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@MFC 145632 wrote:

You also need to be careful coming down the hill from Mt. Vernon (headed northe) even before you get to the wooden bridge. It is heavily shaded and takes for ever to dry out, and I’ve known two people who have wrecked there.

Absolutely true. The boardwalk is awful, but as you come down the hill from Mt. Vernon itself you’ll see that the edges of the asphalt are covered in moss, and extending inward from that is green algae, biofilm stuff. Add in the steep hill and twisty curves and you’re asking for some bad wrecks. There’s also the hard right turn before the bridge that is oppositely cambered from what it should be, and covered in algae. It’s AWFUL trail design, or 100% neglectful maintenance, as routine pressure washing would solve most of the issues on the asphalt.

What’s so bad is that even when these long boardwalks like Trollheim aren’t slippery death traps, they’re awful to ride on anyway because of the rotting, bendy boards. Being a heavy guy I probably experience more bumps than the rest of you, but the experience is jarring to say the last. I hate them.

A database would be great, but c’est la vie… we’ve already seen how NPS is willing to sacrifice safety for aesthetics for other issues (high speed cross-walks). They want to keep the park “feel”, rather than install safe, functional things people actually like.

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Given all the real and perceived strife between cyclists and peds on the trails I want to share a good story. My wife is training for a marathon walk later this month and did a 16 mile training walk today, mostly on the MVT.

Not only did she not have any negative interactions with cyclists, but virtually everyone who passed was super cheerful and said things like “have a great day” etc…

So, thanks #BikeDC! It pays to know that good interactions are noticed on both sides as well.

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Eads southbound in the bike lane.

@_FloridaMan parked in the lane. Took a photo.

Coming up to 23rd st, a Jeep right hooked me. Lady didn’t bother looking, but seeing me (6’5″, bright orange shirt) would still have been difficult because of the soccer mom ACPs parallel parked along the road. If I hadn’t been anticipating it I would have gotten clobbered.

How is this better than a regular bike lane?

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60,000! 60,000 red light camera violations by drivers. Please let that sink in for a moment. How is this hard hitting news story not about that?! Yay, I bet some of them got tickets… But that still means 60,000 drivers ran red lights!

This whole thing is BS because the whole story is clearly not about the red light running. It’s about jealousy and, “Hey, they can run red lights and not get tickets… but when I do it in my car, I have to pay $150.”

How about we talk about safety Adam Tuss! Who needs more education here? The 60,000 drivers triggering red lights cameras or the 1500 times it was triggered by cyclists?

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One man’s memorial, is another man’s free bike… sad.

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Did someone steal the back wheel of the ghost bike??!

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@komorebi 144852 wrote:

That said, I actually find the Potomac Ave. southbound bike lane (between the Renaissance and South Glebe) to be more problematic. There’s guaranteed to be at least one hotel shuttle or tour bus blocking the bike lane in front of the Renaissance, and the rest of the bike lane frequently has debris and pedestrians in it — although you can’t really blame the pedestrians, because half of that stretch lacks a sidewalk or any other place for people to walk. But taking the travel lane there has gotten me honked at or buzzed, usually by cars going well above the posted speed limit (another contrast to Crystal Dr., where the cars are usually going slowly). It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.

Yeah, now that you mention it, that section is really bad too. Commuters use Potomac as a speed-cut to get around traffic on Rt 1. I don’t bother with that “bike lane” either, but you’re right about the drawback where the fast traffic really doesn’t give a s&^t that you’re there. It’s a shame that Eads is such a mess south of Khoinoor Dhaba, or else that would be the best alternative option.

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@Judd 144801 wrote:

To the guy who nearly ran over me in the Crystal Drive bike lane as you were trying to illegally park in said lane: I wish I would have said to you all of the things that huskerdont would have said to you.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

IMHO – Never EVER use the bike lanes along Crystal Drive. Just take the right lane. Drivers there aren’t quick enough mentally to process all of the stimuli that they’re confronted with and often (almost always) do stupid things.

The bike lanes’ only purpose now is for double parking, and allowing a buffer for pedestrians wanting to jaywalk across the street. Besides, given all the traffic lights and randomly turning cars, buses, jay walkers, etc… speeds are low enough to justify taking the lane as well.

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On Saturday morning (~7am) I rode from Del Ray up the MVT, and the CCT to the reservoir area at the DC line.

The trail was packed with people who were definitely not there last weekend. Mostly joggers/pedestrians. The weather wasn’t that nice, so they weren’t exactly fair weather people, but it must be fall fundraising run training season and people were out with the Team iN Training groups etc. On the CCT there were several groups of 5-20 people. On the MVT they were more spread out, but suffice to say passing was really difficult at times, especially on that narrow trail. I guess it’s possible there was some actual event going on(?), but no one was wearing any bib numbers or anything.

Sooo… on weekend mornings, if you actually have to get somewhere, and you want to go faster than a mosey, it would be best to avoid the trails until the excitement of fall weather wears off a bit. Just wait until the first 60F, low humidity and all the fair weather people get off their treadmills and out on the trails. It’s going to be a mess!

And it wouldn’t be a missed connection without this bit…
A huge retrospective finger to the jogger who yelled at me while making my way through the throng. I passed 2 joggers, then pulled up behind a third to let 2 other joggers go the other way before I continued on again. The second one to pass, snarked at me – “I’m pretty sure this is only 2 lanes!” or some shit like that. Dude… first of all, if I was a cyclist that brazenly passed up the middle you wouldn’t have been able to yell at me because I would have been long gone by now. Second, why the hell did I slow down and pull up behind the other jogger to let you go if I was doing what you accuse me of doing? Just because I didn’t pull in DIRECTLY behind him you think I was being a dick? Haha… You have a lot of anger if you felt the need to lash out at me, doing it mostly right. Unfortunately there are plenty of cyclists who don’t give a crap and will pass up the middle. What will you do for them? And lastly, where were you when the idiot jogger pulled a crazy ivan on me between the two airport bridges? That jerk-off forced me out into the grass to avoid a collision, but at least there was a bailout option.

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Goddamnit…. I’m sorry to see this. I drive through there most days on the way to and from PG County and from my perspective on patrick St. it seems relatively tame. The speed/red light cameras there are a huge factor.

But because of this and Bobco’s recent incident I’m going to look into getting a couple of rear-view cameras. I have a front camera already (Contour), but it’s not the most user friendly. I like the over-writing features of some of the other ones. Anyone have any cameras they like? Cameras can provide that key evidence to getting any $$ back from these things. And it helped that you guys both dealt with apologetic and helpful drivers, even though they were completely clueless while driving. It would have been a hassle if they were a-holes or just drove off. What if they did? Would Alexandria PD care then?!

Glad you are ok, and really happy to hear that everything will be covered by his insurance!

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@notinthe18 144551 wrote:

-Dude on a tricked out mountain bike who couldn’t be bothered to dismount (didn’t even look like clipless pedals) and thus kept circling everyone at every intersection

This sounds like a dude from the Bicycle Space shop rides. The guy just can’t, or doesn’t know how to stop. He rides like a hockey player, constantly circling until the green light. It’s really annoying.

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Oiy, pressured driver really needs to HTFU. So. Someone honked at you because they think you should pull out into traffic to get out of their way. F*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*ck that. All you need is a hand gesture and a firm foot on the brake pedal to deal with those idiots.

Otherwise, nice job anticipating the a-hole behavior that was to follow. A lot of times that is the only thing that keeps us upright.

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@dkel 144438 wrote:

Around this region I always feel like negative interactions with drivers is a result of their general impatience and their ignorance of cyclists’ rights on the road. Put those two ingredients together and you always get honking, yelling, rude gestures, and unsafe passing. I’d like to think better driver education would go a long way to fixing this: if drivers understood that 1) time lost waiting to pass a bike safely is always easily made up in a car, and 2) bikes have a right to be in the street (and—more often than not—in the center of the lane), there would be no urge to get belligerent.

3) If we could only make it happen, but I think the bike a mile on my wheels principle would educate A LOT of clueless drivers as to what it feels like to be passed too closely.

………

Ok, they fall into the SUV category, but in my mind there are SUVs and those damned Armored Personnel Carrier (APCs) SUVs that so many suburbanites have to carry their platoons around in. Dude, if you had a reasonably sized car you wouldn’t need 2 full lanes to go around me safely!

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@brainstormerus 144446 wrote:

Hi folks —

A member of the D.C. Used Bicycle Marketplace on Facebook suggested I share my story here with the hope of piquing some interest in a project I’m starting.

Last week, I was harassed by a driver as I was waiting for a red light to turn in Columbia Heights. The driver made contact with my rear tire (I was on a bikeshare bike at the time) and attempted to push me into the intersection with the front of her car. Then she had the gall to yell at me for being in the way. I informed her that I had every right to use the lane, but it was clear the person behind the wheel was simply too angry to be reasoned with. When the light turned green, she peeled off around me and began weaving in and out of the car traffic ahead — clearly either very impatient or in a major hurry.

In response to this frustrating and dangerous experience, I’m pushing forward with an idea I’ve had for several years. I’d like to order a custom-printed backpack cover bearing R4-11, otherwise known as the “Bikes May Use Full Lane” traffic sign.

The goal here is to educate drivers on the law with a piece of functional commuting equipment. But I need your help: Although many of the vendors I’m talking to say this project is entirely feasible, they typically require minimum orders of 500 units or more.

So I’m asking you: Please consider signing up here to request an R4-11 pack cover of your own and help make this project a reality. You won’t be committing to anything; I’m just trying to gauge interest at the moment. The per-unit cost is not high, at roughly a few dollars each. And even if you don’t use it yourself, it could make a fun gift for someone you know.

While the idea seems fine, I would be more interested in patches to sew onto my panniers rather than a cover for a backpack that I don’t use. But something tells me that if this woman was so ragey she was willing to use her car to push you out of the way, then a reminder of your legal right to the road wouldn’t matter worth a damn to her. Good luck with your venture. I think research has proven that “Bikes may use full lane” signs are far more effective than the “Share the Road Signs” at least.

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@Judd 144410 wrote:

This reminds me of an article I read a long time ago that linked cats with bumper stickers with a greater likelihood of committing road rage.

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080613/full/news.2008.889.html

As someone with a bike that has a lot of stickers I wonder if I am more susceptible to bike rage.

Wow, weird. Anecdotally I would have assumed the opposite. Ok, yeah there are 2-3 vehicles around here absolutely covered in bumper stickers that are driven by people who are absolutely ragey to begin with, but the majority of people with stickers have 5 or less and they’re perfectly normal. Right?

I would have assumed that the people who are much more prone to rageyness are the ones who would never besmirch their beautiful cars with a snarky 3-word phrase on a sticker (Mercedes, Audi, BMW, etc drivers). I wonder if the trend would be the same in a really wealthy area like Mclean and Potomac? Not too many Porshe, Mazeratti or Tesla drivers out in Fort Collins are there? It’s also a finding based on volunteers. Are the worst Type-A personalities likely to waste their time volunteering for things like this?

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