Thursday Morning Commute - Roy Scheider is the only Seaquester I care about

I hope you're all enjoying the last day of large, bloated government.

• ANC2b to take up a resolution supporting the “Bicycle Safety Amendment Act of 2013”
• Sadie Dingfelder of the City Paper was hit by a car while on (walking?) her bike. "A few days ago, an off-duty police officer ran a red light near Union Station and then changed his mind, backing his car over me and my bike while I was in a crosswalk. "
• How much flexibility will Richmond give NoVa in deciding how to spend the new transportation funds? "Will Richmond let Northern Virginia spend as much as it would like on mass transit, busways and bike lanes rather than pouring concrete? (The answer could depend on whether Ken Cuccinelli wins the governorship in November. A longtime transit skeptic, he opposed building Metro’s Silver Line to Dulles Airport.)...A tug of war also is likely between auto-friendly projects and those favoring rail transit, buses, bicycles and pedestrians. Arlington, in particular, has a long (and successful) history of promoting alternatives to cars. It hopes Richmond grants it lots of flexibility in parceling out money."
• (Warning: Ann Coulter link!) "I don't know why anyone needs to bicycle in a city." Only one reason: to trade your food stamps for weed with your illegal immigrant budies before an occupy wallstreet gay marriage. Or, I suppose, to go to work.

Comments

[Brendan]

When did Ann Coulter start working for the Onion? That was too funny.

[unclejed]

I have been surprised lately by the number of vehicles backing into cross walks after a light change. Maybe drivers are concerned about blocking cross-traffic (unlikely) or maybe they are avoiding a camera-ticket? Either way, I feel for Sadie because you don't expect vehicles to move in reverse.

[CyclingFool]

@unclejed I've seen it a lot, too. Or people just treating the far end of the crosswalk as the stop line, instead of using, oh I don't know, the STOP LINE as a stop line.

I just navigate around them as carefullyas I can and give them a stink eye if they're looking and occasionally a finger if it's well deserved.

Yesterday near on the Mall (Jefferson and 15th) on the evening commute, I saw a cyclist do what I've so often wanted to do, give a good open hand smack to a the trunk lid of a guy's fancy Beamer that had stopped smack dab blocking the crosspark, er, crosswalk. Driver rolled window down, "pleasantries" were exchanged, and everyone moved along. Ballsy move on the part of the cyclist... something I've only ever dreamed of doing. DB in the BMW got what he deserved, though.

[Jonathan Krall]

Thanks for the warning. I am happy to be one less mouseclick in Ann's "everyone look at me cuz I'm being shocking again!" business plan.

[SJE]

"I don't know why...." is the most honest thing I have heard Ann Coulter say. Some self awareness of her ignorance! Normally, watching her is like I wired up Barbie to replay Hitler's speeches.

[SJE]

I seriously think that Coulter is a performance artist who says things to get a rise. She is very good at it, and always has a smile on her face when she says it, like "I saying the most outrageous things and you believe I'm serious."

[washcycle]

I feel like when Coulter first hit the scene as a legal scholar (yeah, I know) during the whole Clinton-Jones-Lewinsky thing, she was reasonable and measured. I even agreed with her. But then it was like she changed into this character - like watching Homer Simpson get dumber in season 3 - and she never looked back.

I don't think she believes most of the things she says. Ann Coulter the conservative windbag is a character that Ann Hart Coulter invented to make money and push the conservative agenda (like Stephen Colbert is a character). She even changed the character's age to be younger than the actress'.

[Resident]

Although there is frequently anti-bike rhetoric coming out of Richmond, I've been (mostly) pleasantly surprised about recent and announced VDOT projects. Most of them seem to include bike infrastructure: Washington Blvd. bridge over Rte. 110, Washington Blvd. bridge over Columbia Pike, Rte. 50/10th St./Courthouse Rd. area.

I don't care so much if politicians cater to their bike-hating constituents with occasional soundbites but then let VDOT and local jurisdictions plan projects on a more rational basis.

[oboe]

I seriously think that Coulter is a performance artist who says things to get a rise. She is very good at it, and always has a smile on her face when she says it, like "I saying the most outrageous things and you believe I'm serious."

Kind of like Antonin Scalia.

[SJE]

Washcycle: when people think we are bunch of 20 something childless hipsters, we can always note your Roy Scheider reference. He was definitely one of the bigger names in the 80s and 90s. Where is he now?. Now you back it up with comments about Coulter during the Lewinsky trial, before most hipsters knew what a stained blue dress really meant.