Behold: RackSpotter – A crowdsourced bike parking tool!

[bobco85]

@PotomacCyclist 117476 wrote:

After telling someone that I’ve never broken a phone (despite dropping my phone several times the previous week, on carpeting and on concrete), I dropped it again yesterday. Unlike the previous drops where the phone landed on an edge, this time it landed flat on its face, cracking the glass screen.

*!#%

I’ll have to get the screen replaced. I didn’t realize that was so expensive. The phone still works though. I just hope the repair person doesn’t introduce new problems with the phone during the repair process. I’ve read some complaints about that, for various repair stores.

It seems that the only problem is when the phone lands on its face. I’ve dropped it before on concrete without causing any damage when it lands on an edge or on its back. Shouldn’t the phone manufacturers weight the phone so that the backside is a little heavier? Maybe that could prevent a front landing. (Would this even have an effect for a drop of 3 feet? The Mythbusters probably studied this at one point. Any engineers or physicists want to chime in?)

I also thought that the phone manufacturer could add a raised bevel all along the glass front. The glass could remain in place as usual. Thus, the phone could be used as before, but for a front landing, the glass would not be the first item to hit the concrete. Would this provide protection against drops? It wouldn’t protect against a small hard object hitting the glass, like a hammer. But I suspect that most screens are damaged because of drops.

I’m not going to risk another cracked screen. Until such features are built or better glass than Gorilla Glass is used, I’ll have to get my first phone case. I’ve had smartphones for about 7 years. This was the first cracked screen. I did destroy another phone in 2010 or 2011 when it got wet during a rainstorm. I was on a longer ride. I had the phone sealed up in a closed Ziploc bag, but it still got wet. I let it dry out for a few days but it never worked properly again.

My current phone (Samsung Galaxy S5) is water-resistant, but apparently not concrete-resistant when landing on the glass front.

Ugh, that sucks. I definitely hope from now on you use a phone case.

I have had one on my iPhone 4S ever since I got it a couple of years ago that is soft (i.e., impact-absorbing) and has a bevel on the front to prevent cracked screens (unless it hits the corner of a table/curb/etc.). I have actually dropped my phone face first on concrete, and the worst that happened was it shut itself off and stayed off for about half a minute (the longest 30 seconds of my life both times, let me tell you!) before eventually turning back on. I have dropped my phone plenty of times with it hitting edges without any problems, too. The phone case I use is this: http://www.speckproducts.com/apple/iphone-cases/iphone-4s-cases/pixelskin-hd-iphone-4s-cases/71071B045.html?cgidmaster=sptyp-st010

Hope your next phone survives whatever you can throw at it!

[bobco85]

Okay, I hadn’t gone Rackspotting in a bit (PotomacCyclist has left everyone in the dust), and since I needed to take things easy today (donated blood yesterday, so not back to 100% exercise just yet), I did my best to fill in parts of Alexandria, namely the Commonwealth Ave, Main Line Blvd, and Potomac Ave corridors along with the areas around AMC Hoffman and Carlyle. All in all, I added 65 today (but I DID take it easy, er slow, I guess!).

A caboose? Where’s the rail-trail? (FYI this is a few blocks away from the remnants of the Alexandria part of the W&OD railroad which were partially converted to a partially paved rail-trail called the Mount Jefferson Park Trail)
[IMG]http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8802&stc=1[/IMG]

The Carlyle area had these customized U racks which look cool but are probably more difficult to use
[IMG]http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8803&stc=1[/IMG]

Not sure this is a good place for bike racks at a school (between a parking lot and drop-off area)
[IMG]http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8804&stc=1[/IMG]

[KLizotte]

I’m a huge fan of LifeProof phone cases because they protect all parts of the phone. Waterproof (you can submerse the phone) and does a great job of protecting the phone during falls.

http://www.lifeproof.com/en/?medium=tsa&gclid=CPvkw8bO_MUCFUsXHwod-SQAlw&gclsrc=aw.ds

P.S. the screen protector they use is from Zagg (InvisibleShield) which is the same stuff they use on military helicopter blades (supposedly). The material is pretty good at “mending” itself from minor scratches. After a year of hard use, I got an annoying scratch on the screen protector and they replaced the entire Fre case at no charge (they even shipped it for free) under the 1 year warranty. There is a tiny serial number sticker on the inside of the case. Do not lose it or take it off because that is required for warranty claims. My phone itself looks like brand new (I never take it out of the Fre case).

[PotomacCyclist]

I just bought a LifeProof case at Best Buy. The touch screen works normally, even with the cracked glass. Best Buy doesn’t repair phones unless you have a protection plan. I bought the phone there but I didn’t get the protection plan. I’ll have to go somewhere else this week.

I should have gotten the case before, I guess. I wasn’t too worried about water though. My phone is already water-resistant. I’ve used it in the rain and washed it off under a faucet, although I stopped doing that. I felt like I was tempting fate. Now I just wipe it off after wiping water on the phone. Now that the screen is cracked, I may not even do that. The new case should keep sweat and dust off the phone.

[DCLiz]

Is anyone else having trouble using Rackspotter on an Android phone? I just entered my first two racks, but it took a lot of persistence. First, the website would not let me log in at all over my 4G connection while I was out. I was only able to log in when I got home to my WiFi connection. Then, I tried repeatedly to submit the racks, to no avail. I kept having to push “refresh” to get the rack types to show up on the “swipe to choose” step. Then, after uploading the photo and adding a comment, I pushed submit and the pins did not show up on the map (nor on the desktop version…I checked).

Finally, a couple of hours later, I tried again. This time, with the first entry, the rack types showed up right away, and I was able to successfully submit the spotted rack. The pin showed up on both the app and the desktop version. With the second entry, I again had to hit refresh to get the rack types to show up, and again the submission didn’t go through. So I tried again from the beginning and was finally able to get all the way through.

There are now two new racks on the map by the Foggy Bottom Trader Joe’s!

I am curious if anyone else has tried using the site on an Android phone (Moto X running Android 4.4.4, using the built in Chrome browser). I just noticed that Chrome had an update available, so I’m installing that and will try to enter more racks tomorrow.

[PotomacCyclist]

I was able to log on using Android today. I also added multiple racks using Android (with the still-cracked screen).

If you log on, then wait a while before adding racks, you might get logged out without notice. Then when you try to enter info, the browser locks up. If you refresh the entire browser window, you should be able to reset the site and get to the logon window again.

Another issue is with the photos. If I start adding the rack location, then select Camera and take a photo in the middle of the RackSpotter process, the site locks up. An easy way around this is to take the photo first (landscape orientation). Then go back to the browser window and start the process. When you get to the Photo screen, select Documents, then the most recent photo/document at the top of the list. (If you go to RackSpotter right after taking the photo, the photo should be at the top of the list.) This works much better.

[PotomacCyclist]

You could also try deleting the browser cache and restarting the phone/computer.

[Tim Kelley]

@DCLiz 117500 wrote:

I am curious if anyone else has tried using the site on an Android phone (Moto X running Android 4.4.4, using the built in Chrome browser). I just noticed that Chrome had an update available, so I’m installing that and will try to enter more racks tomorrow.

Was it any better today with the updates?

[Tim Kelley]

@KLizotte 117486 wrote:

I visited Bayou Bakery today and noticed that there aren’t any bike racks in the area. Arlington County, help!

Teach a woman to fish…

http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/biking-in-arlington/bike-parking/request-a-bike-rack/

(Or, if it’s on private property, you could speak to the store management about it too)

[PotomacCyclist]

FYI – This page has info about requesting bike racks in DC:

http://ddot.dc.gov/service/bicycle-parking

[PotomacCyclist]

First time on the 1st St NE protected bikeway. First time on the Metropolitan Branch Trail too, although I only rode for a block or two.

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I’ve taken Metro through the NoMa station before, and I walked around there years ago, before the Metro station was built. It’s a completely different neighborhood now. Plenty of bike racks too. The NoMa Metro station has a lot of bike parking, at three separate locations next to the two entrances: 74 spaces at U racks (37 racks), and 28 bike lockers. Is the demand that high there? I didn’t think bike commuters would be riding to the station to take the Metro.

Near the Central Union Mission, some woman was having a bad day, I guess. Instead of staying in the shelter, she had camped out on the sidewalk down the street. The sidewalk and part of Mass. Ave. were covered in small boxes and wrappers, overflowing from the multiple large garbage bags in her encampment. A police officer arrived a few minutes later. When I rode past again, the woman was still there, and all the garbage was still scattered on the sidewalk and road.

I think this was the first time I saw the Bikestation at Union Station too. It’s the membership-only protected bike parking structure, next to Union Station. There are many free U racks located nearby too. Bike and Roll operates from Bikestation. I’ve never biked to Union Station. I usually go there by Metro, then walk directly into Union Station without stepping outside.

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[PotomacCyclist]

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[PotomacCyclist]

The brick building toward the right (with the yellow banner on the front) is the one that was moved a couple months ago. Yes, they lifted up the entire building and moved it down the block, to make way for a new development on that block. Another building on that block is scheduled to be moved this month, or maybe in July.

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[DCLiz]

@Tim Kelley 117507 wrote:

Was it any better today with the updates?

Went out for a walk around Eastern Market this evening, and unfortunately no. I did discover the trick to logging on: submit login information, close browser window, open new browser window and go to Rackspotter and voila, I’m logged on.

However, I had a lot of trouble adding photos and generally completing the process of adding racks. I had the opposite problem of PotomacCyclist — sometimes the mobile version will not accept my previously taken photo because it doesn’t recognize it is landscape (it is; I can upload the same photo later from the desktop version). For a while, I was able to add the rack, then take a photo from within the site. After successfully adding 2-3 racks, though, everything just stopped working and no amount of closing and reopening Chrome would allow me to upload the final two racks, even when I got home to WiFi.

By “stopped working,” I mean I was able to place a pin, but the rack type page wouldn’t load. Or I’d get the rack type page to load eventually, enter the number of spaces, upload or take a photo (I tried both ways multiple times), and then land on an error page telling me I needed to reload the page. When I reloaded, there would be a weird error message about the photo parameters, and the information about the number of spaces would be gone. Next time I’ll take screenshots.

I should mention that I’m a fairly techy person, so I’m pretty confident it’s not operator error. I may try downloading another browser to see if it’s specific to the default Chrome browser. I will also try clearing the cache. There are a couple of racks near my office that PotomacCyclist hasn’t found yet.

[PotomacCyclist]

Maybe your photo settings have a file size that is too large? I don’t know if that would make a difference, but it could be possible. You can change the photo file size in the Settings menu.

As for the RackSpotter map, I had started off a few weeks ago just mapping locations in downtown DC (Farragut Square, McPherson Square area). Then I picked a state avenue as a convenient boundary for the area that I had mapped.

I already knew about the patterns formed by the state avenues in central DC. (Some of the conspiracy theorists say that it’s a sign of the Freemasons, or satanists or some other wild theories. The kind of theories that they show on TV programs about recycled conspiracy theories and tales of the strange.) I started to fill in areas that would create a star, although it would be an upside-down star. It was a convenient area to cover.

But I also started mapping bike racks on the National Mall. I figured that downtown DC and the Mall are two of the most popular areas, so it made sense to focus on them first.

Then I decided to head over to Union Station, because that’s another very popular destination. I used more of the state avenues as boundaries for the areas I was covering, just because it’s easier to keep track that way. Then I had an idea. Why not create map art, like the way some people do with GPS?

Instead of a star (an upside-down one at that), I picked something a little less devious — an angel or a butterfly or a moth. I’ve just about completed the design, using only valid bike rack locations. There’s one area in NoMa/Swampoodle (an older name for that neighborhood) that I need to fill in. There aren’t too many bike racks there from what I’m seeing on Google Maps, but there are enough. (Sometimes I use Google Maps to scout out locations and routes in advance, so I don’t waste my time searching around in areas that don’t have any bike racks at all.)

I’ll try to fill in the empty space on Wednesday. I’ve skipped over some streets and some sides of key streets, but I’ve kept notes on where they are. I can head back and cover them later. I left some blank spaces in Gallery Place because of the butterfly/moth design. But after I get a good screenshot, I’ll fill in the gaps.

I’ll take a breather on Thursday and probably Friday too. (I’m signed up for a 10K running race on Saturday. This also means that I’m skipping the Challenge Ride. I haven’t done any bike training on the tri bike at all this year.)

This is a screenshot of the current map:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8831[/ATTACH]

You can also check out the design on the RackSpotter map: http://rackspotter.com/

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