Cyclist treatment: MPD 1, MoCo police 0

An SUV driver intentionally drove over a cyclist because the driver wanted to turn right and the cyclist was in the way.

She continued to use the horn, then looked at me as she pulled forward into me, catching my rear wheel beneath her front left fender. This forced me and the bike down onto the pavement.

I rolled away as she continued to drive across my bike, narrowly missing my lower legs, and totally ruining my bicycle. She immediately sped away south on 4th [Street].

MPD originally classified this as a hit-and-run, but the cyclist insisted on treating it an assault, since there appeared to be intent. Fortunately, after some review, MPD agreed and is now treating this as a felony assault.

Cyclists haven’t had as much luck with Montgomery County police lately, which seem to be threatening cyclists for “being annoying”:

One rider reports that he and some others were biking out MacArthur Boulevard towards Great Falls when they were pulled over by Montgomery County Police. They weren’t ticketed, but their names were recorded and they were let off with a warning. One problem is that it doesn’t appear that the cyclists were told which law they had violated, only that cyclists in the areas were “getting annoying.”

On a happier note, yesterday I was downtown around 18th and 19th Streets just before 9 am, and saw a remarkable number of cyclists traveling along the route. I didn’t get an exact count, but they seemed to be about 25% of the traffic.

It’s impressive that so many cyclists are willing to ride on 19th Street, which seems harrowing; trucks are constantly pulling over to both sides, blocking a lane for deliveries, while cars go into the many parking garages with curb cuts right on the street. When traffic was stopped at a light, the cyclists had to squeeze through very narrow spaces to move up.

Is this one of those situations which is actually safer than it looks because there are so many cars, trucks, bicycles, and pedestrians going every which way that everyone knows to look out and be careful? Or can we accommodate all these southbound cyclists with some kind of dedicated facility, either on 19th or on a nearby parallel street?