All the segments on my commute are marked as hazardous

[mstone]

@dasgeh 61650 wrote:

Agreed. Especially when there’s no reason for it to be hazardous (I’m looking at you “Custis East Lee to Lee” with no grade crossings or other hazards).

Playing devil’s advocate, perhaps the hazards to other trail users on a hilly and substandard-width trail? It’s not necessarily a requirement to be an a-hole while going for a strava KOM, but it’s also hard to deny that there are quite a few dangerous a-holes on the local trails. It might not be nice that someone is reacting by trying to cut off strava as a reward mechanism, but it’s undeniable that a lot of trail users are (justifiably) fed up with being endangered by cyclists behaving badly and it’s also true that nobody ever says “well, maybe I am part of the problem”–it’s always someone else, and everyone’s own strava KOMs were all obtained safely. I don’t really know what the answer is (while I do think strava may encourage some people, I don’t for a minute believe that making it go away would make anyone suddenly become a safe cyclist), but let’s at least be honest there’s a problem.

This is like the thread about the guy sticking his arm out when he knows a cyclist is passing him–there’s a reason for that behavior, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve been on the W&OD or Custis and not seen some selfish cyclist passing too close to a pedestrian on the center line rather than slowing down to pass safely. Until we (as a community/society) figure out some way to really address the problems, I can’t really condemn people for trying even stupid/pointless things in a desperate attempt to do something in a situation where they are basically powerless.

[birddog]

I just contacted Strava:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3533[/ATTACH]

Thank you Tim!

[dasgeh]

@mstone 61662 wrote:

Playing devil’s advocate, perhaps the hazards to other trail users on a hilly and substandard-width trail? It’s not necessarily a requirement to be an a-hole while going for a strava KOM, but it’s also hard to deny that there are quite a few dangerous a-holes on the local trails. It might not be nice that someone is reacting by trying to cut off strava as a reward mechanism, but it’s undeniable that a lot of trail users are (justifiably) fed up with being endangered by cyclists behaving badly and it’s also true that nobody ever says “well, maybe I am part of the problem”–it’s always someone else, and everyone’s own strava KOMs were all obtained safely. I don’t really know what the answer is (while I do think strava may encourage some people, I don’t for a minute believe that making it go away would make anyone suddenly become a safe cyclist), but let’s at least be honest there’s a problem.

This is like the thread about the guy sticking his arm out when he knows a cyclist is passing him–there’s a reason for that behavior, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve been on the W&OD or Custis and not seen some selfish cyclist passing too close to a pedestrian on the center line rather than slowing down to pass safely. Until we (as a community/society) figure out some way to really address the problems, I can’t really condemn people for trying even stupid/pointless things in a desperate attempt to do something in a situation where they are basically powerless.

This particular segment is from the Italian store until the turn going up and over I66 along Lee, at the top of the Rosslyn hill. I don’t think any of that is substandard width, and the hills aren’t that steep or that long. It’s really rare to see conflict there, even at the height of rush hour.

I also think that jack’holes are jack’holes (thanks Nikki D), and Strava isn’t making them so. There are plenty of jack’holes on this segment, but I would be SHOCKED, FLOORED, FLABBERGASTED, FLUMMOXED, ASTOUNDED and surprised if Strava changes their behavior one iota. In fact, the worst behavior I usually see on this segment is passing too closely/without a call. Nothing to do with speed. And even when people are jack’holes in order to go faster, it’s because they want to go faster, not because of Strava.

[jabberwocky]

Yeah, I think that Strava has given people a handy entity to focus blame on, but as someone who commuted the W&OD daily from 2005 through 2010, I can say with certainty that those jackholes existed long before Strava existed, and I seriously doubt that the existence or removal of a Strava segment is going to make any measurable difference.

I just think Strava is terrified of potential lawsuits, so they are erring on the side of making segments really easy to remove.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@dasgeh 61667 wrote:

This particular segment is from the Italian store until the turn going up and over I66 along Lee, at the top of the Rosslyn hill. I don’t think any of that is substandard width, and the hills aren’t that steep or that long. It’s really rare to see conflict there, even at the height of rush hour.

I created that segment and was specifically thinking of those things — that’s why I started it well after the corner from the s-turn and ended it before having to make the left at the top of the hill. Plus the moguls on the trail keep speeds moderate anyway.

[DismalScientist]

@ShawnoftheDread 61674 wrote:

Plus the moguls on the trail keep speeds moderate anyway.

That’s what makes it hazardous to all those young whippersnapper roadies such as yourself.:rolleyes:

[btj]

Rode about 18 miles today including about 75% of the Arlington Loop and some neighborhood streets. 17 total segments, 15 were marked as hazardous. I think Strava is going to end up with an ugly mass of repeated segments that keep getting marked as hazardous.

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[hozn]

@btj 63466 wrote:

Rode about 18 miles today including about 75% of the Arlington Loop and some neighborhood streets. 17 total segments, 15 were marked as hazardous. I think Strava is going to end up with an ugly mass of repeated segments that keep getting marked as hazardous.

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I had a nice ~30 mile ride yesterday with 44 segments. Of those, the few that were flagged were indeed on the Custis for the brief section I rode back home. Moral of the story: don’t go looking for segments on MUPs.

[Author]

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