Is this the new normal for our trails?

This topic has 16 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 11 months ago by huskerdont.

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July 27, 2020 at 12:40 am #921950

DrP
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Where did all the people come from?
I have been riding on the trails on Sunday mornings at 6:30 or 7am in summers for several years – 6:30am when it plans to be a scorcher. The trails were generally empty until 10am. Last Sunday and today, at 6:30am trails and roads were full of cyclists and pedestrians. Lots of cycling groups of 8 riders or more. And so many cyclists making bad passes – one apologized for miscalculating (I understand this and appreciate the apology), one gave a finger when a startled shout (no cursing) was given for nearly running us off the trail and another gave a dirty look for the same thing, but there were more. So, what can we do about bad passes? Some were dangerous.

Are the crowds this large because no one is going on vacation? COVID has gotten more people exercising outside? More people have decided to change their habits and use the trails? It is great that there are so many people exercising, but how do we get more or wider trails to handle them all?
(roads were full of cars today too – why were so many out at 6:30am on a Sunday? Roads have not been as good as an option for exercise as it was three months ago when people were still being reasonable drivers. Now they seem to be going faster and ignore all, especially traffic signs and signals – one driver paused to let people cross at Old Reston Ave and W&OD but continued despite the red light (it was still a walk signal too!)).
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July 27, 2020 at 3:09 am #1106227

secstate
Participant

I suspect the daytime heat and humidity is leading many people to exercise in the early mornings or late evenings.

As for the cars, I don’t know, but traffic has definitely increased in the past several weeks. It’s made it much more treacherous to run or walk in the road to maintain social distancing.

July 27, 2020 at 2:15 pm #1106228

DrP
Participant

@secstate 201930 wrote:

I suspect the daytime heat and humidity is leading many people to exercise in the early mornings or late evenings.

The thing is, daytime heat and humidity happens every year and this is the first year that there have been soooooo many people out so early.

July 27, 2020 at 2:41 pm #1106229

ChristoB50
Participant

We could probably attribute a bunch of the new, early-morning-crowd-sightings-unique-to-this-year, as a pandemic result — whether people out-of-work opting to get outdoors (who couldn’t perhaps do that last year, if they were morning-commuting to their job) — and/or folks now teleworking (who may feel it is more feasible to go out early “before work starts from home” without worrying about getting to the office neat and tidy after a morning outing.)
Just my 2 cents… I was office-working full time before covid, and was bike-commuting quite frequently. Now, teleworking 100%, and I can hardly muster the interest to ride!

July 27, 2020 at 3:30 pm #1106230

secstate
Participant

@ChristoB50 201932 wrote:

Just my 2 cents… I was office-working full time before covid, and was bike-commuting quite frequently. Now, teleworking 100%, and I can hardly muster the interest to ride!

Same here. I don’t enjoy riding on the roads, the trails have been crowded, and I rarely have anywhere to go, so I’ve hardly been on the bike at all.

July 27, 2020 at 6:25 pm #1106231

DrP
Participant

@secstate 201933 wrote:

Same here. I don’t enjoy riding on the roads, the trails have been crowded, and I rarely have anywhere to go, so I’ve hardly been on the bike at all.

Other people seem to have found out the time I ride that used to be empty (I just go out first thing like I were going to the office, but then continue and return home to ride my whole commute at once. Then get clean and start work a little later than I would have if I were in the office, but I am already home when done for the day. I get my exercise (round-trip commute) and on weekdays have a route that is less crowded than my old commute, although not dissimilar crowd size. Weekends are all messed up with people, as per this thread).

July 27, 2020 at 7:51 pm #1106232

ChristoB50
Participant

Yeah, I need to get back to an earlier alarm time I think — once I started teleworking, I shifted my alarm clock to 7am daily — a little more sleep, followed by 40 mins of relaxed coffee time at the S.O.’s apartment downstairs; then I’m all set to start my telework shift at 8am (showers have now largely moved to the end of the day, since teleworking.)
To keep the very-enjoyable morning coffee ritual (which arose at start of telework in March; I used to only have coffee once I reached the office) but preface it with a “fake” roundtrip office commute, I reckon I’d need to get my wheels out of the house at 6am. Ride the commute route nonstop 50 mins, back for a then-mandatory shower, then coffee time at S.O.’s around 7:15 instead.
Not impossible… but 6am tires-rolling (5:45 wakeup) now seems so… uncivilized!

July 27, 2020 at 10:53 pm #1106233

drevil
Participant

@DrP 201931 wrote:

The thing is, daytime heat and humidity happens every year and this is the first year that there have been soooooo many people out so early.

Same here in my ‘hood around Lake Artemesia. I’ve shifted most of my riding to start at 9 or 10 at night. I really dig how cool it is and how empty the roads and trails are at that time.

July 28, 2020 at 2:02 pm #1106236

huskerdont
Participant

Early mornings seem to be when folk go out thinking it’s cooler, but I find the humidity in the morning worse so go out later in the day (confession that I love hot weather, so YMMV). Bonus is fewer people about, although I’m still mostly riding the roads instead of trails. Drivers are definitely getting worse. Hardly a ride goes by without an unsafe pass or a buzzing.

As far as riding and staying motivated, I’ve ridden just as much as when commuting. I knew that OCD would come in handy some day.

July 29, 2020 at 11:04 am #1106239

arlcxrider
Participant

Yeah, mornings, when the dew point matches the air temp. I’m still doing 30-35 mile weekday rides after 5 pm, dodging thunderstorms as necessary. Maybe I’m nuts, but I actually prefer hot humid weather, since it’s the only time my growing-older-by-the-day joints consistently feel good. Just stay hydrated.

People get down on the dog days of summer in the DC area, but what’s the alternative: beautiful fall and spring weather, which lasts about five days each? Or is it winter, with seven hours of daylight, cold rain, and nuisance levels of snowfall?

August 7, 2020 at 7:04 pm #1106293

Drewdane
Participant

@DrP 201927 wrote:

Where did all the people come from?
I have been riding on the trails on Sunday mornings at 6:30 or 7am in summers for several years – 6:30am when it plans to be a scorcher. The trails were generally empty until 10am. Last Sunday and today, at 6:30am trails and roads were full of cyclists and pedestrians. Lots of cycling groups of 8 riders or more. And so many cyclists making bad passes – one apologized for miscalculating (I understand this and appreciate the apology), one gave a finger when a startled shout (no cursing) was given for nearly running us off the trail and another gave a dirty look for the same thing, but there were more. So, what can we do about bad passes? Some were dangerous.

Are the crowds this large because no one is going on vacation? COVID has gotten more people exercising outside? More people have decided to change their habits and use the trails? It is great that there are so many people exercising, but how do we get more or wider trails to handle them all?
(roads were full of cars today too – why were so many out at 6:30am on a Sunday? Roads have not been as good as an option for exercise as it was three months ago when people were still being reasonable drivers. Now they seem to be going faster and ignore all, especially traffic signs and signals – one driver paused to let people cross at Old Reston Ave and W&OD but continued despite the red light (it was still a walk signal too!)).

The pandemic appears to have reminded a lot of people that trails exist. Fortunately, things have eased up considerably on “my” section of the W&OD since I wrote the following post in “Near Misses”:

Me: guy whose property backs up against the WOD.

Also me: guy who has stopped using the WOD during the pandemic because it is not only more crowded than he has ever seen, but also because it has been overrun by sociopaths and idiots who clearly couldn’t GAF about even the most basic precepts of social distancing and mask use.

ALSO Also me: guy who has gained fresh understanding of why so many people seem to hate cyclists after observing (and nearly being killed by) recent cyclist behavior on said overcrowded WOD.

August 7, 2020 at 7:47 pm #1106294

Fairlington124
Participant

Capacity constraints in term of trail widths, tight corners, etc have become all the more clear.

And don’t even get me started on a “trail” which is basically a 5-foot sidewalk, reduce a bit by puddling water and an uneven surface due to tree roots. A 5-foot sidewalk is borderline adequate for two passing pedestrians, to say nothing of bikers, or reduced widths due to the mentioned hazards.

August 7, 2020 at 8:23 pm #1106295

drevil
Participant

@Drewdane 202002 wrote:

The pandemic appears to have reminded a lot of people that trails exist. Fortunately, things have eased up considerably on “my” section of the W&OD since I wrote the following post in “Near Misses”:

Me: guy whose property backs up against the WOD.

Also me: guy who has stopped using the WOD during the pandemic because it is not only more crowded than he has ever seen, but also because it has been overrun by sociopaths and idiots who clearly couldn’t GAF about even the most basic precepts of social distancing and mask use.

ALSO Also me: guy who has gained fresh understanding of why so many people seem to hate cyclists after observing (and nearly being killed by) recent cyclist behavior on said overcrowded WOD.

Time to go back to mountain biking

August 8, 2020 at 12:25 am #1106296

dkel
Participant

@drevil 202004 wrote:

Time to go back to mountain biking

Or riding your “road” bike. :p

August 9, 2020 at 12:11 am #1106298

EasyRider
Participant

Some trails seem less traveled. Here’s the usually well-worn dirt path between Washington Blvd and the GW Parkway near Memorial Bridge.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]21616[/ATTACH]

August 10, 2020 at 12:52 pm #1106301

mstone
Participant

@Fairlington124 202003 wrote:

Capacity constraints in term of trail widths, tight corners, etc have become all the more clear.

And don’t even get me started on a “trail” which is basically a 5-foot sidewalk, reduce a bit by puddling water and an uneven surface due to tree roots. A 5-foot sidewalk is borderline adequate for two passing pedestrians, to say nothing of bikers, or reduced widths due to the mentioned hazards.

Even the best trails in the region have issues. Take the W&OD near route 9, where at the best of times it’s ridiculously narrow, squeezed in, with bad sight lines, and now has weeds covering literally one entire lane on a blind turn. If only we could find a little money to improve the trail. Completely unrelated: the new roundabouts & such were part of a $28 million project to add a lane to route 7 for about 2 miles. That’s about the same as NVRPA’s annual budget, which mostly goes into the water parks, etc.; the W&OD’s share averages about $1M/year operating & capital. Ironically the W&OD actually makes about $750k/year from utility easements and similar sources and pays for itself more than any non-toll-road in the region.
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