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@AFHokie 161052 wrote:

If so, then there’s new broken glass this morning when I passed through at 5:50

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Wow. I rode south on MVT yesterday probably around 10am and it looked clean. So, at least we can give NPS a bit of a time window – probably a smaller one if anyone here rode through yesterday afternoon.

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I assume it was cleaned up Friday, but I can say that as of this morning, Sunday 4 June, the glass was cleared off the airport bridges.

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Earlier this week I spotted a mother duck and her brood of ducklings in the water at the north end of Columbia Island. This morning there were several geese and their goslings as the southern end of Columbia Island (on the Marina side of the trail). None were on the main trail, so I managed to avoid being attacked, but based on previous years’ experiences, this might alter.

So, be aware that the ducklings and goslings are out as are their protective parents and move cautiously around them.

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@bobco85 160959 wrote:

I rode through there this afternoon, and it looks like they had just finished (I saw the painter heading back to the work vehicle).

At 6:15 pm they were on the stretch from Walter Reed to Shirlington Rd, but that was quick and easy for them since they were adding paint to very existing lines.

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Three or so evenings a week I take Fairfax east to Quincy, turn right on Quincy and then left on Wilson (and reverse it all about an hour later). The left from Quincy to Wilson is frequently not good – typically a quick turn in the remaining few seconds of the light. For a while last year I did this in the mornings and that was worse since usually I had to turn after the red since I was already in the intersection because the traffic did not provide a break (and there was the time I got to the intersection and I was the only one heading south on Quincy, so the light only turned for the other direction).

Box turn on Fairfax looks better.

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@vern 160872 wrote:

Except…for those men and women who insist on shoving ear buds into their ears…yes, I do have to shout at you, because you force me too. Or, as I am doing increasingly, I don’t shout at you; instead, I say nothing to you, because you have decided that you don’t want to hear me and would rather be an island unto yourself.

As long as your shouting is “Passing on your left” or the equivalent, then it is okay to shout at both men and women – and preferred.

I do NOT wear earbuds and in the increasingly rare occurrence of people announcing passes, most seem to be “passing” rather than “Passing“. The former is not very helpful.

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@AFHokie 160318 wrote:

Was it a red frame and possibly look like a full suspension mountain bike? On May 7th a around 5pm I passed someone headed north on the MVT under the rail bridge riding a bike with what clearly sounded and smelled like a 2 stroke engine

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Yes. Which is why at first I thought it was just a souped-up (if that is how you spell it) e-bike.

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Generally today was lovely, despite being warmer than I would like given the extra mileage to hit Crystal City and need this week to get to work extra early.

However, at about 6:25am I was heading south on the MVT just south of Gravely Point and approaching the airport when I see a bike moving quite fast towards me (north bound) with little or no pedaling. “Damn electric bike,” I thought to myself until it got closer. Then I hear and quickly smelled the 2-stroke engine. That was basically a motor cycle! Person was past me and no way to even say anything. I yelled “illegal bike,” but was unlikely heard. WTF.

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@dbb 160026 wrote:

Cleaned up two broken Miller High Life bottles on the bridges just north of the Crystal City Connector on the MVT trail on the way back from the DC Ride.

Thank you!! I noticed the glass along the side this morning as I went to CC to check in for bike to work week and wondered how someone could have broken bottles right there and not in the middle of the trail.

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Two very similar ones this morning. If any runners on the forum, I would love to understand better why these guys were jogging on the left.

First, in LBJ Grove heading from parking lot to bridge to Boundary Channel Dr.:
You: Jogger running in same direction as I am going, but on the left side of the trail – even when a jogger came towards you, you moved just out of the way and back to the left side.
Me: ding-ding and planning to continue on the right.
You: suddenly veering right stating “I’m turning here”
Me: quickly grabbing my brakes (I wasn’t going fast to begin with)
You: getting huffy and making a comment about my being there and my needing to stop and not be in his way
Me: “Hey, I stopped for your completely unexpected move, but I needed time.”

Second, minutes later (1 or 2?) on the boundary channel drive sidewalk heading clockwise around Pentagon:
You: jogger running the same direction as I am going, but on the left side. You appear to notice me and move off the sidewalk on the left then slow way down across from the curb cut where a cross walk is.
Me: Slowing down to about nothing asking, in what I believe to be a friendly way, “are you crossing here?”
You: Crossing but making some noise and gesture like “what do you think you are doing?”

The first guy seemed clueless and hostile. The second was trying to be nice and I would have thought little of it had I not just missed the first guy. Perhaps he was miffed because his attempt to be nice was thwarted by my attempt to be nice (I have likely made similar noises when cars stop for no apparent reason (blocking other traffic) to allow me to cross where I shouldn’t).

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@Sunyata 159752 wrote:

I rode through there around 3:40 or so yesterday afternoon. Coming from Fairfax Drive going towards the Custis trail, the first barricade was still there directing trail users to cross over Fairfax Drive. There was no construction equipment, so I just walked around the barriers, got back on my bike, and rode through.

I did not look hard, but it did look like there was a section near the sound barrier that was level with the I-66 ramp.

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I went through around 8pm last night – just starting to get dark. The road was open to drivers. The new bike path isn’t completed nor completely open on the block before, so I was going at speed to keep the cars from being too annoyed and aggressive towards me. Luckily I had seen these posts, so I was able to be slow enough when I got to the barriers. The trail, at that point wasn’t much worse than the mulch pits at Roosevelt Island except the material was different. I didn’t notice any at grade connections elsewhere.

The problem is that the people who put the detour in have ABSOLUTLEY NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE USERS OR THE TRAIL. They did not realize that crossing to the trail on the other side of I-66 is NOT the same as crossing a street. You are now very far from where you were going (and crossing back is EXTREMELY dangerous given the speeds of the vehicles). For safety, you continue to George Mason and then up and over to get back on the trail – but only if you know that is how to go. And it is way out of your way and an unpleasant trip. Safer, but completely unpleasant, would have been to send everyone to the right to get on the trail behind the buildings. That would force folks to go by construction traffic (during the day), building traffic, and then ride or walk on a very root-upheaved (if that is a word) trail, which connects back to the trail above their work. But there would be no Fairfax crossing with drivers getting on/off I-66.

The building construction and everything around it has been a mess for peds and bikes the whole time. There is complete disregard for the time and safety of peds and cyclists to be on the detours they construct (wait for light to cross major road here, walk a block, wait for light to cross major road back to where you wanted to be), and frequently sign them improperly (no sign at the intersection where you cross, only after you walked the half block to find that the trail they had for you yesterday is now gone, so you have to walk back to cross safely – or just walk in the road being accident fodder). The county is probably sick of me e-mailing them about it. These folks should be fined repeatedly for these problems – with increasing fines. They could pay for the snow removal with the fees from this site alone.

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So, are they going to tear down the existing houses on Railroad Ave to put these up? There isn’t enough room now to put them in next to the trail. There is one plot (or is it two?) that from Google maps looks like they could put in a few houses, but there isn’t much room there. Wow, looking at application. 11 houses (or is it 10 and a shared space?) and a parking lot in that space. That is dense. It is only mildly better than a set of townhouses. The traffic on that road will get crazy. I can see why neighbors are complaining. It is another case of putting in too much building on too little space – different from the McMansions going in all over in that instead of one family/owner it is now 11 families. And if the residents decide to walk and use the trail, it will get busy along there too (not saying good or bad, but an extra location for people meandering on and off the trail).

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Riding on Army-Navy Dr westbound (or whatever direction it is at that point, south? Away from Pentagon City towards 4MR) and I can hear a car behind me speeding and getting ready to pass. And I mean speeding. Seemed like well over 50mph (most are doing over 40). At least you gave me more than 3 ft, but I was concerned as I heard you coming.

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I have often wondered about blind people at all the intersections with talking walk signals and, especially, the flashing yellow signals that recommend drivers to stop. I frequently envision a blind pedestrian (or kid!) starting out when the signal announces itself only to be whacked by a vehicle that was looking for the break in traffic from the left rather than the whole intersection.

I changed my mind about right turn on red signs years ago for such reasons, since I frequently walk and bike as a form of transportation. If the drivers actually stopped and looked and waited if someone were there, that would be different, but so often folks barely slow down to make the turn.

I will not assume the person will stop next time – I will stare and wave arms, if needed, to make sure it is clear to go. I already wag my finger at folks or point to the no turn on red at the IOD. I can do that here too. It just wasn’t something I had seen before and I have been on this route for almost 3 months now. Oh well.

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@Rootchopper 158518 wrote:

You were lucky. Same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I got hit but lived to tell the tale.

https://rootchopper.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/making-nelles-hit-list-errandonnee-no-11/

Yours was a much worse situation. Very lucky that you weren’t hurt badly. I hope all bruises have healed.
I was POed more than anything else, which may be a sign that this kind of thing is happening too frequently to me – my rides through Ballston and Clarendon have likely done that to me. This one shocked me in that it wasn’t such a packed situation as Ballston/Clarendon and normally this is a far more calm intersection at that hour.

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