My Morning Commute

[DaveK]

@CPTJohnC 57958 wrote:

This morning’s excitement brought to me by the US Capitol Police. No, nothing bad. I happened upon a squad of them riding over memorial bridge, in formation. They were moving slightly faster than I was, so they passed me, most courteously, on the bridge. I hung with them to the Lincoln memorial, where we rode opposite sides of the reflecting pool. Met them again on Jefferson St. and I lost them on the Air and Space sprint (I really like to make the light at 4th st.)

I have a sneaky suspicion that it may have been a training exercise, because they didn’t even seem to blink when a fellow rider blew through the light at 7th st.

I’ve hooked on to one of their training rides (or rather they asked if they could pace behind me) from the 14th St Bridge at the Jefferson over to VA, up the MVT to Memorial Circle, and up to Iwo Jima. It is very easy to get across the GW Parkway when you’re in front of a platoon of guys with guns.

[fuzzy]

@dasgeh 57049 wrote:

Best commute ever. I was accompanied by the best crew, and I got to go down through the Cemetery to boot.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3233[/ATTACH]

Did I see you pushing that thing into the new Harris Teeter in DC a few days ago?

[dasgeh]

@fuzzy 58118 wrote:

Did I see you pushing that thing into the new Harris Teeter in DC a few days ago?

Not me. The ebaks hasn’t crossed the river yet (we’re in arl)

[Mikey]

Bambi and Mom on the W&OD this morning. By the time I got the camera out Mom was just skuttling off into the bushes on the left of the trail.
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[AlexBikeCommute]

Strangest morning commute ever.

As I was riding up the pedestrian ramp onto the 14th St. Bridge (heading north) I saw a man jump off the bridge and into the Potomac. I rode up to the jump location and saw his backpack and wallet (sitting outside the backpack). A nice fellow bike commuter pulled over and called 911. The man surfaced and seemed to be OK. He floated on his back for a bit, then slowly swam to the edge and got out of the water (this all took ~7 minutes). Authorities did eventually arrive, but (from my listening to my fellow bike commuter’s responses to the 911 operator’s questions) it seemed that they were not overly concerned about a person jumping into the water and leaving their belongings on the bridge.

What I’m sitting here wondering is: should we have NOT called 911? I tend to err on the side of caution…. so, I think if I ever see anyone jump off a bridge again (which I hope I never do) I will again call 911.

[KayakCyndi]

My morning commute … was one of those days. You know the ones where you hit every-single-red-light on the way in; have your Iphone fall out of your jersey pocket going over one of the tree roots on Custis and spend 10 minutes looking for it; find that all the walkers and joggers are three abreast and in both directions; and at least one car almost doors you when they decide to park and let riders out in the bike lane. Add to that the feeling of riding through soup and I was one hot grumpy rider when I got to work. At least until I considered the alternative … I could have taken Metro!

[ShawnoftheDread]

@AlexBikeCommute 58201 wrote:

Strangest morning commute ever.

As I was riding up the pedestrian ramp onto the 14th St. Bridge (heading north) I saw a man jump off the bridge and into the Potomac. I rode up to the jump location and saw his backpack and wallet (sitting outside the backpack). A nice fellow bike commuter pulled over and called 911. The man surfaced and seemed to be OK. He floated on his back for a bit, then slowly swam to the edge and got out of the water (this all took ~7 minutes). Authorities did eventually arrive, but (from my listening to my fellow bike commuter’s responses to the 911 operator’s questions) it seemed that they were not overly concerned about a person jumping into the water and leaving their belongings on the bridge.

What I’m sitting here wondering is: should we have NOT called 911? I tend to err on the side of caution…. so, I think if I ever see anyone jump off a bridge again (which I hope I never do) I will again call 911.

My brother and his friends used to jump off some of the bridges in San Diego. People do crazy things. I presume it’s illegal here, just as it is there. Did the police look like they were going to do anything when they arrived?

[runbike]

@AlexBikeCommute 58201 wrote:

What I’m sitting here wondering is: should we have NOT called 911? I tend to err on the side of caution…. so, I think if I ever see anyone jump off a bridge again (which I hope I never do) I will again call 911.

I’m sure people called 911 when these bros jumped from the Key Bridge wearing burger king crowns (don’t worry, they survived) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3py-hfHDz58

[cephas]

@AlexBikeCommute 58201 wrote:

Strangest morning commute ever.

As I was riding up the pedestrian ramp onto the 14th St. Bridge (heading north) I saw a man jump off the bridge and into the Potomac. I rode up to the jump location and saw his backpack and wallet (sitting outside the backpack). A nice fellow bike commuter pulled over and called 911. The man surfaced and seemed to be OK. He floated on his back for a bit, then slowly swam to the edge and got out of the water (this all took ~7 minutes). Authorities did eventually arrive, but (from my listening to my fellow bike commuter’s responses to the 911 operator’s questions) it seemed that they were not overly concerned about a person jumping into the water and leaving their belongings on the bridge.

What I’m sitting here wondering is: should we have NOT called 911? I tend to err on the side of caution…. so, I think if I ever see anyone jump off a bridge again (which I hope I never do) I will again call 911.

What time-ish was that? I also passed over 14th St bridge, but saw no such excitement. I’ve taken to riding W&OD all the way down to Mt V Tr instead of taking Custis. I miss the mall, but not much else.

[AlexBikeCommute]

@cephas 58219 wrote:

What time-ish was that? I also passed over 14th St bridge, but saw no such excitement.

It was probably around 7am, or just before. There wasn’t much excitement to be seen – there were only two of us (bicyclists) pulled over for about 5-7 minutes (off our bikes and looking over the railing into the water), and the abandoned backpack sitting on the path. The ambulance and fire truck that arrived stayed maybe 5 minutes or less.

I actually rode off as the responders were arriving. I suddenly realized that I probably didn’t want to be standing too close to an abandoned backpack (… why it took me almost 15 minutes to realize this I don’t know), so I can’t comment on whether or not they interacted with the jumper in any way.

Once I got to Ohio Drive I was able to look back and see the responders on the bridge (the ambulance and fire truck). I watched for only a few minutes until they left.

[dasgeh]

My morning commute finally convinced me to call NPS about the plants from TR Island eating the TR Bridge side path. In the last few weeks, I’ve seen maintenance crews in the TR Parking lot twice, only to find that they were working on the MVT, not the bridge. I’m pretty sure some vigilantes have brought clippers and cut the more egregious encroachments (THANK YOU), but the low level weeds are taking up more than half the path now, and my calfs are covered with little cuts. Anyway, posted to the TR Island facebook page and called the main park number (I just pasted in the sticky thread), where I was greeted by a very nice woman who agreed that they should maintain it and would put the message through. Here’s hoping. If anyone wants to pile on, it couldn’t hurt.

Maybe I’m grumpy today. I should go on a bike ride or something….

[mstone]

For various reasons (like a bee sting on the foot) this was first chance I had to bike to work in a couple of weeks. It was great, though I’d started to forget what it’s like to ride the buick-like loaded commuter bike with the big tires compared to the weekend fast bike. (bumps in the trail? what bumps in the trail? hills? OMG, this thing is heavy!)

[ShawnoftheDread]

@dasgeh 58229 wrote:

My morning commute finally convinced me to call NPS about the plants from TR Island eating the TR Bridge side path. In the last few weeks, I’ve seen maintenance crews in the TR Parking lot twice, only to find that they were working on the MVT, not the bridge. I’m pretty sure some vigilantes have brought clippers and cut the more egregious encroachments (THANK YOU), but the low level weeds are taking up more than half the path now, and my calfs are covered with little cuts. Anyway, posted to the TR Island facebook page and called the main park number (I just pasted in the sticky thread), where I was greeted by a very nice woman who agreed that they should maintain it and would put the message through. Here’s hoping. If anyone wants to pile on, it couldn’t hurt.

Maybe I’m grumpy today. I should go on a bike ride or something….

I’ve been meaning to bring clippers all week for this reason, but I keep forgetting. I need to put them in my bag tonight and have a bit of fun after FCC2 tomorrow.

[americancyclo]

@ShawnoftheDread 58241 wrote:

I’ve been meaning to bring clippers all week for this reason, but I keep forgetting. I need to put them in my bag tonight and have a bit of fun after FCC2 tomorrow.

I was looking for a ride after FCC2, but I wasn’t anticipating a horticultural one.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@americancyclo 58245 wrote:

I was looking for a ride after FCC2, but I wasn’t anticipating a horticultural one.

Putting you to work, Shawn! After that, we can go to the island and see if there are any raspberries left.

[Author]

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