[arlrider]

@btj 96301 wrote:

When I went by around 9:15 the police car had been moved off the sidewalk and down into the access road (next to the MVT) and the officer was directing traffic from within the intersection near the crosswalk. So that’s good news at least.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6759[/ATTACH]

Whoa! Magic. Where’s that at 8:30? Also the cop in your picture isn’t the loser who tried to threaten me for documenting his misbehavior.

[arlrider]

Thanks for the offer, though I’m not much of a blogger. I was thinking of going to ARLnow because this (Intersection of Doom) is one of those topics that they love to post just about anything about, and because there’s also a really strong anti-government-waste sentiment over there (though that same crowd also seems to be an anti-cycling crowd). And of sending this over to Chief Scott and asking for his explanation of why this is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds, and why his officers feel the need to threaten citizens.

[arlrider]

@birddog 52423 wrote:

Thanks to Dave who helped me with a broken chain on the Key bridge this morning. I really appreciate the master link!

Think I saw you guys at around 8 AM…looked like everything was well under control!

[arlrider]

@Mark Blacknell 45975 wrote:

2) Get in front of the car as it heads off the path and ensure that you moderate the driver’s speed

Ah, right, because a person driving down a bike path at 40 MPH certainly couldn’t be, you know, INSANE and would surely allow himself to be paced by a bicycle riding in front of him. And he’s certain to be extra happy due to the fact that you just called the cops on him.

[arlrider]

@Terpfan 45832 wrote:

I was being pretty religious about calling until the third time someone jumped left after I rang my bell and I nearly hit them. I switched to only calling when I felt like it would be a little tighter of a squeeze or where I worried they may turn around.

This is why I hardly ever call passes on pedestrians. Other cyclists, yes, but pedestrians no. Usually the packs of oblivious wanderers taking up 2/3 of the sidewalk on the key bridge scatter like small, moronic rodents when I try to call a pass. Instead, I’ve as of late just resigned to slowing down to a crawl and calmly saying “excuse me” repeatedly with increasing volume until they inevitably hear me, jump as if they have seen the devil himself, and shoot me a bunch of dirty looks.

[arlrider]

@Tim Kelley 44256 wrote:

Their email, facebook, and twitter are listed on the left hand side if you don’t want to call.

I started a thread on this same thing last week. I emailed them and never got a response. Maybe a public twitter shaming would help but I don’t do twitter and am not about to start.

[arlrider]

To the punk with the ski mask and spandex shorts, riding the black-and-white striped road bike bike, who cut me off at 7 PM last night going up the Custis, only to then cut in front of another rider, cut across the entire trail, and with no warning slam to a dead stop blocking the exit where I needed to get off (onto 20th road). Who then proceeded to yell the most vulgar curses I have ever heard at me for 30 seconds straight when I hollered for him to not block the exit. Just keep on doing what you do and see how it works out. I don’t know where you got your sense of entitlement; probably from mommy and daddy or from having some fancy job. But someday you’re going to act out on someone who is not as civil as I am, and you’re going to get smacked upside the face. You might want to see a counselor.

[arlrider]

I actually have mixed feelings about the cycletrack being on the right side of the road on M. I ride M from 19th to the Key Bridge each day and in the section of 19-28 I would definitely say that I see more road blockage on the right lanes than on the left. The chief culprit being the Fairmont Hotel on the Juniper side; in the summer there will be 2 or 3 “Yankee” branded buses idling there all afternoon including rush hour. Sometimes I’ve even seen FedEx or USPS come along and park left of those, taking M down by two lanes! Don’t see as much blockage on the left. Also, after coming over the bridge past 28, the turn onto 29 is a big popular right-hand turn with a lot of cars, but most bikes aren’t turning right. So between 28 and 29 the majority of bikes would have to move over a lane; if the track was on the left this wouldn’t be needed.

[arlrider]

Keep L the way it is; once they do M it will all make perfect sense. What would be nice is if they figured out some way to have a reasonable start to the L street cycletrack. The majority of people using it are getting on it from the very beginning – at the hell intersection of Pennsylvania, L, and 25th. In years of riding I have yet to find a safe and effective way to navigate that intersection. When there was no cycletrack it was actually better; I could merge into the rightmost turn/straight lane (with slow moving traffic) and then end up in the right lane of L. Now that we’ve got to get all the way over to the left it’s tougher. I don’t really like riding with traffic in the left lane of Penn (it’s uphill and traffic is flying – making me a speed bump) and I don’t like salmoning left of the yellow line on the Bayou block like a lot of people do to get to the cycletrack. Staying right on Penn requires using a crosswalk at 25, and I’m not really a big fan of using crosswalks on a bike. Would be cool if they could somehow start the cycletrack at the Penn/M split but I just don’t think there’s the real estate.

[arlrider]

Ugh…the wood section even scares me in the summer. There must be some sort of cost-effective and durable anti-skid solution they could come up with. Can’t you get outdoor paint with grit in it to make surfaces non-skid? Not looking for the nanny state to take care of me, but it seems a reasonable idea.

[arlrider]

@birddog 44048 wrote:

This guy has got to go. He’s a major nuisance and has nearly caused an accident a few times.

While not this particular individual, this reminds me of a story from when I first moved to DC…one of my first rides I was headed inbound on the Custis and was starting to descend the switchbacks from the Lee Highway bridge down to the Italian Store plaza. As I’m flying down the switchbacks I pass another cyclist coming the opposite way. Huffing and puffing his way up the hill, he manages to spurt out “Lktouttheremmmfthmlessguytrl”. I’m like “Huh?” Then I cut back on the last turn and around the blind corner and immediately understand. Sure enough, homeless guy sprawled out across both lanes of the trail. Welcome to the big city!

[arlrider]

Still huge pieces of sheet metal blocking the way on the east side of the key bridge. Anyone posted about this or mentioned who to call to have them removed? I am sure someone has posted here on the matter since they have been there for a week, but I can never find anything on this forum.

[arlrider]

@jnva 42919 wrote:

Nice. More angry people. Why not direct your anger towards bad drivers? Have you ever been hit by another bicyclist? If so I can understand your anger, but a car will do more damage.

I am equal opportunity. I don’t like being “drafted” by cars either.

[arlrider]

Drafting, following, whatever you want to call it, it’s all unwarranted and dangerous on the trails around here. It’s not like we are on a closed race course without runners, inexperienced cyclists, headphone users, dogs, strollers, huge cracks in the pavement, at-grade crossing with signals, at-grade crossings with insufficient signals, changes in trail composition, blind corners, wet leaves, snow, manhole covers, inch-deep layers of road salt, did I miss anything? The only metric I care about is “if I fall down on a pile of crap in the middle of the trail, are you going to run me over?” Nine times out of ten the answer is yes. And as a result, on more than one occasion I have turned into Angrypants McCursey. But honestly if you are following 2 feet behind me with one earbud in not making a peep about it, then that’s already an “f you” in my book and I am just returning the favor verbally.

[arlrider]

@chris_s 40485 wrote:

Just wanted to highlight that the next to last comment on that Arlnow article claims to be from someone who knows them and indicates that further updates on their status will not be released for various reasons.

Pending litigation and/or criminal cases, I would hope.

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