@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