Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Turtle Tunnel of Love

Good afternoon

• The DC Council is busy today. Mary Cheh introduced a bill that "would mandate that if one car is stopped at a pedestrian crossing, any cars coming up behind it should also have to stop." Muriel Bowser introduced a law to reduce the speed limit on some streets to 15mph. Meanwhile Phil Mendelson questions the need for the Anti-Assault law that WABA has pushed. 
• Maryland and AA county planning a long detour for the WB&A to cross the Patuxent River when a shorter, better route may be available. 
• I'm not sure which I find more surprising, that Republicans didn't vote as a block to try and kill TE or that, once a block vote didn't happen, 38 Senators voted to do so. Either way, the third attempt to kill TE over the last two months failed. More here.

Comments

[Pseudoprime]

Honestly, I'm OK with the long detour as long as it will get the thing built more quickly. But it's not even clear to me that is the case.

[I forgot]

I'm a little baffled by Cheh's bill. It applies to two lane roads, which I assume are bidirectional. If cars coming up to a stopped vehicle don't stop, they will rear end the stopped car, which is illegal. If they pass, they are passing in an intersection, which is already illegal.

[Contrarian]

DC already has:
2221.5 Whenever any vehicle is stopped at a marked crosswalk or at an unmarked crosswalk at any intersection to permit a pedestrian to cross the roadway, the driver of any vehicle approaching from the rear shall not overtake and pass the stopped vehicle.

If you read the chapter of the DCMR on overtaking and passing, (http://www.dcregs.dc.gov/Gateway/ChapterHome.aspx?ChapterNumber=18-22) it's clear that "passing" includes using both same-direction and opposite direction lanes. So I'm not at all sure what Cheh's bill covers that isn't already illegal.

It may be prompted by the incident a few years ago where a MPD officer struck and killed a pedestrian on Wisconsin Avenue while passing a car that had stopped for the pedestrian. The MPD found that no law had been violated, but that wasn't a problem with the law, that was a problem with MPD.

Allowing a lower speed limit than 25 is a good move, because DC won't ticket anything less than 10 MPH over the limit, so we have a de facto 35 MPH minimum speed limit in the city, which is awfully fast for a lot of neighborhoods.

[Michael H.]

Isn't it the responsibility of a landowner to ensure that stray bullets do not come flying out from his property onto adjacent land? That said, if Maryland is going to drop the ball and not ensure that the railbed is bullet-free, then the detour could be a better choice.

I'm not a Maryland resident so I don't follow the local politics that much. Wouldn't it be simple to construct a fence along the direct route to protect against stray bullets? Unless people are standing close to the trail and firing high-powered weapons directly at cyclists and pedestrians, a metal fence should be able to stop stray bullets.

In any case, I hope the local governments get their act together eventually, and soon. Completing the WB&A trail puts Maryland one big step further along to creating a bike-friendly route between Washington and Baltimore. The downtown-to-downtown trip would be around 30-35 miles. Even a casual cyclist can build up enough fitness to make that trip comfortably with a couple months of training.

As I commented recently, it would be really nice to have a quality bike route between Washington and Baltimore in the near future. I know that I'd make the trip from time to time if I could ride on bike trails and a few low-speed local streets.

[Michael H.]

Are the East Coast Greenway people following the situation in Anne Arundel? Maybe they can help to coordinate input on the trail.

[Scout03]

I hope Mary Cheh's bill passes. Drivers need to pay more attention.

Oh, Phil M., ride a bike for one week to your City Council job and then ask yourself if the WABA Bike Assault Bill is necessary. This guy is such a grand stander.

[washcycle]

Michael H, yes it's possible to separate the trail. In fact, the WB&A passes by an active outdoor shooting range. They built a wall to protect cyclists from errant shots. I heart that It took some negotiating with the gun club, but it has worked out well and there have been no complaints that I know of from either group.

[Oboe's Id]

Meanwhile Phil Mendelson questions the need for the Anti-Assault law that WABA has pushed.

Good to see Phil's consistent at least: he's spent many years ensuring that 17-year-old killers go unharassed by the law, it's only fair that middle-aged dudes driving pickup trucks should be allowed to try and kill people on bicycles without fear of persecution.

[oboe]

As far as Cheh's bill goes, I'm in favor of anything that at least makes it possible to enforce reasonable speed limits. Right now, we've got absolutely nothing on that front from MPD. Perhaps lowering the speed limit will allow us to build support for increased photo enforcement in neighborhoods, and not just on the SE/SW Freeway and NY Ave east of Bladensburg Rd.

[Contrarian]

After reading today's Northwest Current, I can answer my own question: the proposal would effectively remove the term "to permit a pedestrian to cross the roadway" from the law.

Under current law, you cannot be charged unless you see the pedestrian. If the driver's view of the pedestrian is blocked by the stopped car -- or he claims it is -- he's off the hook. Cheh's proposal would change the trigger from a pedestrian in the crosswalk to a stopped vehicle at the crosswalk.

Sounds like a good idea.

[Jim T]

Sorry I came to this discussion on the WB&A late.

We do not know whether the detour will get the thing built more quickly. I see the biggest problem as AA proceeding with elimination of the right of way for the part that is 0.5-1.0 miles from the river, owned by the developer.

An alternatives analysis probably will eventually take place. MDOT resists doing it now, instead preferring to wait until AA completes whatever it is up to, which probably includes putting houses on the ROW. Not that MDOT wants houses on the ROW; it just doesn't like to include anything that the county does with its own money and regulatory power as part of the picture.

While a smaller scale, this basically needs a combined EA and feasibility study, in which the best route is selected. AA seems to instead be selecting an alignment first--and then we'll do the alternatives analysis.