Thursday Morning Commute - Zombie Awareness Month

Good morning.

• DC DOE may build an elevated platform near the Anacostia Riverwalk crane to serve as a nesting spot for the construction-delaying ospreys (nicknames please) when they return in future seasons.
• Lydia DePillis beat me to it, but NoMa has new banners up branding the neighborhood. One of them highlights "Trails" as one of the amenities. 
• The Navy Yard had a ribbon-cutting on the Promenade yesterday morning. Can you cut the ribbon on something built decades ago?
• The wife of frequent commenter and photograph contributor Rootchopper was hit by a car recently and just got out of the hospital. Here's wishing her a quick and full recovery.
• Remember, it all starts with a cover-up. Might want to put air in your tires, that's all I'm saying. In actual news "The new W&OD Trail bridge over the Capital Beltway is currently under construction and expected to be complete in early June, said Titunik."
• In addition to appropriating $2M for 40 more CaBi stations, Tommy Wells also wants to designate funds for a "bait bike" and restore the $10,000 BAC budget.
• The next kidicalmass in May 21. "Once again we’ll meet in the park area just across Pennsylvania Avenue SE from Eastern Market Station (between 8th, 9th and D Street and Pennsylvania Avenue). From 10:00amFrom 10:00am till 11:00am, we’ll drink coffee, eat tasty snacks provided by our friends at Dessert Station, and share our family biking stories. Then we’ll leave for a leisurely ride through Capitol Hill and end with brunch at Pound Coffee. Participants will have a chance to win a $50 gift certificate from event partner BicycleSPACE."
• The Building Museum presentation on biking was last night. I didn't go, but did read many factoids on twitter.
• A woman was hit by a cyclist in Vienna. The cyclist "stopped to offer assistance and provided the woman with his contact information. The woman declined to be treated for her minor injuries, police said." Interestingly, "This incident does not meet the criteria to be considered a traffic crash, Vienna police said. Both participants are considered pedestrians under Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles reporting rules, they said." That's a bad policy. How can we know the magnitude of the problem if we don't track it? And, if being hit by a cyclist isn't a traffic crash, what is it?
• Montgomery County youth help Bikes for the World repair bikes. 
• "so it appears DOT has decided to degrade the bridge for the thousands of motorists just to benefit the dozens of bikers." This bridge has no bike accommodations, thus no one bikes there, thus no accommodations are needed.  But there are plans to add bike lanes to Cedar, despite what the letter writer says. The project is being escalated to get ready for BRAC, which also includes a push to - wait for it - get more people to bike. "We know that these roads are already failing, so with BRAC, every employee that rides a bike to work is one less car that's on the road -- causing gridlock."
• Bowie police chief wants more bike patrols. Paid for with speed camera revenue.

Comments

[Mike Essig]

Heads up,

The Navy Yard Waterfront gates will close at 1300 today (Thursday 5/12).

[MB]

Crash reporting is definitely a problem in Virginia. The ACPD officer in charge of reporting in Arlington gave a presentation/took questions from a joint meeting of the bike, pedestrian, etc. committees a few months ago, and my takeaway was that we have almost no reliable information about crashes involving bikes and pedestrians. This is due in part to the reporting threshold ($1k in damage or a hospital visit), ACPD discouragement of reporting, and an antiquated back end on the reporting system itself. It's shameful.

[Contrarian]

Under Virginia law, a bicyclist operating on a trail, sidewalk or crosswalk has the rights and duties of a pedestrian. So a collision between a cyclist and a pedestrian, or between two cyclists, is the same as a collision between two pedestrians.

[Krickey7]

I find this trend of altering signs very disturbing. I mean, what will happen when the Zombie Apocalypse actually happens?

--Concerned Citizen

[groucho]

Proposed nicknames for the ospreys:

Ana and Costia.

[washcycle]

That may be the law, but it is still bad policy. We should track all crashes, and stop labeling cyclists as pedestrians. In DC there is no box for cyclist. So they check pedestrian and then in the comments put "cyclist."

[zombie]

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuh! Braaaains! Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!

[Dave]

BRAAAAAAAINSonyourleftBRAAAAAAAINS

[Mike Essig]

Proposed nicknames for the ospreys: Frederick and Douglas, no wait that will just flare up the same sex union issue.

[Contrarian]

That may be the law, but it is still bad policy. We should track all crashes, and stop labeling cyclists as pedestrians. In DC there is no box for cyclist. So they check pedestrian and then in the comments put "cyclist."

I agree that in general more reporting can only be a good thing. My point is that in Virginia they're at least following the law. My understanding is that in DC the MPD will report cyclist crash victims as pedestrians even when they are vehicle operators (i.e., in the road).

What would be best would be to have the police report separately the mode -- pedestrian, cyclist, motorist -- and the location -- sidewalk, crosswalk, roadway, trail, etc.

[washcycle]

Agreed. In Denver they have these cool tricorder-type devices that mark the locations of things via GPS, take photos, adjust the form based on previous questions (ex. If one participant is a cyclist, it asks "were they wearing a helmet"), etc... I first heard about it 5 years ago. Sigh.

[charlie]

Actually, I was hit by a cyclist this morning on the Custis trial. Idiot turned into the trail on the wrong side and hit me.

I suspect they are not being reported because it isn't worth the hassle. Even if you're injured, there is no need for police reports for an insurance?

Damn lycra people. he could have have at least said sorry.

[Jim T]

@charlie. I suspect they are not being reported because it isn't worth the hassle. Even if you're injured, there is no need for police reports for an insurance?

Why? Doesn't home owner's insurance cover this? Have all the insurance companies agreed to an informal "no fault" approach for bicycle crashes?

[Shawn]

Are there penalties for sidewalk crashes in downtown D.C.? Some guy on a bike virtually plowed through a crowd on the sidewalk (I was on the edge walking to dinner) that was watching emergency workers treat someone in the park to the north of the White House. I don't know if he did hit anybody in front or behind me, but I felt angry, as a bike commuter, that he acted so recklessly.

[charlie]

@JimT; I have no idea. If I was injured in a bike crash, which insurance company would cover me? I don't think my medical does?

And if I injure someone else, who would cover that?