Missed connection

[OneEighth]

I meant the stone bridge south of Alexandria. That section of trail is less forgiving because it is narrow, often hemmed in by vegetation, and full of corners with limited sight lines. Even a little stupid goes a long way there!

[bobco85]

Here’s a daily dose of biking chaos that I saw via Twitter. Lots of missed connections for the cyclist who filmed this:

[video=youtube_share;f_71qym8f0c]https://youtu.be/f_71qym8f0c[/video]

[dasgeh]

@creadinger 144806 wrote:

IMHO – Never EVER use the bike lanes along Crystal Drive. Just take the right lane. Drivers there aren’t quick enough mentally to process all of the stimuli that they’re confronted with and often (almost always) do stupid things.

Question: would it have been better to have only a southbound protected bike lane v. the two paint-bike lanes that we got?

[dasgeh]

@komorebi 144936 wrote:

I was heartened to see that the cops had pulled over a driver in the Alexandria section of the Potomac Ave. speedway this morning. I don’t know whether the driver got pulled over for speeding or some other violation, but the fact that there was any enforcement at all seemed like a step in the right direction. If only the Arlington PD would step up on their side of 4MR…

Please report the issue to Arlington’s nonemergency number: (703) 558-2222

ACPD claims they don’t hear complaints like this, which is why they don’t do more enforcement.

[Judd]

@dasgeh 144973 wrote:

Question: would it have been better to have only a southbound protected bike lane v. the two paint-bike lanes that we got?

Most likely yes. The right lane going northbound is a metroway bus lane during morning rush so it’s essentially also a full lane to bike in. I don’t think I’d miss it.

To be fair though most of my northbound riding there is late at night or weekends when there’s very little traffic.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scoot]

@dasgeh 144973 wrote:

Question: would it have been better to have only a southbound protected bike lane v. the two paint-bike lanes that we got?

No.

A protected bike lane might reduce the number of double-parkers, but it would exacerbate the other problems. Many more pedestrians would mindlessly step into such a lane, and riders would have less reaction time and no extra space to avoid them. Interactions with turning drivers would be much worse. With bikes hidden behind parked vehicles, right hooks and left crosses would become more likely at every potential conflict point. Drivers would not reliably yield to thru-cyclists while exiting any of the many driveways and garages along Crystal Drive, and they would then block the PBL while waiting for an opening in traffic.

A sharrow, on the other hand, would either completely solve or at least minimize all of the problems that bobco85 experienced.

[consularrider]

Seriously drivers, did you not have a clue that on the hottest day of the year with full sun and nobody working Friday afternoons, that there might not be parking on that tiny one lane road to the Freibad Eschersheim? Maybe your first clue would have bee that the lane was totally blocked with illegally parked cars before the carpark and pedestrians and people having to walk their bikes with all the traffic, but no, you and a couple other bozos had to keep trying to force your way through. Guess what, even your Smart car wouldn’t fit!

[ursus]

@consularrider 145001 wrote:

Seriously drivers, did you not have a clue that on the hottest day of the year with full sun and nobody working Friday afternoons, that there might not be parking on that tiny one lane road to the Freibad Eschersheim? Maybe your first clue would have bee that the lane was totally blocked with illegally parked cars before the carpark and pedestrians and people having to walk their bikes with all the traffic, but no, you and a couple other bozos had to keep trying to force your way through. Guess what, even your Smart car wouldn’t fit!

I thought that Germans were more courteous to bikers than Americans.

[consularrider]

@ursus 145004 wrote:

I thought that Germans were more courteous to bikers than Americans.

Hey it was hot (for Frankfurt) and they needed to get the pasty white skin out it the sun!

[bentbike33]

The formation of a pre-dawn paceline does not grant you the dispensation to make bad passes around blind corners (W&OD in Banneker Park) in the dark.

And just because the line-leader makes a bad pass does not obligate the rest of the line to make even worse passes behind him. Look at the trail some time and not just the @$$ in front of you.

[bobco85]

I’m posting this only because these 3 events happened at consecutive intersections while I was biking home on an otherwise completely uneventful commute this afternoon (I did enjoy the pleasant weather, though).

Me: heading westbound on Beauregard towards my apartment in Mark Center

Event #1 – intersection of Beauregard and Seminary
As I start through the intersection on a green light, Driver #1 who is in the left turn lane (left turn stoplight is red) decides it’s not worth it to wait a full cycle for a green, goes straight and gets into the left of 2 left turn lanes at the next intersection (Beauregard and Mark Center Dr) to presumably make a U-turn

Event #2 – intersection of Beauregard and Mark Center Dr
As I mosey along in the right lane, I notice as Driver #1 pulls up in the left of 2 left turn lanes, Driver #2 who is in the right of the 2 left turn lanes (left turn stoplight is red) decides that it’s not worth it to wait a full cycle for a green, goes straight and gets into the left turn lane at the next intersection (Beauregard and Highview Ln) to presumably make a U-turn

Event #3 – intersection of Beauregard and Highview Ln
Again, I am moseying along (traffic was rather light), I notice Driver #3 in the slip lane for turning onto northbound Highview Ln. His reverse lights are on, and he starts BACKING UP onto Beauregard before eventually turning left across 2 lanes of traffic to get into the left turn lane to go onto southbound Highview Ln.

Luckily, traffic was light enough that there were no close calls on any of the 3 events, but I did find the whole situation quite amusing.

[trailrunner]

I’ve been doing the occasional multi-modal commute lately, riding my bike to and from the park and ride and riding the bus to and from there to work.

Tonight I was riding home from the park and ride. It’s only a couple of miles from there to my house, but I have to cross the Fairfax County Parkway. There’s a lot of traffic in the evening, and since the intersection is in a small valley, the cars coming downhill from both directions have a lot of momentum. I cross this intersection legally, and tonight I pressed the button and waited for the crossing signal. When I got the signal, I proceeded across. Before I started I think I did my usual cross-scan to ensure that traffic really was stopped, but as I was about 40 percent of the way across, I looked left to see a large box truck blowing through the intersection. It passed behind me, probably a lane behind me and close enough for me to see the driver with a “sorry – I messed up expression.” I had actually been a little late in starting to cross and the traffic had calmed by the time I started, so at that point I don’t know how this truck could have made it through the stopped cars and into the intersection. But geebus.

Yeah, it’s a little ironic that we have a local newscast talking about scofflaw cyclists running red lights, and something like this happens.

[creadinger]

Eads southbound in the bike lane.

@_FloridaMan parked in the lane. Took a photo.

Coming up to 23rd st, a Jeep right hooked me. Lady didn’t bother looking, but seeing me (6’5″, bright orange shirt) would still have been difficult because of the soccer mom ACPs parallel parked along the road. If I hadn’t been anticipating it I would have gotten clobbered.

How is this better than a regular bike lane?

[notinthe18]

@creadinger 145326 wrote:

Eads southbound in the bike lane.

@_FloridaMan parked in the lane. Took a photo.

Coming up to 23rd st, a Jeep right hooked me. Lady didn’t bother looking, but seeing me (6’5″, bright orange shirt) would still have been difficult because of the soccer mom ACPs parallel parked along the road. If I hadn’t been anticipating it I would have gotten clobbered.

How is this better than a regular bike lane?

Not to mention that whatever is going on around 18th with that construction, which has led to the bike lane being parking, is Not Good.

[cvcalhoun]

I’ve got a Cygolite Trion 1300, the default setting on which is 600 lumens. Normally, when I’m riding on the Capital Crescent Trail at night and see an oncoming cyclist or pedestrian, I swivel my light so it points far to the right (off the trail), to avoid blinding people. But then a couple of days ago, this happened:

Him: Approaches with a light blazing with the light of 1,000 suns.
Me: Swiveling my light so it points more downward toward the trail, but having to keep it directly on the trail so that I can still see the trail when my eyes have stopped being habituated to the darkness due to his light.
Him (as he passes me): “Turn your light down!”

Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to call back, “You, too!” (Normally, retorts like that occur to me 10 minutes later, when they do no good.) But seriously, dude, if you know you’re supposed to turn down or cover your light, why aren’t you doing it?

[Author]

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