Friday Morning Commute - Camaro

Good morning. Don't forget to buy your tickets for BikeFest.

• WABA Someone is collecting bikes for Bikes for the World at 9 a.m. to noon June 11 at the William Penn House, 515 East Capitol St. SE. That's the same day as BikeFest FYI.
• Other news from Froggie: multi-use paths along Old Cameron Run (connecting Eisenhower Ave to Hoofs Run) and Backlick Run (connecting Holmes Run to Van Dorn St) have slipped by two years - to 2015 and 2016 - for budget reasons. The King Street Metro redesign includes brick sidewalks (boo) and oodles of bike parking in high visibility areas (yea).
• The US Open may not be super transit friendly this year, but they have a designated bicycle parking area at the Norwood School on Bradley Blvd. Go Justin Leonard!
• If getting hit by a car isn't bad enough, what if after you tell them to get out of their car four guys get out, yell at you to "Get out of their face" and then start beating you up. And then they beat up your friend because you want he tried to take a photo of their license plate?
• Did anyone go to the Columbia Pike Bike Boulevard meeting? How did it go? Better than getting hit by a bunch of d-bags in a camaro I hope.
• WABA on the R Street bike lanes: "For many years, the train tracks and Metro’s red line presented a significant barrier to east-west travel across the District, and thus the roadway network was designed to filter people out of the local communities that bordered the railroad and onto the major east-west routes....Today, significant portions of the completed MBT are open. Consequently, there is much greater demand from pedestrians, joggers, bicyclists and others for easier access to this area–the same area that the local roads are designed to get people away from. It is clear that the existing road network will require tweaks to adjust to these new patterns of demand"
• A cyclist hit a 5-year old boy in Kensington. The boy broke his leg and the cyclist appears to have had a concussion. She was wearing a helmet.

Comments

[Chris Slatt]

The Columbia Pike Bike Boulevard meeting was the least civil civic meeting I've ever been to...and I've attended a number of Streetcar meetings so that's saying something.

[MB]

You shut yer yap, Chris!

Heh. Seriously, that was just . . . odd.

That aside, I think it the meeting generally went well on the substance, in that there was acceptance/understanding of the concept, with just one or two points of pushback. The only real negative responses were with respect to turning a section of one-way 9th St back to its previous 2 way form. The families that live right on that section are pretty sure it will increase car traffic, and don't want that. Not sure how that resolves, in the end.

[le guy]

I read the article, and you completely misrepresented the incident. The cyclist who got hit immediately wanted to fight and the guys in the Camaro refused to come out of the car at first. While the Camaro guys are still guilty of assault, it was about more than just taking a photo of their plate. You made it sound like the cyclists were completely innocent and meek and the car guys were big mean bullies, but that's not quite right.

[Krickey7]

The article is obviously an incomplete story, but the 6'1" rugby player friend seems by his own account to be ready to fight. While the Camaro driver may have been at fault, (1) I can't say refusing to get out of the car is completely the wrong call in that situation and (2) he's not at fault for all the other car-cyclist incidents in Adams Morgan, which is how the article sets up what the clash.

[shane]

Quick correction: WABA has nothing to do with the bike collection at William Penn House. We have no idea where the Post got that event, but nothing happening there is affiliated with WABA.

[washcycle]

I've corrected the error about WABA and changed the description of the fight, but I don't see how it fundamentally changes things, except that I was confused about who tried to take the photo of the plate. It was the friend, not the person hit by the car. That seems like a trivial fact to me.

[le guy]

Here, this is how you should write it to accurately reflect the story (which is still just one side):

"What if after you tell them to get out of their car, yelling in a manner they may have found threatening manner, four guys refuse to get out at first, but then do get out and yell at you to "Get out of their face" and then start beating you up?"

It's a small point, but the issue is that you shouldn't always put the cyclist in a more favorable light. People who happen to be on bikes aren't always better than people who happen to be driving a car.

[Krickey7]

I didn't find your description objectionable, only that including it made a point that wasn't necessarily valid. It's really a story about an altercation, not a man-bites-dog story of a cyclist being hit, then assaulted by the people who hit him.

[SJE]

While people should keep a cool head, you can't realistically expect a cool head if you have just been hit by a car (or seen your friend hit).

[Krickey7]

Of course not. But a situation can go in one of two ways. If you keep a cool head, things get settled without an altercation. If you don't, an altercation becomes much more likely. I'm not saying that he was wrong, but that better judgment would have been, well, better. And likely there would have been no altercation, and no story.

[washcycle]

le guy, the only thing you added to what I wrote is the supposition of one person as to what another might have thought. If the guys in the car had said they felt threatened that would be pertinent. That an outside observer thought they might have felt threatened is not. Especially in light of the fact that I can't imagine four guys in a car feeling threatened by one guy standing outside of it.

I included it because it's a story about cycling in DC that was covered by the MSM. That's pretty much my standard for these posts. Further filtering will have to be done by readers.

[Krickey7]

Then why is the title of the blog "Camaro", as if that says all you need to know about the assailants? Stereotype much?

Next thing you'll be tagging stories by reference to 'bents, Dutch bikes or fixies, as if we are what we ride. Although I am, in fact, a "Bad Boy."

[washcycle]

When naming the link dump posts, I try to choose the most unusual word - the one I'm least likely to repeat - in the post or the links from that, so that there aren't two posts in the history with the same name. It makes it easier for me when I'm looking for something. Don't read too much into it.

[Krickey7]

The article notes that the other cyclist involved in the altercation was riding a Surly. Coincidence? I think not.

[SJE]

Yes, but do his actions make him a "Big Dummy"

[SJE]

Krickey7: I agree that we should be cool headed. All I was trying to say is that you gotta cut people some slack under the conditions.

[Todd]

@Washcycle - I need to side with le guy here, as your story was wholly one-sided. You focused solely on the ONE guy who had the shit kicked out of him by FOUR guys who jumped out of a car after apparently making an illegal turn and bouncing him off the car's windshield. I mean, you didn't focus on the perspective of the ground -- how would you like it if some guy fell on you and them tumbled as FOUR guys punched and kicked him and as he probably bled and stuff. Let's have some journalistic objectivity.

Moreover, from a Coasian point of view, it's not clear whether their fists hit his head (after they jumped out of the car) or his head hit their fists. Moreover, the FOUR guys that were in that car might have hurt their fingers during the tussle.

[washcycle]

it's not clear whether their fists hit his head (after they jumped out of the car) or his head hit their fists.

This is similar to my fighting technique which is to attack my opponent's knee with my groin.

[Scott]

Just from personal experience at two in the morning I've had a beverage or three. I think two groups of people with less then perfect judgment met each other and less then perfect judgment ensued.