Cyclist on H Street is killed after his tire got caught in the streetcar gap, hit by bus

Saturday night, a cyclist was killed on H Street NE after his bike wheel got caught in the gap between the streetcar rail and the pavement. After it got stuck, he fell into the path of a charter bus.

Malik Habib, 19, of Northeast, fell while cycling in the streetcar lane in the 300 block of H Street NE, police said. A charter bus, which also was eastbound on H Street, struck Habib at about 9:35 p.m.

I wonder how far behind him the bus was and if the bus was also in the streetcar lane.

Some will recall that in 2014, DDOT proposed banning bikes in the streetcar lane (or guideway, as they called it). Their stated reason was not the danger of the tracks, however, but concern about impeding the streetcar and the danger of being a slow vehicle in front of a streetcar. Advocates opposed the ban and DDOT eventually relented. (Safety concerns related to the tracks were often brought up though). 

I'm just going to throw this out there - and then duck - maybe, if we really want to commit to Vision Zero, we should accept a ban on biking on the guideway. I'm writing a post on Vision Zero that's not ready yet, but the thesis is that if we REALLY want zero road deaths, then we're going to need to make much bigger sacrifices than we have so far. Maybe this is one of those. After all...

Lopez identified the top five spots in each of Boston’s neighborhoods for cyclist injuries, including the portion of South Huntington Avenue directly across from the Back of the Hill stop of the trolley’s E line. Seven cyclists were injured at this location over a period of four years. Through analysis of the narrative police reports of these crashes, Lopez and her colleagues found that all but one could be attributed to a cyclist getting his or her wheel lodged in the trolley tracks. 

In the meantime, we probably need to promote this video more and look at technical improvements that can make this safer. This is not the first track related crash on H Street after all. [If I were a real media-type, or a lawyer for Habib's family, I might FOIA all of DDOT's internal emails on "flange fillers"]. This is also not the first streetcar related bike fatality but it's the first since the old streetcars were removed.

Regardless of what is done going forward, it's clear that the G and I street improvements and DDOT safety video weren't enough to save Habib. 

Comments

[Jeffb]

Cyclists are conditioned to ride in the right lane. How about placing sharrows in the left?

[Riley Casey]

Without more information about the specific circumstances of this incident I wouldn't be ready to start working on banning bikes in the street car lanes. I've had a fall that sent me to the hospital after crossing a rail line ( actually I biked to the hospital like an idiot ) but I've had far more falls over the years occasioned by potholes, tree root distortion of paved paths, rutted gravel trails and all the other vicissitudes of poor urban road maintenance. Lets start there and work back toward street car rails.

[washcycle]

I like the idea of the sharrows on the left.

[oboe]

I think this would be treating a (very minor) symptom rather than the disease. We'd just move on to the next "cause" which would, of course, never be travel speed, lack of calming measures, or enforcement.

[oboe]

I agree the "sharrows on the left" is more of a move in the right direction. Anything that reduces travel speeds and pushes the balance from high-speed arterial to shared pedestrian/bike/car space.

[Gillian Burgess]

How about a safe place for bikes to ride along H Street. For that matter, how about banning cars and buses from H Street altogether, and using the non-streetcar lanes for bikes only.

[ACyclistInThePortCIty]

Lots of local buses that go places the street car does not, plus intercity buses heading to Union Station. Making H Street a woonerf or street car mall is almost certainly not feasible anytime in the near future.

Personally if I have to go anyplace on H Street by bike, I ride on the parallel bikeways then up the cross streets, and if my destination/bike parking is not at a corner, I walk my bike the last half block. I am not suggesting banning bikes, but not sure there is any infra improvement doable there other than the aforementioned sharrows.

[oboe]

Plenty of measures between traffic sewer and woonerf. Start by putting mid-block HAWK signals every other block. Post a 20 mph speed limit and *enforce* that speed limit.

[Roo_Beav]

I'm also not keen on the idea of banning bikes simply because there is a "tripping" hazard. There are plenty of roads with potholes that could cause someone on a bicycle to fall.

There are already signs warning bicyclists of the danger.

G & I are decent routes for a more casual ride, but it's also slower because of the stop signs and does not have the destinations like H does. I've ridden on both depending on my mood and other traffic.

I'm also interested in knowing if the bus was following in the same lane (where it would be the fault of the bus) or if he fell into the adjacent lane when the bus was passing.

[ACyclistInThePortCIty]

Oboe,sure, 20MPH would be reasonable. Maybe even mid block HAWK signals. Don't know that it would keep most cars off H Street though and certainly not local buses. Maybe a good idea, but not the high comfort, 8 to 80 bike route I think Gillian envisions.

[ACyclistInThePortCIty]

But yeah, that is more than sharrows, though not bike specific (but good improvements don't need to be bike specific)

[J]

As a daily cyclist and resident of H street I fully support banning cycling on H. I see somebody fall this way at least 2 times per week. And there’s bike lanes on both parallel streets.

Cyclists would lose nothing over this ban and it will reduce dc bike injuries meaningfully

[Thinker]

Sure, ban bikes in the guideway. Why should that be so controversial? There are places where cycling is safe and places where it isn't. As long as we have plenty of safe alternatives parallel to a route, all that can result is more safety.

And let's be reasonable and not make ourselves look like silly radicals by suggesting dumb things like banning all cars and buses on H. Yeah, it's rhetorical (I hope) but still, this is about safety, not making a point about rethinking transportation and all that crap.

[Thinker]

"We'd just move on to the next "cause" which would, of course, never be travel speed, lack of calming measures, or enforcement."

This guy died due to being stuck on a track, not speed or traffic or whatever. Keeping cyclists' wheels out of that track is exactly addressing the precise problem here.

[papaK]

what about painting a slalom-course-type stripe down streets with potholes to alert bikers? (and lets cars know why bikes may be swerving here and there) anyhow, is it illegal for bikers to mark up the roads? i'm pretty sure it's legit to put orange cones

[Jonathan Krall]

I bike ban might work, but only if an alternative route were made obvious and attractive enough. Like most vision-zero ideas, it won't be effective unless it is well-designed and well-built.

I've put in many miles cycling on San Francisco's Market Street, where bike lanes and streetcars coexist. It works because the bike lane (and sharrows--yuk--in some places) generally keeps people and their bicycles away from the tracks. Places where the bike lane crossed the tracks were designed well enough that I felt safe.

Doing this on H street would probably require a lot of rebuilding around the existing tracks. I fear that would take more capital (political or otherwise) than DC is willing to spend.