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I just logged the following request on the VDOT website

http://www.virginiadot.org/travel/citizen.asp

“The lights in the ped/bike trail along Four Mile Run are inoperative. Although they should operate 24 hrs per day for tunnel safety, they were not operating today. This is a safety hazard for pedestrians using the route.

Some lights have been damaged and need to be repaired as well.”

You can also call VDOT as their site provides:

“Report a Road Problem
Customer Service Center: 800-FOR-ROAD (800-367-7623)
Call VDOT’s Customer Service Center at 1-800-367-7623 around the clock. TTY users can call 711.
• Report all unsafe and hazardous road conditions
• Report work requests for state-maintained roads
• Other VDOT questions”

Good luck.

Given the length of the tunnel under 395, those lights should operate 24/7. I rode through there about 1 pm this afternoon and it was pitch black in the tunnel.

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@PotomacCyclist 12744 wrote:

There’s an unofficial dirt path from FMR to Potomac Ave. but it’s very steep. I wouldn’t ride a bike on it.

Late entry – Dredged up a photo to show the wonder of the alternative path

[ATTACH=CONFIG]624[/ATTACH]

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I bought my beater bike (1990’s Peugeot with winter tires) there last summer. At the time, we had an intern in the office who was quite the rider and he was volunteering there in the evenings. He spoke highly of the crew and I found them cordial and capable.

The great thing about these shops is that you can learn to do many things on your own.

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Marcella,

While there are some hardcore commuters on the forum, most are also pretty ardent recreational riders as well. Good trails and safe roads benefit everybody and commuters and recreational riders can get behind improvements in that regard.

Dive in and join the discussion. I am pleased to say the riders I have met through the forum are first rate people who want to make cycling both fun and safe.

Dana

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I see the problem. The absence of rhinestones has eliminated the aura about the rider that deflects the raindrops!

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It appears that Vornado/Charles Smith owns the bollard lights leading down from Crystal Drive/Water Park down to the railroad tunnel. I have been in communication with the Crystal City BID who reports they have been communicating with Vornado.

I am attempting to clarify the “ownership” of the pole lights along the trail on the east side of the railroad tunnel.

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@dbb 13311 wrote:

I just sent the NPS an email asking for some attention to the lights.

My email read:

The light in the bike/pedestrian path alongside the southbound exit from the GW Parkway to National Airport have been out for about a week. As you can imagine, that makes that part of the trail very dark and particularly hazardous for pedestrians and cyclists.

Can you please have your maintenance crew investigate and address the problem?

I would appreciate a reply so we know an approximate day the necessary repairs will be made. If you feel another jurisdiction is responsible, please let me know who I should contact.

Their response:

Dana,

We’ll check that location and get back to you.

Thanks for letting us know!

Jon G. James
Acting Park Superintendent

GWMP_Superintendent@nps.gov

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I just sent the NPS an email asking for some attention to the lights.

Will advise if they respond.

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@KLizotte 13245 wrote:

Wow, is that all it takes?! Let me show you my “probit” models sometime (we would be “discrete” of course) :rolleyes:

And if you aren’t male and single I apologize for my lewd comments:p
And if you aren’t familiar with statistical terminology, then I doubly apologize!

It’s hard trying to be a funny economist…

Male, yes
Single, no

As an engineer, I could be accused of not being able to identify a lewd comment

I hang with a bunch of housing economists that span the humor distribution. Alas, because they are economists, the distribution isn’t Gaussian but is significantly tail right (with several anchoring the intersection of the ordinate and abscissa).

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@KLizotte 13223 wrote:

One could also show the data as a relative frequency distribution histogram (with % frequency on the vertical axis and Miles on the horizontal axis). Just an idea.

You are just trying to excite me, aren’t you?

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@Arlingtonrider 13203 wrote:

Based on what I see on my commuting rides, I think the gender balance is better than that in our little survey. I might be imagining things, but I would guess that at least 35% of the riders on my route (FMR, MVT, Mall) are women. I’ve also been surprised at how many women are riding through the winter.

– Kathy

If we don’t include gender on the periodic trailside rider counts, we probably should.

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@KLizotte 13185 wrote:

Wow, if this is truly representative of the cycling population in this area, we have a real gender imbalance that is far more than I would expected given the cycling infrastructure here.

Do people want to see the listing of usernames and mileages?

While I likely will be a bit humbled by the accomplishments of my fellow riders, I would love to see the data!

We should consider ways to enlist the riding clubs and local shops to increase the number of individuals responding next year.

444 K miles is pretty impressive – that is 37 autos each driving 12 K miles/year off the road! If we were to assume that each of those miles would have been a single person in a 25 mpg auto, those cars would have consumed 17,770 gallons of gas.

Way to go!

Dana

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As a glasses wearer, I think a see through visor like hockey players wear would be pretty useful.

http://www.oakley.com/technology/hockey-visor

While I am sure it would decrease my aerodynamic efficiency, the impact would be minimal.

I’ve not seen any bike helmets that include this feature.

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I rode through the area tonight and offer the following.

All the lights in the road/trail underpass under the GW Parkway leading to the airport are inoperative. Not sure if those lights belong to the NPS or the Airport Authority.

The four pole mounted lights immediately east of the railroad tunnel are inoperative. They are between the railroad tunnel east portal and the new traffic counter on the trail (before the GWMP tunnel discussed above)

The lights in the railroad tunnel are all operational (and way too bright)

One of the two new (installed last month) bollard lights on the path from the railroad tunnel up to Crystal Drive was not working

Dana

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I just got this from Rep Blumenauer’s site. The color is mine for emphasis. The issue seems to be the either-or aspect of the subsidy. At HUD, any metro subsidy that isn’t used during the month is recaptured (in December, I used about $4 of the subsidy I was eligible for). I suppose it is time for another round of letters to my elected representatives.

The Bicycle Commuter Act

The most recent piece of legislation supported by the Bike Caucus is Congressman Blumenauer’s Bicycle Commuter Act, which allows employers to offer a fringe benefit of $20 per month for employees for the purchase of a bicycle and any bicycle improvements, repairs, or storage costs.
How the Legislation Works:

For employees who regularly commute to work by bicycle, employers may offset the costs of bicycle purchase, improvement, repair, and storage at the rate of $20 per month. Based on how the employer chooses to offer the benefits, the employee may bring receipts to be reimbursed, may sign up for regular monthly payments, or devise some sort of voucher system with their employer.

Bike commuters are not allowed to receive transit or parking benefits in addition to the bike benefit.

The bike commuter benefit can be provided by employers beginning January 1, 2009.

How the Statute Reads:

Section 132 of the tax code excludes from gross income certain fringe benefits offered by employers to employees, including transportation benefits. Under the new law, “qualified bicycle commuting reimbursements” are included within the definition of transportation benefits. Here’s the new law:

26 U.S.C. §132
(f) Qualified transportation fringe

(1) In general
For purposes of this section, the term “qualified transportation fringe” means any of the following provided by an employer to an employee:
(D) Any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.

(2) Limitation on exclusion
The amount of the fringe benefits which are provided by an employer to any employee and which may be excluded from gross income under subsection (a)(5) shall not exceed –
(C) the applicable annual limitation in the case of any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.

(5) Definitions
For purposes of this subsection –
(F) DEFINITIONS RELATED TO BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT-

(i) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT- The term `qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement’ means, with respect to any calendar year, any employer reimbursement during the 15-month period beginning with the first day of such calendar year for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee during such calendar year for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.

(ii) APPLICABLE ANNUAL LIMITATION- The term `applicable annual limitation’ means, with respect to any employee for any calendar year, the product of $20 multiplied by the number of qualified bicycle commuting months during such year.

(iii) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING MONTH- The term `qualified bicycle commuting month’ means, with respect to any employee, any month during which such employee–

(I) regularly uses the bicycle for a substantial portion of the travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment, and
(II) does not receive any [other transportation fringe] benefit . . . .

[Author]

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