris]

Agreed with Froggie.

Agreed with WashCycle too - it's ridiculous to suggest that the trails are a good option for training rides. In fact, I'd say that people who use the trails for training rides are a menace to everybody else.

Looking at that first video, I simply don't believe the mayor when he says that he didn't know that Clara Barton Parkway was off-limits, and I definitely don't believe him when he suggests that his fellow cyclists didn't know - this has been a topic of a good deal of conversations on local racing listservs, and unless those folks are completely unconnected, they absolutely know.

The biggest thing that amazes me about this story is how tone-deaf the mayor is. Is that the result of the arrogance that power creates?

[washcycle]

I agree about what the focus should be, namely is he appropriately using the resources at his disposal to do his job?

I am willing to believe he didn't know, but I don't read the racing listservs so I don't know how ridiculous that might seem. It is possible someone on his team knew, but didn't mention it to him.

[Contrarian]

Both NPS and Maryland state regulations require a road closed to cyclists to be posted. Arguably a closed road that is not posted is not really closed.

[Eric]

Of course they didnt include the section of the interview at WABA were we mentioned that cycling was exploding in popularity and the demand for safe places to ride is greater than ever, or our mention that the trails are no place for racers to train.

[ibc]

Just wanted to add my vote for "sees nothing wrong with the mayor exercising, or using city resources to do so.". If Mayor Williams had used a police escort to get to and from the gym this would have been an absolute and total non-story.

The only reason this story ever saw the light of day is because (in the minds of the exurban auto-commuter) all cyclists are arrogant, scofflaw, traffic-obstructing assholes.

[TWK]

It is interesting to note that both Fox videos are preceded by car commercials. The bias starts before the news piece.

[think a little]

ibc-

No this story came up because Fenty is arrogant, egocentric, and prone to elevating himself above the law.

As an suburban resident and bike commuter it bothers me to see him using his DC police detail to run red lights in suburban maryland and generally ignore the law. This is something that investigative journalists should be exposing