Cyclist critically injured on MVT

This Yesterday morning around 8am a cyclist was coming down the overpass from the Custis Trail to the MV Trail (over GW parkway) and apparently hit the steel post at the bottom in the center of the ramp.  One witness to the response talked to the NPS officer at the scene and he stated the cyclist was in critical condition.  Upon leaving the witness noted there was some gravel on the lower portion of the ramp which could have been a factor although the officer said that speed was a factor.  The officer was going to block the trail off but since he had not blocked the top of the trail at Lee Hwy and Lynn St it would not do much good.

Comments

[Mike Essig]

is that 2 days in a row?

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?2030-April-3-Police-Activity-at-Roosevelt-Island-Parking-Lot-8-am

[papalena]

That was yesterday morning (Tuesday) that this happened. And the officers *did* block off the bridge. I had to detour to the Memorial bridge to make it into work.

[washcycle]

Mike, my bad. Got confused.

[charlie]

I noticed that gravel two days ago; when I rode down it yesterday it was cleaned up. It was a mess -- part of the ashpalt had failed.

Slow the hell down people. I got yelled at coming down that bridge yesterday -- I was on a bikeshare with shoddy brakes and didn't want to push it.

[Math Geek]

Agree with Charlie. The cyclists who get ticked at others who slow down on that bridge need to grown up. These are bike trails used for recreation and commuting, not the TdF. Just one cyclist hitting that post can take out anyone behind him as well.

[Rootchopper]

Did the officer actually see the cyclist hit the post? My guess is that the cyclist was trying to avoid what looks like the remnant of a motor vehicle accident that left the trail covered in debris.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rootchopper/6894334688/in/photostream
Maybe he hit this mess and then lost control and went into the post. Or maybe he saw it at the last second (as I did) and veered into the post.

[Ron Alford]

@Rootchopper: Speed is always the cause of cycling accidents. If he wasn't moving, he wouldn't have hit the post, would he?

[Crickey7]

Sharp curves and gravel. Now I remember why I don't really like "bike paths."

For a mildly interesting discussion of the dynamic, look at the "camber thrust" entry on Wikipedia.

[antibozo]

Crickey7, i run into sharp curves and gravel on roads too.

My least favorite spot lately has been the bottom of the hill on Decatur Street in Kensington, at the intersection with Wexford. Some construction on this very steep hill ended up dumping a bunch of big gravel on the road, which all got washed down in a rain we had a few weeks ago. Decatur has a stop sign at the bottom of the hill, but Wexford does not, and people come flying up Wexford to that intersection. It's been cleaned up a bit but it's still treacherous.

I daresay with lazy and sloppy construction projects on roads and houses going on, you're actually more likely to encounter this sort of thing on a road than on a bikeway. And the MVT, like much of the Virginia bike infrastructure, is not something i would generally complain about. We'd swoon with joy if we had a trail that nice in Monkey County.

[dayglo]

Charlie, you got yelled at for going too slow?

That's pathetic.

[Crickey7]

You are correct the raods can be as bad, but as many others have noted, the movement of cars tends to sweep away loose debris.

Further, roads are designed to have a crown that aids in taking curves. Multi-use paths rarely have a crown, and at times actually slope away from the direction of the turn.

[charlie]

It would be nice if Arlington could clean up Clarendon from Courthouse to Oak St. That is also just chock full of gravel from 4 construction sites.

[JeffB]

Agree with Crickey7. MUPs are rarely built with any design criteria that says this path will be safe for cyclists to use.

In this case - sticking a fixed metal pole in the middle of the path at the bottom of a down slope is clearly not good.

[antibozo]

Crickey7, i find that the movement of cars tends to sweep debris into piles in certain places. As an example, at Beach Drive and Connecticut Avenue, there was a piece of metal strip in the road for a matter of months this winter, which i kept riding over (it was harmless but noticeable). It never moved, because it had been knocked into a spot in the intersection where cars just never go.

Can't disagree with you on the grading tho, or with JeffB on the location of this bollard. OTOH, the bollard is pretty hard not to see (look at Rootchopper's photo). I hope we find out someday what actually happened here.

[Kolohe]

I thought we had declared a war against bollards and were winning?

[Froggie]

Not in this case. Here's a photo from M.V. Jantzen from 2007 showing a bollard in that same location, albeit without the reflective striping shown in Rootchopper's photo.

[antibozo]

I hope we hear some good news about this soon. I'm really hoping for the best for this poor guy.