Last week I wrote about the dangers at every intersection. Cyclists can tell you that they’re most vulnerable when making turns and crossing intersections. Following basic traffic rules can help, but that isn’t always enough to keep you safe. This is even more true at night – you can wear bright clothes and use lights to increase visibility.
Down Low Glow is one more way to increase visibility. Good cyclists wear blinkies on the front and back of their bikes to help drivers see them, but these do not provide visibility where it can count the most – through intersections. And while they might look like you are trying to Trick your Trike, you’ll have the last laugh if it helps you stay alive.
On the morning of July 8th 2008, cyclist Alice Swanson was fatally struck by a truck on her commute to work. A memorial in the form of a Ghost Bike was recently erected on the westbound corner of R Street and 20th Street, where the truck made a right turn in front of the cyclist riding in their bike lane. On a weekend you can see the monument for yourself on foot, or you might pass it by on your bike in Monday morning like so many others who commute on R street everyday.
Like so many others in DC, I have already had my fair share of close calls with car drivers. I have also had close calls with cyclists in the crosswalk and on the sidewalk. In DC you cannot wait on a corner, but at least a few feet back for the wide turns of a bus. Drivers will not necessarily yield in the crosswalk even when they have a red light at a right turn.
Everyone – drivers, cyclists, workers – is a pedestrian once they exit their vehicle. Since wearing a helmet would not suffice for Alice Swanson, you’re on your own across town. Perhaps the best protection is knowledge – please take a short refresher course on the rules that keep us all safe.
For your viewing pleasure, here is the short video I made for the user-generated video contest sponsored by WMATA. In celebration of Car Free Day, I recorded my trip across DC on the MetroRail from Tenleytown/AU to Dupont Circle on the Red line.
And although I’m having trouble finding other riders who recorded their trip, I’ll be sure to post them in a follow-up once the contest winners are announced later this week. In the meantime, you might be interested in some of the findings from a recent survey of metro riders. Here’s a hint – area residents rely on the Metro system, and even if they don’t love it (and there are lots of reasons) more riders are leaving their cars at home everyday!
Now that we know more about the mistaken evacuation in Columbia Heights, and understand better the artistic concepts behind the campaign, I wonder if anyone has changed their minds about the incident. Residents, students, and workers who has to evacuate the area that day were understandably frustrated, much less scared by the potential threat. And yet, unlike the bomb scare in Boston in 2007, it seems to me like even more of a stretch for anyone to consider these art instalations a threat.
Have those effected by the evacuation two weeks changed their minds about the incident since we have learned more? I’d like to learn otherwise, especially because I wasn’t as impacted as anyone in the area was that day.
Last week I wrote about the dangers at every intersection. Cyclists can tell you that they’re most vulnerable when making turns and crossing intersections. Following basic traffic rules can help, but that isn’t always enough to keep you safe. This is even more true at night – you can wear bright clothes and use lights to increase visibility.
Now that we know more about the 
