January 2019 – Road and Trail Conditions

[Hancockbs]

I tried to do a loop yesterday, but there was a cruiser parked in the road in front of the barriers. I too looped back out. Though the sign says so, I doubt there is currently any flooding.

[Steve O]

People have told me that it is pretty easy to break that crime scene tape just by stretching it.

[Emm]

@consularrider 185100 wrote:

The gates at East Potomac Park/Hains Point loop at the golf course are closed (both for the shutdown and for high water)and there is yellow “crime scene” tape stretched from the goes to the waterside railing and also over to the parking lot fence. Clearly people have been going under the tape, but there was a Parks Police marked cruiser behind me and who stopped and watched me as I was taking the picture. I guessed the officer might have told me not to ride on if I tried to go under the tape, so I just looped back up Ohio Drive.

There are regular updates getting posted on the Hains Point Cyclists facebook page. Consensus is that you can get around the barriers, but there are some messy sections that are in need of cleanup so be careful once you’re in there.

[Judd]

The bike lane on Potomac Ave just north of Four Mile headed towards Crystal City is about 90% glass for two blocks. Like it seriously looks like someone had one of those garden spreaders full of glass and just walked it for a bit.

[dbehrend]

A construction crew closed the First St NE cycle track between L St and K St this morning.

They were ripping up the pavement with some heavy equipment near the intersection at K St. Based on the time of year, I thought it may be utility work. However, the pavement there had gotten pretty beaten up during the construction of the newish building there, so maybe they were repairing it.

I’m not sure what safe accommodations requires, but they had someone on either end directing cyclists onto the sidewalk, which was better than what I’ve seen under some similar circumstances.

[LhasaCM]

@dbehrend 185181 wrote:

A construction crew closed the First St NE cycle track between L St and K St this morning.

They were ripping up the pavement with some heavy equipment near the intersection at K St. Based on the time of year, I thought it may be utility work. However, the pavement there had gotten pretty beaten up during the construction of the newish building there, so maybe they were repairing it.

I’m not sure what safe accommodations requires, but they had someone on either end directing cyclists onto the sidewalk, which was better than what I’ve seen under some similar circumstances.

Thanks for the heads up. That’s on my normal commuting route, but during FS I’ve been trying to take 4th street in the mornings and go around Union Station, just to get an extra 0.3 miles (marginal gains!) so wouldn’t see it until school pickup time.

If the work is just in the cycletrack: Safe Accommodations would require them to make the west side “no parking” so that the travel lanes could shift west and allow for a temporary cycletrack along the eastern side of the road. It sounds like they’re having folks use the sidewalk as an alternative, which is probably “technically acceptable but not really OK.” FWIW, I’m not seeing any TCP associated with the permits that have been granted for that block – I’m sure jreanut would be SHOCKED to hear that.

[dbehrend]

Thank you for the clarification on safe accommodation requirements, LhasaCM. A temporary cycletrack on the eastern side would’ve been preferable to taking the sidewalk. But on the whole, it was far less harrowing than other bike lane closures.

I’m interested to see what it’s like tonight. It could be very different if the lane’s still closed, but no one’s there to alert folks.

[jrenaut]

IT’S SNOWING IT’S SNOWING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I hope all DC residents have their toilet paper and milk. On the bright side, it’s so windy that none of the snow is actually touching the ground.

Also I am indeed shocked that there is a construction site in DC without Safe Accommodations. If you’re on Twitter, tweet about it with the date, time, and location. Tag @311DCgov and @DDOTDC and #bikeDC. Nothing will happen, but 311 will dutifully record it in their database. Then they’ll loop in DDOT, who was already looped in, and DDOT will ignore you.

[consularrider]

At 49°F I couldn’t figure out what to call that frozen stuff being blown into my face by 30 mph headwinds. Also was getting a strong sideways push on Key Bridge with lots of grit.

[Emm]

@Judd 185138 wrote:

The bike lane on Potomac Ave just north of Four Mile headed towards Crystal City is about 90% glass for two blocks. Like it seriously looks like someone had one of those garden spreaders full of glass and just walked it for a bit.

Did you report it to ArlCo? I’ve had good luck getting that type of stuff cleaned up after reporting it to the county.

[Judd]

@Emm 185200 wrote:

Did you report it to ArlCo? I’ve had good luck getting that type of stuff cleaned up after reporting it to the county.

Reported it. Had to get the app reloaded on the new phone and then figure out what the heck my password was.

[Starduster]

@consularrider 185100 wrote:

The gates at East Potomac Park/Hains Point loop at the golf course are closed (both for the shutdown and for high water)and there is yellow “crime scene” tape stretched from the goes to the waterside railing and also over to the parking lot fence. Clearly people have been going under the tape, but there was a Parks Police marked cruiser behind me and who stopped and watched me as I was taking the picture. I guessed the officer might have told me not to ride on if I tried to go under the tape, so I just looped back up Ohio Drive.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18818[/ATTACH]

Our man Dirt reported today that he *thought* about bypassing the barrier, but decided not to test the good graces of the cop watching…all this after getting a warning from said cop for running the stop sign.

[huskerdont]

@consularrider 185199 wrote:

Also was getting a strong sideways push on Key Bridge with lots of grit.

That Key Bridge grit is, to me, an amazing phenomenon. With the wind out of the west, the sand blows off the downstream side, drops under the bridge, catches an eddy, and travels to the upstream side to get you from the west. Traveling on the west side, at first I couldn’t believe it and thought there must have been magic sand blowing up from the river, but then I talked to a bridge engineer here at work who researched it and said it is a thing: the sand that blows in your face on the upstream side came from the downstream side. As an added bonus, some of it will settle back onto the roadway and sidewalk so that it can get you again next time.

[Tania]

Big patch of ice on Penna Ave in G-Town inbound into DC just past the Four Seasons and the exit ramp from Rock Creek Parkway (basically on the bridge over RCP). I was tucked in behind a Circulator bus so I didn’t see it until I was ON it. That was a nice “ooooooooooooh sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!” moment.

[Steve O]

@Tania 185250 wrote:

Big patch of ice on Penna Ave in G-Town inbound into DC just past the Four Seasons and the exit ramp from Rock Creek Parkway (basically on the bridge over RCP). I was tucked in behind a Circulator bus so I didn’t see it until I was ON it. That was a nice “ooooooooooooh sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!” moment.

Nice job. Hold your line and don’t touch your brakes. All good…except for the heart palpitations.

[Author]

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