[DrP]

As many here have indicated, it depends on your route and your willingness (pigheadedness?) to ride in the different conditions. And having the right gear.

For the first 1-2 weeks of my regular commuting, I wasn’t going if the winds were predicted to be high or heavy rain was predicted. I gave that up by the end of the 2nd week because the predictions were not accurate for the times I was cycling and in the end, none of the conditions were that bad for cycling. For all the days I went to the office, I was able to bike in (except when the car was needed for other things, like meetings elsewhere in the state), so about 100% for me.

With rain gear, only the thunderstorms were of concern and typically I (a) remained at work for 30-60 min/left 30 min early to avoid, (b) missed them entirely, or (c) got slammed on the ride and hid under a bridge or chanced the last three blocks home (one ride home I managed to just skirt the storm to get drenched waiting to cross a major road half a block from home).

Cycling through the winter is pretty straight forward on some of the trails since they get treated and plowed (Custis). We had a dangerous 1-2inches of snow two nights before a blizzard this year that had the roads at a standstill during evening rush-hour (it packed down quickly and was VERY slick) that I didn’t even notice until I had to get off the trails near my destination. And the next morning I decided that biking would be much safer and quicker than the roads – and I was right! It took 5-10 min longer (and I took the W&OD since the hills are less steep than Custis) since I was slowing for the crunchy icy bits and passing a long line of cars near the office that was not moving; co-workers who drove took nearly an hour longer just due to the slick roads.

Oh, and the people on this forum are great for reporting conditions and warnings, so always check before heading out on iffy days. (and remember to provide your own report if no one else has)
And some folks on the forum go and shovel the trails too.

[DrP]

@dasgeh 148373 wrote:

Actually, that one I know, and that’s what I meant — the last two were not translations of each other.

However you travel
However you say it (but in Spanish)

Look out for each other
And we’ll all get there safely (but in Spanish)

Ah, well, if they weren’t supposed to be translations, then that is different. I would still check with someone on the use of manejar. I know that I was taught Spanish that is used in Spain and there, it would be conducir, so I found that line very odd. I know that different Latin American countries have different usage and manejar is used in some places, some use both but there is a subtle distinction in usage. Although I think both are typically understood. If different phrases are used, they would need different checks (e.g., using “car” in one will need something that is at least recognized by most since it varies more).

[DrP]

@bentbike33 148368 wrote:

Best to run it by a native speaker.

Especially since “Como lo dices” is more like “However you [familiar you] say it” and you probably want more of “how you travel” (“Como lo viaja”). And manejar vs conducir will depend a bit on where the folks are from (as, in fact, the word for car itself changes depending on where you are). (Note: My Spanish is rusty, except for ordering food and site seeing.)

[DrP]

They appear to be repaving much of 4MR near W&OD (see earlier messages on the bit near the Castle and related Custis Spurt) – today I noticed that the section in Bluemont from the parking lot near the playground to somewhere around the ball fields was all new.

[DrP]

@hozn 147983 wrote:

This is way OT, but I’m sure you know that carrying around a phone means “they” can track your location, pretty accurately (GPS just adds a little bit of additional granularity, but with all the towers around here, I imagine tower-measurement based location is pretty accurate). So the telco company/s & the gov’t know where you are, so the more realistic thing you still have some control over is whether your location information is exposed to arbitrary members of the public; Strava itself does provide some ability to safeguard that data from the public.

Continuing OT for a moment to clarify what kind of nut job I am (I contend that no one can claim to be completely sane). No tin foil hats for me. I have a good understanding of technology – I develop aspects of it for work, and get tracked in all sorts of ways at work. I have no issues with the 911 system knowing where I am, nor the Government as a whole. There are safeguards in place to stop the gov’t from doing bad things to the populace and they are trying to do good things (succeeding is a different story and defined differently by all, but the intent is for good), and ways to get those ways changed if we do not like them; I do know that there is no perfect system and accept that. The telco will have that info too, but there it is. I have more issues with corporations and general web sites having all my information. The goal of corporations is to make money not public good, and many disregard privacy or go cheap on protection for financial reasons (there are many good corporations, but many bad ones, e.g., recent Wells Fargo issues which is essentially ID theft from someone you trusted). There are fewer ways to get corporations to change, partially due to proof of it being difficult (gov’t just needs lots of loud voices/money). Since my information on systems not under my control (universities, healthcare systems, gov’t systems, banks, etc.) has been hacked multiple times over the years by criminals and other countries’ governments, I prefer to limit how much information is out there.

I would not be surprised if someone were to hack into Strava (or worse, and hopefully not likely, someone in FS just checking everyone out) and figure out where someone lives and when they are likely to be out and take advantage of that. This is the exposure I am trying to limit. We all need our own paranoias to protect ourselves in some manner. This is mine. I have pushed the group for allowing me to follow this while being part of FS, but that isn’t working. So be it. I accept it.

[DrP]

@hozn 147955 wrote:

I didn’t read this closely enough when I originally replied and suggested that you could borrow a phone from someone. I guess I am surprised there are people that don’t carry a phone, and even especially on rides. That is quite the resistance effort!

I have a cell phone, but it is a dumb phone (7 or 8 yr old flip phone). It is pretty rugged, I can make and receive calls and texts. I do not need much else. It really is for emergencies and figuring out why someone hasn’t made it to a meeting point yet. (and, apparently, for airlines to tell me that the plane I am boarding is delayed). I do resist a lot, but safety is still important. Tracking my location and posting it somewhere is not.

Yes, if it is difficult to keep manual entries, then I am likely not going to be participating a lot. I’ll still be on the trails, however.

[DrP]

This is very nice. The colored bar clearly shows that the lane is blocked for large periods of time, which is what is needed to show people who make decisions.

Comments:
For the legend in the gray bar, I believe you mean “data not yet final” (“note” doesn’t make too much sense).

On 9/21 for Crystal City, the 1300-1400 hour seems to be lacking – I only see a thin red line.

Orientation of the timeline; Hmm, depending on what medium you are using to present, a horizontal graph rather than vertical (as per Guus) might make more sense. I usually plot time on the horizontal.

I was having problems seeing the “clear” images, but that may have had more to do with not being able to hover my mouse over such a narrow line and have the computer recognize it – and that for the later times in the day, the image was off the top of my screen when I hovered (another reason to make time horizontal). Some locations definitely provided me with a “broken” image symbol so maybe there are multiple issues. The idea of stepping through the images is a good one, although I know any kind of replay takes a bit of work to put together and easily go forwards and backwards in time as someone is likely to try to do.

[DrP]

This is a good map. Sorry to hear that the circulation won’t be as large as last year. I know some neighbors were glad to receive it.

On the back page, the Orange description states: “Orange routes generally have higher traffic volumes or high traffic speeds than yellow or blue routes”
I believe “yellow” should be replaced with “green”

A few comments on missing steep hill arrows (I either use these routes to get hill work or choose a particular cross-street to avoid the hill in between):

Williamsburg between Harrison and George Mason – steep in both directions since the peak is in the middle (close to Emerson)

Williamsburg heading from Old Dominion towards Glebe (peak is before 35th St N)

I think you are missing the connection between 4MR and Potomac Ave (the switchbacks)

Given where you have some arrows, there likely should be some at the following:
N Harrison between Little Falls going up to 27th St N

N Harrison between 16th and up towards 18th

N George Mason between 25th going up to Lee Hwy

[DrP]

@hozn 147867 wrote:

I would like to disallow manual entries, though. If you want to get creative you can always construct GPX files and upload them (you could do this in Strava too to get around their prohibition of manual rides for all their competitions).

As someone who does not own any devices to record my location, track, or route, nor desire to own one (or be tracked), I very much enjoyed the manual entry option and it was the only way I was able to be part of Freezing Saddles last year. I did the same few routes (to and from work, the gym, the Farmer’s market, etc.), so plugging in the known mileage was great. I put in a lot of miles (and would have done more if work didn’t, unexpectedly, have me traveling for 7 weeks in a row) for my team and enjoyed that (and finished in the top 80 or 90, despite missing 21 days of points). I conversed with the team both through these pages and Strava, and I made it to the final Happy Hour, so I think there wasn’t anything that the manual entry really hindered in my enjoyment or participation.

There were a few things it might have been nice to have been counted towards (Hains Point laps, cold days), but not enough for me to want to own another piece of electronic equipment. Other than for including in some of the extra games, what is the problem with manual entries?

[DrP]

@chris_s 147822 wrote:

Some preliminary results are coming in and…wow. Just wow.

Take this with a grain of salt, as many of those classifications haven’t yet been verified by a 2nd person, but…

That spot on Crystal Dr blocked around 62% of the day on 9/21/2016 (day being defined in this instance as 7am-7pm)

Seems kind of low to me. I used to work just above that area and would look out the window several times during the day. I rarely found the bike lane completely free. Must have been the rain apparent in the pictures keeping the drivers from venturing on the roads. Those car lanes can be pretty dangerous in the rain.

[DrP]

Sunday morning, 9:30-ish, at the W&OD crosswalk at Maple in Vienna.

Us: Two cyclists heading SE who waited for the light to turn and the cars to stop. Then began to cross when the two lanes on our side were stopped, the far one in the other direction was stopped and your lane appeared to be empty. On the other side was a pair of women with a baby carriage also waiting to cross.

You: Entitled driver of a giant, black, SUV with a “Kids first” VA plate (noted by my friend after the fact), who was not paying any attention to anyone else and drove right passed the stopped cars and through the red light, then slowed down once in the intersection, noting the error of your ways after you missed two cyclists and a couple of women with a baby carriage (who, luckily, saw you and did not leave the curb) and waved “sorry” as you continued on your mad spree across Vienna.

Us: yelling and cursing you and being very thankful that the women with the carriage had not started crossing yet. So, did you think the “kids first” plate meant you were supposed to try to hit them first?

[DrP]

I remain unattached to my pedals because I feel much more safe, especially after seeing the problems a friend has regularly had (are neither of us completely coordinated? Perhaps not…). So I fully agree with suggestion of not attaching in the potentially crazier (i.e., more potential for interactions) locations.

Examples:

1. Pedestrians suddenly changing their mind as to where on the trail they wished to be after I rang my bell (well before hand) and I needed to change direction to go off trail quickly to not hit them. I ended up stopping short and going mostly over the handle bars, but able to land better than if a bicycle were attached to my feet. I only had minor bruises. I was moving at my regular cycling pace (probably 12-15 mph) prior to needing to stop.

2. Crazy Ivan who was suddenly in my lane, despite my bell ringing (head phones do that). I grabbed my brakes hard and my feet slipped off the pedal since they were not attached and helped me stop by acting like brakes. I did hit the runner, but at that point at a very low speed and was mostly like a bit of a shove. Had I been attached to my pedals, I would not have stopped as quickly and likely would have hit the jogger hard and with my head or something as we came to a stop yards later. Again, traveling at my typical pace.

3. Two falls on compress snow this past winter (the 1-2inches of snow two days before the blizzard). In these cases I was slower than usual due to the snow, but not drastically. Bike slipped to the side and I hit the ground. Were I attached (and these were sudden falls), I likely would have twisted or broken something, especially on the first fall since I had issues untangling myself as it was. I only had a couple of bruises.

4. Friend grabs brakes for some reason (cannot recall, likely due to shock of accident/possible concussion) and goes partially over the handle bars, but not entirely due to being attached to the pedals (no time to do anything) and then is mangled in the bike. Broken collar bone and loads of bruising.

5. Friend has slid on Trollheim and other slippery wooden bridges and landed still attached. Knowing the locations, the speeds were slower than typical, but bruises and scrapes in all cases. Similarly injured when accidentally going off the side of a trail avoiding cyclists from the other direction or just falling from a near standstill. I have managed to get a foot down and not fall in all my similar wobbly cases, to date.

[DrP]

@vern 147505 wrote:

It was still wide open when I went through this morning.

Thank you!

[DrP]

@LeprosyStudyGroup 147463 wrote:

seems to be a correlation between which foot you put down and turning preference

Hmmm, I guess that makes sense. Sometimes I prefer to put my left down and other times my right. Some days the left turns are easier than the right and vice versa. I do not attach my feet to my pedals – they become extra brakes and allow for tight turns.

One might then think that I am ambidextrous, but I am VERY right handed.

Street crossing is definitely left-right-left looks. Except in the UK, where it starts out as left-right-left-right (usually with a few statements like “crap, I keep forgetting” in the middle) becoming right-left-right. And upon return to the US, it is right-left-right-left and sometimes a few more looks (with related statements) before I settle back to normal.

[DrP]

Has this detour been started yet? I know a bunch of folks who are planning a ride tomorrow that goes through there and it would be great to know if they are being detoured or not. Thank you!

[Author]

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