Virginia governor issues stay-at-home order

[arlcxrider]

Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority, d/b/a “NOVA Parks,” has put out a YouTube video on this topic.

https://youtu.be/SjTAv_3YgSI

[phog]

My employer has me coming in Thursdays, West Falls Church to DC. Yesterday I took a motorcycle in and bicycled home on the Custis then switched to local streets in Arlington because the path was too crowded. I was breathing deeply because of the hills and stiff headwind, and was worried about airborne respiration droplets with that many people out recreating.

[n18]

VA governor “threatened” today of closing parks and trails because of reports of abusers who don’t maintain physical distance. He said they will review what happens over the weekend to see if people gather in crowds, or don’t leave enough distance.

In other news, a time traveler said to me today that next Monday the governor closed all parks and trails in VA, siting crowded conditions despite the stay-at-home order.

What can you do to change it: deliberately go over the grass next to every walker/runner even if you have 6′ clearance(assuming you can), so they become more aware and distance themselves from each other.

[AlanA]

@n18 199927 wrote:

VA governor “threatened” today of closing parks and trails because of reports of abusers who don’t maintain physical distance. He said they will review what happens over the weekend to see if people gather in crowds, or don’t leave enough distance.

In other news, a time traveler said to me today that next Monday the governor closed all parks and trails in VA, siting crowded conditions despite the stay-at-home order.

What can you do to change it: deliberately go over the grass next to every walker/runner even if you have 6′ clearance(assuming you can), so they become more aware and distance themselves from each other.

Although I am a Marylander, I was out on a nice long walk today and noticed that most people are adhering to the 6′ rule. I did have one moron who had his head buried in his phone come right at me. There will always be people like this.
And on a side note. Riding your bike on the road is by far the safest way to go in these times. There are just too many people out and about walking around everywhere.

[rcannon100]

@n18 199927 wrote:

What can you do to change it: deliberately go over the grass next to every walker/runner even if you have 6′ clearance(assuming you can), so they become more aware and distance themselves from each other.

Asking people nicely to behave never works.

What works is infrastructure. The roads have WAY LESS traffic. CLOSE THEM. 😎 Ask your local and state officials to close lanes of traffic and open them up to pedestrians – like they have done in NYC Philly and other places. There is lots of pavement, especially in the urban parts of Arlco, that could easily be flipped into spaces for humans.

[ginacico]

@n18 199927 wrote:

What can you do to change it:

Since it’s being recommended everyone wear masks, do it. Make sure it is super bright and colorful, as a visual reminder of why we’re all in this predicament. A Buff worked until I make myself something better. It gets a lot of attention.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21456[/ATTACH]

@rcannon100 199929 wrote:

The roads have WAY LESS traffic. CLOSE THEM. 😎

I nominate Glebe Rd from north to south Arlington. Too many lanes anyway, so close one on each side. It would take some traffic off the W&OD.

[consularrider]

@rcannon100 199929 wrote:

Asking people nicely to behave never works.

What works is infrastructure. The roads have WAY LESS traffic. CLOSE THEM. 😎 Ask your local and state officials to close lanes of traffic and open them up to pedestrians – like they have done in NYC Philly and other places. There is lots of pavement, especially in the urban parts of Arlco, that could easily be flipped into spaces for humans.

Where did they close lanes of traffic in NYC???? I haven’t seen it so far, but I’ll keep looking. There are certainly far more people walking in the right hand lane of East End Ave by Carl Schurz Park in Yorkville (E 90 to E 83), but not so much on the other streets I’ve ridden. I report in from Brooklyn over the weekend.

update: Margaret just told me that there was an experimental lane closure on 5th Ave downtown, but didn’t know the results or extent.

[Starduster]

“Social Distancing” doesn’t work if *everyone* is trying to do it in the same place.

I had an recent online discussion with Kirk Saunders and David Nam, who both lamented that the bike trails is so crowded that you cannot achieve “social distance”. If the wind is calm, it becomes potentially a “COVID-19 Corridor”. Both of them are seeking out side streets to ride instead. Which validates my own decision to stay off the trails. The Trek 412 is relegated to trainer duty, and the panniers have been fitted to Das Kettler, whose unexplored utility will now be explored, for grocery-getting and general errand work.

Oh, and I now have a mask, courtesy a motorsports connection, https://composite-resources-mask.com/. While it is not “A. J. Foyt-in-a-bandanna badass” (few things would be), it serves the need. Stay safe, all! [ATTACH=CONFIG]21458[/ATTACH]

[rcannon100]

Trails….

Hit the roads. They are excellently empty. Pro tip: The more car traffic, the less joggers and dog walkers like them. But even on residential roads… its pretty easy to maintain social distance. Another pro tip: 5 am is a thing.

[AlanA]

@rcannon100 199998 wrote:

Hit the roads. They are excellently empty. Pro tip: The more car traffic, the less joggers and dog walkers like them. But even on residential roads… its pretty easy to maintain social distance. Another pro tip: 5 am is a thing.

Not so pro tip. Ride when it is sunny and warm. 5 am is perfect for a bathroom break in the night. The traffic is almost as light during the day. And as an added bonus, you don’t need to waste money on batteries or rechargeable lights.
The bottom line is that roads are so much safer right now than riding on trails. Get out and ride (by yourself)!!

[Henry]

It’s full daylight by 7am and streets (esp. side streets) and pretty empty.

[Smitty2k1]

I’m still soliciting good road routes from the community in lieu of trails. Someone on Facebook posted a nice one from Georgetown to Great Falls:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/31512220

Send me mooooooore!

[ChristoB50]

I am absolutely loving this stay at home impact on traffic! I have enjoyed coming up with and trying road routes that give me and my squeeze 90 minute to 2 hour rides that are not insanely hilly… (making some use of past group ride routes with Josephine!) The streets are also generally dramatically smoother than the trails we usually ride, and it is such a delight to no longer deal with the new surge in pedestrians, skaters, dog walkers out on those same trails, and instead just enjoy rolling nearly unimpeded, with hardly any “under 6 feet” encounters. Yes, I would love biking infrastructure that allows this all the time… How nice it would be, to wake up and find every paved trail suddenly as wide and smooth as the new Lynne St., Esplanade! But until that happy day, this has been an unexpectedly delightful silver lining…

[zsionakides]

Rode the northern part of the MVT for the first time since the shutdown has occurred. It wasn’t too bad busyness wise, but I literally saw significantly more people on the MVT than the GW Pkwy, and this was during rush hour. I don’t see any reason why the GW or at least half of it couldn’t be shut down to car traffic and made bike/ped only to open up more space for people to distance while getting exercise and fresh air.

[bentbike33]

@zsionakides 200164 wrote:

Rode the northern part of the MVT for the first time since the shutdown has occurred. It wasn’t too bad busyness wise, but I literally saw significantly more people on the MVT than the GW Pkwy, and this was during rush hour. I don’t see any reason why the GW or at least half of it couldn’t be shut down to car traffic and made bike/ped only to open up more space for people to distance while getting exercise and fresh air.

Is it actually illegal for bikes to ride on the GWMP? If not, and it’s really this empty, we might as well go for it.

[Author]

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