A stop sign is a stop sign — 
cyclists should obey the rules

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A stop sign is a stop sign — 
cyclists should obey the rules
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To the editor:

I was standing in front of my house when a cyclist pedaled by about 6:30 p.m. on a recent Saturday. When she got to the four-way stop at Princess and West streets, she just kept going. A few seconds later a police car stopped at the intersection, close enough that the officer should have been able to see the cyclist run the stop sign. But the officer didn’t pursue her and write a ticket.

Even the Washington Post acknowledges the nonchalance with which bicyclists disobey traffic rules and try to brush it off by blaming their shoes. Earlier this month Post transportation reporter Ashley Halsey III wrote: “Riders go through stop signs. It’s illegal, and it can be annoying if they do it cavalierly. Other cyclists slow down, look both ways and then roll through. Usually it’s because their shoes are mechanically attached to the pedal. Yes, they can clip out, but they opt not to.”
Do we have, in Alexandria, a de facto policy of looking the other way on bicycle moving violations?

Since cyclists blowing through stop signs is widely acknowledged as widespread, if not the norm, and certainly at a much higher percentage than motorists blowing through stop signs, I would pose the following question: In the previous fiscal year, how many citations did the Alexandria police issue to bicyclists for moving violations?
– Dino Drudi
Alexandria

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