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@Tim Kelley 141152 wrote:

Where can you find yoga classes, pop-up protected bike lanes, AND a bounce house set up in the middle of the street?

http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/news-events/blog/what-has-free-yoga-classes-pop-up-protected-bike-lanes-a-bounce-house-and-a-professional-bike-race/

Is there a map of the street closures anywhere so folks can know what to avoid if needing to get through the area? Or how best to approach the area if attending events? If I recall, someone on or trying to be on the county board clearly didn’t know a way around last year and carried her bike through the race.

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@dbb 141148 wrote:

I believe Steve O was acknowledging the concept of testosterone induced competence

I think you have a typo. That should be “incompetence” or “belief of competence.”

[DrP]

Aside from the wind, which had me barely making headway at one point, the commute was good until I got off the Bluemont trail on Fairfax Dr. Has the world gone crazy or is it just me?

Much higher volume than usual getting off 66 there – Suretrack? A Metro pickup was in the right turn lane, mostly, but partially in the bike lane – especially his honking large mirror. I needed to leave the bike lane to avoid that and feared I would be hit in the head as he came from behind to turn right (unfounded fear – no one turned for quite a while). As I waited for the light at Glebe, a cyclist came from behind me during the left turn signals and moved most of the way into the intersection, effectively going through a red light. As I continued east on Fairfax, lots of people making rights and sitting diagonally across the bike lane waiting for pedestrians to clear. There is now a sign at N Stuart (road on west side of Ballston Metro station) indicating that no cars may turn right, so everyone wanted to pull over right in front of the station. Yes, where the buses park and pull in and out of the “U” and it is illegal for them to stop. Two were in the bike lane. As one pulled in and the aforementioned cyclist had to go completely around, a Metro police officer went to the car to tell the driver that she couldn’t stop there – this I was thrilled to see. Of course she gave him attitude (“Well there is too much traffic for me to go anywhere else now”), which he complained about. I had to take the lane to get around her, the other car and the two buses. I stopped at the next street due to the light and she pulled in next to me to pick up her passenger. Nuts all up and down Quincy (the stretch from Fairfax to Wilson has been packed lately).

Later, returning west down Fairfax towards Custis, there was a Fairfax Connector bus in the parking lane, bike lane and part of the travel lane. I and another cyclist had to take the lane (the cars behind appeared sympathetic – thank you!). We get to the intersection and two cars turning left from the other direction were in the intersection waiting for pedestrians. I was always taught that you shouldn’t start to turn until it is clear to go. On coming traffic and pedestrians do not strike me as “clear to go.”

This stretch is usually crazy, but it was crazier than usual with cars, buses, turning out of turn, pedestrians. Ugh. I hope this isn’t the new norm.

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@Fairlington124 141088 wrote:

My understanding is that the motorist was elderly, and I know that prosecutors tend to not press charges against the elderly for driving errors, perhaps out of sympathy for degrading driving skills. This could have factored in as well.

If this was the reasoning, then shouldn’t the driver, at a minimum, been required to re-take the driving test? How can the prosecutor sleep knowing that people with bad driving skills may be out on the road possibly killing people – and he did nothing about the ones that he knew about. I don’t buy the reason of “she would need the transportation” (I have seen this as a “reason” for many people being allowed to keep licenses) so we cannot remove her driving privileges. Perhaps this was not the norm for the driver, but a test should show that – if you cannot do it correctly during the test, it is unlikely you can do it correctly at other times. If you pass the test, you might still not regularly drive safely, but theoretically, you know how to do so.

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@VA2DC 140817 wrote:

That’s good news coming off of Custis, but will the eastbound bike lane on the south side of Fairfax remain? Coming from Bluemont Junction, I’d hate to have to cross Fairfax twice just to get down a block (and not hop on the sidewalk in front of Buffalo Wild Wings).

What would be really nice is if they made a safe way to get from the Bluemont trail to the eastbound bike lane. Lately they have had a construction sign on the sidewalk in front of the Holiday Inn that blocks the curb cut, so getting on the sidewalk until Wakefield is hard and they you have to wait for the light to change or hope that folks are actually slowing down or using signals to change lanes to get into the bike lane. It is very messy. I do this regularly, but it would easily discourage others.

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Muggy. And not on the planned bicycle.

After retrieving my newer hybrid from the shop last night (http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?6843-My-Evening-Commute&p=140759#post140759), I expected to ride it today. I go to the garage to roll it out and the back wheel seemed stuck on something. Well, it wasn’t rolling due to being completely flat. I did a quick check to see theat nothing obvious was sticking out of it (nothing was) and switched to my older hybrid. I am so thankful I got those brakes changed. Not a bad commute, just a different stance and a bit more of a workout (it is heavier).

Next to figure out how to remove a wheel with disc brakes…

[DrP]

My extended evening commute was on three bicycles. All pretty cool.

From work to home (first time): old hybrid that I just had the brakes replaced on (picked up yesterday evening – swapping my new hybrid for service). Fastest I have ridden on that bike in ages. Wow. Not only can I now stop well, I can go well. I and the bike shop adjusted those old ones many times but they kept coming out of alignment. This was long overdue, I realized today.

Home to bike shop: On a CaBi (just joined Saturday so I could return from bike shop after dropping off old hybrid). These really aren’t that bad. Sure, I wanted to go faster and the top gear wasn’t quite what I wanted, but it was pretty good for Custis, Fairfax Dr., and Clarendon Dr. I will be using these more often.

Bike shop to home (second and final time): On my new hybrid with a new bottom bracket (9 months and ~4,500miles after purchase, it appears to have developed issues, clunk, clunk). Good ride back. Wonderful evening for extra riding.

Then I mowed the lawn. That was not as much fun as all the bikes.

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Well, last year when the Lacy Woods station was mentioned as possible, I claimed I would join if it occurred (http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?9420-Proposed-stations-in-Westover-Village&p=126296#post126296). I did actually join last Saturday since I was taking my old bike in for a brake replacement (Soooo much better now. No matter how much I or the bike shop fiddled with the old ones, I wasn’t stopping well and apparently they were touching the wheel regularly and causing me not to go well either) and needed to get home from the shop in Clarendon. Worked well for a pick-up today too. So convenient. Sure, the bikes aren’t super fast and the brakes vary from bike to bike, but it was so easy to bike there and back. I will definitely be using this for trips to the metro station (should it be a period where the orange line is actually functioning), and perhaps light shopping – parking is not fun in Clarendon.

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Most of my commute home was quite nice. Near the end I was nearly involved in an incident on the Custis. Why are there are large trains of cyclists using the Custis and why do they initiate a pass just before a blindcurve/hill?

Probably ~6:30, but I did not check my watch, I was east bound near the beginning of the Custis – I, as usual, was slow up the hill that starts under I-66, but back to speed by the pedestrian overpass. Someone was on my tail going up the hill, but fallen well back by the time of the overpass. Through the long, mostly straight and good visibility stretch before the trail curves and goes below Harrison St, I looked behind me repeatedly and no one was catching up and still a long distance behind. Just before the western Harrison St exit (i.e., just before the curve and downhill and about where you can see only a little ahead), there are pedestrians in both directions, so I slow for passing and preparing for a left turn – I looked behind and saw no one before I got to the pedestrians. As I pass them, I am about to stick my arm out for a left (later than I wanted, but I didn’t want to punch the west-bound pedestrian in the head), and I hear a bell for a pass behind me. So, I slow down, thinking I will wait for the person to pass. However, it is the lead of a long (>10) chain of cyclists, who all start shouting “slowing” and “stopping”. So in that sense they all behaved well, and there were no crashes and they let me off the trail (although I had to turn around to actually get off the trail since I slowed to a stop not wanting to run into anyone).

But why would a very large group use the Custis for riding at the prime time for commuters, dog walkers, exercisers, and those out for a stroll on a beautiful day? Four or five can at least get around most pedestrians and deal with curves and slowing for a short time, but this group seemed excessive in size. And were clearly going quite fast if they caught up to me so quickly. This was just before a blind region of the trail and I regularly have to slow to a near stop to turn off because of people in the opposite direction that are hard to see until just at the turn-off. There are plenty of nearby roads that are not overly swamped with cars and better site lines. I think it was luck that there weren’t people in the other direction, otherwise this would have been much messier and I might be reporting this in a different thread.

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@dasgeh 140353 wrote:

Ideas for ACPD involvement?
Burma-shave signs for trail behavior?

Burma-shave signs for trail behavior is something we have needed for a long time. If we can get it on some of the roads, that would be helpful too, I believe.

Having ACPD inform people of the rules (rather than tickets, at least for the first few months) would be helpful. At my morning commute time, this seems to have helped at the IOD. Having ACPD be on bikes might also help, since I think if a cop on a bike stopped a car (likely at the next light, unless they added flashing flights to the bike), it would send a strong message. That can also help on trails for both peds and bikes. Peds do not seem to understand that bikes have to follow laws of physics and cannot stop in an instant.

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Wet. Very wet.
And it was only raining for about half my ride.
Even though I had just lubed my chain before my Monday ride, it was clearly needing more lube upon return since it sang too much.
Much of my gear was still wet this morning, despite my best efforts to dry it out. I did get to use my new Crystal Ride cap this morning to deal with the still wet pads in the helmet.

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@notlost 140221 wrote:

Was there glass somewhere on the Custis? Must have passed a half dozen people with flats…

I didn’t see any glass on the Custis, but did see at least one on Custis repairing their tire and I thought I saw another, but I do not recall where (either Custis or MVT). I did hear the trolls grab someone hard behind me. I made a safe stop and asked if he was okay and he was already up, so I assumed yes. While the sun was shining, the ground was still very wet. Perhaps the weather made people a little less cautious with the wet ground.

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Beautiful Day!
Sooo many cyclists. I have never had to wait for a train of 6 cyclists to go by on the Custis before getting on in the past and them there were just so many more out there. If this were the norm, we would need a multi-lane bikeway. Sigh. One can dream of such things.

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@peterw_diy 139864 wrote:

Yes, indeed. The Crystal City BID knows what it’s doing, handing out reasonably nice swag you’d actually use.

Agreed, it is really great stuff, especially for someone who has been cycling a while.

@peterw_diy 139864 wrote:

(All too often around here I’ve seen jurisdictions hand out garbage like cheap cheap water bottles that make me doubt their understanding of their target audience.)

Perhaps their target audience are newbies and the cheap stuff will hold them on for a while until they start cycling regularly and need higher quality stuff. Those of us who cycle regularly, perhaps, should leave more of that for those who aren’t cycling regularly. When I was in grad school and going to conferences, the cheap swag they handed out, like really cheap canvas or plastic bags (not quite a brief case, so a brief bag? Something that held your papers nicely) were great. Over time those were not what I wanted/needed anymore. I no longer take all the “free” stuff at such places anymore.

[DrP]

The second part of my commute home (gym to home) had a bad and a good in it – and the good was shockingly so.

Biking Fairfax Dr. west in Ballston headed to the CT access (flyover), as I approach Glebe, there is a big a flashing double arrow in the right lane of the the straight lanes (this area has a right turn lane, bike lane, two straight lanes and a left turn lane. Then a median). The bike and right turn lanes were clearly open for use as was the left turn lane and one straight lane. Across Glebe, where they replaced an old blue building with a hole, they have the bike lane and right lane completely blocked. Only one narrow lane between the cones/barriers (it was a mix) and the median. Sidewalk was blocked too. Great. The county is scoring really low on these lane, especially bike lane, closures.

I am waiting at the light trying to figure out how long I am going to have to wait for all the cars to clear to let me in because usually everyone guns that light to start speeding up to I-66 speeds before they hit a curve that they need to slow down again on. The light turns and I start across the intersection. The cars in the straight lane do not start moving yet – on phone or being nice I do not know. So, I took the lane pedaling as fast as my little legs and my hybrid let me and made it to the trail in FRONT of all the cars. I waved as I turned on to the trail.

I am going to assume the best that the lead person also saw my dilemma and allowed me to go first. Thank you!

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