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Okay, VDOT claims to have cleared the area. They sent an e-mail at 10am. I went through there at ~9:35am and it wasn’t cleared yet. It is possible that they cleared it after I went through, however, I won’t be going through again until Wednesday. If anyone goes through, the Fairfax/Glebe intersection, on Fairfax heading west, please reply if there is still debris in the north-west corner of the intersection and I can re-open this ticket or whatever the process is.

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Does the hill need to be on a street or will a trail do? I am not familiar with how long a hill you want, but there are some steep hills on the 4MR trail in the Columbia pike area, if you just wanted some general practice.

In particular, the hill heading up to Columbia Pike. This is south/east bound on 4MR and starts under the Columbia Pike bridge and goes up pretty steeply to the pike. While there are other people on it from time to time, it isn’t overly crowded most time. Just bike up, turn around, go down, turn again, and continue the up and down until you had enough.

The double hill on 4MR heading north/west just north of the apartment buildings are two short but steep hills separately by a bit of flat. Also, the hill in Barcroft Park heading north/east on 4MR is another short but steep hill – it is just after all the picnic areas. You could easily attempt all in one trip. And continue for more hills. Actually, the hills on the 4MR bit immediately after Glen Carlin Park and before Rt 50 is quite steep and longer. I have yet to bike that, only walk it.

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So, why is it that the folks who seem to design bike and pedestrian paths seem to think that cyclists and pedestrians have all the time in the world to get somewhere? The routes are longer than for cars in the majority of instances, such as this one or anything where there is a “pedestrian bridge.” Clearly, if we needed to get somewhere in a rapid amount of time, we would drive ourselves (public transit is rarely fast either – cycling is often about the same amount of time).

How do we get the designers to take walking and biking seriously as a mode of transportation? Thus getting them to design the shorter routes for us rather than having us detour many blocks out of the way, over fair weather fords (and this morning, not all were clear), forcing a dangerous crossing, etc. Do we need to require all designers to give up their cars for a week at the beginning of a design cycle? As well as the boards who approve the plans and some of the folks in the neighborhood who just complain about everything without thinking?

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@Steve O 143667 wrote:

Here’s your alliterative mnemonic: Wilson goes west.

More alliterative would be: Wilson winds west

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@Tim Kelley 143615 wrote:

Call or email it in?

https://transportation.arlingtonva.us/streets/street-maintenance/

Okay, so my not seeing a way on the web page to report it is correct, rather than blindness or general confusion. Thank you. If VDOT tells me it isn’t their area and the debris remains, I will call/e-mail the street maintenance folks.

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@Tim Kelley 143609 wrote:

Isn’t that a VDOT maintained road? You can report “remove debris” issues to them here: https://my.vdot.virginia.gov/

Can anyone confirm?

Thank you. I was wondering about that. Okay, I just tried a submission to VDOT. We will see if they bounce it back.

So, if it were not a VDOT road, how would I report it to Arlington (I am sure that will occur some time)?

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@consularrider 143570 wrote:

Some priority road type signs might help (something else to run into?) [ATTACH=CONFIG]12199[/ATTACH]

These are needed in a lot of places on the trails. And some roads.

(Aside from street signs typically being on the sides of buildings rather than on the corners or above the roads (“Damn, that is where I was supposed to turn. Good thing there is a roundabout coming up.”), the roads in Europe are typically much better signed than here)

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@bobco85 143433 wrote:

Why not make it the 52 States Ride? Puerto Rico Ave (shown here: https://goo.gl/maps/CMFyEBwRZg52 ) is a very slight detour from Hawaii Ave on the usual route, but we’d need to do some campaigning since Puerto Rico always votes to remain a territory. Just an idea, though

Actually, Puerto Rico voted to be a state in 2012. Not much has happened with that since then, however.

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@scoot 143377 wrote:

Even I would say that’s never gonna happen. Dickie is smart to catch their attention by signaling his intention to go straight.

I agree, signaling straight is good (I do that trying to get to the switchback from Potomac Ave when I cross the parking lot driveway). However, if no one is used to looking for signals (and yesterday, for the first time, I saw someone signaling a right turn there, usually people just go), then even his “straight ahead” signal will not be seen because they aren’t looking for it.

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I have always been cautious there and the location just passed the treatment plant (north/west bound) where there is a similar T, especially after the evening where that underpass was full of water and I took the sidewalk on Glebe instead. I nearly got T-boned as no one turning was expecting anyone to come along the sidewalk – but I saw them and yelled. Anyway, I promise to continue to be cautious there.

However, how do we get folks to signal their eastern turn so that when Dickie isn’t signally that, the western riders realize that something might be different? Changing that location will be hard because it is a sidewalk and the trail is anomaly, as per most non-trail users thinking, but not for the trail users.

Dickie, any way that you could turn there (especially if cyclists are coming) and then exit the trail between the sets of apartments before going under the road? It looks like it might not be a significant detour, even if you were planning to turn and cross Glebe by the supermarket. Just trying to think of ways to avoid a collision, if the sightlines and people are not being cooperative. I know that you shouldn’t have to, but sometimes it is necessary (I know I do this type of thing on bike and in a car – meaning taking a slightly longer route to avoid death or never being able to make a left turn (like on to Wash Blvd in the morning)).

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@Fulton 143344 wrote:

Here’s a photo, taken during yesterday’s heat. I don’t use Twitter.

The Meadowbrook stables in MD along the Rock Creek Trail waters the paddock from poles and that seems to frequently be on the trail there. Is there any obvious watering mechanism? Hmmm, and as I think about it, the MVT on Columbia Island (both north and south of Memorial Bridge) seem to have water leak from the lawns – I have never understood that since it happens well after a rain.

Still worth asking them about the cause, especially given the smell described, but could it be from watering the grounds or a water leak?

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@Tania 143341 wrote:

I noticed this am that it had been patched again.

It was patched, but it was quite soft and getting ruts by ~7:20. And I know I acquired some of the patching material for a while.

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One thing the bike ban seems to ignore is that sometimes people visiting loved ones in the cemetery prefer to go via bicycle. A friend went with a pass and flowers to visit grandpa on Father’s Day. No issue getting into the cemetery, but upon leaving the grave and still inside the cemetery, the cops on segways told my friend that biking was not allowed except on certain roads, despite the pass. My friend is still fuming over this.

We have discussed the tour buses of people being far less disrespectful than people on bicycles, especially visiting graves, but also just viewing the cemetery. Cops on segways did not seem overly respectful either. Perhaps they should be on foot or horseback.

I have passed a link to the start of this thread to my friend with an encouragement to comment to the appropriate group to not have all bikes banned.

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@Tania 143000 wrote:

Maybe they’re going as fast as their comfort level allows. Or maybe they’re just not in a hurry. I get “stuck” behind a woman on the TR bridge almost every morning and almost every morning she apologizes for going so slow. She’s in front of me with the right of way, I can’t (won’t) pass on the bridge so she sets the pace; I accept it and chill.

Oh, it was clear the person was going as fast as comfort level allowed. And I understand that, especially in that area (I am not super fast either). I was just hoping for a little faster. It just seemed to get slower, and slooower, and slooooowweeer to the point that one almost had to stop. I am not expecting any solutions. We are unlikely to get turnouts on hills for the slower folks to pull over and allow others to pass (even with cars, that only works with the folks that know they are going slow and see the other cars piling up behind them). One just has to bear it. However, one can comment on it.

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Humid. Been on and off work travel since the holiday, so a rare chance to bike in today. Definitely not the most pleasant humidity-wise. However, nice to be on the bike. Expecting to be riding home in the rain – which would have been welcome near the end of my ride this morning.

Gripe: ended up behind a couple of cyclists on the Custis starting at the block before the Marriott until I could finally pass in the Roosevelt parking lot. Going slower than I like, at first, tolerably slow given passing wasn’t safe here. Yet, when they got to Ft Myer drive, the crossed at the “0” count (so, they needed to be “safe” on the downhill, but not crossing the street?). I managed to somehow just make the IOD light the next time around and they were there making it across the IOD heading down to the lot, going even slower. It is curvy. There are other users of the trial, in both directions. One shouldn’t go at top speed, but in the hilly area we are in, I do like to convert some of the potential energy I created into kinetic energy, not just burn it off as friction breaking the whole way from the IOD to the parking lot. Sigh.

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