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@brendan 23022 wrote:

2) Double check that you got the right valve type on the tube in addition to the right wheel size and tire width…I biked about 8 months without realizing that my backup tube was a schraeder, not a presta…oops.

Well, you can always carry a pump that accomodates both or more than one pump….

@brendan 23022 wrote:

3) A micro-sized hiking headlamp, just in case my front light dies or breaks. It can get really dark out there…

It’s also handy when fixing a flat in the dark.

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@jnva 22926 wrote:

Of course accidents happen.

This doesn’t agree with your earlier statement that, in your opinon, “that on a MUP, if a pedestrian is hit and killed by a cyclist, it’s not the pedestrians fault.”

You don’t have to be going fast to knock someone down. You could be riding as slow as you possibly can to maintain your balance and a pedestrian could move into your path at the last second. A healthy 25-year-old male? You both would probably walk away and he probably would not get knocked down. The toddler Brendan mentions? Could get knocked down and/or you could fall on them. An 80-year-old? You might knock them down. A simple fall for someone that age can result in a broken hip or worse. If the back of their head smacks the trail smacks the trail, it could be fatal.

Every situation is different and making “absolutes” like on a MUP it’s always the cyclist’s fault or on the road it’s always the driver’s fault are extreme and not realistic. We can do everything we can to minimize risks to ourselves and others, but sometimes accidents happen — it might be our fault, it might be paritally our fault, it might be someone else’s fault.

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I think the length of hte drinking tube would be hte issue, since from a trunk bag to someone’s mouth would vary quite a bit, depending on rider size, bike (road vs mountiain), etc.

Camelbak makes or used to make a fanny pack style bag.

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@Megabeth 22867 wrote:

What do you carry at all times with you in your seat pouch (or backpack or pannier)?

Since the bike I ride almost all the time always has the panniers on it, I carry more crap — er, stuff — than just about anyone here. I won’t go into a complete list — (a) because I don’t have the time and (b) because I’ll never hear the end of it — but some of the stuff is a patch kit, spare tubes, pumps, tire gauge, multi-tools, flashlight, knife, lock, hat, gloves, helmet cover, tape, New Skin, super glue, spare reflective vest, and a brake cable. (Yes, I am fully aware that several of those words are plural.)

Oh, I do not have jumper cables — yes, I have had someone ask me.

@Megabeth 22867 wrote:

What do you recommend someone have at all times…and what’s “nice to have”?

Everything you need to change a flat. (I usually prefer to simply replace the tube when I’m out, but a patch kit works, too.)

In this weather? Water, too. (I saw a number of cyclists out there this afternoon without water.)

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@dasgeh 22851 wrote:

Isn’t there a 2nd bridge along 395, along the South side, ending in Benjamin Bannaker park? I feel like there was discussion on the forum…

You can get to the trail along the south side of the Case Bridge from Bannaker Circle. (I nca post directions later, I’m off to a meeting.)

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More than 12 years ago, when it came time to renew my tags, I realzied I’d driven less than 75 miles in the previous ten months. (It was October, so since hte beginning of the year.) I took the tags off the car and donated it to charity. I have not owned a car since. (My car was paid for, but was an old beater and it was just easier to donate it.)

At the time, I was commuting year-round by bike; but could also walk the 1.5 miles to the subway, if necessary. Now, I live a bit further from the subway, but can grab a bus two blocks away.

Anything under a mile or two, I often walk.

Since you have the garage and the car is paid for, put it up on blocks for the next six months and see how things go. (If it’s on blocks, you can’t easily take it out if it’s raining or you don’t feel like riding/walking to get a carton of milk.) Come December, you can decide to sell it or donate it. If you decide that “car-free” is not for you and you’d rather be “car-lite,” take it off the blocks.

If necessary, I’ll rent or borrow a car, but it’s not quite as often as one might think.

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@mstone 22653 wrote:

And you don’t seem to get that his conscious decision to intentionally run into people exists in your own mind.

Based on the rider’s own message, from sfist, “I couldn’t see a line through the crowd and I couldn’t stop, so I laid it down and just plowed through the crowded crosswalk in the least-populated place I could find” he did chose to run into people, just fewer people. I may be reading it wrong, but it seems to me he is saying there was no clear path and picked one with fewer people.

No one should be running red lights, regardless of what sort of vehicle they are operating.

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@KelOnWheels 22658 wrote:

Sausages? Pretty funny.)

If bits of sausage get caught on your bike and you get chased down by a pack of rabid dogs, you won’t think it’s funny. (On the other hand, you might become KOM.)

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The NY Times article gives a few more details.

I think a motorist running a red light at 35 mph and hitting a pedestrian in a crosswalk would be cited for manslaughter.

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@PotomacCyclist 22444 wrote:

Demolition of the Navy Annex was supposed to begin last month and wrap up this summer, but I don’t know if it has started yet.

It has not started yet. (Well not as of 2:45 a.m. this morning.)

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@MCL1981 22546 wrote:

Making a right on red and not seeing the ped is stupid and inexcusable, but it isn’t a willful reckless act.

Sure it is, because it’s against the law. In Virginia, the law says the car must stop and “may cautiously enter the intersection and make a right turn.” It goes on to say”Such turning traffic shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians lawfully within an adjacent crosswalk and to other traffic using the intersection.” (Code of Virginia, § 46.2-835. ‘Right turn on steady red light after stopping’)

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@mstone 22190 wrote:

I guess I’d assumed that could reasonably be assumed to not extend from door to door, and would take effect once you get out of the quiet back streets and onto the main roads.

My comments are based on encounters with people who won’t ride on the streets period. (I’m not counting the “sidewalks are safer than bike lanes” riders I sometimes encounter in Ballston.) I know people who won’t even ride on back streets. (Maybe they know their streets better than I do and have some neighbors who are reckless.) Perhaps the classic example was last summer, a rider who almost ran me down on the sidewalk (I was walking) who was coming from the dead-end of a back street and was still a couple of blocks from a main road. Not only is it a quiet street, but the street is wide enough for two cars to easily pass, which is all too often not the case on back streets. When I suggested she should ride in the street, she told me it was not safe and she never does.

Are these people a minority? Sure. Are they a small minority? I think so. Hence my original blunt (or selfish) comment: “Those people can drive to a MUP and ride. (Yeah, I know, I’m being blunt — sorry.) I know some people like this, people who will not ride on the road — not today, not a year from now. This includes people who will not ride in a bike lane and tell me the sidewalk is safer.”

Given limited resources (money, space, infrastructure), a solution for everyone is simply not feasible. Either at the low end, like this or at the high end, say a bike-only trail with a minimum speed limit of 25 mph and no Stop signs.

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@mstone 22136 wrote:

Maybe, but it’s mostly a straw man that hasn’t been proposed in this thread.

I guess I just interpreted “there are many people who simply won’t bike without separate” as meaning there were people who won’t bike without separate facilities. My mistake.

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@mstone 22132 wrote:

Well, we’d do something reasonable and put in separate infrastructure where necessary, and promote surface routes where practical. It’s the “NOBODY NEEDS ANY SEPARATE INFRASTRUCTURE” crowd that sees this as an either-or.

And the “I WON’T RIDE ON THE ROAD PERIOD” crowd also sees this an either-or, too. It’s a smaller group, since your group includes a lot of anti-cycling drivers, but they do exist. About seven or eight years ago, myself and some friends rode the Arlington Loop on a weekend. We had to meet at the parking lot over 66, next to W&L, because most of them had to drive there — even though they lived less than a mile away. The W Glebe Rd/Valley Dr/Martha Custis portion was all on the sidewalks for them, too.

Of course, most of this group may be recreational cyclists and since we already have well-developed trails, we can ignore them? (I know, I’m selfish.)

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@KLizotte 22123 wrote:

It would certainly be useful and safer if the peds acknowledged the warning with a handwave.

Some (mostly runners?) do and that’s the only time I assume that my bell and call out has been heard. Otherwise, even if I see them move to the right, I assume they have not heard me and slow down even more.

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