#SafeTrack: when WMATA made everyone a bicyclist

[mstone]

Maybe they’re adding the feature of checking the tracks they’re using during the surge!

[bobco85]

I just finished my video for SafeTrack Surge 8 (Franconia-Springfield to Van Dorn St). The surge was pushed back a week, so it will run from Saturday, August 27th, through Sunday, September 11th. On the weekdays, there will be single-tracking (no Yellow Rush+ service), and on the weekends there will be segment shutdowns.

Here’s a map of the routes I decided to take:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12301[/ATTACH]

Here is the video:
[video=youtube_share;2bi-qrjKJ6E]https://youtu.be/2bi-qrjKJ6E[/video]

So, I figured out how to make custom video thumbnails (surprisingly easy, just validate your Youtube account via text message) and had some fun with the extra time that the week delay gave me.

For the routes, I chose the Fairfax County Parkway Trail and Beulah/Telegraph for starting points. I wanted to also show the route I like to take through the Rose Hill neighborhood as it’s a pretty low stress route (though it has multiple turns). Btw, that white car that shows up around the 11:02 mark and was in the way (grr, I came very close to wanting to reshoot that footage) had broken down when I was filming the yellow route. When I returned to film the cyan route, it was just being loaded onto a tow truck.

Now that this video is done, I can start work on going through my Surge 9 footage. Thank you, everyone, for the encouragement and support; they help me keep working on these videos.

[DrP]

These are great! So is the music you use. Somewhere you need to credit that, some scores are really lovely to listen to.

[bobco85]

@DrP 144729 wrote:

These are great! So is the music you use. Somewhere you need to credit that, some scores are really lovely to listen to.

Thanks! By the way, I put the music information at the bottom of every video description.

Music (according to route) is:
-Cyan route footage – “Lionheart”
-Yellow route footage – “Eve”
-Magenta route footage – “Smoke Signals”
All songs can be found on the album “Soon It Will Be Cold Enough” by Emancipator.

[DrP]

@bobco85 144735 wrote:

Thanks! By the way, I put the music information at the bottom of every video description.

Ah, on the YouTube page. I was just looking at it from the forum page. Thank you.

[bobco85]

Awesome stuff, a writer from WTOP news referenced my video in an article today about SafeTrack Surge 8 (he asked for permission beforehand)! Also, it’s nice to see that biking is being mentioned in the media as an alternative form of transportation to the Metro.

Here’s the article: http://wtop.com/tracking-metro-24-7/2016/08/wtop-track-work-guide-8th-surge-aug-27-sept-11/

[Judd]

Robert. So formal! Very awesome that you got linked.

I wish they would have used a bold heading for the bike option but I’m happy that it was included at all.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bobco85]

I’m out of town for one more day (currently waiting on a delicious deep dish pizza after a day of hiking), but I figured out how to get my SafeTrack Surge 9 video published (I finished and uploaded it before I left). Here’s the link as long as it works:

[video=youtube_share;npq0lDEi2AE]https://youtu.be/npq0lDEi2AE[/video]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk; edited today to properly show video preview

[bobco85]

Just got an update from Metro as the dates for SafeTrack surges 10 and 11 have been announced: http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=6168

Surge #10 (Fort Totten to NoMa on Red Line): October 29 – November 22; the segment of the Red Line will be shutdown for an entire month, affecting the Fort Totten, Brookland-CUA (closed), Rhode Island Avenue (closed), and NoMa-Gallaudet U stations

Surge #11 (East Falls Church to West Falls Church on Orange Line): November 28 – December 21; the Orange line will be single-tracking between the two stations for a month

I’ve got my routes already planned for Surge 10 with more than a month to create the video. I’m going through ideas for Surge 11 since the Silver line will be an alternative to the Orange for the affected section. It’s nice to get a break, though, for a little bit!

[vern]

@bobco85 145967 wrote:

Just got an update from Metro as the dates for SafeTrack surges 10 and 11 have been announced: http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=6168

Surge #10 (Fort Totten to NoMa on Red Line): October 29 – November 22; the segment of the Red Line will be shutdown for an entire month, affecting the Fort Totten, Brookland-CUA (closed), Rhode Island Avenue (closed), and NoMa-Gallaudet U stations

Surge #11 (East Falls Church to West Falls Church on Orange Line): November 28 – December 21; the Orange line will be single-tracking between the two stations for a month

I’ve got my routes already planned for Surge 10 with more than a month to create the video. I’m going through ideas for Surge 11 since the Silver line will be an alternative to the Orange for the affected section. It’s nice to get a break, though, for a little bit!

Orange and Silver share the same track between WFC and EFC, so I don’t see how the Silver would be an alternative that would provide a different outcome.

[americancyclo]

@vern 145973 wrote:

Orange and Silver share the same track between WFC and EFC, so I don’t see how the Silver would be an alternative that would provide a different outcome.

They’re only going to delay the orange trains :p

[bobco85]

@vern 145973 wrote:

Orange and Silver share the same track between WFC and EFC, so I don’t see how the Silver would be an alternative that would provide a different outcome.

@americancyclo 145974 wrote:

They’re only going to delay the orange trains :p

Thanks, both of you, because reading your comments made me realize that there is a discrepancy due to the shared track. I also looked at Metro’s news release and the Surge #11 information page https://wmata.com/rider_tools/metro_service_status/advisories.cfm?AID=5591

According to what’s on Metro’s website (news release and surge 11 info page),

• the news release says the surge will affect service on the Orange and Silver lines
• the news release says lines will single-track between the West Falls Church and East Falls Church stations
• the surge 11 info page says Orange line trains will continuously single-track between the West Falls Church and East Falls Church stations
• the map on the surge 11 info page shows only the Orange line as single-tracking to East Falls Church

The problem is that it doesn’t state if Silver line trains will deal with any single-tracking on the section of track where the Orange & Silver lines combine which is just west of Great Falls St. The map on the surge 11 info page also only shows the Orange line having single-tracking.

My best guess is that the Orange line will always single-track during Surge 11, but the Silver line will only single-track on the Orange/Silver combined section.

My strategy might just be to show routes from:

• Dunn Loring -> West Falls Church -> East Falls Church
• McLean -> East Falls Church
• East Falls Church -> Ballston
• I like to add a station on either end to cover more area.

Luckily, there’s still plenty of time to figure things out.

[bobco85]

My video for Surge 10 is ready for viewing!

Surge 10 on the Red Line between Fort Totten and NoMa-Gallaudet U will start this Saturday, October 29, and run until Tuesday, November 22. The line will be shut down completely between the 2 stations, but conveniently there is a trail running alongside the Red Line for most of that stretch: the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

Here is the video:
[video=youtube_share;uvBd1vurITE]https://youtu.be/uvBd1vurITE[/video]

My biggest challenge was pronouncing Gallaudet correctly. Until I recorded the voiceover, I was saying “Gal-la-day” which is wrong. It is supposed to be pronounced like “Gal-luh-dette” (I had to write it this way in my script due to all the retakes). Between that and the retakes due to outside noise (recording during evening rush hour with traffic coming in/out of my apartment’s parking lot) and inside noise (my cat had to be put in my bedroom with the door closed for a bit), I did a lot of audio editing. Hopefully, it worked. Enjoy!

[Dewey]

Local news are reporting SafeTrack surge #11 beginning November 28 and the following 14 days will bring major disruption to the Orange/Silver Lines with 64% fewer trains running during rush hour, and shuttle buses running every 10 minutes from Ballston to Rosslyn. During a news conference Metro asked that half of Orange/Silver line commuters take alternative routes to work.

[bobco85]

Just in time for the beginning of Metro SafeTrack surge 11, I finished my video for biking around the disruption.

Surge 11 will run from November 28 to December 21. Orange Line trains between West Falls Church and East Falls Church will be single-tracking, and Silver line service will be affected, too.

Here is the video: [video=youtube_share;dKCy5hrzLuk]https://youtu.be/dKCy5hrzLuk[/video]

For the video, I tried to cover bike routes between McLean, Tysons Corner, Dunn Loring, West Falls Church, East Falls Church, and Ballston. McLean is a little odd, as it’s the most isolated from the other stations (it’s less than a mile from the Tysons Corner station, but there are no safe biking/walking routes between the two stations), so it was a challenge finding a good route that didn’t have too many hills/fast traffic. I included the alternate route of Westmoreland Street which has bike lanes/sharrows/more bike-friendly riding for reference, as I sometimes use that when heading out that way from Arlington.

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