{"id":160487304,"date":"2010-02-01T11:48:24","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T11:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=160487304"},"modified":"2010-02-01T11:48:24","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T11:48:24","slug":"mpd-officer-tells-cyclist-to-get-into-non-existent-bike-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=160487304","title":{"rendered":"MPD officer tells cyclist to get into non-existent bike lane"},"content":{"rendered":"

by washcycle<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Reader Patrick relays a story from this morning,<\/p>\n

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I wanted to relay a scene I experienced this morning involving some DC
\nmetro police. It took place on 16th street, going south on the hill
\ncoming down from Euclid to U street, along Meridian Hill Park. As you
\nknow, this hill is pretty steep and during rush hour traffic al
\nthree lanes are clogged. Basically the whole street is filled with cars
\nall the way to the curb, leaving little to no space for bikes. To get
\naround this, I, and almost every other biker I’ve seen on that road over
\nthe past two years, usually ride between the lanes until after W St., at
\nwhich point more room opens up on the right side of the road. The only
\nissue I’ve ever encountered with this strategy is the occasional car
\nchanging lanes without signaling.<\/p>\n

This morning as I rode this stretch, everything was going fine
\nuntil I had to stop short due to an MPD car abruptly cutting me off
\nby turning toward the adjacent lane. This was a potentially dangerous
\nmove and I grudgingly chalked it up to the cops simply not seeing me. However, as I tried to
\nweave around their car, they gave a short burst of their siren and told
\nme to pull over to the side of the road. I reluctantly obliged, moving
\naround two lanes of traffic to the corner of 16th and W, and watched as
\nthe cops tried to do the same. After a minute, they realized that they
\nprobably wouldn’t be able to traverse the same two lanes of clogged
\ntraffic and instead got on their loudspeaker. They blasted the
\nfollowing statement at me: “You are required to bike in the bike lane!”<\/p>\n

There is no bike
\nlane on 16th Street. This cop was ordering me to bike in a non-existent
\nbike lane. Thankfully, by this point, a few other bikers had gathered on
\nthe corner so I had some backup as we all pointed out that there was no
\nbike lane in which we could bike. Their response was that if there
\nwasn’t a marked bike lane, we should consider the right-hand side of
\nthe road  to be a bike lane. We then pointed out that the right-hand
\nside of that stretch of 16th was very dangerous since cars drove so
\nclose to the curb. Their response: “It doesn’t matter, follow the law!”
\nAnd they drove off.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cyclists aren’t required to ride right when they’re moving faster than traffic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\nhttps:\/\/www.thewashcycle.com\/2010\/02\/mpd-officer-tells-cyclist-to-get-into-nonexistent-bike-lane.html<\/a>oldId.20100201114824129<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by washcycle Reader Patrick relays a story from this morning, I wanted to relay a scene I experienced this morning involving some DC metro police. It took place on 16th street, going south on the hill coming down from Euclid to U street, along Meridian Hill Park. As you know, this hill is pretty steep … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MPD officer tells cyclist to get into non-existent bike lane”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160487304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160487304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160487304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160487304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160487304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160487304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160487304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}