Ever Heard of the term “Walkblocked?”

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Rebecca Hertz

1 Comment

As more urban spaces where residents and community members can feel comfortable and safe biking are developed in the county, the public needs to continue learning more about biking (and pedestrian) etiquette. At the last Friends of White Flint meeting, we discussed pedestrian and biking safety. One discussion focused on the need for biking education around issues such as biking rules for cyclists and drivers alike and biking demarcations such as lanes, cycle tracks, and buffer zones.

In the past, we have discussed the terms such as sneckdowns, salmoned, and shoaling. New transportation jargon is constantly popping up. Contributors for Greater Greater Washington have been busy creating names for events and situations that arise across the urban landscape. The term “walkblock” was coined to mean “the action of a motorist that blocks access to a crosswalk or causes a pedestrian to miss the walk sign.” In addition, the term “bikefrog” means “the travel pattern that occurs when a bus has a higher top speed but a cyclist has a higher average speed, resulting in the two passing each other in an alternating pattern for several blocks.”

Check more of the team’s terms here.

One Response to Ever Heard of the term “Walkblocked?”

Steven Thornton says: September 17, 2014 at 1:13 pm

The sad thing is that some of our public servants are involved in this kind of behavior. I was not only blocked by but also threatened (with the bus) by a Metro Bus driver crossing the intersection from Marriott Bethesda North to White Flint metro, while running, and with the Walk sign. Apparently the driver was too much of a hurry to be bothered by me running for the 2-3 seconds it took me. I even wrote Metro about this safety issue and the practice of a driver threatening a pedestrian vehicle. No surprise – not even a courtesy of a response from Metro. FYI, the driver was from the Metro bus bay by White Flint Metro.