My Evening Commute

[vern]

I hit the Mt. Vernon underpass on Friday about 4:45 and didn’t realize the water was as deep as it was…and quickly was in waist deep. Reversed course and crossed over via streets, and carried that nice sewer stench with me for a while until the rain washed it off of me. I didn’t make the same mistake at Carlin Springs and Wilson.

[lordofthemark]

Report from Eads Street. I took it again, a bit late but early enough in rush hour to motivate me to avoid the MVT. I left work at 5:31, so must have been going through around 6 PM.

There was at least one rider in addition to myself headed SB in the SB bike lane. I also saw two riders heading NB, in the NB bike lane. Yay. But I also say not one, but two separate riders heading NB in the SB lane. When the second one came along, I was so exasperated, I didn’t pull fully out of the way, but slowed, shrugged, and called out “why?” I did not curse, or insult, but asked why (though my tone may not have been friendly). This elicited a stream of angry curses as he passed.

I don’t get it. I mean I understand the clueless CaBi riders who end up doing this, and are usually apologetic about it. I understand the runners in the bike lanes. I understand the folks who freak out about streets and ride the sidewalk, and I understand the pathletes who decide a trail crowded with tourons, dogs, etc is the best place to train. I don’t approve, but I understand the motivations, at least. But I absolutely do not understand why someone riding their own bike, and presumably with some experience riding locally, chooses to ride the wrong way on a clearly marked lane, when there is an equivalent (and yeah, the NB PBL isn’t significantly if at all worse than the SB PBL there, IMO) bike lane visible right across the street.

[streetsmarts]

Last night was buggy. First, I grabbed a Cabi , and was immediately set upon by 10 or 20 mosquitoes – have bites all over my legs and ankles. Is there standing water on the Cabi docking stations , or maybe they’re out everywhere?

Then, biking home later on the MVT, there were swarms of bugs – maybe gnats – South of the airport.
It was hard not to swallow or inhale them. ARGH.

[bobco85]

I had a similar situation on Monday evening. As I was turning from the southside Arlington Blvd service road onto SB Meade St near Iwo Jima, I was surprised to find a cyclist headed NB in the SB bike lane that I was about to enter! I said to him, “Wrong way!”, and he responded with the infuriating, “I know,” while proceeding to continue riding the wrong direction in the bike lane. (I hate this kind of dismissive attitude)
@lordofthemark 163927 wrote:

Report from Eads Street. I took it again, a bit late but early enough in rush hour to motivate me to avoid the MVT. I left work at 5:31, so must have been going through around 6 PM.

There was at least one rider in addition to myself headed SB in the SB bike lane. I also saw two riders heading NB, in the NB bike lane. Yay. But I also say not one, but two separate riders heading NB in the SB lane. When the second one came along, I was so exasperated, I didn’t pull fully out of the way, but slowed, shrugged, and called out “why?” I did not curse, or insult, but asked why (though my tone may not have been friendly). This elicited a stream of angry curses as he passed.

I don’t get it. I mean I understand the clueless CaBi riders who end up doing this, and are usually apologetic about it. I understand the runners in the bike lanes. I understand the folks who freak out about streets and ride the sidewalk, and I understand the pathletes who decide a trail crowded with tourons, dogs, etc is the best place to train. I don’t approve, but I understand the motivations, at least. But I absolutely do not understand why someone riding their own bike, and presumably with some experience riding locally, chooses to ride the wrong way on a clearly marked lane, when there is an equivalent (and yeah, the NB PBL isn’t significantly if at all worse than the SB PBL there, IMO) bike lane visible right across the street.

The best explanation I can give for people doing this is that it’s a combination of convenience and perceived safety. The convenience comes from cutting out a street crossing, or on one-way streets, cutting out having to go the next block over (which would be 3 blocks out of their way in total). There is a perceived safety from riding the wrong way in a PBL because the protection is still there, so there’s less of an incentive to change as opposed to riding against vehicular traffic or riding on the sidewalk with pedestrians. It can be very handy and feel safer for one to salmon one block much like cutting through a parking lot to get around traffic at a red light.

Disclaimer: I do not condone or support salmoning because it is very dangerous. This is merely to help with understanding why people do the things they do.

[Judd]

@streetsmarts 163931 wrote:

Last night was buggy. First, I grabbed a Cabi , and was immediately set upon by 10 or 20 mosquitoes – have bites all over my legs and ankles. Is there standing water on the Cabi docking stations , or maybe they’re out everywhere?

Some folks are just more attractive to mosquitoes. I’m in the lucky group of folks that very rarely get bit by them, despite others around me being torn up by them.

@streetsmarts 163931 wrote:

Then, biking home later on the MVT, there were swarms of bugs – maybe gnats – South of the airport.
It was hard not to swallow or inhale them. ARGH.

The gnats were out in full force last night. MVT trail usually has a bunch of them in the spring and fall when the weather is nice. The ones at HP last night weren’t clustered like normal and the entire backside was like biking into a gnat blizzard. I ended up brushing about 50 of them out of my hair and other various nooks and crannies when I got home.

[lordofthemark]

@bobco85 163932 wrote:

The best explanation I can give for people doing this is that it’s a combination of convenience and perceived safety. The convenience comes from cutting out a street crossing, or on one-way streets, cutting out having to go the next block over (which would be 3 blocks out of their way in total). There is a perceived safety from riding the wrong way in a PBL because the protection is still there, so there’s less of an incentive to change as opposed to riding against vehicular traffic or riding on the sidewalk with pedestrians. It can be very handy and feel safer for one to salmon one block much like cutting through a parking lot to get around traffic at a red light.

Disclaimer: I do not condone or support salmoning because it is very dangerous. This is merely to help with understanding why people do the things they do.

Yeah, I understand people doing this on the L Street/M Street pair. But on Eads the NB and SB lanes are on the same street. And this happened I am pretty sure somewhere south of Ft Scott, where Eads is not hard to cross. SMH. And if someone is just going a block or so, there is a sidewalk there (not a great one, but its there).

[streetsmarts]

@Judd 163938 wrote:

like biking into a gnat blizzard.

Gnat blizzard is the perfect description!! Yuck.

[Emm]

@Judd 163938 wrote:

The gnats were out in full force last night. MVT trail usually has a bunch of them in the spring and fall when the weather is nice. The ones at HP last night weren’t clustered like normal and the entire backside was like biking into a gnat blizzard. I ended up brushing about 50 of them out of my hair and other various nooks and crannies when I got home.

I’ve been noticing a TON of gnats south of the airport over the last few weeks. I’ve started making sure my mouth is always closed in some sections because it’s just a curtain of gnats in a few spots, especially around Washington Marina and Belle Haven park. I’m pretty sure I’ve swallowed a bucket full already this year. On a positive note, the dragonfly population is down though, since biking into them was getting a little painful earlier this summer. Ick.

[Steve O]

@Judd 163938 wrote:

… and other various nooks and crannies when I got home.

“What’s in Judd Lumberjack’s pockets”

[Steve O]

@Emm 163941 wrote:

I’ve been noticing a TON of gnats south of the airport

FYI – a ton of gnats would be about a billion. If you wouldn’t mind doing a count next time to confirm your statement isn’t just exaggerated hyperbole.

@Emm 163941 wrote:

… a curtain of gnats

Nicely descriptive! Gnats officially come in clouds. Or, according to Wikipedia, a swarm of male gnats is called a ghost. “A ghost of gnats.”
You learn something gnew everyday.

[Emm]

@Steve O 163947 wrote:

FYI – a ton of gnats would be about a billion. If you wouldn’t mind doing a count next time to confirm your statement isn’t just exaggerated hyperbole.

Will do.

@Steve O 163947 wrote:

You learn something gnew everyday.

Like that Steve O has too much free time . I’m totally going to find a way to use “ghost of gnats” in a conversation this week now though.

[streetsmarts]

@Steve O 163945 wrote:

“What’s in Judd Lumberjack’s pockets”

Need to hear the original story behind this…

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Steve O 163947 wrote:

FYI – a ton of gnats would be about a billion. If you wouldn’t mind doing a count next time to confirm your statement isn’t just exaggerated hyperbole.

This is a cycling forum, so all units must be metric. Please update your counts accordingly.

[KLizotte]

@Emm 163941 wrote:

I’ve been noticing a TON of gnats south of the airport over the last few weeks. I’ve started making sure my mouth is always closed in some sections because it’s just a curtain of gnats in a few spots, especially around Washington Marina and Belle Haven park. I’m pretty sure I’ve swallowed a bucket full already this year. On a positive note, the dragonfly population is down though, since biking into them was getting a little painful earlier this summer. Ick.

I’ve often wondered why the MVT isn’t swarming with bats since they could have their easy fill of food. I’m all for installing bat boxes along the trail to cut down on the bug population.

[dbb]

@TwoWheelsDC 163951 wrote:

This is a cycling forum, so all units must be metric. Please update your counts accordingly.

A metric ton of gnats would be 1.1 billion

[Author]

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