New HD video shorts of DC bike infrastructure

[Dirt]

Cool stuff! What camera are you using? Contour HD?

Your dang fast at riding.

I love the view of riding between bollards at high speed like that. “He’s gonna die! He’s gonna die! He’s gonna….. DANG he barely made it through.”

[Greenbelt]

GoPro Hero camera. And yeah, 3 times speedup hides how slow I really am. Definitely an ego booster…

[Dirt]

Coolness. I’ve got a GoPro. I think I’m gonna get a contour.

The other side benefit is that you get to work a lot faster at 3x speed.!! Helps you analyze your riding style too… make sure you ride smooth. You’re very good, by the way.

[Greenbelt]

When I crashed the other week, the first thing my wife asked was “Are you OK?”

The first thing my kids asked was “Did you have your camera on?”

(No, unfortunately. No viral youtube sensation…)

[CCrew]

Right by my office right about the 1:37 mark on the 15th street one

Good stuff!

[jrenaut]

You take the sidewalk to head north through Lafayette Park? I’ve always gone up the street. I’d like to see markings on the street where the bikes are expected to go.

[Greenbelt]

Is the street the best way through the park? I hadn’t been there before and was just improvising. It was a beautiful day, and my choices were

a. keep recording until the SD card was full, or
b. turn around and go to work.

I decided to keep recording…

There were a couple police cars in the street facing the other way, so I couldn’t tell if it was one way or if I’d have to hop a curb anyway if I stayed on the street…

Agree markings to show how best to get through the park and reconnect with the track would be helpful.

[jrenaut]

I think the street is better – I do that stretch nearly every day. But I do it at about 2pm, so my experience may not be typical. I usually come down 14th Street in the mornings so I can ride with my wife, but on the way home I’m alone, and I like the short steep hill on 15th better than the interminable and slightly less steep hill on 14th.

The only real problem is that when you get the walk signal to cross H St, there is also a walk signal going perpendicular to your path, so you have to dodge pedestrians who actually have the right of way.

I’ve never had a problem with police and whatnot, though occasionally it’s tough to get through with some big construction truck getting inspected on its way inside the security barriers.

[CCrew]

Greenbelt,
I just picked up a GoPro HD. If I may ask, what resolution did you shoot these in? My first run at 1080 and it was a 1gb file in 10 minutes.. don’t think they make SD cards big enough!

[Greenbelt]

I’ve got an 8 gig SD card, and I get about 85 minutes in HD, so that sounds about right: 10 minutes = 1gig roughly at 1080.

I forget which setting I set the camera at when I got it — probably just whatever it was on default. When I pull a video into the editing software I think it says the recording dimensions are 1280 by 960

[Mark Blacknell]

Enjoyed these, Greenbelt – thanks.

My challenge with my GoPro HD (which I’ve finally figured out how to reliably operate) comes in the editing stage. It’s just enormously time consuming, and I’ve found that my MacBook Pro (a few years old) doesn’t really seem to be up to the task. That’s a shame, as I think more videos like these could make folks feel a little more comfortable about getting out there.

[Greenbelt]

The editing software I’m using for PC (Camtasia) is slightly more expensive than the camera. Works well for me so far, though.

[DaveK]

Just responding to say how much I like these videos, especially of my home bike lanes on the Hill.

[CCrew]

@Greenbelt 3643 wrote:

The editing software I’m using for PC (Camtasia) is slightly more expensive than the camera. Works well for me so far, though.

Thanks. I’m on a Mac and have both Final Cut Studio and Adobe Premiere (one of the perks of doing what I do) so software isn’t the issue… although knowing how to use it will be a bit of a learning curve!!

[skreaminquadz]

Very cool Greenbelt. Thanks for posting!

[Author]

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