Riding in really bad weather….

[jrenaut]

@Certifried 35484 wrote:

What doesn’t go best with a heavy red wine?!

Neurosurgery.

[rcannon100]

@Certifried 35484 wrote:

What doesn’t go best with a heavy red wine?!

I good nights sleep

[jnva]

@Dirt 35396 wrote:

Here’s one of my motivations to ride year-round.

Wow look at those bollards! That’s going to be a sweet bike lane!

[Certifried]

@rcannon100 35492 wrote:

I good nights sleep

You’re just simply not drinking enough 😎

[vvill]

@TwoWheelsDC 35428 wrote:

And when the HOT lanes open, there will be 6 lanes of that instead of 4…good thing we spent $1 billion on them!

The most ridiculous thing I found was the amount of advertising in Tysons Corner (mall) for what I think was those HOT lanes (or maybe it was the new EZPass stuff). Is that taxpayer money being used to fund advertising for a transit “improvement”?

[Certifried]

@vvill 35502 wrote:

The most ridiculous thing I found was the amount of advertising in Tysons Corner (mall) for what I think was those HOT lanes (or maybe it was the new EZPass stuff). Is that taxpayer money being used to fund advertising for a transit “improvement”?

the HOT lanes are government owned, but operated by a private company for 75 years – source: WTOP this morning, I don’t know much more than that. Being from Maryland, I don’t care enough to research it :p lol

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Certifried 35504 wrote:

the HOT lanes are government owned, but operated by a private company for 75 years – source: WTOP this morning, I don’t know much more than that. Being from Maryland, I don’t care enough to research it :p lol

But you got the ICC, lucky you!!

[mstone]

@Certifried 35504 wrote:

the HOT lanes are government owned, but operated by a private company for 75 years – source: WTOP this morning, I don’t know much more than that. Being from Maryland, I don’t care enough to research it :p lol

You know those dystopian books/movies where heartless, greedy corporations own all the essential services? It’s like that, but real life.

[Tim Kelley]

@vvill 35502 wrote:

The most ridiculous thing I found was the amount of advertising in Tysons Corner (mall) for what I think was those HOT lanes (or maybe it was the new EZPass stuff). Is that taxpayer money being used to fund advertising for a transit “improvement”?

It’s likely a project requirement to do outreach to the general public. You couldn’t advertise for that stuff in a better place than Tysons. I be surprised if it lasts through the Holiday season as thats when the mall jacks up the advertising fees!

[JeffC]

I remembered one more bad weather incident: the sudden ice storm a few years ago. I only had a short ride to the Metro that day but on my 1.5 mile bike ride home I noticed my brakes not working and making a wierd sound so I pulled over and took off my gloves and to my surprise my top tube was entirely iced over. I walked back the rest of the way and there were several slippery spots on the sidewalks, not fun. Since I am not ever going to spring for studded tires, ice storms will always stop me from riding . . . I’ve got a wife and two kids to care for.

As to the hot lanes, the main impetus for letting private companies operate hot lanes, bridges, toll roads, and other infrastructure is that the local political jurisdiction (state, county, etc.) gets a big up front lease payment from the private operator and gives up the burden of maintenance. This allows the jurisdiction to take in extra funds without raising taxes in the short term. The jurisdiction may also get a cut of the tolls collected.

I am actually somewhat perplexed at the resistance to this although it has nothing to do with raising taxes which I would be fine with. What is wrong with asking car drivers that put a huge burden on the public fisc to pay to use roads over and over again? in a sense this takes the burden of using a particular resource (road, bridge, etc.) which the public at large is paying for and asks the chronic user to pay for instead. Maybe if they get irked enough, they will be inclined to find and support other alternatives like biking?

As to whether or not this is unprecedented, you would be shocked at the level of tolls in other countries. A couple years ago I drove from central France to southern France (around Nice) and paid nearly $100 in tolls for the whole trip.

[mstone]

I don’t have any problems with charging for road use, I have a problem with turning public infrastructure over to private companies for short-term revenue tricks. We all know that the taxpayer will end up footing the bill for anything that goes wrong (the public gets all the risk) so why should we give away the rewards?

[JeffC]

@mstone 35536 wrote:

I don’t have any problems with charging for road use, I have a problem with turning public infrastructure over to private companies for short-term revenue tricks. We all know that the taxpayer will end up footing the bill for anything that goes wrong (the public gets all the risk) so why should we give away the rewards?

I fully agree about short-term revenue tricks, ideally we would raise taxes to pay for woeful infrastructure in Northern Virginia in a more transparent manner.

I’m no expert about all the nuances of these arrangements but probably know more about them than say 98% of the population owing to a fortuitous work assignment. That said, I disagree with you that there should be a perception that toll roads and the like are “turned over to private companies.” In all the instances I have seen, the infrastructure is leased. The Federal Government also leases land to others for grazing and mineral rights, I’ve leased apartments and houses to live in. I don’t think the ultimate owner believes the property being leased was “turned over”. It’s a lease, the owner still owns it, the lessee has the right to use subject to certain restrictions, a common legal arrangement created when two parties dicker over the terms.

[DaveK]

@JeffC 35540 wrote:

I fully agree about short-term revenue tricks, ideally we would raise taxes to pay for woeful infrastructure in Northern Virginia in a more transparent manner.

I’m no expert about all the nuances of these arrangements but probably know more about them than say 98% of the population owing to a fortuitous work assignment. That said, I disagree with you that there should be a perception that toll roads and the like are “turned over to private companies.” In all the instances I have seen, the infrastructure is leased. The Federal Government also leases land to others for grazing and mineral rights, I’ve leased apartments and houses to live in. I don’t think the ultimate owner believes the property being leased was “turned over”. It’s a lease, the owner still owns it, the lessee has the right to use subject to certain restrictions, a common legal arrangement created when two parties dicker over the terms.

It can be just as much of a disaster if it’s a lease. Read about the Chicago parking meter lease – possibly one of the worst financial decisions by a municipality in history.

[Certifried]

I still have nightmares about that ice storm years back. I was working in Quantico, commuting to Mount Airy (Maryland). 75 miles each way. I had left about 4pm, a little early that day, because I knew the storm was coming. I made it to the “mixing bowl”, just as it was shut down. 95 north, at the fly over to the inner loop was completely closed down (as was the entire mixing bowl). I could actually see the accident. There was maybe a total of 10 cars in front of me, all stopped. I was already past the exit, with absolutely no way of turning around. There was no shoulder as those big concrete barriers were next to the road. I was completely stuck, and sat there for 6 hours. I ended up having to dump out a bottle of windshield washer fluid so I could piss in the jug. Luckily I had a good cell phone, plenty of gas, and no medical issues. I got home around midnight that evening, an 8 hour commute.

[JeffC]

@DaveK 35541 wrote:

It can be just as much of a disaster if it’s a lease. Read about the Chicago parking meter lease – possibly one of the worst financial decisions by a municipality in history.

That does not mean that every public sector lease of property is necessarily a bad deal for the public though, done right there is no reason it cannot be a “win-win” situation. Of course, who wants to hear about a win-win situation in the press, far more entertaining to read about the disaster cases like in Chicago and us scofflaw bikers!

[Author]

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