by Ben Ross, Greater Greater Washington

So many drivers don't yield to pedestrians that catching them is "like shooting fish in a barrel," a surprised Montgomery County police officer remarked Wednesday. The police ticketed 72 violators in 2½ hours—one every two minutes—at a single crosswalk on Veirs Mill Road.

The operation, a first for the county, was advertised as a sting. But it was not very covert. The police announced in advance that their plainclothes officers would ticket between 11 am and 3 pm while wearing brightly-colored outfits.

Capt. Thomas Didone, head of the police traffic enforcement division, explained the reasoning behind the "sting" to the Patch. "Officers would typically attempt to enforce that kind of law by driving around a high-traffic area and looking for drivers not following the rules," he said. "That's not very efficient."

Inefficiency is the least of the problems with this style of law enforcement. Police who drive all day don't understand the reality of walking on the county's roadways. When you get out of the squad car and join the thousands who cross Veirs Mill every day (it's among the county's busiest bus corridors), you suddenly learn that "it's kind of scary."
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http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/18824/pedestrian-sting-finds-frequent-driver-lawlessness/

[B' Spokes: Pretty cute video.]

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[B' Spokes: This so need to go out whenever someone incorrectly asserts cyclists have to get out of the way.]

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B' Spokes: Congratulations to Montgomery County for getting some national press. Too bad Baltimore and Prince Georges County don't get this at all, that's how Maryland will stay in the top ten highest pedestrian fatality state, we need more than one county to get on board!

Read the article here: http://streetsblog.net/2013/05/10/maryland-cops-show-how-pedestrian-safety-enforcement-should-be-done/

by Ryan Sigworth, Greater Greater Washington

...
Without enforcement, lawlessness runs rampant

There was no police officer to witness the incident. Police can't be be everywhere and catch everything. However, I've also seen MPD simply ignore dangerous infractions by drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians occurring directly in front of them.

Last weekend, while riding in the 15th Street cycletrack, a driver illegally turned left against the protected left turn signal at 15th and U Street NW, right behind my wife and me. By coincidence, a MPD patrol unit was directly behind this illegally turning driver but did nothing.

On the same trip, my wife and I witnessed two illegal U-turns on Pennsylvania Avenue right in front of police cars and officers stationed along the street for the marathon. At the time, there were lots of pedestrians and cyclists around but they refused to enforce against illegal driving right in front of them.

This is even more frustrating because this episode occurred during the regional Street Smart campaign, an annual campaign to raise safety awareness and increase enforcement. Mayor Vincent Gray stood with MPD Chief Cathy Lanier to announce DC's part of the program a week ago, alongside advocacy groups such as WABA. The Pennsylvania Avenue cycle track was supposed to be an area targeted for enforcement during this campaign.
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The city doesn't need any more public safety campaigns, advertisements, lip service, and promises. We need results.


http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/18740/a-driver-ran-a-red-light-hit-me-and-fled/

To be delivered to: The Maryland State House, The Maryland State Senate, Governor Martin O'Malley, The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama

Petition Background
MARC trains only allow folding bicycles, which are typically heavier and more expensive than regular bikes, and bikes are one of the best ways of making public transportation practical, by helping people make up for gaps and problems in that transportation system. Especially in this tough economy, allowing regular bicycles would enable more people to adapt to available public transportation, rather than waiting for transportation to adapt to them. In other words, this would allow Maryland to get the most bang for its transportation bucks.

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/marc-allow-regular-bicycles.fb28?source=s.fb&r_by=810315

Some of you are going to love this, find the fastest bike route in Baltimore (and elsewhere.) I did a few tests and it seems to work well.

http://www.flattestroute.com/

[B' Spokes: This article got me thinking about what direction our 3 foot passing law with it's narrow highway highway exception (or is it when you can't pass legally exception) is trying to go? More respect for cyclists or less? Anyway a few highlights for this article:]

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By ALAN DAVIES, Crikey

Cyclists are outraged a jury found a truck driver not guilty of dangerous driving causing the death of a cyclist this week. It’s time the law stopped treating cyclists as ‘mere obstacles’ to motorists.

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It’s difficult to imagine another situation in which a driver needs to exercise greater care and wait for a safe opportunity to pass – a truck weighing at least 20 tonnes, and apparently boxed in by other vehicles so the driver couldn’t change lanes, bearing down from behind on a cyclist riding along a narrow, winding road. Yet under the law it now appears motorists can treat a cyclist with the same disregard as they would a witch’s hat and leave no margin for error by passing as close as they like.

[B' Spokes: Note that being boxed in would fall under the so called "can't pass legally" exception of our 3 foot law that seems is the intention of the legislature to allow (specifically testimony when a double yellow is present but if you make a general case that includes that it includes other things as well. But please note the subject of this exception is a "highway... is not wide enough" so I doubt the "can't pass legally" spin will hold up in court.]
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Motorist almost universally assume they’re entitled to travel at the speed limit at all times. Our cities would be better places if instead there was a culture of driving according to prevailing conditions.

They would be more liveable if the driving culture also included consideration for the welfare of all other road users, and of those who live along or use adjoining land uses.

As I’ve said many times before, cars will be with us for decades yet. It’s therefore all the more important to ‘re-position’ driving as a highly conditional privilege not a presumed right.

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http://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2013/05/08/are-cyclists-mere-obstacles-to-motorists/