TheWashCycle

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. 

LAB studies cyclist fatalities and turns up some fascinating data

The League of American Bicyclists recently released a report on bicyclist fatalities and some of the results are pretty interesting, in that they greatly differ from the results of other (sometimes questionable studies). 

Between February 2011 to February 2013, the organization sifted through hundreds of cases from across the country. Using newspaper and television reports and blogs, they were able to get a closer look at 628 individual cases and tease out some patterns.

That's pretty close to half the fatalites over that period, considering that lately the average number has been a little under 700 per year. 

1. In 40 percent of the cases, the victim was struck from behind. 

In most cases that I've seen, when a cyclist is hit from behind, the driver is at fault. Sometimes the cyclist is riding at night, in ninja-mode, but that is not the usual. So, by far the biggest group is one where driver's are at fault in most cases. Another 6% are driver failed to yield, compared to 2% for cyclist failed to yield and so cyclists would really need to be overrepresented in every other category for it not to turn out that drivers are more often at fault. This is something the report doesn't try to determine, but it certainly raises eyebrows.

In addition, there were 236 fatal crashes where a factor was reported for the driver. In 86 cases (36%) the driver was reported to have committed hit and run, which doesn't mean they were at fault for the crash, but it's still a pretty heinous crime. There were also 28 (12%) reports of driving under the influence (which may overlap with some of the other groups listed above) and 101 (42%) where they were reported to have been operating their vehicle in a careless or inattentive manner.

For cyclists, the most common factors reported, out of 94, were wrong way cycling (22%), failure to yield (17%) and riding on the sidewalk (9%). For the last, it would be helpful to know how what percentage of bike miles are on the sidewalk (especially since children are over-represented in both fatalities and sidewalk cycling). 

2. In the 150 cases where helmet use was cited in a crash account, 57 percent of the victims were wearing a helmet.

This is WAY below the usually cited numbers from FARS data that is often reported in the media (and the report notes this as well), such as in this recent Post article

Between 1994 and 2010, at least 70 percent of the cyclists killed in the U.S. each year weren’t wearing helmets, and in many of those years, the proportion was more than 90 percent, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Considering that studies place helmet use rates at around 50%, a helmet use rate of 57% for cycling fatalities would undermine the claim that helmets save lives (even if that is true, and more data is obviously needed, helmets might still reduce injuries or even pain). Regardless, it does bring the FARS data further into question. 

This is not particularly surprising: 

Working from press accounts to compile data on bike crashes can be tricky, because as the League notes, stories tend to be told from the survivor’s perspective. Basic facts like who had the right of way are often overlooked, and crashes are often presented in a manner that exculpates the motorist.

Yes, cyclists run red lights

WJLA has broken the story that some cyclists in DC run red lights and they even have footage of it! I'm shocked, shocked that such a things is going on.

They don't provide any data to let us know what percentage of cyclists do this, but they do say that they caught dozens over several days (which is actually a lower rate than I'd expect). Nor do they have any information on how dangerous this is, though they have footage of one cyclist who passes in front of a car about 2 seconds before it would have hit him and then a pedestrian somewhat over-reacting to him. Not good cycling by any measure, but if that's the worst they found over several days that's not so bad. They also have some woman sitting behind the wheel stating that it's dangerous, so I'm convinced.

Mostly they focus on the fact that it's not enforced very much, but they don't make the case that it needs to be enforced more. And they don't interview anyone from WABA. 

Cyclist pulled over for running a red light

This was a week ago. RS writes that he "Saw a police car do an illegal u-turn across a double yellow line and then pull his vehicle into a no parking zone right next to the intersection and sit and wait....Shortly thereafter a bicyclist ran a red light and the police car turned his lights and sirens on and pulled the rider over. This happened at the corner of New Hampshire and 17th Street NW."

Looks like they're on a CaBi.

Tuesday Morning Commute - So much to say

Good morning. Too busy to read this. But if you want to summarize it for others, the comments are open. 

• According to DDOT, there will be no hooks or racks on DC streetcars, but cyclists will be able to bring their bikes onboard. Unfortunately their policy will mirror WMATA’s for bikes on the Metrorail, which will probably mean a rush hour ban.
• DC wants to narrow roads and add a bike trail. VA and MD, less so. 
• InTowner wonders about the Council's desire to ban smoking near trails (sorry smoking bicyclists). Also asks "Having voted to penalize operators of motor vehicles for failing to yield to cyclists, why was there no provision for penalizing cyclists for failing to yield to pedestrians both on sidewalks and in crosswalks in the streets?" The answer is a bit of what they say later - this isn't a very big problem - but also that they have the law wrong. Both failures to yield are already illegal and carry penalties. DC is increasing the fine for hitting a cyclist with a car and adding points. Maybe the fine for cyclists hitting pedestrians needs to be increased, but we don't give points on a driver's license for non-driving activity.
• "A boy riding a bicycle was hit by a car and critically injured Sunday evening in the Bowie area of Prince George’s County....Preliminary investigation indicated that the driver was unaware of the boy who was trying to cross the street,"
• "The Madison Manor Bike Club will host the second annual “Phoenix Rising” celebration in support of Phoenix Bikes on Saturday, July 20 from 6 to 11 p.m. at the Dominion Hills Pool clubhouse, 6000 Wilson Blvd."
• "A fan on her way to a Dave Matthews concert pulled over to help a stranded bicyclist, who turned out to be none other than the singer himself."
• "A few years ago, What Would You Do?, an ABC-TV hidden-camera show, set up a situation where two actors posed as bike thieves in a public park, using bolt cutters and hack saws to cut a bike chain. The results were instructive. Over the course of an hour, a hundred people passed the white “thief” by with barely a glance. The black one had hardly gotten to work before a crowd of whites gathered around him, interrogating him, lecturing him, calling 911, even shooting cell phone video." [OT: Listening to Zimmerman's brother yesterday morning fret that someone might take the law into their own hands and behave like a vigilante - without a hint of irony - was a bit surreal]

Wednesday Morning Commute - 2014/2015

Good morning

• WABA has a very clear and complete post on why the Rock Creek Park Trail has not been repaired in so long, on where the repaving project is and on when (2014/2015) the trail might finally be repaved and improved. 
  • The paving would take place on a 3.7-mile segment of the Rock Creek Park multi-use trail from Broad Branch Road to P Street NW; a 0.8 mile segment of the Piney Branch Parkway trail from Beach Drive to Arkansas Avenue NW; a 0.2 mile segment of social trail from Broad Branch Road to Peirce Mill (referred to as the Peirce Mill trail spur); and a 0.5 mile segment of the Rose Park trail from P Street NW to M Street NW. Also incorporated into the EA is construction of a new, wider bridge parallel to the car bridge that crosses Rock Creek immediately south of the zoo tunnel, and a reconfiguration of the tunnel to allow for a six-foot-wide sidewalk for use during hours that the zoo gate is closed.
• The new bicycle ordinance making sidewalk cycling legal in Alexandria was approved 7-0.
• Some are worried that CaBi in Montgomery County will lead to more sidewalk cycling. "They are not careful about coming up behind people... because you can't hear a bike when it comes up behind you. And they are somewhat belligerent when you expect them to yield to you. And I'm afraid [we'll] just see more of that happening." But the county hopes to make some quick fixes including bike lanes and sharrows to entice cyclists into the streets. And more...
  • They hope to have the system set up by Sept 21, 2013 (which is almost 3 years to the day after the initial kick off)
  • The Bethesda Avenue/Arlington Road station is expected to be the busiest
  • Some stations will move because private property owners do not support the suggested locations (they'll regret that).
  • You should just read the whole link if you're interested in the expansion. It covers each station in detail. 
• City and County leaders from Richmond came to DC and Arlington to get ideas to make their city more bike friendly.
• "Nearly 94 percent of people riding bikes in Portland, Beaverton, Corvallis and Eugene stopped for red lights, a forthcoming Portland State University-based study of 2,026 intersection crossing videos has found. Of those, almost all (89 percent of the total) followed the rules perfectly, while another 4 percent entered the intersection just before the light changed to green....Is it possible that, much like more bikes on a street seem to make it safer for everyone, more bikes at an intersection tend to make everyone more law-abiding?" New mantra: if you want cyclists to obey traffic lights, make roads more inviting to cyclists. 

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Odor control scrubbers

Worst high school mascot ever.

• "Yesterday, the transportation committees of both Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) along H Street supported a plan to let cyclists ride in both directions on G and I Streets, while keeping car traffic one-way."
• More coverage of 15th Street Cycletrack repaving - "There will always be open lanes for vehicular traffic and access for pedestrians. But there may be a period during the work when cyclists may not be able to access these bike lanes." And still more here. 
• Guess what? All the TV news channels have picked up the video of the red-light running cyclist getting hit by a taxi. Imagine that. That they would love a video that reaffirms the opinion of most people that cyclists constantly "blow through lights." Fantastic. Here's FOX and NBC. The stories are pretty even-handed I'd say, and for those wondering about the legality of this ride "DC Bike Party works in conjunction with police and DDOT in trying to make their meet-up events safe for everyone."
• Earlier today "D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier will discuss the beating of a cyclist on a popular bike path, allegations of racial bias in marijuana arrests, MPD s summer safety plan and more on NewsTalk."
• MoveDC and the future of DC Transportation
• Montgomery County and Maryland transportation planners want to tear down the Apex building to make a better Purple Line and to keep the Capital Crescent Trail in the tunnel. But the owners aren't returning phone calls, aren't as likely to be motivated by the incentives the county is offering, and have long term leases that could cause problems. Also, there are deadlines. 
• There's a TPB meeting tomorrow. They have a presentation on BTWD 2013 (from which the graphic below comes) - there are more registrants from Virginia than either DC or MD and Rosslyn is the biggest pit stop (not Freedom Plaza). 
• A 7-year-old boy was flown to Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Monday evening after he ran into the side of a car while riding his bicycle on Papa Court off Security Road
• Military bases - of which the DC area has more than a few - will become more bicycle friendly under rules identified by the new the United Facilities Criteria (UFC) for Installation Master Planning.
• Bike safety tips from the he American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
• More about bikes on Amtrak.

Friday Afternoon Commute - Damn you Fozzy Bear

Good afternoon. Here's a pretty cool map of real-time water levels as measured by USGS. Here's one along the Northeast Branch Trail (reportedly 5 feet is when the trail is impassable). 

• My most recent Green Lane blog post - on Pennsylvania Avenue. Look at the photo DDOT made and see if you can find the two "flying" zebra barriers.
• "From a European perspective, space, or lack thereof, is never the problem. If we can find solutions for integrating bikes in the centers of Amsterdam and Copenhagen, it can happen anywhere."
• Washington National Tyler Clippard often bikes to the stadium, but Drew Storen no longer does. 

Storen has since moved downtown. Biking has become a less appealing option, so he hasn’t yet gone that route this season.

“Maybe if I get a little more achiever in me, if I want to achieve a little bit more with my biking abilities,” he joked. “But there are potholes downtown. It’s tough.”

• Jonathan Krall of 
the Alexandria Bicycle and 
Pedestrian Advisory Committee argues that cyclists aren't really scofflaws, it just looks that way. "The mistaken idea that cyclists are less cautious than others has its root in two facts. First, while drivers and pedestrians generally have clearly assigned space on our streets, cyclists do not. In an effort to squeeze the round peg of bicycling into the square hole of our roadways, the law generally allows cyclists to use either traffic lanes or sidewalks....Second, because bicycles have safety advantages over cars, a “safe” rolling stop on a bicycle is faster than a “safe” rolling stop in a car. "
• And the letter that prompted it. "So long as bicycles aren’t required to be registered and have visible forms of identification, like automobiles’ license plates, bicyclists will feel licensed to behave unaccountably."
• Drivers on the W&OD are not all that uncommon.
• Jon Stewart on Citibike in New York "Full Pedal Jacket" (see below). In the first segment, he spends much of the time poking fun at bike sharing and worring about helmets. But then in the second segment, he goes after all the sillyness from critics including, yes - Rabinowitz (aka Rabidowitz). 
• And look at how the New York Magazine makes it funny. 
• Also, Citibike is having software issues.

 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Wednesday Morning Commute - Seatless

Good morning

• Don't ride a bike without a seat, or you could get ticketed. 
• Newtown 26 arrive at Capitol Hill. 
• WeMoveDC meetings - you should go.
• $32,000 bicycle looks like this. 
• Summary of this LTTE: Some cyclists behave badly, so all should be registered.
• Charles Hurt - the Washington Times writer/sexist who called Capital Bikeshare "broken-down socialism" is now going after Pittsburgh's bike share program. 

"here’s another clue for something to cut. Turns out, you are paying $1.6 million to subsidize freeloaders in Pittsburgh who are too cheap to buy their own bikes. Under the “bike-share” program announced this week, freeloaders and freeloading tourists get 500 fat, ugly, red bikes to ride around on — bikes that you paid for....Why not just “repurpose” all those fat, ugly, red bikes away from the freeloaders in Pittsburgh and give them to the freeloaders here and make them pedal their sorry butts into work every day? It would fix but a tiny fraction of the damage they have cause but it sure would be funny to watch them sweat a little for a change." 

$1.6 million is coming from Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality money. I'm not sure if he thinks that bikeshare will not improve those things, or if he thinks congestion mitigation and air quality improvements are not noble goals, or if he thinks that that they are not the job of the federal government or if he thinks. Hurt's share of that $1.6 million (and on average, every taxpayer's) is about 7/100 of a penny. So if he's really bothered about it, I'll reimburse him for his share (and then some). He can stop by my house anytime and pick up a penny.

Also, just because DC's bikes are red, does not mean Pittsburgh's will be, but red = communist.

MBPAC commends MDOT for WB&A Patuxent River Study

At the December 2012, Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee(MBPAC) meeting, the MBPAC unanimously voted to

commend MDOT for agreeing to use Maryland Bikeways program dollars to fund an analysis of the alignment choices for a planned extension of the WB&A Trail across the Patuxent River between Anne Arundel and Prince George’s County. The motion was unanimously approved.

In other area biking news, 

• The University of Maryland at College Park is planning to develop a GIS system for bicycle racks in order to ensure sufficient provision of bike parking facilities, getting quotes for the installation of shared lane pavement markings (sharrows) along campus roadways, and working on bicycle helmet giveaways. Two non-credit bicycle safety classes have been approved by the school administration and a bike lease program for students has being developed. The lease program included bike lights-with a slogan “Bikes Be Bright” - and air pumps. Their various bicycling initiatives are branded as “Bike UMD”.
• A bicycle rider was ticketed by a law enforcement officer in Southern Maryland for riding two abreast on the roadway after receiving complaints that bicyclists were riding two abreast and blocking motor vehicles from passing them. The ticketed bike rider stated that at the time she received the ticket, no motor vehicles were behind her. She went to court and the judge dismissed the ticket. However the MBPAC discussed whether bicyclists may ride two abreast in locations where a single bicyclist may ride in the middle of the lane, thus effectively blocking approaching motorists from passing in that lane