[dasgeh]

@zsionakides 194231 wrote:

Those on-campus shared use paths the study used are filled with students and are more akin to riding on the sidewalk than an MUP, which is why you see the riding speeds in the 7-8mph range. If you wanted to use that study to infer that ebike riders on sidewalks ride at the same speed as non-powered bikes, that would be reasonable, as the study demonstrates that ebikes slow down a lot in busy, congested corridors as do non-powered riders.
[…]
With 28mph ebikes being allowed on the MUPs locally, I’d imagine the real speed differential to be much higher than 3-4kph.

But isn’t this what we care most about? Not how fast people biking (e- or not) go when there’s no one else around, but how they behave around other people. This study seems to say people on ebikes slow down and behave, more so (relative to street riding) than people riding pedal bikes.

Also, Virginia law changed in July and ebikes that get assist up to 28mph aren’t allowed.

@lordofthemark 194239 wrote:

At some point, screw the Mount Vernon Trail (sorry Judd, et al, you know what I mean) and the Custis . Everything else in the region is just as, if not more, important. Bring on the Ebikes! MORE. NOW.

But really, this. Once we have real congestion on bike trails, then we can talk about restrictions. For now, let’s get more friends using our trails!

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@zsionakides 194159 wrote:

Keep in mind that these are in kilometers per hours, so in mph we are talking about average speeds less than 9mph, which is entirely irrelevant to anything in this discussion or any other ebike discussion in this area.

These are at least valid criticisms of the study (and no, sjclaeys, I had not seen any post from you pointing this out before – I took the characterization from NovaParks). Though I don’t see how they are completely irrelevant, they seem to indicate behavior within constraints.

[dasgeh]

@bentbike33 194226 wrote:

Any idea to what “3rd Quarter 2020” is in reference? Calendar year? Fiscal year? And if fiscal year, when did (does) FY 2020 begin?

Calendar year. There’s a map floating around that specifies 9/1/2020

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@zsionakides 194178 wrote:

Is there a reason the trail can’t be kept open through the construction. I understand the need for a detour while it’s being resurfaced and widened or adjacent work is being done, but that doesn’t take a year.

I would write parks@arlingtonva.us to get that answer.

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@Henry 194174 wrote:

FMR Trail through Benjamin Banneker Park will close for construction the week of Nov. 18, 2019 and remain closed through 3rd Quarter 2020.

View the detour for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

Learn more about the project.

Henry

Hopefully the signs for this detour will be easy to follow for people coming off the existing detour for the construction of the bridge over 29.

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@Tania 194151 wrote:

I don’t know for sure, but looking at pics on ArlNow, I doubt they’re letting anyone through. The sinkhole is massive and spans almost both lanes.

From the pics, it looks like someone could get to 41st St – i.e. the massive sink hole is south of the intersection of Glebe & 41st. I don’t know if they are worried about more road damage.

Betcha it will take less than 3 months to fix this.

[dasgeh]

Ah, the ol’ “your study must be wrong because my anecdotal observations lead me to a different conclusion”….

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@ChristoB50 194128 wrote:

I think we can all admit that its a lot more common to be passed by an ebike that to pass one.

Actually, that is totally the opposite of my personal experience over 21 months of cyclists passing me while on my ebike.

It is also contrary to what NoVa Parks found when they did a study — they found ebikes were on average slower than pedal bikes.

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@scoot 194079 wrote:

The rule of thumb that I recall learning for deciding whether a lane should be taken or whether it can be safely shared side-by-side is 14 feet. ShareVARoads.org’s guidelines, endorsed by VDOT, stipulate that a cyclist should take the lane whenever the lane is “of ordinary width (10-12 feet)” (see “Take the Lane”, page 10). I’m not aware of any relevant court ruling though.

Thanks for finding this. I note the Oxford comma in that sentence is helpful to our cause.

[dasgeh]

You could also use the Crystal City VRE station, then take Crystal Dr to Long Bridge Dr to Boundary Channel to the 27 Trail to the Mt Vernon Trail. Take the Key Bridge into DC and either cut through Gtown’s campus, or take surface streets to American. Not knowing exactly where you’re going, it looks to roughly the same distance, but possibly faster because less city stop-and-go.

I’ve never noticed before, but it looks like there’s a dirt path in a park labeled “Whitehurst Parkway” that would cut some distance if you went through Georgetown.

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@scoot 194071 wrote:

Are you referring to Marshall Drive eastbound from Fort Myer downhill towards 110 (where there is a grate at the bottom of the dip before a short rise)? That lane is far too narrow (11 feet maybe?) to share with a motor vehicle, and any cyclist should claim the whole lane. I hope we have weighed in with ACPD?

Yep, there. Chief Farr claims the lane is 12 feet wide, and reasons that a bike is 3′, an average car 6′, so there’s room for a car to pass with a 3′ buffer if a bike is as far right as possible. He claims that it is better for the bike to be right so that a car will pass on the right side of the double yellow, because there is a blind hill. I disagree.

It has yet to be brought up… I’ve been mulling possibilities.

[dasgeh]

Yes! Come! It will be awesome!

The Motherload folks filmed our Kidical Massive ride in September 2015, where Kidical Mass Arlington met up with Kidical Mass DC. So other forum members or familiar bikeDC faces may be in the movie, too!

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@creadinger 194060 wrote:

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.

That is crazy and I’m glad you’re ok

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@scoot 194021 wrote:

I do however think that the setting should be a factor, with different limits for streets vs. trails vs. sidewalks. Bike lanes should be considered as part of the street, with the same speed limit as required for automobiles. Certainly for un-“protected” lanes, such as those that are immediately adjacent to vehicles, it would be absurd to set a different speed limit. However, I could be convinced that PBLs belong in the trail class with a universal 15-20MPH limit; many PBLs are unsafe at those speeds anyway due to turning conflicts, visibility obscurations, and proximity to pedestrians. I also think it’s reasonable to set a lower speed limit for sidewalks than for PBLs/trails.

The problem with this approach is that there are too many gray areas in Arlington today. E.g.
– is the Custis in Rosslyn a sidewalk or a trail? What about the westside Rte 50 beside Fairfax Drive near the Red Lion Hotel? Or the northside Rte 50 trail on the bridge over the W&OD/FMR trails? How would anyone know?
– are buffered bike lanes PBLs (e.g. Quincy near the Central Library) or “street” bike lanes? What about where there’s a PBL that have a mixing zone (northbound Quincy at Wilson; southbound Veitch at Wilson)? Or when it’s supposed to be protected but the protection gets moved (southbound Quincy near the car dealership at Glebe)?

ACPD still harasses cyclists with rules that are unclear (recently a woman was stopped for not hugging the curb on Marshall Drive, where there’s a grate on the curb and a blind hill) and when asked, the police chief defended the officer), so these aren’t meaningless issues.

[dasgeh]

“Volunteering” = signing up for one or more 30 minutes shifts, am rush, lunch and/or pm rush, and standing in a location, logging violations in the app.

Everyone should help out so we have the best data possible

[Author]

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