Loudoun police at Belmont Ridge/W&OD intersection

Loudoun County police will announce their Street Smart campaign at a press conference tomorrow, Wednesday, November 14 at 11 a.m. at Belmont Ridge and the W&OD Trail. Through Nov. 25 they will be ticketing bicyclists who "don't follow area traffic safety laws." From their press release:

LCSO Joins Regional Law Enforcement, Community Leaders & Advocates to Remind Motorists, Pedestrians and Cyclists to Share the Road

Loudoun County, VA- Loudoun County Sheriff Michael L. Chapman, county leaders, and community advocates will join together tomorrow to announce the Street Smart pedestrian and bicycle safety campaign. Sheriff Chapman will be reminding motorists to obey traffic safety laws whether you are a pedestrian, cyclist or driver.

To curb pedestrian or cyclist injuries and fatalities in the region, Street Smart will kick off its fall safety campaign on Wednesday morning at the intersection of Belmont Ridge Road (Route 659) and the W&OD Trail in Ashburn, VA. Residents will be reminded to remain alert, share the road and obey traffic laws.

As part of the campaign, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and law enforcement in the Metropolitan region will be out in force through November 25, ticketing motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists who don’t follow area traffic safety laws.

The press conference will be held Wednesday, November 14, 2012, at 11AM at the intersection of Belmont Ridge Road (Route 659) and the Washington and Old Dominion Trail.

Any cyclists who receive a ticket at this or other W&OD intersections should find out what Virginia code was used for the offense. If it's "§ 46.2-821. Vehicles before entering certain highways shall stop or yield right-of-way," at least one judge has dismissed a ticket where that code was cited because the trail is not a highway.

Loudoun Police ticket Reston Century cyclists

We heard from a Reston Century cyclist yesterday who was ticketed by Loudoun Sheriff's deputies at the intersection of Harmony Church Rd and Route 7 in Hamilton. The police were basically conducting a sting operation. See the Washcyle report for details:

Reportedly, several cyclists were ticketed during last weekend's Reston Century by the Loudoun County sheriff’s office for failure to stop at a stop sign.

The officers positioned themselves such that they would maximize their opportunity to ticket cyclists and were ticketing as many as possible for minor infractions. One rider reports that as they wrote his ticket they made comments indicating that they were irritated that the ride organizers did not hire them to manage event safety. They reported having requested that the ride organizers route the entire event on the bike trail (which ride organizers deemed far too narrow and dangerous given the number of participants). Their ticket-writing campaign appeared to have been a vendetta against the ride organizers for utilizing the roads.

So, if all of this is accurate, then it appears that the Loudoun County’s sheriff’s office decided that keeping bikes off the road was more important than public safety; they were willing to bully cyclists as payback for the event organizers, and they would target cyclists for a technicality rather than watching for cyclists and drivers who are actually operating their vehicles unsafely.

Why does this sound so familiar.

Loudoun's finest

The police were heard repeatedly referred to the ride as a race, which could explain why they expected people to be running the stop sign. Obviously cyclists should obey traffic signals, but they shouldn't be held to a higher standard than motorists, most of whom roll through stop signs. I wonder if police ticketed those motorists.

Loudoun County benefits greatly from cyclists who visit the county. Ask the owners of Magnolias at the Mill in Purcellville, the owners of Carolina Brothers Pit Barbecue (formerly Partlow's Store) in Ashburn, or the many shop owners in Leesburg if they benefit from cyclists. And yet some in the county seem to being doing what they can to discourage cyclists from visiting and spending money there. You might remember Suzanne Volpe, who incorrectly stated that thousands of dollars were being spent to promote cycling in the county, bad-mouthing cyclists during her campaign. Is it time for a boycott?

Loudoun Co. supervisor candidate Suzanne Volpe talks bikes

Republican Suzanne Volpe is running for the Loudoun county supervisor office in the newly created Algonkian district. She appears to be running unopposed. The Algonkian district is located north of Route 7 extending from Fairfax county to just west of Route 28. She made some interesting comments about bicycling in her campaign video (bike comments start at around 4:05):

"We're spending half a million dollars a year funding the Northern Virginia Bicycle Association to promote tourism. Now I have to ask some of you business owners out there; do you think someone riding a bicycle on the W&OD Trail is going to help your business? That our county is spending half a million dollars to encourage people to bicycle into the county."

Northern Virginia Bicycle Association? We're checking with the Volpe campaign to find out more about the association and the half million dollars being spend on bicycle tourism.

I think owners of restaurants and stores in Ashburn, Leesburg, Purcellville, and other places along the W&OD Trail might say that yes, cyclists do spend money in Loudoun County and we'd like to have more of them come here. Employers such as Orbital Sciences, AOL, and others would say that they encourage their employees to travel by bike for their health and to reduce congestion.