Fox retracts Crackdown on the CCT Story

After I wrote about the Fox News story on the "Crackdown on the CCT," Joe contacted the Maryland-National Capital Park Police who characterized the story as a "misrepresentation".

They noted that the Lt. interviewed in the story did not mention this as a “speed crackdown” and did not mention the use of radar or lidar speed measuring devices. She was reinforcing the increased visibility of their officers in an effort to address the myriad of unsafe behaviors exhibited by many of the trail users, whether walkers, joggers, dog walkers or bicyclist. She also talked about the educational efforts underway from members of their sworn compliment, rangers and volunteers.

Park Police has contacted Fox regarding their misrepresentation and they are going to work with them to do another, more comprehensive piece that accurately depicts what is occurring on the trail. Fox has taken the story down from their site and so have I.

Park Police reiterated that speed was not found to be a factor in the two most recent collisions, the first was rider error on the part of the passing bicyclist and the last was jogger error combined with rider error ("...if the cyclist had given a warning before he tried to pass left, the lady might’ve heard him early enough to wait before she made her u-turn and if the lady had of glanced over her shoulder before she made her u-turn she might’ve seen the cyclist passing on her left."). While speed could have played a part in the first situation, the investigating officers did not find evidence or witnesses that could clearly verify a high speed on the part of either cyclist.

The Park Police is trying to take a broad approach to these issues and not focusing solely on cyclists. They note that even their sign board shows more about awareness and courteous behavior than speed.

This all sounds good, and certainly there are steps we can all take to make the trails safer (including going slower as appropriate).

Comments

[Daniel]

Amen to cyclists slowing down in congested areas. I know readers of this blog are probably pretty conscious of speeds in congested areas, but the Fox report was a real missed opportunity for discussing trail courtesy. Something like this mountain biking etiquette video.

[jacquesmock]

Glad to see the retraction. I want to see the article "Crackdown on Latte-Sipping Pedestrians who Push Double-Wide Strollers while Talking on the Phone and Walking an Untrained Dog on a 16-Foot Leash." Yes, some cyclists are discourteous. But so are plenty of other trail users.

[Richard Layman]

"I tolja..."

When the stories are wrong, it has to be brought to the attention of the journalist and his/her higher ups (editors), and the media outlet has to be asked to correct the story.

This gets them to be more diligent and careful.