April 2016 Road and Trail Conditions

[Tim Kelley]

@huskerdont 138710 wrote:

If a bike counter counts and nobody can see it, does it make a sound?*

*(Yes, I know the counts are available online.)

It doesn’t make a sound, but it makes a tweet: https://twitter.com/BikeArlington/status/723149299689750529

[chris_s]

Route 50 access road at Meade Street (by Iwo Jima) closed for Water Main Break – this is the main access between the Fort Cass Trail and Iwo Jima.

https://twitter.com/ArlingtonVaPD/status/723497622921699331

[Arlingtonrider]

The temporary MVT curb bumps at the south end of DCA were nicely smoothed out overnight. Many thanks to dbb and others for making that happen!

[ursus]

@Tim Kelley 138708 wrote:

Top Men are working on it. It’s likely that even though the lights aren’t on, it’s still counting just fine though.

Does anyone happen to know how the bikeometer differentiates between bikes and walkers and counts two bikes passing simultaneously? It seems to do this correctly.

BTW, at about 3 AM on Tuesday, I was #1.

[kcb203]

@ursus 138726 wrote:

Does anyone happen to know how the bikeometer differentiates between bikes and walkers and counts two bikes passing simultaneously? It seems to do this correctly.

BTW, at about 3 AM on Tuesday, I was #1.

I’m also curious if you get counted on those double diamond shaped counters if you hit the spot where the two diamonds come together. Do these count each direction separately?

[huskerdont]

@ursus 138726 wrote:

Does anyone happen to know how the bikeometer differentiates between bikes and walkers and counts two bikes passing simultaneously? It seems to do this correctly.

BTW, at about 3 AM on Tuesday, I was #1.

Walkers would only be counted (by this particular type of counter) if they were made of metal. I suppose a stroller might do it.

The Transportation Research Board has a report on the various types of bike and pedestrian counters, how they work, how they’re installed, the pros and cons of each.

http://www.trb.org/PedestriansAndBicyclists/Blurbs/171973.aspx

PDF is free to download. It’s very interesting if you are the kind of person who finds that kind of thing very interesting.

[JanaeBixby]

@Arlingtonrider 138718 wrote:

The temporary MVT curb bumps at the south end of DCA were nicely smoothed out overnight. Many thanks to dbb and others for making that happen!

Yes! A pleasant surprise today. It was smoothed with asphalt, but let’s hope that is not the permanent solution. It is a much improved situation though! Thanks everyone!

[Tim Kelley]

Our counter guru reported in:

Top Men opened the cabinet to reveal truth about Intersection of Doom!

*****

A few weeks ago the vertical bar graph on the west side went out. Eco-Counter replaced a small plug that had failed. Everything was ok until late last week.

Troubleshooting today revealed that that west side bar graph remains damaged. But the other 5 displays (daily, monthly, and bar graph on east side, plus daily and monthly on west side) are fine and working properly.

A replacement part has been ordered.

That is all …

[DrP]

Counter was up this morning when I whizzed by. No idea bout the bar since that is on the other side and I was trying to make the light.

[vern]

18 months or so after the fact, Arlington (or whoever was responsible) has discovered that the way to address the 3 inch deep, 4 foot square holes around 2 manholes on the WOD at Barcroft was to fill that deficit with asphalt. Thanks, Arlington!

[Tim Kelley]

@vern 138828 wrote:

18 months or so after the fact, Arlington (or whoever was responsible) has discovered that the way to address the 3 inch deep, 4 foot square holes around 2 manholes on the WOD at Barcroft was to fill that deficit with asphalt. Thanks, Arlington!

Someone reported it to trails about 3 weeks ago. Parks kicked it to the Water Sewer Streets department who looked into it and found that it belonged to an outside utility company who hadn’t done repair work the right way. In the interim, Parks was going to fill it with cold patch.

Glad to see that its fixed!

[vern]

@Tim Kelley 138830 wrote:

Someone reported it to trails about 3 weeks ago. Parks kicked it to the Water Sewer Streets department who looked into it and found that it belonged to an outside utility company who hadn’t done repair work the right way. In the interim, Parks was going to fill it with cold patch.

Glad to see that its fixed!

I think we just have the interim solution – cold patch. I rode over it this morning and it was still sticky.

[rcannon100]

Alexandria Animal Welfare has issued a warning of a rabid racoon near 4MR. I am guess the report is from the Alex 4MR park across from the Arlington beautification plant

[cmj7gh]

Any thoughts on what the conditions on the Fairfax CCT might be like this weekend? Trying to get into Mountain Biking and thought the CCT would be a good beginner experience. (The only other trail I’ve ridden was Pimmit Run which was a bit too tough). I was hoping to ride from the Reston metro station to the Springfield metro station on Saturday morning via the CCT. With all this rain in the forecast, do I need to worry about the trail being too wet to ride or any stream crossings being unpassable? If so, I guess I’ll stick to the road bike that day.

[hozn]

@cmj7gh 138927 wrote:

Any thoughts on what the conditions on the Fairfax CCT might be like this weekend? Trying to get into Mountain Biking and thought the CCT would be a good beginner experience. (The only other trail I’ve ridden was Pimmit Run which was a bit too tough). I was hoping to ride from the Reston metro station to the Springfield metro station on Saturday morning via the CCT. With all this rain in the forecast, do I need to worry about the trail being too wet to ride or any stream crossings being unpassable? If so, I guess I’ll stick to the road bike that day.

I haven’t ridden much in that direction, but I think there are some singletrack sections.

It will almost certainly be too wet to ride this weekend if we get significant rain tomorrow and/or Friday. The trails have gotten pretty rutted up from folks riding them wet this winter. If your tires are sinking into mud, it’s damaging the trail. OTOH, my son and I rode part of the CCT last Sat right after it finished the light AM rain and it was fine; we hadn’t had rain in so long that I guess it was quickly absorbed.

The CCT north of Reston (the only part I know) is certainly a great beginner trail. As is much of Lake Fairfax. Pimmit Run isn’t really built for bikes, but I think the part north of Westmorland (up to Old Dominion) is nice beginner trail. I go there with the kids (we don’t get too far in before we have to turn around).

[Author]

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