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@ChampionTier 174785 wrote:

Not sure of his drug usage or mental capacity, but I agree that he seems alert enough to return my “‘mornin'” as I whiz by him. I like to think he’s the opposite of what he appears — like he enters the Boeing building and everyone in the foyer says something like, “Good morning, Mr. Steele” as he passes and then he gets in his own private elevator that takes him to his C-suite. That or he’s a hitman.

There used to be a guy who would emerge from the bushes alongside the W&OD (around mile 4) at about 6:30 AM, well groomed and in decent looking “business casual” attire – ready for a day at the office. I always wondered who he was and whether any of his co-workers knew his full story.

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Grand Rapids restarting search for City Manager

While I’m glad Grand Rapids didn’t wind up poaching Arlington’s Deputy Manager, how could they turn down a candidate named “Carol Mitten”?!

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@reji 173938 wrote:

Amelia Earhart. Mostly because she was a bada$$ but also because she was a free spirit who followed her heart and went wherever she wanted.

Excellent idea naming it after a woman who died* in a crash.

*Maybe. Unless the truth is that she was captured by the Japanese. Or took a job at Comet Ping Pong. Or whatever.

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Never mind the fact that Washington was being led (just for one brief moment) by an empty-headed stuffed rodent. There was accordion music!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16689[/ATTACH]

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@ChampionTier 174029 wrote:

I’ll be sure not to invite you to my BarMittsVa Blowout Beer Bash!

My very first post on this forum back in 2015 was to make the “Bar Mitts Vah” joke. Some material never gets old

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I have added bagelneuring to the list of Pointless Prizes. Bagels are, IMHO, the superior toroidal riding treat. While I was appalled at the mention of perversions including blueberry, chocolate chip and sweet cinnamon crunch, inclusion of bialys saved the day.

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@VikingMariner 173831 wrote:

Hope to see the route posted soon.

Here’s the route: Jefferson Memorial (President Jefferson) -> Ride down to Hains Point to get a view of Bolling AFB (former home of presidential aircraft) -> up the Washington Channel (former home of the presidential yacht Sequoia) -> Back to Jefferson Memorial. Repeat.

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Dang, that’s the morning I was going to invite Judd for a beer at Westover, but now he’s got a conflict.

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@reji 173673 wrote:

Ground Hog Day happy hour at Westover Beer Garden!

I’m almost always up for a visit to the Beer Garden. Groundhog night I have someplace to be at 6:30, so my stop at WBG would have to be a short one. Since what’s most important is my convenience, how about Westover on the 2/8?

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On my calendar – how could I resist a HH this close to home?

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@lordofthemark 173622 wrote:

… such as calming an arterial, …

I’ll stop now — who am I to argue against free-flowing arteries?

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@lordofthemark 173608 wrote:

won’t pass up the chance to distinguish between “traffic slowing/driver pubishment” and traffic calming

OK, based on your writing I figured that maybe I don’t understand the full definition of “traffic calming”. So I went to a FHWA document which quotes a European definition of traffic calming as “… a term that has emerged in Europe to describe a full range of methods to slow cars …” But Europeans are foreigners, so we shouldn’t trust them. I continued my research and found a DOT site that says “Traffic calming consists of physical design and other measures put in place on existing roads to reduce vehicle speeds …” Well, that’s a Federal government publication, which means it could have been written by mischievous deep staters. So, I went to the Safe Routes to Schools web site page on traffic calming, and found that it focuses almost completely on vehicular speed. But non-profits are almost as bad as the government, so I went to an organization that I, as a licensed Professional Engineer, could trust, the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Lo and behold, the first bullet on their list of Traffic Calming Objectives is, “achieving slow speeds for motor vehicles” (n.b. the choice of words, “slow”, not “slower” or “safe”).

So, tell me again how “traffic calming” is distinct from “traffic slowing”?

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@Steve O 173598 wrote:

Wilson Blvd. in the vicinity of Four-Mile Run – opponents pointed out that the Custis and/or WOD are nearby alternatives. However, anyone who ever walked along this stretch will tell you that it is WAAAAYYY better to walk along here now than before, when cars were literally 2 feet away and the sidewalk is narrow. True not many cyclists use these lanes, but they are hugely valuable to pedestrians.

If, as you claim, the main goal of all these under-utilized bike lanes has nothing to do with cyclists (rather, they provide benefits that are “hugely valuable to pedestrians”), why use bike lanes as the mechanism of choice? Why not use something more focused on the desired effect of slowing down cars – bulbouts, speed cushions, or such?

Personally, I think they should unpave Wilson and Washington Boulevards and make them into gravel roads. That would achieve the vehicular slowdown you desire, plus it would give me a cool gravel commute to work.

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@dasgeh 173580 wrote:

Installing the bike lanes was done as part of repaving, so it was literally free.

I beg to differ. The design and engineering work was not free, nor was the process of gathering community feedback.

@dasgeh 173580 wrote:

(3) provides a more direct (i.e. simply to follow) to destinations — e.g. I would have taken them to the Synagogue in McLean, but they weren’t built yet. Instead I drove, because the alt route was longer and harder to follow.

I find that biking on Westmoreland St., which cannot be entirely avoided when going to Rodef, requires great faith that some sort of greater power is protecting you

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@lordofthemark 173542 wrote:

But what is LOST by putting them, …?

First, I would say there’s the ill will engendered with the community at large, which makes subsequent, more valuable cycling infrastructure projects that much harder to get approved,

Second, given that county resources are limited, money spent on this project is money not spent on more useful bike lanes somewhere else,

Third, while it’s easy for us to dismiss residents’ complaints as nothing but reflexive bike hate, it’s possible that the residents really did suffer harm from the bike lanes. I have several hobbies which involve transporting heavy gear and I know I would be harmed if I lost the possibility of parking in front of my house to load and unload, and

Fourth, it is my belief that if we want drivers to drive more responsibly, the answer is education and enforcement, not slowing them down by making roads impassable.

@lordofthemark 173542 wrote:

IIRC these lane connect to the Westover commercial district

At one end, yes. But since the lanes quickly peter out, they don’t connect Westover to anywhere. One could already reach Westover by taking the W&OD to the bike lanes on Ohio St. And to huskerdont’s point the W&OD is 1/4 mile away at most, not three miles.

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