Road Rules: Hey cyclists, it's all your fault

Turns out the real menace on Reston's highways and byways aren't all those environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles, nor the all the parked boat trailers and other reminders of blue collar, red state America. Nope, the real menace are those pesky walkers and cyclists.

Pedestrians and bicyclists in the jurisdiction of the Fairfax County Police’s Reston District Station crashed with vehicles 24 times in 2007, without any fatalities. Of the 24 accidents, vehicle drivers were found to be at fault eight times.

"The most surprising thing is that majority of these accidents are not the fault of the vehicle," said Lieutenant Mike Shamblin of the Reston District Station. He said the 2007 statistics are consistent with accidents from prior years, where pedestrians and bicyclists are at found to be at fault in about 70 percent of the crashes with vehicles.

When will someone stop the madness and ban these threats to Reston's way of life? Oh, wait -- that would involve widening all the bike paths and trails to accommodate SUVs. Maybe it would be easier to just make things a bit easier for cyclists and pedestrians instead.

Fairfax County bike coordinator Charlie Strunk went through a list of pedestrian and bicycling project priorities in the Hunter Mill District. "A lot of these have been started," said Strunk looking at the list. For example, a request was made in 2007 to lengthen the pedestrian’s cross time and countdown signal on Fountain Drive crossing New Dominion Parkway in the Town Center district. In 2008, the requests were answered. Another request from last year’s summit was to install a crosswalk, a signal and a right turn lane into Reston Town Center at the intersection of Market Street and Town Center Parkway. While the signal was not delivered, the crosswalk was installed and a dedicated right turn lane to Reston Town Center now exists.

"Capital projects-wise, there is a lot going on and there is a lot more to accomplish," said Strunk. In terms of bicycle improvements, Strunk said he hopes an access point to the Washington and Old Dominion Trail would be built soon near Reston Town Center.

That's so crazy, it just might work.