Crash near NIH

Jay writes in and includes this photo

I was biking out Old Georgetown [on Tuesday Oct 19] when I came across a bike v. car crash at the intersection of Center Drive and Old Georgetown just a bit before 9 a.m. As you can see the cyclist did not seem to be seriously injured (though looking back from down the road the ambulance crew seemed to be putting someone on a backboard).  The top tube on the bike was broken off near the headset.

I don't know what happened, other than that the cyclist had been headed north on Old Georgetown. But that's a peculiarly dangerous intersection.  Anyone headed north on the sidewalk will tend to rely on the right-of-way granted by the crosswalk, and there are no "Don't Walk" lights there.  But drivers southbound on Old Georgetown get a regular left-turn arrow, which sends them right into the crosswalk on their way into NIH.  Legally I believe pedestrians in the crosswalk still have right of way; practically, it's a foolish cyclist or pedestrian who gets in the way of a commuter with a green turn arrow.

Comments

[Froggie]

Legally, pedestrians can't cross Center Dr if there isn't a steady green for northbound Old Georgetown traffic. In this case, the green left arrow trumps what would normally be the pedestrian's right-of-way in the crosswalk.

But it sounds like that isn't applicable in this particular bicyclist's case.

[Nancy]

One problem with another intersection a little further south (Old G'town and Battery Lane) is the peds on Old G who want to cross Battery have no walk signal, so they have no idea whether the light is about to change and have no knowledge that southbound Old G traffic gets a left turn arrow at the beginning of the cycle. You can't blame a pedestrian for crossing at the wrong time when they don't have any information. This is a heavily traveled bike/ped corridor. I have written the county/state about installing lights for peds who are crossing Battery Lane at this this intersection, but all I got back was a form letter saying something like "we have to balance the needs of cars and pedestrians." Yeah, right. Take your thumb off the effing scale, why don't you MD DOT?

[Friendly Observer]

The experienced cyclist was headed SOUTH, not North. Since 10/1/2010-a cyclist has the right-of-way in a crosswalk, just like a pedestrian in MD. The driver also admitted she never looked right (where the cyclist was). So the driver ran a red light WITHOUT stopping and looking. But the cyclist was deemed partly responsible-since he was riding his bike-not walking it in the crosswalk. Someone needs to educate the MCPD.

[Froggie]

Friendly Observer: so what you're saying is there wasn't a green left arrow? Because a green left arrow for motorists will still trump what would otherwise be right-of-way for the pedestrian/cyclist in the crosswalk.

[contrarian]

At a signalized intersection without pedestrian controls crosswalk users have to follow the traffic signal for straight through traffic. Green arrow plus red light turning cars have right of way, green arrow plus green light crosswalk users have right of way.

It seems like exceedingly poor traffic engineering to have a crosswalk and a green arrow and not have pedestrian controls.

[Friendly Observer]

The auto was making a right turn on RED (without stopping-only looking LEFT), the cyclist coming on the right-in the crosswalk. The car drove through the crosswalk without stopping to even look right. Where did you get left turn arrows? No one was turning left-save for the SUV in the opposite lane-who was not involved in the crash.