BikeDC / Route 110 OR 27 shutdown?

[DCLiz]

@JustinW 19538 wrote:

Still many positives enjoyed, including

– 2 or 3 immense unicycles

Yes. How did those unicycles get up the hills? I barely made it with two wheels and 21 gears!

[krdp]

We too were turned back from Marshall, but not given any explanation or told that the route would reopen later — I wish we had waited at the closure! However, it might have been difficult to do that — the police officers were telling riders to turn around and go back, and didn’t seem to want to have a large group gather at the turn for Marshall. Our group also had problems finding the finish — no cue sheets were available at the start.

We picked up our t-shirts and biked around Haines Point so we could get the full amount of biking we’d planned.

I hate to have this leave such a bad taste about the event, which otherwise was extremely enjoyable — loved the closed roads, the shouts in tunnels, being part of such a large group of cyclists, the views of the White House, Kennedy Center, and monuments — but we really felt cheated out of a significant part of the ride.

[Arlingtonrider]

I guess dbb and I were lucky with our timing – we seem to have finished the ride with none of the issues others are reporting, although it was overcrowded in a few spots. Overall for us though, a fantastic ride and a beautiful day. I’m sorry to hear about the problems.

[justasaintz]

I may have an explanation to this…

I don’t think the course marshals expected the front runners to return so quickly and so were not ready. The cyclists returning from Air force Memorial were stopped by the police for the rest of the ride to come down on N. Meade. However few cyclists decided to go ahead as we did not want to wait only to find out further up the crowd has really grown and there were given no proper directions. This resulted in couple of cyclists hitting each other head on (atleast this incident was injury free and both riders continued their route)

However, the cops were a bit freaked out (probably because of lack of communication between the cops and with course marshals) and decided to turn around the incoming traffic. Marshals were supposed to direct traffic to stay on their side, but I don’t think it was communicated as we were coming across traffic all across the road.

Also, The bridge was another bottle neck. The cops were supposed to be present to guide the returning traffic through the incoming traffic.

And lastly, E street and 66 ramp should have cones to direct traffic but were completely missing and cyclists were all over the road.

Last year the cops did a better job at keeping the traffic in the right lanes/directions and actually being a pilot, but this time because of the steel plates on Marshall, they did not go ahead until further notice/instructions!

[Mark Blacknell]

I think this thread captures the ride pretty well – smooth sailing for some, a few hiccups for others, and an undeniably poor experience for a few. My own experience was somewhere in the middle. DCLiz linked it above, but here it is again: my recap posted at the WABA blog.

Speaking of WABA – WABA’s now a beneficiary, and no longer the organizer of, BikeDC. This change was made a few years back, and – some really miserable weather aside – I think the present organizer has put on some great Bike DCs. WABA staff were acutely aware of the issues yesterday, and you can be sure the concerns we heard were passed on to the organizer. I’m sure we all want this ride to succeed in the future, and expect the organizer will work on it.

All that said, it was great to see so many of you out there. I’m sorry it didn’t go well for all, but I appreciate everyone coming out to support cycling and showing DC that biking can be for everyone.

[Justin Antos]

I’m surprised to hear all the stories about mixups and miscommunication. My ride was pretty good! Our group was probably in the middle/rear of the pack – left around 7:20am, and hit most pitstops, finished around 10am. We hit a bottleneck around N. Marshall Dr and had to walk for a bit, but other than that, smooth sailing.

It was a great day for riding, and the views from the GW Parkway were breathtaking. Sometimes we had to take it slow, but it’s a family ride – best just to smile and pedal onwards .

The scenery and camaraderie of this ride made me wonder why we don’t use our parkways as parkways more often!

[Greenbelt]

@Arlingtonrider 19543 wrote:

I guess dbb and I were lucky with our timing – we seem to have finished the ride with none of the issues others are reporting, although it was overcrowded in a few spots. Overall for us though, a fantastic ride and a beautiful day. I’m sorry to hear about the problems.

This was our experience too — a great day. Only issue was with a couple of douchebags showing off their mad climbing and descending skills (instead of slowing down for all the wobblers and newbies) on the GW parkway. Was my first time doing this ride and I really enjoying seeing all the (tens of?) thousands of people on bikes!

[consularrider]

This was my fifth BikeDC and my third as a volunteer bike marshal. I really like this ride and appreciate the much nicer spring weather we’ve had the last three rides after a miserable cold and wet fall ride in 2009. This year I was in the second pair of marshals to leave the start and saw no issues as we came back into Foggy Bottom on K St. We then stopped to assist a rider with a broken chain and subsequently helped fix three flats, did three derailleur adjustments, helped with a dropped chain, and provided shifting/gearing guidance to riders along the GW Parkway climb.

As was stressed many times, this is a community ride and not a race and riders really need to go into it with that mindset. Slow down and be patient (keep the mantra of “What would Dirt do” clearly in mind). In terms of the problems encountered by event participants, I think one leading cause was probably a overall shortage of event volunteers to help direct traffic at choke points. The first rest stop on E St really needed volunteers along 18th St (or was it 19th) before the turn onto E separating through riders from those that were going to stop. Riders should have been told not to get off their bikes in the middle of the street, but rather to be on the left side of the street. Through riders should have been directed to stay right. Similarly at the Iwo Jima and Air Force Memorials, riders needed to be instructed to move to the side to dismount and not block the way for other riders.

The Roosevelt Bridge choke point was better this year than last, but clearly needs more thought as well as more volunteers. The route worked much better when the traffic came off the GW Parkway, went down Lynn St, and came around Wilson Blvd to the Iwo Jima Memorial. However, I expect having both the Key Bridge and the west bound lanes on the Roosevelt Bridge closed at the same time is a non-starter. I think there would have been fewer issues there if there hadn’t been construction basically closing one lane of Marshall Drive, certainly, there was little traffic congestion there on last year’s ride.

[brendan]

@Greenbelt 19552 wrote:

This was our experience too — a great day. Only issue was with a couple of douchebags showing off their mad climbing and descending skills (instead of slowing down for all the wobblers and newbies) on the GW parkway. Was my first time doing this ride and I really enjoying seeing all the (tens of?) thousands of people on bikes!

Oops. In my defense, if the “on the left” didn’t work, I did slow down and wait until it did work. And was very lucky to have a huge open gap in front of me all the way down the GW Parkway hill (wheeeeeeeeee!).

Anyway, sounds like my initial impression of what happened was incorrect. There may have been a collision at 110, but if so, it only closed that portion of the course for a short period. I had thought the course had been closed for a while since there was a 30 or so minute period from 9ish to 930ish when I didn’t see any returning riders at the finish, yet when i crossed back into VA at the memorial bridge around 10am (?), I saw tons of riders on 110.

I still don’t understand why the choice was made to have most of the VA course have a flipped opposing traffic directions layout (ride on the left, opposing traffic on the right). That ended up increasing the danger right before the pinch point as returning riders are yelling for everyone who just showed up in VA to move to their left (non-intuitive) right before the returning riders…are forced to cross bike traffic and move to the right to cross the bridge.

Or maybe somehow things got reversed for a while then sorted out by marshals?

Brendan

[DCLiz]

Many of you probably received this email, but for those that are just browsing, Bike DC sent out this explanation on Monday night. I appreciate that they realized they needed to communicate what happened with the participants.

[dasgeh]

Full disclosure: I didn’t do the ride because I was out of town. Sorry to have missed it.

But having read the letter, it sounds like the organizers are shirking responsibility here. It reads like “there are three things that caused problems: 1) more people showed up (not our fault); 2) there was construction (not our fault) and 3) the DCMPD screwed up (not our fault).” I call BS. People were required to register, so they should have known about the increase in numbers. The construction has been there for at least 3 weeks, but even if it were new the week before, they should have better communicated to participants what to expect and what to do. When it became clear that a new officer would be in charge on the DC side day of, they should have briefed him or her and made sure there were open lines of communication with that person.

At the very least, the organizers should have acknowledged their role in the problems. Without that much, I’m not hopeful they’ll do better next year.

[Arlingtonrider]

I’m pretty sure they are aware of their role and working to make sure things go better next year. I didn’t read the letter that way. Obviously, some important lessons were learned. In spite of the problems, I think most participants had a wonderful day. Later – Just re-read the letter, and I agree with ya’ll that there could have been a little more acknowledgment of responsibility. I hope the organizers of the event are going over everything very carefully to prevent these problems next year.

[rcannon100]

My reaction was the same. The letter reads like a shameful passing of the buck. Every single one of the things identified is the organizers responsibility as an event organizer.

Too many people showed up? Why did you over subscribe? There was construction on the course? Did you go over the course the day before and plan for contingent detours? The police did not know what to do in a situation? Did you properly brief and work with the police?

This is what an event organizer does. The organizer needs to know what the organization can handle, plan contingency plans, and brief key figures. And at the end of the day, dont make excuses. Planning events is hard. No doubt. But there is a reason why large events require professional event planners.

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