I am a cyclist. Bike rider if you prefer that. I support requiring bikers to follow the rules of the road - Stop signs, turn signals, etc. I drive a car too. I don't believe I'm entitled while in my car to speed or run stop signs just because I see other vehicles doing that. Nor do the courts.

If you have such anger off the road just thinking about sharing the road, you really shouldn't be driving

I am a car driver.

I will never understand why some people have such an unreasonable hatred of cyclists. To my mind, since they are slower and smaller than cars, of course it's fine for them to do all the (albeit illegal) things they do.

All I see are extremely vulnerable human bodies threading their way through tons of lethal metal. All I want to do is be really careful around them. If they slow me down a bit, that's FINE. I probably should be slowing down anyway.

The tears and angst of car obsessed angry boomers truly gives me life. I’m injecting these comments directly into my veins!

I am one of those people who actually moved to Alexandria over DC in part because of bike infrastructure that I use for commuting and some neighborhood trips. Like metro access, it is a real benefit that makes a place more attractive to live. I don't live near Seminary, and I follow traffic laws not least because I usually have a preschooler on the sear behind me, but the idea that cyclists aren't just your neighbors is wrong.

20:16 - this really depends on where you are. There is a stop sign that I get honked at every day for stopping at because no one stops for it.

I don’t mind cyclists mostly (although I hate when they run stop signs), and I won’t pass unless it’s safe. I saw one today that scared me though - he was on one of those jump bikes and was coasting down a hill with his feet up on the cross bar rather than on the pedals. He looked unstable, and I couldn’t pass because I didn’t have room and was afraid he’d fall over. That was annoying.

The bike lobby obtained signatures from people who are not even Alexandria residents and accept financial support from Lyft and scooter companies, which is so disingenuous, sketchy and really wrong.

The city received financial grants for every bike lane it puts in. Justin Wilson who is always glued to his phone and posts about every minor part of his day has been dead silent on his decision.

We’ve been trying to get speed bumps here in Rosemont to help with speeding traffic that has gotten exponentially worse since those bike lanes were put in on King. City won’t listen to us for years. But bike lobby asks in a matter of months for a street to be reconfigured and no problem they get it, over objection of neighbors and objection of the city’s own transportation board. Disgusting.

^ yep. The amount of bikes that just do whatever in the world they want on the road far exceeds the percentage of drivers doing that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If cyclists would simply do THREE things, I would happily cede them a dedicated lane everywhere:

1) stop at red lights and wait until green to proceed, just like cars do.

2) stop at stop signs.

3) don’t shoal through traffic (that’s where traffic is temporarily caught behind a slow biker, gets an opportunity to pass the biker, does so, and then at the next red light, the biker weaves through the line of stopped cars to the front of the line, and runs the red light, forcing everyone formerly trapped behind them to be trapped yet again, over and over. This has the effect of slowing ALL traffic on the road down to the speed of the biker.)


If they’d quit doing those three things, people would stop hating them.

I will do this as soon as I see cars doing the same thing. But literally today, I witnessed 7 cars just blow through stop signs without looking or caring about anything around them. I saw 2 cars simply ignore red lights, much to the distress of the pedestrians around them and drivers constantly ignoring speed limits as if it were a suggestion and not an actual rule.

BS

I drive two hours on secondary roads and surface streets five days a week. I see hundreds of cars at intersections each day, and I rarely see anyone run s red light that isn’t more than half a second into the red from yellow. Red light cameras have dramatically reduced red light running. Likewise for speeding, with speed cameras almost everywhere now. Stop signs? Same goes.

The fact that you claim to see all this JUST today proves you to be a liar.

But I see you ARE at least honest about being a reckless cyclist. Look in the mirror. You’re every bit as bad as the drivers you claim to see. You just as capable of killing s pedestrian as the driver of a car is.

Anonymous wrote:If cyclists would simply do THREE things, I would happily cede them a dedicated lane everywhere:

1) stop at red lights and wait until green to proceed, just like cars do.

2) stop at stop signs.

3) don’t shoal through traffic (that’s where traffic is temporarily caught behind a slow biker, gets an opportunity to pass the biker, does so, and then at the next red light, the biker weaves through the line of stopped cars to the front of the line, and runs the red light, forcing everyone formerly trapped behind them to be trapped yet again, over and over. This has the effect of slowing ALL traffic on the road down to the speed of the biker.)


If they’d quit doing those three things, people would stop hating them.

I will do this as soon as I see cars doing the same thing. But literally today, I witnessed 7 cars just blow through stop signs without looking or caring about anything around them. I saw 2 cars simply ignore red lights, much to the distress of the pedestrians around them and drivers constantly ignoring speed limits as if it were a suggestion and not an actual rule.

If cyclists would simply do THREE things, I would happily cede them a dedicated lane everywhere:

1) stop at red lights and wait until green to proceed, just like cars do.

2) stop at stop signs.

3) don’t shoal through traffic (that’s where traffic is temporarily caught behind a slow biker, gets an opportunity to pass the biker, does so, and then at the next red light, the biker weaves through the line of stopped cars to the front of the line, and runs the red light, forcing everyone formerly trapped behind them to be trapped yet again, over and over. This has the effect of slowing ALL traffic on the road down to the speed of the biker.)


If they’d quit doing those three things, people would stop hating them.

Anonymous wrote:
Well, why shouldn’t they try? If it leads to nightmare congestion, the pressure will be so high they’ll have to change it back.

I really don’t think there is a bike lobby.

There most definitely is, there are several. They have official names, but we like to call them the Velo Fascists.

They already did this road diet idea on Route 7 in the west end and on King. Didn't work. Traffic is so much worse. I want to move, but it isn't so easy.

Well, why shouldn’t they try? If it leads to nightmare congestion, the pressure will be so high they’ll have to change it back.

I really don’t think there is a bike lobby.

Mayor bikes. Mayor is sole actual official in Alexandria. Mayor wanted a slaughterhouse? Got it. Mayor wants scooters? Got it. Mayor wants people to loose their jobs because they can no longer commute by and bus service on Seminary and Braddock is being reduced? Got it. This is all about whatever the Mayor wants. Mini-Trump.

The City Council voted 4-3, even over the advice of their own Transportation Board and the objections of many residents, to administer the road diet on Seminary and take away two lanes of traffic for the bike lobby. Justin Wilson is oddly quiet on the matter online. I am so done with the city caving to the Bike Lobby giving them whatever they want.