Good afternoon
- The Penn Avenue cycle-track gets marginally better. And LAB on the L Street cycletrack. Meanwhile the number of green lanes in the United States doubled last year.
- A vision of Chinatown with a two-way cycle-track on 9th protected by a 4-foot "physical separation filled with plants, not just paint and bollards,"
- Friend of the blog, Micah Dammeyer is suing the passenger, taxi-cab driver and passenger's employer for $70,000 in his dooring incident that was chronicled on this blog.
- A community group wants to turn the North RFK parking lot into a park with green space, sports fields and the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. Offtopic a bit, I've long wanted to see the whole RFK property turned into Robert Kennedy (or Kennedy Brothers) National Recreation area, with many more sports fields,a velodrome, canoe docks, a smaller stadium for soccer, playgrounds, unprogrammed space etc...But that is an awful lot to ask for. This is probably less pie-in-the-sky).
- Custis Trail closed at Ft. Myer Drive. Was anyone alerted beforehand?
- "George Mason University, the City of Fairfax and Fairfax County have been working together since 2010 to study bicycle improvements between Mason and the Vienna-Fairfax-GMU Metro station. "
- Interesting plots based on the DDOT bicycle counts: Gender breakdown, helmet usage and the ratio of cyclists to bike lane miles.
- "Virginia Bicycling Federation recently created two new safety posters that can be downloaded and printed. "Light up the night-Be Safe Be Seen" encourages cyclists to use front and rear lights and to wear visible clothing....The second poster has a more subtle message, "Don't be color blind-Same Rights, Same Responsibilities." It took a minute to figure out that "color blind" was referring to the red light signal in the image."
- Virginia bill would make texting while driving reckless driving."Del. Ben Cline (R-Rockbridge) and Del. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) announced Wednesday that they had submitted a bill to make it a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by as much as a year in jail and a $2,5000 fine, to use cellphones while driving for anything other than a call." Sigh...it's progress. Another bill would require drivers to use "due care" to avoid hitting pedestrians and cyclists. No seriously, that isn't the law now.
- DC has the 12th highest "Bike Score" in the US with a score high enough to be considered "bikeable".
I hope Micah fought the "passing on the right" ticket. If not, the defense will argue that he was operating his vehicle negligibly, and therefore gets no recovery.
Posted by: SJE | December 19, 2012 at 04:28 PM
Re: A Vision in Chinatown,
Please, no more 2-way cycle tracks.
Posted by: JeffB | December 19, 2012 at 06:40 PM
"he's also suing the federal government because the cab's passenger worked for the Department of Homeland Security."
Well that's completely stupid and assinine.
Posted by: Kolohe | December 19, 2012 at 07:23 PM
Kolohe: If an employee injures someone "in the course of employment" then the employee can assign the risk to the employer.
Therefore, there are three non stupid reasons why it makes sense to sue both.
1. she was getting out of cab going into work: there is a good argument that she was on the job.
2. If liability lies with DHS, then she is out of this. If you don't sue BOTH, you could end up with nothing.
3. DHS has the money, employee may not.
Posted by: SJE | December 20, 2012 at 12:11 AM
The "due care" should already be in the VA law through the common law (you owe a general duty of care to act in a way that does not harm others).
Sad that it has to be spelled out.
Posted by: SJE | December 20, 2012 at 12:14 AM
IANAL, but if one argues that the DHS employee was on the clock, you're probably going get the sovereign immunity defense and get nothing.
" as necessary to pass with safety." in 1201.3 will probably screw his case, because filtering up when a car is already in each traffic lane at the light can be prima facie deemed unsafe. You don't have the right to create you're own lane. same thing with "on the side where traffic is approaching" in 2214.4. Traffic wasn't approaching - bicyclist created his own peril by creating his own traffic lane.
Arguing that an employer has responsibility for how their employees exit cabs, that's stupid just with common sense, and makes every stereotype about ambulance chasing lawyers fufilled - don't look for 'justice', just go after the people with deep pockets for a payday.
It also makes legitimate safely operating bicyclists that drive centerlane and don't shoal look bad by association.
Either way, I respectfully disagree with Micah Dammeyer for putting me as a US Taxpayer on the hook for this. I am selfish.
Posted by: Kolohe | December 20, 2012 at 06:29 AM
@Kolohe Nope, you won't get sovereign immunity, you'll get the Federal Tort Claims Act, where Congress specifically waived SI for tortious acts by employees. If she is found to be in the wrong, and she was 'on the clock', there's a good chance he'll recover from the employer, the theory being that a Federal employee isn't supposed to be violating the law in the course of their employment.
Posted by: Moose | December 20, 2012 at 08:56 AM
Part of the reason we make employers responsible is because employers have control over how their employees behave, and can therefore create a more safety conscious culture. e.g. UPS can make more money if its drivers drive faster. If it forces the drivers to speed, it gets the benefits, and the drivers get the tickets, and others get injuries. By making the employer liable, it forces its drivers to be careful.
Posted by: SJE | December 20, 2012 at 05:06 PM
ya know, there are like literallyjoebiden a million government and government contract workers that commute back and forth everyday in the DC area and multiple car accidents everyday somewhere on the freeways, parkways, and other roadways around the region, and I don't think the Federal government gets sued for most of them.
Posted by: Kolohe | December 20, 2012 at 06:02 PM
That's because in car accidents there is insurance. So the insurance companies work it out. This is a taxi cab passenger and a cyclist. Who insures them?
Posted by: washcycle | December 20, 2012 at 06:05 PM