Monday Afternoon Commute - Good cops, bad cops

Good afternoon

• Driver hits two cyclists in bike lane, and once he notices that the collision damaged his car, he called the police who promptly cited him for illegally changing lanes into traffic. 
• The Washington Monument repairs could start this fall. It will require closing off the sidewalk along the south side of the Monument for 12-18 months, which should be no more than a minor inconvenience to cyclists.  
• "Frederick police are cracking down on skateboarders and bicycle stunt riders in the downtown historic district" If stunt biking and skateboarding had been against the rules in my hometown, then I would've had to take up another hobby - like huffing paint. 
• Would a BART-style "bikes on during rush hour" pilot program work on Metro Rail?
• Don't approach the Olympic Torch security bubble. 
• Lance Armstrong takes his doping case to the courtroom. Also "The agency says it has...along with blood samples from 2009-10 that are "fully consistent" with doping." If the 2009-10 blood samples are the ones that do him in, that would make his the worst comeback decision of all time. 

Comments

[Tara]

I had actually assumed (incorrectly) until recently that bikes were banned during all weekday rush hours. In fact, they are only prohibited 7-10 a.m. and 4-7 p.m, which means you could get your bike on the Metro early in the morning, and then ride home. Based upon crowd conditions, I think it would be nearly impossible to get a bike (on the Red Line at least) on a train during the afternoon rush hour.

Another idea to explore would be permitting bikes in outer-lying suburban stations but not downtown during rush hour. For example, there should less of an issue with a bike travelling from Takoma to Forest Glen at 6:45pm, then say, from Metro Center to Woodley Park during that same time frame.

[dynaryder]

+1 to signs on how drivers should turn when bike lanes are present;I see them do it wrong all the time.

Also,they really needed to do a take down on that kid with the bike? They couldn't've just blocked him?

[JeffB]

Re: Drivers merging into bike lanes.

IMHO I don't think this law is working well. In my observations very few drivers actually perform the maneuver correctly. It doesn't help that the laws of how a vehicle should cross a bike lane when turning are not uniform across the country.

To make matters worse quite a few drivers don't even bother with turn signals before they cross over the lane.

It would helpful if DC DOT would be consistent in how they stripe bike lanes as they approach intersections. On some intersections the lanes are a solid line all the way up to the stop. Others might use a dashed stripe as you approach. I think some of the bike lanes just disappear.

[wd]

-1 to signs. This incident in SW didn't occur at an intersection but rather a turn for a parking garage. If signs for this law were required, they would be everywhere. And we all know how well traffic signs work anyways.

[intermodal cabi addict]

Bikes just don't make sense on a crowded Metro platform or train - would much rather see bikeshare offered at both ends of the rail segment.  It will be interesting indeed to see whether/how this works when the Caltrain corridor bikeshare goes live later this year. 

[Arl]

-1 to bikes on Metro at rush hour. The crowd conditions on the trains, the platforms, and at escalators and elevators are already dangerous.

Ingress and egress from the trains at crowded stations is a particular problem. Adding bicycles to the door areas would particularly interfere with the ability of mobility-challenged passengers, on whom I see the train doors closed at least once per week.

If anything, Metro needs to go the other way and limit the amount of baggage, strollers, etc. that are transported on Metro at rush hour.

[SJE]

re bikes on Metro:
I can see that bikes are a problem, but not more than strollers, large bags, extremely fat people, or people standing in the doorway. Yet only bikes are banned.
As for crowding, the Metro is often quite busy after rush hour, when there are less trains. The least crowded appears to be the reverse commute during rush hour.
Yet bikes are banned during rush hour.

All this is to say that the specific ban on bikes seems misguided.

From a tranportation policy POV, bikes should be promoted on Metro, because they permit us to have an extremely efficient hub and spoke transit system, with bikes making up the last mile or two.