MPD Chief Cathy Lanier sees bike lanes as double-edged sword

At the beginning of the month (aka pre-Milloy), Cathy Lanier was a guest on Ask the Chief and she spent quite a bit of time discussing bikes after a caller, who claimed he'd twice been struck by cyclists, asked what could be done about enforcement.

You can listen to her discussion of this here. The discussion of cycling enforcement starts at 9:00. Below is a poor transcription.

Caller: Chief I'm concerned about being a pedestrian in the city with bicycles all over the roads and not paying attention to the stop lights. I've been hit twice by bicyclists. What can the police do to enforce the laws on bicyclists?

Lanier: yeah, we really had to step up our enforcement with bicyclists. It is not only dangerous for pedestrians and for motorists, I mean I've actually had a bicycle hit my car. So, and the familiarity with the bike lanes because I've seen several very close calls with bicyclists in bike lanes not following the traffic signals that can cause collisions. So we have stepped up our enforcement. We're trying to work with the Washington Area Bicyclists Association to help raise awareness but when you have so many tourists and visitors that are non-residents that are coming here for short visits and renting bikes and hitting the streets our enforcement efforts don't have the same impact as they would in a neighborhood that's not a tourist area.

Host: Are bikes allowed on sidewalks?

Lanier: They're not allowed on sidewalks in the Central Business District...I mean there's literally bike lanes all over the city and bikes are allowed on any roadway and they're not restricted to just the curb.

Host: can they be ticketed on sidewalks?

Lanier: They can be yes.

Host: Pedestrians wish they would be. (laughing)

Lanier: It is a big challenge. It's a big challenge for us. And then the other part of that is, especially during rush hour time when we try and stop and do enforcement - unlike the automated enforcement - when we stop to do enforcement we block up traffic and then Bob [name?] calls me. (laughing)

Host: You do not want that call from Bob (laughing)

Lanier: I don't want that call from Bob (laughing)

Host: The proliferation of bike lanes, has that helped the issue in terms of the number of problems and collisions and that sort of thing, has it reduced it?

Lanier: It's helped, but I think it's kind of a double-edged sword. With some of the bike lanes, so if you think about you're heading as a motorist in the traffic lane and there's a bike lane to your right side and you want to make a right turn at a green light, a bicyclist travelling at a good speed can come up and pass through that intersection before you even see them so while your making that right turn...it creates some hazards, so it really is incumbent on everybody to be extremely aware now where now where those bike lanes are. But I think overall it has helped to y'know help to keep bicyclists and the awareness of bicyclists up for everybody.

Host: Let me just throw in there, and I know you know as a rider as well, bicyclists take an awful lot of abuse on the roads

Lanier: They do.

I have a few comments:

1. Bicyclists - even "bad" ones - do not make it dangerous for motorists, and having a bicyclist hit your car is not proof that it does. 

2. A better answer to the question about the legality of bikes on sidewalks is that "Yes, bikes are allowed on the sidewalk in most of the city. But they are not allowed on sidewalks in the CBD."

3. If you're making a right turn on a street with a bike lane and a cyclist can pass you on the right, in the bike lane, you're doing it wrong (you should merge into the bike lane first) and she should know that. And she should have said that. 

Comments

[DE]

Re #3, if folk would just signal before crossing a bike lane, that would be enough for me. When they do that I either pass them on the left or slow down to let them turn, and they can turn unimpeded. When they don't signal (and I can't otherwise figure it out from the car's "body language," which can often be done somehow), that's where the potential right hooks come in.

I also wonder about cyclists hitting cars. It just can't be as common as they make it out. I have been in many close calls over the years in the city, and the only time there's been contact or near contact with a car, it was the car hitting or almost hitting me, not vice versa.

[James Grosser]

Great. Let the cops step up enforcement on jaywalking too.

[Crickey7]

In general, not a bad interview.

[ACyclistInTheSuburbs]

what Crickey said

She clarified that its in the CBD that bikes are banned from cyclists, she reiterated that bikes are allowed to take the lane anywhere, she expressed support for bike lanes with a need for awareness at turns, she mentioned working with WABA (and basically blamed tourists for bad bike behavior.)

[washcycle]

I didn't want to be too critical, even if I only mentioned my criticisms. I agree that for off the cuff comments these were pretty good. It's not really her job to know the details of the law, she manages things and spend much more time on recruitment and public relations than she probably does on enforcement details.

But the CBD clarification I think was actually confusing. Not being able to bike on the sidewalk is the exception, so the answer is "yes, but..."

If I asked "Am I allowed to kill someone?" and she answered "It's allowed in response to a credible and imminent threat to your life." She wouldn't be wrong, but she'd be leading with the exception and it would probably confuse more than it clarifies.

[Greenbelt]

I think she sort of missed the bottom line as a public safety official: jaywalking pedestrians and errant bikes don't kill or main people very often. Aggressive or distracted or drunk driving kill and injure people in DC every month.

We need to target the behaviors that threaten and hurt people in proportion to their safety impact. That means slowing down aggressive drivers (especially commuters) and enforcing laws against texting and drunk driving.

[SJE]

I'm with DE. Motorists are very bad with signals.

[T]

With the right turn scenario, I think she's talking about things like the 15th St cycletrack. Granted she said bike lane rather than cycletrack, but that's what most people call them even though that's not what they are.

I'm just missing where all of these near misses are along the sidewalks. I've seen pedestrians walk into pedestrians about a dozen times in the last two weeks. It almost always involves a cell phone. Yet, 0 cyclists into a pedestrian.

[Crickey7]

The important thing is that she does not see cyclists as the enemy.

[DE]

Yeah, and she was responding to a "concerned" caller, so you'd expect her to be diplomatic and try to sympathize with the caller to some extent. It's not that bad, especially for off-the-cuff comments. A bit of enforcement or education wouldn't be a bad thing either, but the resources could probably be better spent in trying to stop motorists from killing people, imho.

[Sleepy1]

Bicyclists DO kill people. An older pedestrian was killed on a trail by a speeding cyclist. I've been hit by a bike as a pedestrian. He weighed probably 250 lbs & flattened me as I stood waiting for the crosswalk signal. I've had my foot ran over. I am 1000% against bicycles on any sidewalks bc they are reckless. They are also very reckless on the roads, darting in all lanes in moving traffic, running stop signs, running red lights, & failure to signal turns. Bicyclists are just as bad as the drivers & create dangerous situations for cars & pedestrians alike. Bicycle lanes should be everywhere to protect pedestrians.

[washcycle]

I was with you right up until "Bicyclists are just as bad as the drivers". The pedestrian who was killed by a bicyclist on a trail a couple of years ago was killed by a cyclist who was not behaving badly. The pedestrian stepped in front of the cyclist and the outcome was tragic.