Thursday, April 7, 2011

Day 7 #30DaysofBiking

A gorgeous spring day in DC. The type of day that a person should be glad to be out & on a bicycle.

Unless that person is me, apparently.

Today I attended a meeting with the prosecuting attorney for that incident with a car I blogged about back in February. I can see that this is going to be a very long uphill battle... I was very tired afterward, and had zero motivation to enjoy the lovely afternoon even though my boss gave me the afternoon off.

The good part is that I rode downtown to the meeting so I could enjoy the spring day for just a bit...





Obligatory White House stop.





I really like the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes, but I don't like how it sets up pedestrians & cyclists up for a battle of the right-of-way in the median islands.





This UPS truck was blocking the cycletrack, forcing me to ride into on-coming vehicular traffic to get by. This sort of selfish behavior ticks me off. At least if he parked in the vehicle lane, he wouldn't be forcing cars to have to do such a dangerous maneuver. They could simply use the other lane...

This morning I rode the 15th St cycletrack southbound during the morning rush. I think I witnessed the most rude & obnoxious cyclist behavior to date. As more cyclists take to the streets, the danger of cyclist-on-cyclist accidents rises dramatically. Be kind to each other out there, and for goodness' sakes use common sense & courtesy! Signal your intentions (use your voice/hands/bell), pass on the LEFT (not the right!), and yield to pedestrians (stay out of the crosswalks those rare times you actually stop at an intersection).

I watched one poor hapless pedestrian (who had the right of way!!) be forced to play frogger with rude cyclists that kept shoaling each other in a crosswalk, preventing her from being able to get to the sidewalk. This is why people think cyclists are all dicks, people.

I also witnessed several close calls with cyclists narrowly missing each other by making sudden, unannounced turns & lane changes.

I have a feeling that these particular riders behave in the same selfish manner whether they are on a bike, in a car or walking though...

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