8: Another Bicycle Stop
Yet another bicycle stop happened in Crystal City, VA, but this one wasn’t as much of a confrontation. Reddit user oddseth told the story. “I used to have to cut through Old Town Alexandria, VA to get from trail-to-trail when I lived in nearby Crystal City, VA, and wanted to go for a 20-30 mile ride. There are over a dozen stop signs on the route but I would only stop at the stop signs when pedestrians or cars were present so I could keep my pace up (around 19 mph average). One day, when I was about to get through Alexandria and back on the trail towards Mt. Vernon, I looked back and I saw a bicycle cop a few car lengths behind me and he looked like he was about to pass out.
“I could have just sped up but thought I should stop and see what he wanted. He rode up next to me and was huffing and puffing – I thought he was going to pass out. After he caught his breath, he very politely told me that he had been following me for over a mile and wanted to let me know to be careful because about running the stop signs because if a traffic cop saw me, he would have pulled me over and given me a ticket. And any tickets and points received while on a bicycle would count against my driver’s license.”