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@NoVaNoobGA 194680 wrote:

Hope I can meet yinz soon.
GA

So you’re originally from Pittsburgh/Western PA?

We’ve all seen a lost CABI rider on 395 at some point so you wouldn’t be the first. Glad to hear you’re finding your way! Just keep pedaling.

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As of Friday, it seems like the sign has been pushed a few inches toward the road. Was that an annoyed cyclist or pedestrian? Probably. Is it compliant? My guess is no. So we’re still waiting on action from DDOT.

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Just wanted to say – thanks for everyone having this discussion. I look forward to the summary post, where I can see what all was decided and don’t have to try to sift through all of the above on my own.

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Interesting, but I’d be more impressed if they made PV solar mandatory on all the roofs with energy storage for nighttime use as well in attempt to make the neighborhood carbon neutral.

It will be interesting to see how people decide to get around in triple digit heat. But if they think it will work I guess it is assumed that people are more afraid of rain and/or cold instead. I am not one of those people.

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@creadinger 194392 wrote:

Since I got back, this has been annoying me greatly… the first time I encountered it I almost ran over the 2″ high sharp metal bars on the ground holding it up. I highly doubt this is ADA compliant. I don’t think there’s enough room between the fence and the bars on the ground for a wheelchair to get through.

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If all of this is going to be demolished eventually, couldn’t they just drill holes and plant the sign that way?

I may not get a chance to bike in this week, so if any of you swing by and see there’s a change with the location of the sign above (Corner of Potomac Ave and S Capitol St/Douglass Bridge) let me know. Charles Allen’s team have made a DDOT request on my behalf and want to be kept in the loop as well.

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@Smitty2k1 194395 wrote:

This is also in Charles Allen’s Ward and he tends to get things like this taken care of if brought to his attention.

Thanks for the tip! I am in communication with his team now.

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Since I got back, this has been annoying me greatly… the first time I encountered it I almost ran over the 2″ high sharp metal bars on the ground holding it up. I highly doubt this is ADA compliant. I don’t think there’s enough room between the fence and the bars on the ground for a wheelchair to get through.

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If all of this is going to be demolished eventually, couldn’t they just drill holes and plant the sign that way?

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Welcome back to my bike commute! After 6 weeks at sea in the Arctic and 2 weeks in Alaska I was super happy to have such great fall weather to ride in today.

The good news: I made it in ok.
The bad and weird: I was also hit by a deer that had just been hit by a car. By hit I mean it slid into my wheels, but I witnessed all of it and… jesus christ, wtf.

I was huffing and puffing up Hillcrest in SE and I feel guilty because I saw it happening before it happened and didn’t make any attempts to aver it. A deer was running through the front yards to my right and a driver coming down the hill, comes around the bend in the road up ahead. The deer veers across the road and gets t-boned by the car. Headlight plastic shatters and goes flying and the deer is suddenly rolling and sliding along the road in my direction! I stop and try to get out of the way but it slides into my wheels. Then the deer gingerly gets up, tests its legs out and limps into the woods to where it was originally heading.

Fortunately, the driver did not seem to be going excessively fast. It literally jumped out of his peripheral vision in front of his car. After the hubbub, the driver eases down the hill across from me and asks – “how bad is it?” I’d like to think he was asking about me and whether I was ok, but I’m almost sure he was asking about his goddamn car.

Welcome back to cycling in DC! Oh! And the Douglass bridge project has made things in that area even worse than ever!

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@elbows 194037 wrote:

Like everyone else, I encounter a myriad of air-based pollutants in my daily commutes. All are unpleasant. I can seek to minimize some of them via route selection but if I minimize all of them, I’ll never make it where I need to go. Curious if anyone has thoughts or information on the dangers of the below?
a) Heavy construction dust, such that can be seen with the naked eye
b) Heavy coal-based dust (particularly along the Met Branch Trail at S St NE)
c) Trash Fumes (particularly around Ft Totten Transfer Station)
d) Heavy vehicle fumes

A, B, and C can be large enough that my mouth becomes gritty with particulates. C & D smell the worst.

Here’s a link where you could start – https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=aqibasics.particle There are literally thousands upon thousands of pollution based studies and many on urban residents and I’m sure some that discuss the effects on urban cyclists and runners. Just do some searches that include: PM2.5, PM10, bicycle, health, commute, etc… [edit]unfortunately you’ll find like I am, that most of the relevant publications (not opinion pieces) are behind the publisher pay wall, so you’ll have to do this research at a university library or somewhere like that.

As an undergrad in meteorology we did some surface air sampling looking for pm2.5 and pm10. As for which is worst in your list, I think the particulate matter (A, B, D) is WAY up there compared to bad smells (C). Those are probably the least of your worries. I forget how particulate matter interacts with your body, but I recall that due to their size difference it’s quite different, with the most severe effects in the lungs.

Sorry I don’t have time to go back and look into all of this at the moment, but that should be a good place to get started. I did all of my graduate work in paleoclimate and promptly forgot my pollution knowledge. And I’m now doing operational sea ice work and my climate knowledge is in a lull.

Also, here’s some info from a NASA mission to research air quality in the US with educational materials simplified so that we can read them as well!
https://discover-aq.larc.nasa.gov/education.html

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What would a lumberjack do with this bike?

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Shout out to the big tough man in the pickup truck who on Maple Drive in Purcellville passed me with about a foot of room, then showed me what he thought of me by slowing down and driving with your wheels on the edge of the road in front of me. Congratulations! You were the biggest asshole I encountered on my 11 hours out riding yesterday and you weren’t even inconvenienced by my existence! The road was plenty wide for you to pass safely.

The dumbest part, I was in fact on my way to the trail but your cowardly behavior made me want to stay on the road.

Note to self: I need to get better about looking at license plates, even while giving the finger. Fuck you!

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Sounds like now is the time to collate all 300 of the bike advice questions into some sort of book.

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You’re in inspiration. Sorry the troll bridge got you. I hate that bit of infrastructure too.

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@dasgeh 192160 wrote:

But it also uses a right angle…

Those switch backs are difficult to impossible for bikes with longer wheelbases — long tails, box bikes, bikes towing trailers. We shouldn’t make the safest infrastructure hard/impossible for family bikers to use!

Unless you’re a short person on a small bike it’s impossible for 2 cyclists to pass each other too. Except maybe in the straightaways. Just going around a turn that tight at a slow speed I have to lean well over the other lane just to get around. I hate them, and the primary reason I won’t take that route. When it comes to stupid infrastructure that ramp and the switchbacks rank right up there with the 1-lane MVT under Memorial Bridge, and the stupidly tight sidewalks on the Douglass Bridge.

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@Emm 192146 wrote:

Either you were right behind me today, or this happened more than once this morning I have to bike to slow along this area to avoid clueless drivers every morning and evening.

All of my interactions were yesterday! It’s an epidemic! Do you take the PBL through the Wharf area? I always take the right lane going southbound, and the left lane going northbound to the Fish Market. Since the PBL and sidewalk deadend for the 2nd phase anyway, I feel pretty justified in doing this. Occasionally there’s an aggressive pass every now and then but no cross traffic…. until the market.

@bentbike33 192147 wrote:

Two Words: Case Bridge. It carries you above the fray. There are curb cuts and protected bike lanes all over the Banneker Circle area at the end of the L’Enfant Promenade, and recently a curb cut was added between the Park Police HQ parking lot and the I-395 ramp road making the (curbless) loop-around from the 14th St. Bridge even shorter. And if I can learn to navigate the Case Bridge switchback cleanly on my contraption, any cyclist can do it. See this ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/2536761700.

Yeah, I also did that for a year or two as well when the Wharf was a complete mess. I wasn’t a fan. When you’re heading to the Douglass Bridge it’s just too indirect. Besides, why should I add a mile and several minutes to my commute when it’s the drivers who are idiots. On the plus side, of the 4 morons I had interactions with yesterday, the fish market one was the least surprising.

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