Stay in your lane

Seriously?

(And are those parking meters along the 15th Street bike lane?? What the...?)

This is hardly the first time I've seen cars parked in bike lanes in the District. The bike lane on 14th Street is a regular double-parking extravaganza up near U Street and Columbia Heights. It's like someone's constantly throwing a party where people sit in their cars, parked NEXT TO empty parking spaces. Yes, there are legitimate parking spaces right next to them that they are not using. (I can't decide if this trend is driven by malice or idiocy.)

At least twice I've seen people actually DRIVING in the cordoned off 15th Street bike lanes, usually yapping on their cell phones and maneuvering some kind of SUV. The second time that happened, Ollie and I pulled up next to a guy who turned out to be a city DOT worker (!!) who actually told me there was nowhere else he could park to check the meter installation process. (Guess the two driveways within 50 yards of where we were having the conversation would not have worked, eh?)

I am not an angry cyclist. Ask anyone. I'm usually smiling at fellow bikers and pedestrians, and my general practice is to move out of the way at stop lights so cars can turn right on red. I've only twice (audibly) shouted at drivers in DC -- both of those times were when I was nearly run over in a crosswalk when they weren't paying attention. But some 4-wheel operators these days... I have half a mind to get some stickers printed up to slap on bike-lane-ignoring cars as I pass them: "Stay in your lane."

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