[DrP]

On Monday evening, on 4MRT by the parking lot at Bluemont Park (the smaller part of the lot, along the ball fields), a car entered the trail. I waved my arms yelling “NO! TRAIL!” and he re-entered the lot.
They repaved the trail and the lot in the past year and there are no markings indicating that the parking lot ends or signs about a trail and no curb. I e-mailed the county suggesting paint/signs and they wrote back to say that it has now been entered as a work order. Keep an eye out for the upgrades. And further incursions.

[DrP]

@Birru 165200 wrote:

Speaking of which… don’t read the comments.

Maybe the perpetrators do not like dogs. Paws on tacks are unpleasant too. Or those runners with bare or nearly bare feet would suffer. Interesting how the commenters jump to bicyclists. I find the dog walkers with their dogs all over the trail annoying – even when I am a pedestrian on the trail. However, I am not trying to cause harm to them to make them stop.

[DrP]

@JorgeGortex 165188 wrote:

https://www.restonnow.com/2017/09/12/bikers-on-wod-trail-plagued-by-unexpected-problem-tacks/

Jack asses.

Agree with the sentiment.

I was planning on writing in this morning and asking if others got tacks in their tires from the W&OD, but got distracted by work (ugh). Yes, Sunday while in the Green Lizard, someone came in with a tack in his tire. Yesterday, when I got my bike after work for my commute home, I saw the tack and it looked the same. I wasn’t sure if it were coincidence or there was a patch of tacks on the W&OD – now I know. It was on the side of my tire, so not something that clicked with each rotation and clearly mostly self-sealed since I doubted someone plunged it into my tire while it was on the bike rack at the end of the work day.

At least I know my rear tire can hold a tack and most of its air – there was only a slight loss in pressure for me, just to the point where I thought I should fill it in the next few days. I actually rode home on it and replaced it at home last night.

[DrP]

I noticed yesterday that they have put a new mirror in on the Custis at the 90deg turn at Glebe/I-66 ramp location. It was all fogged over yesterday, but not today. It is exactly what I asked them NOT to put in – the tiny mirror like they have at the I-66 90deg turn at BonAir. Sigh. It isn’t very helpful until you are about a foot from the intersection which isn’t really enough time or space to react. But, there is something there now.

[DrP]

I admit, I get annoyed whenever someone passes me going up hill without any clear effort and I am pedaling hard. That person is always on an e-bike. I see e-bikes all over ridden by both generally reasonable people and the jerks. Same with regular bikes. I understand the concern folks have with the fairly inexperienced rider being able to go really fast (how many teenagers would you want in a Ferrari or Lamborghini riding the local roads? Or with diminished reflexes, like many elderly (and they do accidentally run over people in Farmers Markets and the like)?). However, I see the overwhelming concern on this thread of people of all the jerks (for want of a better term) on the trails.

Barring law enforcement on the trails, keeping e-bikes off will be hard, keeping people going a safe speed for the conditions will be hard, and even getting people to call their passes as stated in the “rules” posted at occasional entrances to trails will be hard. However, I think the latter along with the general improvement on the trails may be possible. But we, the trail using community, need to be pushing it. I am sure the runners and walkers aren’t happy with the crowded trails either. Do we find a way to work with them to come up with trail etiquette (and I use that term rather than rules. Rules are for officials to enforce. Etiquette is for the population to enforce, perhaps via twitter or facebook or just telling someone it is uncool. No one wants to be uncool) that we somehow get bicycle and sports stores to post and hand out with each new bike and new pair of running or walking shoes? Do we use it to encourage all the different clubs and groups that use the trails – including the local schools that set their runners training on the trails and races that use the trails (some are well organized, some are not at all)?

Anyway, I keep thinking there is something the community can do about the lack of “coolness” (for want of a better phrase) aside from a few of us talking about it on these pages.

[DrP]

@bentbike33 164014 wrote:

It occurs to me, the IOD needs two things: a second one of those “No Right Turn” light-up signs, but this one positioned on the other side of Lee Highway over the rightmost lane of Lynn Street facing north, i.e., in the field of view of the right-on-red drivers; and yellow strobes around both signs that flash when the signs are lit.

I have thought the intersection needs a regular sign that is “NO TURN ON RED” with the sub-sign of “During Leading Pedestrian Interval” or whatever the appropriate phrase is. It gets people to realize that there may be a time to not turn so that the sign that lights up isn’t a complete surprise. (Okay, I would prefer the lack of the caveat sign, but that is probably changing some other rules)

[DrP]

@huskerdont 163920 wrote:

Since so many reported this yesterday (DrP plus a couple of people I talked to), I didn’t report it. However, if they did anything, they only did enough for the water that was there to drain. Much of the muck still covers the drain, so the next time there’s heavy rain, it will happen again. Since I rarely bring a shovel or a rake with me while riding, Ima be a greasy wheel.

It seems that if we bother to do anything anymore, we only use half of our ass, not the whole thing.

I noticed this morning that there was only a pushing away of enough muck to drain the puddle – something any trail user and a big stick could have done (and I frequently do if I am walking and find gutters backed up). Since they did not address the low branches by Lyon Village (and one looked lower today), my guess is that they didn’t go out at all yesterday.

[DrP]

@Judd 163807 wrote:

Don’t forget to yell “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” the entire way. It’s scientifically proven to make you go faster.

Oh, that is a given. I did that and I am certain it increased the height of the water splashing too.

[DrP]

On Custis, lowest point between Spout Run and Bridge to Nowhere there is a very large puddle – likely blocked drain (submitted service request). I highly recommend taking it at full speed, removing feet from pedals and raising legs up the in the air. Great splashes! (you will get wet no matter what, so why not have fun with this).

Also, submitted service requests for a few low hanging braches or trees behind Lyon Village.

[DrP]

@dasgeh 163692 wrote:

Tree down on the Custis by Lyon Village

This happened last night, before 7:30pm, and went I went by people were reporting it. The car had landed on a car, and it seems they only bothered to cut enough to free the car, leaving the trail blocked. Not cool, Arlington, not cool
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

I didn’t see this until I got to work and had already reported it on the Arlington web page. So, it is reported again. I did point out that it was just after a blind curve.

As I was coming down the straightaway after the S curve, one of the year round joggers I see was coming up the hill. I regularly greet her and rarely hear a response (volume? My speed? No response?). Today the conversation was:
Me: Good Morning!
Jogger: Tree
Me: Thank you!

I promptly slowed down. Which was a good thing.

[DrP]

@dasgeh 163533 wrote:

I ride the Custis daily. Even on “crowded” days. It’s not crowded. I’ve never missed a light, even with the short timing at Lynn.

I am not sure when you are on the trail (I usually get on between 6:45 and 7:15 – earlier in summer, later in winter), but I find the Custis more and more crowded – to the point that it rivals the MVT for the times that I am on that trail later in my ride to work in the south part of the county. Oddly, more and more people are heading westbound in the morning than there used to be. This morning I needed to stop on the downhills of both of the two sisters because a pedestrian was in front of me and cyclists were coming up the hill. And it is a rare day that either multiple people are passing me from behind on the hill going up towards the bridge to now where or there are multiple people on the downhill. The numbers of peds and cyclists all throughout is typically higher than I have seen in recent years.

@zsionakides 163620 wrote:

20mph is very fast for riding uphill. If you look at the Rosslyn hill on the Custis trail on Strava (https://www.strava.com/segments/12543956), only 9 out of over 7500 riders have ever averaged 20mph up that hill. Putting ebikes out there means that anyone can spend a couple grand and be faster than basically every rider on the trail, simply by twisting the wrist or flicking a switch.

This happens to be how I mostly notice the ebikes – they zoom past me going up hill. I find fewer of them are courteous than non-ebike riders, but since only a small fraction of cyclists seem to call their pass, this may be small number of statistics. And most of the non-courteous do not fall into the previously mentioned categories – they are all guys between 30-50 who seem to have more money than brain cells (from what I can tell as they whiz by me). Kind of like those in the expensive fast cars.

[DrP]

Aside from the aforementioned tree on the Custis behind Lyon Village shopping center, there are two more.

One on the Custis on the westbound part of the trail, just west of the underpass under N. Glebe.

One on the entrance to the Custis from N Calvert street (just east of the spout run overpass). This was I noticed last week too.

I reported all three via the Arlington Co. web pages.

[DrP]

@sjclaeys 163165 wrote:

Tree down blocking the Custis Trail between the corkscrew and the Spout Run overpass. If going east, you can get off the trail after the corkscrew, go through the Lee Highway shops parking lot past the Giant and then take the ramp back on the Custis.

Reported this via Arlington web pages – someone else also reported it in a slightly different spot (and probably more accurate than mine).

It is possible to go through it. Person ahead of me went over it; heading east, one goes far right then through it; neither are great fi you are wide, tall or heavy. The detour suggested above also good.

[DrP]

There is now green striping on Fairfax Dr. at the Glebe Rd Intersection. It is great! It shows the drivers where the bikes are supposed to be while going through the intersection, so hopefully they won’t veer into us. It also shows some of those cyclists who do not get the right turn lane being on the right side of the bike lane where they should be (and stopping in front of the cars in the turn lane is not it, but I have seen many move over there and later go straight).

[DrP]

@Drewdane 162947 wrote:

Yeah, I usually check it so I know whether I need to worry about folks approaching the blind turn. I just reported it using Arlington’s online service request tool.

Thank you for reporting it. I will try to do so too – if multiple people report it, maybe it can be replaced. Hopefully with the same sized one – not the tiny one they added by the underpass of I-66 shortly before it Ts the W&OD.

[Author]

Posts