OC Police Cruiser Collides With Cyclists

[B’ Spokes: The reason why I interject these comments is to get people thinking differently and quit blaming the victim. So before you dismiss this story as another scofflaw cyclists running a red light consider what you would do if a light refused to turn green. Next, tell me that you have never seen a cruiser speeding without its lights on. While these are speculations on this instance there is a general policy for highway engineers to go out of their way to make sure the detector will not easily detect a cyclist, sure they don’t phrase it that way but still state law requires the consideration of cyclists and the adjustment of detectors does not consider cyclists. More after the fold including how to optimize being detected at a red light.]
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By Shawn J. Soper, News Editor
OCEAN CITY – A 20-year-old female on a bicycle in the area of 45th Street and Coastal Highway was struck by an on-duty Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) cruiser on Wednesday morning and was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries sustained in the collision.
Around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, the biker attempted to cross Coastal Highway at 45th Street from east to west against a traffic signal when she was struck by an OCPD police cruiser. According to police reports, the girl had crossed the northbound lanes of Coastal Highway against a traffic signal causing northbound motorists to avoid hitting her.
The cyclist attempted to continue to cross before abruptly changing directions and turning back into eastbound traffic at Coastal Highway and 45th Street, where she was struck by an on-duty OCPD officer in a marked departmental vehicle. The officer, who was traveling southbound, had the right-of-way, but was unable to stop to avoid hitting the girl on the bicycle.
The initial investigation revealed the bicyclist was in a crosswalk, but was crossing against a traffic signal. The victim was taken to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury where she was treated for minor injuries sustained in the collision. The investigation is ongoing and charges are pending, according to police reports.
Meanwhile, the OCPD is reminding all visitors and residents to be cautious on and around Coastal Highway. Pedestrians are urged to use sidewalks and designated marked crosswalks. Those riding bicycles and scooters are urged to ride in the bus lane and obey all traffic laws including all lane markings, traffic signals and stop signs.

https://www.mdcoastdispatch.com/article.php?cid=30&id=9439
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[B’ Spokes: First, detectors come in basically three styles, a single rectangle, a double rectangle side by side (not the technical names but how the cuts in the pavement look) and overhead camera. For a single rectangle the optimum placement is adjacent to the inside longitudinal marks and for the double rectangle the optimum placement is in the middle where the two rectangles meet. For an overhead camera (look at the overhead light poll for a camera pointing at the street) the optimum placement is center of the of where a car would be, if you are off to the side resting your foot on the curb odds are you are outside the area the camera focuses on. Just to note some lights are on timers (no detectors) and other times the detectors in the pavement have been paved over so you can’t see the cuts. So over all this makes things very confusing for a cyclist.
From talking to various engineers the thing that needs the utmost attention is the "false positive" which basically means stopping the main traffic flow when no one is there to take advantage of it. While understandably it would be annoying for motorist to wait for nothing once in a blue moon but when over accommodating a minor inconvenience that essentially disables the light for cyclists so the only realistic option available is to have cyclists always run the red light, well this is plain and simply wrong, especially in OC where cycling is very popular and there is a lot of accidents. (Note I cannot at this time verify this as factual for this location but so far this has been my experience in various locations around the state.) (P.S. I will also note the sensitivity of the ground detectors can be adjusted to detect bicyclists, I know many engineers that deny this possibility but I have it on good authority that not only it can be done, it is being done in Montgomery County by request. )
From Google Street view it looks like OC uses cameras. Now cameras have the potential of being incredibly bike/ped friendly as they can be setup with multiple filters that would allow them to detect pedestrains on the sidewalk, cyclists along the curb as well as cars in the street. But so far my experience is they only narrowly focus on where a car would be. Now if OC decided to leave cyclists out of the detection area I would think it would be in violation of § 2-602 of the Transportation Title
https://www.michie.com/maryland/lpext.dll/mdcode/2390e/23921/239ab/239b1
The more I understand how things are supposed to work in our favor the more I am shocked that they don’t. Someone needs to eliminate this double standard of not accommodating cyclists at intersections and then labeling the states purposeful avoidance as a "scofflaw cyclists" problem. How about we call this what it is … negligence… and the state is setting itself up for a multimillion dollar law suite.]oldId.20100903040418993