[DCAKen]

@Kitty 122431 wrote:

You know, I’ve never ridden on Beach drive when it wasn’t closed off due to weekend/holiday. When cars are on it, is it heavy traffic? Or still a fairly “sharable” road? :confused:

As expected with rush hour traffic, it’s heavier southbound in the morning and northbound in the evening. I see a number of cyclists on the road doing this commute. Fortunately, I have a reverse commute, so the traffic much less. I find it unusual to be passed by more than a dozen cars between Broad Branch Road and West Beach Drive in the morning. For the reverse in the evening, it’s a few more cars.

[DCAKen]

I’ve always been tempted to alter these signs in Rock Creek Park

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to read “Caution: Cars on Beach Drive”

[DCAKen]

It was a fun evening, although the streets were filled with more cars than I would have thought.

Thanks for organizing this Steve O!

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[DCAKen]

Signage installation project in Montgomery County portion of Rock Creek Hiker-Biker Trail

Work has begun to install trail signage along the 14 mile Rock Creek Hiker-Biker Trail and its hard-surface trail connectors. Trails users should use caution around mobile work areas that is schedule through October. For additional information about the project, or to review a summary of comments and presentation materials, please visit http://www.parkprojects.org

[DCAKen]

Sometimes, my kvetching to the Rock Creek Park superintendent actually results in something getting done. Yesterday, I asked to have the vegetation along the paved trail trimmed back.

There are numerous spots along the hiker/biker path where the vegetation is overgrowing the pavement and needs to be pruned back. While the grass between the trail and the road regularly gets cut, the bigger bushes, shrubs, and trees never get trimmed. There are three main locations where the encroaching vegetation is making the available width of the trail even narrower than it already is.

The first spot is under the Duke Ellington Bridge (Calvert Street). The attached photo (taken from a camera mounted on my bike) shows a runner stopping to let me by. At this point, I’m as far right on the available pavement as I can get without going into the mud. You can see where the runner is standing well on the pavement but in the leaves and branches of the shrubbery.
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The next section is along the zoo fence between the Beach Drive entrance and the Klingle Road bridge where the bamboo growing along the fence is squeezing the trail. I often encounter people heading south who are forced to the left side of the trail to avoid getting hit by the bamboo branches.
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Another section is between the Porter Street ramp from Beach Drive and the Bluff Bridge where the trail crosses the creek. This section rarely gets cut and is overgrown for most of the summer.

I regularly see the grass getting cut in the park and have even seen the maintenance men trimming the grass along the road’s curb. It’s frustrating to see this beautification being done to the roadway every two or three weeks without the same effort going into the more important work of maintaining a safe and usable trail.

And today, I received a response.

Thank you for reporting this. A work order has been created by Maintenance at Rock Creek Park and they plan to go out and address this problem soon.

I just wish they would respond to my requests to clear all the mud and sand off the trail.

[DCAKen]

I don’t know whether it’s an open or closed event. I had received this through my office (not the AOC) bike email group.

[DCAKen]

@TwoWheelsDC 118117 wrote:

Shocker…I have class and can’t make it.

You have class or you have a class?

[DCAKen]

@pfunkallstar 115666 wrote:

My clothes fit, for the most part – my issue is more one of “spandex age v. exposure to UVA,” which leads to UVB (you view my butt). I try to strategically pull my jersey over my shorts, but I really just need to get new ones.

I think you mean UVC (You View Crack)

[DCAKen]

I’m hoping this is a temporary situation. I posted about this in another thread. They appear to be rebuilding the sidewalks at the intersection as they get rid of the old wood light poles. On the east side of the intersection, the new posts were in the middle of the sidewalk before they reconfigured the sidewalk.

[DCAKen]

The ones that irk me are on the sidewalk connecting the Georgetown Branch of the CCT to Rock Creek.

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And the newest obstacle is even more maddening, but hopefully more temporary. New signals are being put in where the trail crosses Connecticut Avenue. They’ve installed the new pole for the walk signal in the middle of the sidewalk right at the curb cut.

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It looks like the sidewalk will get reconstructed when the old pole is removed, but for the time being, it’s frustrating to see this done.

[DCAKen]

@GB 113386 wrote:

I was just going to search for a short thin pipe.

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[DCAKen]

@Brünø Moore 111431 wrote:

IIRC, buried somewhere in their FAQ, it seems that they assume you ride at a constant rate (about 8 miles an hour, I think? Maybe less? I’ll have to look later), and guess that you went at that speed for the whole time the bike was out. Their estimated distance is a function of elapsed time, not station-to-station distance.

In the Member Area is a link to how they calculate the various figures:

Estimated Distance Traveled: 7.456 mi/h (12 km/h) times the total trip duration of trips greater than or equal to 60 seconds and under 2 hours. Trips over 2 hours max-out at 14.9 mi (24 km).

Gas saved is an estimate using your distance traveled multiplied by 0.04149 gallons per mile (24.1 mpg).

Gas saved = [Distance traveled] * 0.04149

For carbon offset calculations, we use the goDCgo’s Carbon Calculator to determine your CO2 output, using 7.456 miles per hour as an average cycling speed. Next, we determine the CO2 output of a midsized car traveling at 21mph for the same distance as your trip. Subtracting your output from the car’s gives us your carbon offset.

For calories burned, we start with base equation of averages where a 180lb person traveling at 7.456 miles per hour burns 43 cals per mile. Your calories burned are equal to 43 multiplied by your miles traveled.

[DCAKen]

As I rode on Beach Drive through Rock Creek yesterday and today, I thought that Park Service has now achieved parity with the road and the multi-use trail. It’s as if they want the drivers to have as bad a ride on the road as the bike have on the trail. The condition of the road is the worst I’ve ever seen it with potholes galore. There are several that are big enough to warrant traffic cones in them.

[DCAKen]

@tawdryaudre 110880 wrote:

Me too! Except I’m doing the middle route. But we can have a Team 2 toast with blueberry soup afterwards.

I’m on the long course, but it will be a more leisurely ride this year.

[DCAKen]

@Mikey 109990 wrote:

Be careful a 2 mi CaBi ride on Thursday will probably run you up close to the 30 minute limit.

That’s the nice thing about CaBi…just find a station to reset the timer.

[Author]

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