[Brendan von Buckingham]

Maybe I put too much acid on my cheerios this morning, but did anyone else see an Orthodox priest jazzercising with a Roman cross in the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes at 9th Street?

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Regardless of where the cyclist was, it was 100% the driver’s fault. But your coworker made a clumsy and insensitive though valid geometric observation.

A cyclist taking a line on the sidewalk and using the crosswalk–if there are cars already stopped for the red light–likely has an obstructed line of sight and no reaction time to avoid a red light runner in another traffic lane. A cyclist taking a lane in the roadway is 10 to 15 feet farther away from the obstructed line of sight, has a larger cone of vision and more time to be seen or react to a car running a red light. Still no guarantee that it avoids a collision, but improves the odds slightly with an extra split second.

It’s the same geometric line-of-sight problem with the ROW crosswalk on GWMP by Memorial Bridge where there are two lanes of traffic and the first lane yields to the cyclist but the second lane doesn’t see the cyclist because the stopped car blocks the line of sight and so does not yield.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I ride the right lane when going north. Perfectly safe with room to maneuver.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

You: The cyclist out for an afternoon ride on the MVT who stole my Brooks saddle from the bike rack at Roosevelt Island Friday afternoon 9/14. And you had to be a cyclist to be on the MVT in the middle of the day with the knowledge of what a Brooks saddle is and the tools to steal it. You’re not dumb.

Me: The guy who that morning found his office receptionist face down at her desk in a pool of vomit and had to yell for help, call 9-1-1, tell his coworkers what to do, get her on the floor to start CPR, watch the EMTs try to revive her and take her to the hospital, clean up her desk, and then interview with the MPD detective after she didn’t make it. I left work early and went to Roosevelt Island, my serenity place, to clear my head. And that’s when you decided to intersect your life with mine.

Your karma’s fucked. Rot in hell.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@Judd 180985 wrote:

So when you see a tree that’s down next to the trail (there are currently three)

Find me on this forum and tell me where it is. I mill local logs into boards, mostly by hand. And make stuff.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

In Arlington, I call this week the Angriest Week of the Year. So I like to chill out by pretending. This morning I pretended I was a cowboy driving the orneriest bunch of steers this side of Wichita.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@Steve O 180476 wrote:

My perhaps-not-highly-recommended-and-definitely-not-for-the-timid route (but probably the fastest) when I worked at 13th & L NW was:

Inbound:
Key Bridge
Whitehurst freeway

There was a time a few years back when Georgetown had a lot of construction and Whitehurst would back up to Key Bridge. I found a lot of benefit and pleasure in using the Whitehurst then too, then up to surface at Washington Circle.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

If you bike through Foggy Bottom you’re OK enough biking in traffic. Key Bridge is my preferred crossing a.m. and p.m. I’m Memorial Bridge now because of an office relocation, but I did key for 20 years.

Georgetown a.m. inbound is downhill enough that taking the lane and avoiding the door zone is easy. Looking out for opposing autos trying to left turn in front of me is the biggest hazard I’m on guard for. I use Washington Circle to take New Hampshire to L; the traffic signal timing makes that about the same time as making the left onto L at Penn & 25th (which can get hairy).

Georgetown p.m. outbound has enough traffic that bikes are faster than cars. You learn to take your lane and filter. I especially take a lane to make the left turn onto Key Bridge. I’m not a fan of the M Street bike lane; poor design, sight lines and surface conditions. I espeically dislike the M Street lane where it goes through the stand for a bus stop. C’mon.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

That last photo showing the bike lane needing to cross the right turn lane about 25 feet short of Wilson is a clusterf***. Made worse by the “yield to bikes” sign being only about 3 feet beyond the last available parking spot. Imagine driving 20 mph to the light along a line of parked cars. Can’t see any cyclists so I guess I don’t have yield. Surprise! The bike was there the whole time.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@baiskeli 179872 wrote:

You can go up and around to cross at Rhodes St. if you want. Further up, you can cross at Pershing and there’s a trail running east from there.

Yeh, this. If you start in Courthouse, use Rhodes Street to cross 50. Much more normal. And once on the southside it’s a nice downhill to Meade. My daily route.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

But cars must always be faster than bikes.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Great newsreel of Memorial Bridge in action at its dedication. Not only does it show incredible engineering, but it also shows us something about lane markings. No lane markings on the bridge, not even a double yellow. The bridge pre-dates lane markings. You only needed one rule: stay to the right except to pass and then pass with caution. Watching the old cars navigate the bridge without lane markings is kind of trippy.

Movie reel

How many points do I get?

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Look what showed up this morning. That’s a construction barge. How many points do I get?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18213[/ATTACH]

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@papalena 179970 wrote:

Does anyone know whats going on with the tall wooden fences/construction next to the Mt Vernon trail, between the humpback and Arlington Memorial bridges? What is being built there? (Or: is the river just being widened there, and they don’t want us to know?)

My money is on temporary landing for construction barges for the restoration of the Memorial bridge.

They’re excavating the bank down to the waterline and they’re laying a construction entrance driveway off of GWP.

I rode through it this a.m. It’s like driving through a construction site amidst dump trucks and blind entrances (due to the construction fences). It really really really should be a NO GO zone for us during construction.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Boooor-ing

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