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Bicyclist pulled over for running a red light
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Anonymous
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I hope they gave out a ticket, as cyclists have taken at least 2 years off my life
Last week I saw one in Adams Morgan run a red light with a cellphone in one hand... |
Anonymous
I've seen this too! In Georgetown, down on K Street. If you want to be on the road, you have to walk, bike, drive safely. Or face some sort of consequences. |
Anonymous
| As a long time cyclist, I am stunned by many riders in the area. I dislike riders on the sidewalks. I cannot believe the number of people I have seen with no helmet but iPods. I have seen plenty of riders blow through red lights and stop signs. Total disregard for everyone's safety. On the flip side, I was also hit by a driver who clearly wasn't paying attention when making his left turn. He hit me and didn't bother stopping. |
Anonymous
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This guy got 5 years in prison:
"The July 4, 2008, crash also highlighted simmering tensions between cyclists and residents along Mandeville Canyon Road, the winding five-mile residential street where the crash took place. One cyclist was flung face-first into the rear window of Thompson's red Infiniti, breaking his front teeth and nose and cutting his face. The other cyclist slammed into the sidewalk and suffered a separated shoulder. At his sentencing hearing at the county's airport branch court, Thompson cited the Bible in urging cyclists and residents of Mandeville Canyon to try to resolve their differences peacefully. "If my incident shows anything it's that confrontation leads to an escalation of hostilities," Thompson said. Thompson, a former emergency room physician who described the crash as a terrible accident, testified during his trial last year that he and other Mandeville Canyon residents were upset that some cyclists rode dangerously and acted disrespectfully toward residents and motorists along the street, a popular route for bike riders. On the day of the crash, Thompson said he was driving down the road on his way to work when several cyclists swore at him and flipped him off as he called on them to ride single file. He said he stopped his car to take a photo to identify the riders and never intended to hurt anyone. But the cyclists said the doctor was acting aggressively from the start. They said he honked loudly from behind them and passed by dangerously close as they moved to ride single file before he pulled in front and braked hard. A police officer told jurors that shortly after the crash that Thompson said he slammed on his brakes in front of the riders to "teach them a lesson." Prosecutors said Thompson had a history of run-ins with bike riders, including a similar episode four months before the crash when two cyclists told police that the doctor tried to run them off the road and braked suddenly in front of them. Neither of the riders was injured. Jurors convicted Thompson in November of mayhem; assault with a deadly weapon, his car; battery with serious injury; and reckless driving causing injury." http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/cyclist-sentenced.html |
Anonymous
| I'm also glad the cyclist got a ticket, hopefully for his own safety. I saw a woman cyclist blow through a red light heading into Rock Creek Park about two years ago. A driver turning left hit her and sent her flying. Since I was right up at the light, I saw the whole thing in slow motion. I don't know what ultimately happened to her but she was seriously injured and I called the ambulance and then sat with her waiting for it. I was really freaked out. I felt bad for the driver who was distraught-the cyclist was really flying and the driver had the right of way. It was like she sped into the intersection out of nowhere. |
Anonymous
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I am always torn when I see these bike threads. I WANT to like cyclists, I really do. I think it shows amazing dedication to ditch the car in favor of your own steam. So I really respect them and what they're doing to help the environment, not to mention their own waistline.
But, I feel very aggravated, as a driver and especially as a pedestrian, by the blatant lawlessness of so many cyclists. I'm not talking about the grey area stuff - say a cyclist blows off a stop sign in the middle of the night with no traffic or pedestrians on the road. I'm talking about the aggressive cyclists who weave in and out of traffic, make a right turn from the left lane, or do something so that you have to jump on your brakes to avoid hitting them. And I'm talking about the cyclists who weave in and out of pedestrians on the sidewalk (fair to admit: I was hit by a bike messenger in my twenties. Wasn't hurt badly, but that was mostly luck.). So I have to admit that a small part of me DOES feel slightly vindicated to see a cyclist getting a ticket. If cyclists want to share the road (and I do want to share it with them) then they have to share the rules. Doesn't that seem fair? |
Anonymous
| I went to the University of Florida for grad school and they ticketed bikers on campus for not stopping at stop signs, lights, etc. I thought it was great (I rode to campus). They have so many people who ride bikes that they really do need law and order. |
Anonymous
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Wow there are bad cyclists. Write back when you all stop texting and speeding in your minivans and SUVs while drinking a latte and handing snacks to your kids.
I don't bike on roads but by far the biggest risk is some driver on a phone. |
Anonymous
Yeah? And bikers have in head phones and some also have cell phones out. So shut up! |
Anonymous
First of all, it's "flout". Second of all, while I believe cyclists should be ticketed for infractions, police should do so only after no driver ever breaks a law anywhere. Having enforcement that targets cyclists is like taking detectives off of homicide detail and reassigning them to "litterbug enforcement". There are a lot of folks dying in traffic in America 99.9999999% of them are being killed by cars |
Anonymous
Totally agree with this. Of course, "biking safely" rarely means "following the letter of the law". Which is why I ride carefully, courteously, and often illegally. And will continue to do so. |
Anonymous
This is the dumbest thing I've read all day. There are clear traffic laws that apply to bicyclists and all vehicles that use the road, pedestrians included, for everyone's safety. In fact, these laws have been around for a very long time and if you recall your drivers-Ed class youd remember studying turn signals that cyclists are supposed to use. Part of having fundamental rules on the toad is so that people on the road have a reasonable assumption of what others are going to do. A stop sign assumes that everyone entering the intersection will stop. |
Anonymous
You might see this once every year. The idea that cyclists pose a threat to public safety on any kind of level on par with drivers is the dumbest fucking thing I've heard. Most of this pissing and moaning stems from the fact that suburban commuters feel inconvenienced by cyclists on the road, and nobody ever walks anywhere in the 'burbs. The cyclists who ride like assholes on the area trails should be on the road--but they're not because assholes who drive cars won't do so safely and courteously. |
Anonymous
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Okay grammar police, by now I think the OP has caught the grammatical error; no need to flog a dead horse. But in response to the last PP, the point is motorists DO get ticketed when breaking the law; which is okay as no one should be breaking the law. I believe the point the OP and several PPs are making is that cyclists DON'T often get ticketed for breaking the law and it was nice to see the police stopping a cyclist who could have endangered himself and others by running a red light. And by others, before I hear the immediate defense that a cyclist cannot "hurt" a driver; a driver could swerve to avoid the cyclist and cause injuries to another.
I agree with the PP who stated that I want to like cyclists. I admire the fact that what they do is environmentally friendly. What I don't like is the number of a**holes I come across who are cyclists. It is an odd phenomenon. I don't see the same thing with runners, but cyclists seem to have a huge chip on their shoulder and are very aggressive. I too ride, but I feel that I need to be safe not only for myself, but for others as well. I ride on bike paths. If I wanted to "race" I would find a location outside the city to ride in the road. I used to take my bike out to Harpers Ferry and ride, but that was before kids. I haven't cycled like that in a while. |
Anonymous
Wrong. They're not for "everyone's safety". Traffic laws present a balance between a) safety of drivers from one another; and b) getting everyone else the fuck out of the way of drivers. 80% of the time there's no reason for me to stop at a stop sign because either there are no cars waiting to proceed across my path, or because I can time my riding so that I'm sharing right-of-way with a car that's going in the same direction. Cyclists jay-bike. Pedestrians jay-walk. It's almost completely safe--certainly safer than the other things humans do. But it sticks in drivers' craws because there's a minor irritation factor. And we can't inconvenience the drivers ever. After all, that's why the roads are there in the first place. |