pit stop tasting notes

[mstone]

Fair Lakes: they were still setting up, and in front of Noodles & Co instead of where they were supposed to be. (Presumably because the short lived supermarket went out of business since BTWD planning started.)

Government Center: Good sized showing. REI folks were there with REI swag. Fairfax bike maps, other assorted treats at other tables. I snagged a blinky for my daughter. Small FABB presence. Getting to it makes you remember how exurban Fairfax is. I managed to get lost on the way out.

Running behind at this point, so I skipped Vienna. Didn’t feel like going that far down 123 or circling back on the W&OD.

Merrifield: good sized showing. The HOT lane people were there again, which I still don’t get. Chinese food, some gel packs, etc. Their tables should have been back a few more feet from the trail, it was a bit of a mess.

Falls Church: terrifying. There were some kind of bells or cymbals that I heard from quite a way off, and tried to figure out what part of my bike was making that really weird sound. Thought my spokes were exploding. Then heard the vuvuzelas. There were a lot of people having a good time, but honestly the traffic cones in the middle of the trail were dangerous. Strong Bikenetic contingent. Croweded enough that I didn’t actually stop. Also in a hurry to get to…

Ballston: as usual, the high point of BTWD. Much swag including drawing, bananas, bagels, good number of tables from random places, including an odd fruit gel gum drop tasting. DJ. Many many odd people and odd bikes. Much fun, and lots of space. Except for a few people committing the faux pas of actually riding their bike through the BTWD crowd. Like, really?

Topic

[mstone]

I look forward to officer Fife putting cones in the travel lanes on the street to slow down the cars, because this is obviously a brilliantly planned and ingenuous way to manage traffic, and the program should be expanded. Broad, Grove, and West could all use this innovative treatment, and I thank the department for finally taking safety seriously by putting cones on all the roads.

[KWL]

@CaseyKane50 115977 wrote:

Crystal City passed on the food, secured my jersey…

So I assume there are a whole bunch of us getting together at the June 3rd Blues & Brews to pick up our jerseys. There was mention of a free drink as well. I hope they didn’t mean water.

[MattAune]

@trout 116104 wrote:

One clarification on the cones: The shop is on good terms with City police and wants to stay that way, so I just wanted to note here that nobody from the shop itself moved any cones.

Didn’t mean to imply that anyone actually employed by the shop were responsible.

I will take full responsibility for moving cones, and getting into a pretty heated argument with the cop. He was a complete ass hole.

[ShawnoftheDread]

I got a whole pizza as the Falls Church stop closed for the evening. Thanks Jan and Helen. It actually survived the ride home on my back.

[dkel]

@ShawnoftheDread 116138 wrote:

I got a whole pizza as the Falls Church stop closed for the evening. Thanks Jan and Helen. It actually survived the ride home on my back.

But ended up tasting like back sweat. 😮

[ShawnoftheDread]

I strapped the box under the flap of my backpack.

[Steve O]

@ShawnoftheDread 116144 wrote:

I strapped the box under the flap of my backpack.

I am impressed. The one time I tried transporting a pizza on my bike all the cheese slid off onto one end. And then it bunched up. It just wasn’t the same after I tried to redistribute it onto the crust.

[cvcalhoun]

@Steve O 116147 wrote:

I am impressed. The one time I tried transporting a pizza on my bike all the cheese slid off onto one end. And then it bunched up. It just wasn’t the same after I tried to redistribute it onto the crust.

I used to transport pizza on my bicycle all the time. I have large panniers on either side of the bike, with elastic bungee-type things on the flaps that cover them. I’d just put the pizza box on top of the rack, secure the sides with the elastic, and be on my way. The only issue was getting home from some of the farther stops before the pizza got cold. (Don’t even ask why I was buying pizza in downtown DC to take home to Bethesda!)

[MattAune]

@ShawnoftheDread 116138 wrote:

It actually survived the ride home on my back.

It would have been easier to have brought it to happy hour.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@MattAune 116188 wrote:

It would have been easier to have brought it to happy hour.

I was already well past happy hour, both geographically and mentally.

[Terpfan]

I had a little bit of a latish start as my wife tagged along and we both decided to take the day off (I felt a little guilty even though I obviously bike to work on a regular basis).

OT: We did City Hall for a bit. I wanted to stick around to try win the raffle, but my wife wanted to see some other pit stops. We did get a $10 Spokes gift card each (since she rarely rides and I do her basic maintenance, that’s $20 for me, yay!). They were out of Sugar Shack donuts though . We decided that would be our return leg.

Del Ray: We stopped by. It’s not much, coffee, I think pastries, and the folks from Velocity who are awesome.

Shirlington: We went by here after my wife’s one gym instructor told her they were giving away free socks. Unfortunately, we missed the socks. We enjoyed the lemonade, good pastries, and popcorn. This stop had the one guy on a unicycle doing some tricks. He looks so familiar and I swore I’ve met him at a BA-type event before. The farm-to-table restaurant folks also gave us a $10 gift card, so that rocked.

And then on the return leg, we stopped by Sugar Shack and got our free donuts. I had been meaning to try their donuts, but every weekend day I went the line was so long that I gave up. There was little line on a Friday at 10:30 am and the donuts were delicious.

[americancyclo]

@mstone 115900 wrote:

Falls Church:There were a lot of people having a good time, but honestly the traffic cones in the middle of the trail were dangerous.

@MattAune 115942 wrote:

Dread and I almost got in a fight with Officer Friendly from the falls church police department. Phil from bikentic moved the cones every time the office walked away. Hopefully there wasn’t a wreck there.

@Rockford10 115951 wrote:

We also got a lecture from Officer Friendly, um.

@dkel 115964 wrote:

Having to swerve in order to get through a very narrow opening with constant two-way traffic is just bonkers. Half the people passing through veered around one side or the other just to avoid it (which was the safest thing to do).

@mstone 115989 wrote:

Wait, Barney Fife put those there? If it was little loudoun once again showing its “love” for cyclists it makes more sense.

@vvill 115998 wrote:

Definitely not Bikenetic. The officer got annoyed and kept moving them back several (many?) times.

@Phatboing 116015 wrote:

Wot.

To what end? Prove by any means necessary that cycling is unsafe?

@DanB 116030 wrote:

One of the Bikenetic gang did tell me that he was stopping bikers for things like wearing headphones …

@dkel 116037 wrote:

He’s a bicycle cop, BTW. Not kidding; I see him all over Falls Church City.

@Phatboing 116059 wrote:

I think I’ve only seen a Falls Church bike cop once, telling off a driver at the WOD+Grove intersection.

My brain just borked.

@Vicegrip 116091 wrote:

The traffic calming cones were, um…. “something”

@trout 116104 wrote:

One clarification on the cones: The shop is on good terms with City police and wants to stay that way, so I just wanted to note here that nobody from the shop itself moved any cones. A couple of us from the team did at various points because of the obvious hazard they posed. I moved them once but the officer moved them back, telling me he wanted to force cyclists to stop. I told him this was creating a hazard but he insisted that he wanted cyclists to stop. So I relented. I know there were other cyclists coming through that had some heated discussion with the officer (none from the shop or the team, that I know of). And I know that cyclists themselves knocked the cones apart when they were coming through–trailers, for example couldn’t pass through without hitting the cones! This definitely needs to be addressed before next year…..

@mstone 116106 wrote:

I look forward to officer Fife putting cones in the travel lanes on the street to slow down the cars, because this is obviously a brilliantly planned and ingenuous way to manage traffic, and the program should be expanded. Broad, Grove, and West could all use this innovative treatment, and I thank the department for finally taking safety seriously by putting cones on all the roads.

@MattAune 116134 wrote:

Didn’t mean to imply that anyone actually employed by the shop were responsible.

I will take full responsibility for moving cones, and getting into a pretty heated argument with the cop. He was a complete ass hole.

I spoke with the officer during the evening about the hazard he was introducing to the trail users. He didn’t think my idea of placing the cones in the street to slow down cars was a good suggestion. He was focused on getting bicycles to stop is the safest thing. I think his intentions are good, but his action are misguided.

The NVRPA asks people on the W&OD to:
Prepare
Be Aware
Show You Care

I took a picture and sent it to the NVRPA to see how they felt about nine cones obstructing road crossings on their trail.

Karl-

I was curious if NVRPA had an official stance on Falls Church City obstructing the the W&OD trail with up to nine cones on one of the busiest trail days of the year.

I’m “Showing I Care” by: reporting this dangerous trail situations to the trail office.

It also seems that the Falls Church Police were not “Showing they Care” by violating you advice:

• Do not block the trail when stopped. Move all equipment to the side, away from traffic.

https://instagram.com/p/2t2yzSg3wq/?taken-by=americancyclo

The nearest working trail counter in Arlington shows 3523 trail users.

Speaking to the Pit Stop Sponsors, the trail traffic was flowing smoothly until the police officer arrived and obstructed the trail with the cones in the guise of ‘safety’

Is there an official endorsement of this practice?

And I got this response by email:

Thank you for the picture; yes that would seem to be an issue with the nine cones in the flow of trail traffic. Let me contact City of Falls Church police on this matter and see what the reasoning was. I was at the Herndon location with no issues. I will report back my findings to you in the next day or so hopefully.

Karl Mohle, CPRP
Park Manager
W&OD Railroad Regional Park
21293 Smiths Switch Road
Ashburn, VA 20147

[Terpfan]

After seeing the photo, wow, what a dick. I would have thrown his cones off the trail and happily taken whatever nonsense ticket he would write.

[DanB]

If the cones show up again, maybe someone needs to pull a Casey Neistat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8659[/ATTACH]

[dkel]

I was there, and thought it was bonkers. Now, days later, I saw the pic above and literally laughed out loud: it’s a veritable sea of cones! Visually, it’s really difficult to discern what is happening, and I’m now recalling that’s the problem I had as I was approaching–even slowly. Sheesh!

[Author]

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