WTOP Report Provokes Anger Among Area Cyclists
Law-breaking, wasting public funds and an elected official who's increasingly unpopular -- the story had everything you would want in an exposé. So when WTOP's Mark Segraves reported Monday that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty used a police escort and clogged up area roads on his daily bike ride, everyone jumped on it. Including us.
But in the ensuing rancor, local cyclists were left seething at what they perceived as a hit-job not on Fenty, but on them. A regional cycling email list jumped to life as a number of cyclists criticized the WTOP report for being needlessly biased against them and for not proving that Fenty and his group actually caused any traffic tie-ups, as Segraves claimed. And while many agreed that it looked bad for Fenty to ride with a police escort and have his bikes transported to and from races in an official vehicle, many felt that the report didn't live up to its billing.
In direct conversations and in a discussion on the email list of the Mid-Atlantic Bicycle Racing Association, a number of area cyclists pointed out that while Fenty should not have been riding on the Clara Barton Parkway as he's seen doing, little else displayed in the WTOP video was notably dangerous or illegal.
In one segment of the video, Segraves shows a car honking its horn at Fenty's group as they rode two-abreast on MacArthur Boulevard in Maryland -- which is legal. (The annoyed driver, on the other hand, illegally passed them on a double yellow line.) In two other segments, Segraves claims that Fenty is blowing through red lights, but, as cyclist Brian Hennessey points out, "Fenty doesn't actually go through a single red light. His police escort does."
Some cyclists also noted that for the "several months" that WTOP tailed Fenty on his rides (which have never been much of a secret), the cited examples of law-breaking or disrupting area traffic are somewhat thin. (Segraves also admits he shot segments of the video while himself driving an automobile, which is arguably more dangerous.)
Mark Plotz, a Program Manager for the National Center for Bicycling and Walking, agreed that while Fenty shouldn't use an official vehicle to get his bike to and from races, the traffic angle in the WTOP story didn't seem justified. "He is riding at mid-day, when traffic volume is lowest. If they weren't rolling lights and signs, traffic would be tied up even longer," he pointed out. (WashCycle has some additional thoughts worth reading.)
And it wasn't just the article's message that provoked snickers amongst many cyclists, but so too the messenger. "The target demographic for WTOP is the commuter crowd, most of whom are married to their automobile-centric lifestyle and who rue the fact that bicycles share 'their' road space," said Rudi Riet, who leads rides with local cyclists. "This story just adds fuel to the fire."
Plotz also criticized WTOP's perceived bias against cyclists. "WTOP is throwing red meat to its audience with this bicycling story. It's audience is listening to WTOP while in their cars, driving to and from work. Whenever it does a story on bicycling or pedestrians, the tenor of the article is rarely unbiased, and the hateful comments the readers make are astonishing. WTOP's audience has the windshield perspective on the streets," he said.
Ironically, the WTOP story and the ensuing furor it has caused may end up causing more danger on area roads, not less. One local racer who attended a popular noon ride at Hains Point today complained that his group was chased by a media truck.
"Almost got killed by a truck chasing and filming the noon pack at Hains," the cyclist wrote. "WTF? The local news media has got to drop this shit with Fenty. There were only like 2 dc velo [Fenty's team] riders in the group anyways."