Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Wolves

Good Afternoon

• FoxDC an NBC4 cover last week's hit and run injury in Bethesda. Jodi Grant, the victim, looks as badly injured as you'd imagine. And lest you think the driver just didn't know about the crash "According to witnesses, the driver stopped briefly and drove away."
• Follow up on NYC's defensive cycling class. Better police enforcement is part of the solution, but so is the Idaho Stop. 
• Lance Armstrong noticing early on that other cyclists seemed to be doping. “I’ve only experienced one Tour de France and it was very, very difficult,” he said. “I’m certain this year’s going to be as difficult, if not more. It seems to be much more difficult this year for some reason. There’s a lot of guys that go much faster this year. I’m just as fit and feel just as good as I did last year, but my strength within the peloton has sort of gone down. A lot of riders are stronger.”

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Comments

[Jack Cochrane]

I witnessed the police fail to take an accident investigation seriuosly after a very serious hit and run crash in Montgomery County in 2005. I assume they do things better now, but they were not on the ball then. In the crash a pickup truck hit a rider from behind on Randolph Rd near Kennedy H.S. and stopped briefly, then drove off. The cyclist ended up in a coma. The police did not launch a major investigation, did not issue a public bulletin, and did not assign the case to a detective until I complained. Even then it was two weeks before they issued a bulletin asking the public to look out for the vehicle. Also, the detective they assigned was not well versed in hit & run investigations. The victim died maybe a month later, which finally prompted the police to put an experienced crash investigator on it who could query MVA databases, etc. By that time it was too late to make any progress and no one was ever caught.

[Mike]

jack, i thought you didnt take any of this sutff that seriously?...it sounds like youre just tilting at windmills...
who really cares about cyclists in montgomery county? -- certainly not the police...the council?! bah ha ha ha ha...can you say "we need another sidepath along route..."

[Jonathan Krall]

Mike: ????

Jack: Thanks for your work on this. As I read these stories over the years I see attitudes changing, albeit slowly.

I think it is worth noting that, in urban areas such as Washington DC, most of the traffic fatalities involve people in cars killing bystanders rather than each other [1]. Motorists wield the power, but the majority of the risk falls on non-motorists. This is simply immoral.

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/half-of-dc-traffic-fatalities-were-pedestrians/2012/08/06/107be118-dff8-11e1-a19c-fcfa365396c8_story.html

http://tinyurl.com/9qvgu7q