Dr Gridlock Collumn, Washington Post, by Ron Shaffer
Dr. Gridlock appears each week in the Washington Post"to explore what makes it difficult to get around on roads, from misleadingsigns to parking problems to chronic bottlenecks.
or "to explore local transportation matters. [He]trys to find out why bad situations exist and what is being done aboutthem."
These are letters from car drivers who don't have to givetheir names . Their stories are not checked or verified. Personal biasesand complaints are encouraged.
July 17, 1987:
MESSENGER II
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
On June 26, my letter was included in your column. Under the heading"Despicable Spitter," the account of my recent encounter witha messenger biker {who spat on me} was printed in detail.
It struck me as quite ironic that this particular account, Episode Oneas it might be called, could not even be printed before Episode Two hadoccurred.
On June 24, I was leaving a parking garage on M Street NW. M Streetis a one-way street between 24th and 25th streets. After looking for pedestriansand then looking to the street, particularly to the right from which trafficwould be approaching, I proceeded into the street because there was nosign of traffic. Immediately upon pulling out of the garage I nearly collidedwith a messenger biker who was speeding up M Street going the wrong direction.(He had approached from behind a parked truck.) Would you believe it? Itwas the same messenger biker who had played the central role in EpisodeOne. I believe we both recognized one another.
He began with abusive language. When he approached my car I asked himwhy he would not follow the rules of the road, and I stated the he couldhave been badly hurt. The biker said that he was free to ride as he likedand once again began threatening. I stepped out of my car and he struckme in the face. While I was sorely tempted to return his blow, I informedhim that my faith restrained me from hitting him and, at the same time,I observed witnesses standing nearby. The biker appeared surprised at myrestraint but obviously upset that others were watching the display. Heran and got on his bike and left.
Lest anyone think that being Christian means being a doormat, or ifit seems doubtful that such an encounter could occur again, one may checkwith the 2nd District Police where I filed a report on this incident.
When will the city council enact legislation which will give the policedepartment muscle in dealing with these violators?
THE REV. KENNETH A. BASTIN, Washington
Help may be on the way. Responding to a number of complaints about thedangerous behavior of bicycle couriers, D.C. Council member Nadine P. Winter(D-Ward 6) introduced the Commercial Bicyclists Licensing Act three daysago. The bill would require the licensing of commercial bicyclists, forcethem to take a safety test and to wear identification issued by the city.Winter's bill also would require courier companies to devise training programsfor their employes.
The bill was referred to the council's Committee on Public Works, whichWinter chairs. The committee may hold a public hearing after the councilreturns from summer recess on Sept. 29. The committee will then vote onthe bill then it would be referred to the full council for action.
According to an aide to Winter, only the provisions about licensingthe commercial bicyclists and requiring their companies to devise trainingprograms are firm. The bill is then subject to mayoral review. It is upto the mayor to determine who would enforce the law and what penaltieswould be set for violations.
Winter's aide said the bill came about with the help of the D.C. BicyclistsAdvisory Council
September 4, 1987:
Bike Couriers (Con't.)
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
Prompted by the letter {s} you received from {the} Rev. Kenneth A. Bastinabout his encounters with bicycle couriers and your response that helpmay be on the way, I write in the fervent hope that you are right. I wasnearly run into the other day by a bicycle courier as he came through ared light as I was crossing K Street, and I, too, was struck in the faceas the result as a consequence of the resulting exchange. The proposedbill {before the D.C. Council} sounds like a good idea, but the requiredidentification had better be highly visible. The legislation is badly overdue.
ELLIOT L. RICHARDSON, Washington
The writer is the former attorney general, secretary of defense andsecretary of health, education and welfare in the Nixon administration.
The legislation referred to is the Commercial Bicylists Licensing Act,introduced to the D.C. Council this summer by council member Nadine P.Winter (D-Ward 6). Her bill would require commercial bicyclists to be licensed,wear identification, and receive training from their companies. The billcomes up for consideration when the council returns from summer recesson Sept. 29. A public hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Oct. 21 in Room500 of the District Building. Some readers don't see a need for any suchlegislation. Read on.
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
I'm not sure I understand what {the} Rev. Bastin's accounts of his encounterswith the bike messenger have to do with me. Bastin has filed a complaintwith the police and if they locate the loose id who is tormenting him,they will charge the messenger with spitting and hitting and not, I suppose,with improper passing.
This isn't a traffic problem at all, and unless we're talking aboutprofiles of deviant behavior, a controversial subject, it's not likelyan issue that will be addressed in council member Winter's Commercial BicyclistsLicensing Act.
Addressing that act, I'm against it for reasons you might emphathizewith more easily if Winter were to introduce acts licensing your work orrequiring you to wear a number on your back.
I can think of reasons why in the public interest it might be necessaryto license clergymen and journalists, and, you will admit, there have beencomplaints.
I won't press for it, though, and am pleased to read that the act tolicense bicycle messengers will be considered in late September when theweather should be more temperate.
HENRY A. TENAGLIO JR. Washington
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
I wish to correct your denouncement of July 3, where you stated thatbicyclists "are often the most blatant lawbreakers you see on citystreets." Not so; it is the jaywalking pedestrian. Remember a fewyears back when police handed out jaywalking tickets? Why did they stopthis crackdown?
Police Chief {Maurice T.} Turner is following the policy of other citiesin this gray area of the law, i.e. victimless crime. Whether it's the cyclist's30-pound Schwinn or the pedestrian's two-pound shoes, this weaponry inno way compares to that of a motorist's two-ton Buick. When this amountof destructive mass violates the law, it can maim and kill. But I haveyet to witness or hear of a motorist being ticketed for right-turn-on-redinfractions, while I have seen police occasionally ticket bicycle messengers.Perhaps many irate motorists would like to see "occasionally"changed to "frequently." For the sake of society, I hope thepolice continue to give this issue a large degree of benign neglect, andcrack down forceably on the real threats to public safety.
EDWARD ABRAMIC, Washington
While being hit with a 30-pound Schwinn may not compare with being hitby a two-ton Buick, as you say, bicylists can cause accidents when theyrun red lights, drive on the wrong side of the street, weave in and outof traffic and treat pedestrians like markers on a ski course. Each timewe bring up this subject we get a number of impassioned letters from probikersand antibikers. With both groups having a right to the roads, and withall of us trying to cope with congestion, we can agree on this: Some motoristsand some bicylists drive irresponsibly. Police ought to crack down on bothgroups.
Regarding Winter's bill, it's hard to see how the training of commercialbicyclists would be detrimental to the public interest. And since bicyclistsare entitled to use the same roads and are required to obey the same trafficlaws as motorists, and because they often can go faster on downtown streetsthan motorists can, shouldn't they also be licensed and display identification,like the motorists they share the roads with? Please proceed, Ms. Winter.
November 2, 1990:
So, drivers, when you see a bike commuter on the roadway, please understandthat he's not riding there just to inconvenience you. Try bike commutingyourself, and you'll begin to appreciate why paths cannot always be used.
On the other hand, if you see a bike messenger in your way, give himlots of room. If he's in that business, he's psychotic, and should be leftalone.
CHRISTOPHER BIOW, Sterling
We can't do too much to pay more attention to the needs of bicycle commuters,lest we all choke in automobile exhaust.
August 26, 1993:
BARRELING BICYCLISTS
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
I only visit Washington occasionally, but unfortunately do not findthe national capital to be very user-friendly.
During each of my last two visits I have been knocked down by bicyclemessengers operating on the sidewalks.
The police have not been helpful. They say they have more importantduties, such as issuing vehicle parking tickets.
It has occurred to me that a local ordinance should be enacted thatwould require all bicycle messengers to wear a lightweight jacket withan identification number displayed on the back in very large numbers. Inthis way, victims would have some means of recourse against bicycle messengersoperating on the sidewalk.
The comments of your learned readers would be appreciated.
GUY FRANCIS STARK, Gibson Island, Md.
This has been a long-standing problem on the sidewalks of Washington.Even a veteran Post journalist who has covered the White House eruptedinto a tirade in the doctor's office after she was nearly struck by a wildbicyclist. It seems that sometimes the bicyclists are the bowling balls,the sidewalks are the lanes and we are the pins.
After we last published your concerns about this, about five years ago,the D.C. Council enacted several laws designed to correct the problem.The laws require commercial bicyclists:
To stay off downtown sidewalks;
To pass a bicycle safety test and obtain a commercial bicycle operator'slicense;
To carry an operator's permit that includes a photo ID;
To display, from the rear, a valid commercial bicycle operator identificationnumber and, if employed by a courier company, the name and telephone numberof the courier company or, if otherwise employed, the bicycle operator'stelephone number and address.
So we see, Mr. Stark, that several of the things you have asked forare required by law. The question is: Who enforces these rules?
Sgt. Joe Gentile, a D.C. police spokesman, says, "If we see someonebreaking the law, we go after them." But Gentile and other officerscould not recall a case in which a violator of the above rules was apprehended.Besides, if bicyclists are racing through crowds of pedestrians, how wouldthe police necessarily catch them?
Police concede that they do not get involved in enforcing the requireddisplay of names, addresses and telephone numbers. I'm not sure who, ifanyone, does.
Like Mr. Stark, I'm interested in what you've been seeing on the sidewalks.Are bicyclists flouting the law? Is this a constant problem? Have you beenstruck, or nearly struck, by one of these two-wheeled missiles travelingillegally on sidewalks? Please write.
P.S. The sidewalks of the central business district, as the law callsit, are off limits to ALL bicycles, not just ones used for commercial purposes.The central business district is larger than one might think. It is definedas follows:
From 23rd Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW east along MassachusettsAvenue to Second Street NE, then south on Second Street to D Street SE,then west on D Street to 14th Street SW, then north on 14th to ConstitutionAvenue NW, then west on Constitution Avenue to 23rd Street NW, then northon 23rd Street to Massachusetts Avenue NW.
September 9, 1993:
Commenting on garbage trucks breaking traffic laws [like stopping ina no stopping zone] while picking up garbage:
Dr. Gridlock has a feeling that this is a lot like the commercial bicyclemessengers who do not obey traffic laws, including those that require themto stay off downtown sidewalks and wear visible identification. That is,garbage collectors and messengers probably can flout the law with nearimpunity, while you or I would be writing checks to the D.C. government.
February 22, 1996:
Rough Rider Sends a Message
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
It appears to me that the largest menace on District streets are bicyclecouriers.
Recently, a courier ran a red light -- as they often do -- and nearlyslammed into the back of my car after I had pulled out of a parking lot.
Of course, the courier saw the incident as my fault -- how dare I getin the way? -- so he kicked a side view mirror off my car while I was stoppedat a red light (then proceeded to run that light, too).
The most infuriating part was there was nothing I could do. By the timeI could jump out of the car, the courier was nowhere in sight, and therewas no way to identify him.
It appears that bicycle couriers in the District of Columbia have alicense to break any law they choose, and nobody is going to stop them.
Has it ever been proposed that they wear something that identifies themby company name and a unique number, like a taxicab? If they could be identifiedin some way, there could be someone to hold accountable.
A.S. DOUGLAS
Woodbridge
We've written about this before, with complaints from people who havebeen knocked down by bicycle couriers on city sidewalks. There had beendiscussions at that time of requiring identification, but nothing has developedthat has been effective in dealing with lawless bicycle couriers. Any suchrequirements still have to be enforced by the D.C. police department, whichsees itself as too absorbed with violent crime to focus on traffic matters.
Couriers are supposed to stay on the road. They cannot legally rideon the sidewalks (although they weave through pedestrians every day, terrorizingand striking them). They are supposed to observe the same rules of theroad as motorized vehicles. That is, they are supposed to stop at red lights.But many of them do not.
Dr. Gridlock did a one-hour survey at a downtown intersection once andcounted 15 red-light runners -- eight of them were bicyclists.
The conduct of cyclists is a good one for the new D.C. police chief,Larry D. Soulsby. We are saving questions to ask him (he has agreed tobe on the hot seat). Maybe he can help.
See Also Dr Gridlock's:
"A Message for Bike Messengers"- Washington Post, October 14, 1993
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