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Commute started out fine, ended with a jerk. Actually got drizzled on for a while – odd since when looking straight up (waiting at light to cross Ft Myer) there was blue sky with high, non-rain clouds. Must have been a very thin raincloud there too.

Then, heading south on MVT as I descend from the Humpback bridge to continue on the MVT (and I do not signal to go to the 14th Street (aka George Mason Memorial) Bridge), some guy on a CaBi comes shooting off the bridge access road and cuts me off. I have to grab a bit of break and then he slows even further to answer his phone! More break. Others then pass the two of us, One told him to watch where he was going, but he sloughed that off. I get a chance to pass him and off I go. As I ascend the airport bridge, I am stuck behind a jogger with joggers coming down and another bike coming down, so, trying not to be a jerk, I wait to pass. I signal my pass, and as I am passing, the same CaBi guy passes without any announcing himself! While I didn’t get there in time to be certain, I have a feeling he jumped his turn through the CCC tunnel too.

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I rode the W&OD on Sunday morning out to Sterling, at which point we noticed a lot of very large groups of cyclists. Turned around to get out of their way and eventually remembered the Reston Century taking place. It was cool and dry and lovely. The century riders had a great day for it.

On Saturday I walked on the W&OD. There were lots of cyclists out. Only about 1/3 made an attempt to signal their passes to us mere pedestrians. They need to read those Rail-to-trails etiquette tips (see http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?9176-What-s-your-trail-IQ). Luckily, I was listening for them. As I do when on a bike, I thanked the folks who warned us.

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@DCLiz 122728 wrote:

They don’t tell you which ones you got wrong! I’m assuming “Staying home in the rain” is not the correct answer, but I was confused about the who yields to who question and would like to know what they were going for! Or maybe I got the one about how to pass a horse wrong. Who knows?

If you scroll down their page a bit, there should be their set of 6 trail etiquette tips. The questions were really gathered from there and you should be able to read those and figure out which were the correct answers.

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100% woohoo!

Okay, to be pedantic, calling it an IQ test and then giving it a percentage isn’t strictly correct. 100 is a good IQ to have, but actually average. “What’s your Trail Knowledge” or some such thing would be a better title. Or, have it scored differently, like take the average and standard deviations around it to provide the score. (yes, I just want the genius ranking. )

And I recognize a lot of other trail users (cyclists, walkers and joggers) in the other answers. And there are one or two answers I would prefer to be correct.

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My bike commute is about 3 miles longer than my car commute since I prefer to ride the trails as opposed to the car route I take (and I am not sure I can legally be on some of that route with a bike). Except on extremely rare occasions, it takes me nearly three times as long to bike than to drive, although about the same as metro (bus + two rail lines). If you add in the changing time, it is longer (for most metro days). However, the stress is less and I have done some exercise to make up for some of the sitting at work. Also, while I will get annoyed at others on the trail at times (peds who wear headphones and then get annoyed that you didn’t warn them, crazy ivans, cars at intersections, etc.), a little more riding will remove that annoyance/higher-blood-pressure/etc. More driving or standing on a metro train rarely removes that when traffic, delays, etc. get me annoyed. I can’t believe it took me so long to realize that just because it was much longer than my bike commute in CA (nearly a factor of 5), it was still possible to make it work.

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I probably should have been a bit more clear. I believe the owner was trying to train to not lunge at people, however, it was not a good place and from what I could tell, the training looked incorrect, as if the lunging was being reinforced. I do not own a dog, but have many friends who do and it looked like bad training to me and my bike buddy, who is a dog owner. The dog and owner were not there upon the return trip, 30 min or so later. I would not have (and clearly didn’t ) think of calling police or animal control. If I see them again, I will get more info.

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You: dog on Mount Vernon trail between miles 4 &5 apparently being trained to lunge towards riders on the trail.

Me: second cyclist passing within about 30 seconds that you let towards and your owner pulled you back and gave a treat to after you lunged. I then yelled to your owner, “get him off the trail.”

It seems like a bad idea to stand on the trail with a dog that likes to lunge at cyclists (and maybe all people, I just saw cyclists ) on a busy Sunday morning. It really seemed more like you were reinforcing the lunging behavior. Lucky for me that I watched you lunge at my cycling buddy first, but either of us could have easily fallen.

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On my Sunday ride to Mount Vernon I did notice that the poison ivy growing over the trail near the power station was cut way back. I am not sure about the airport location, but it looked better there too (slightly not paying attention to greenery as I passed). So, either they were very quick on the response, others cut it back, or they found it on their own. In anycase, the trail is safer there now.

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The repaved parts are so smooth! My panniers were very happy to not be jostled. Thank you Arlington County.

Now if they can do something about the water-retaining moguls by the bridge to nowhere….

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I received a reply this morning from NPS about my e-mail on 27 July. They thanked me for letting them know about the poison ivy locations that are overhanging the trails and will go remove them.

At least the person who replied had acted relatively quickly in that the person was forwarded the message on Tuesday. Perhaps the superintendent was on vacation and was just catching up on e-mails. Hopefully the removal will be faster than the e-mail response. I am appreciative of the response, in any case.

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I was just called by a biking buddy. Custis closed from George Mason to Glebe. Detour required.

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The stretch on Custis between Harrison and George Mason (west) is open and nicely paved. No lines yet, so no idea which side is for bikes or peds or east or west . There is a barrier just east of the east entrance from George Mason. Note that I entered the trail this evening from the Ballston Fairfax Dr connector. Nothing there indicated closure. I headed west once on the Custis to find myself on the wrong side of the barrier. No idea what it is like to the east and if it is clear for the morning nor about on-street signage.

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@ShawnoftheDread 122008 wrote:

But how do they decide which side is for peds and which for bikes?

If they are from Santa Monica or Venice Beach, the side closer to the ocean is for bikes. If they are from Redondo Beach, the side closer to the ocean is for peds.

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@dagamon 121996 wrote:

I did it this morning, and no problems. I actually took Washington all the way down to Kirkwood.

@ShawnoftheDread 121997 wrote:

I’ve never had an issue on Washington.

At what time and how many cyclists? When I drove I gave the usually lone cyclist room, but I could tell other drivers were not happy and not all gave whichever cyclist a lot of room each time (not always 3 ft). This morning the detour on 10th had quite a few cyclists (10? at about 6:50am). If all those cyclists were on Washington at that rate about 45 min later, I can easily envision an issue. I would love to be wrong and this is going to be for less than two weeks, but after a few days, I could foresee drivers being less friendly.

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@Tim Kelley 121990 wrote:

Detour map from the Park’s folks:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9310[/ATTACH]

They are going to detour folks onto Washington Blvd? Really? Oh that is going to upset the drivers to no end. And may then cause more than a few poor interactions between cars and bicycles. And not a fun hill up Harrison either. You will all get to experience the poor road quality, although at least they sort of fixed the mine field at 11th Rd. I am likely to try 16th and go passed the hospital to catch the trail off Glebe – not sure about crossing Glebe, though. I might sidewalk the 1.5 blocks between 16th and the trail entrance.

Note to all: Washington Blvd is packed with cars from 7:30am until close to 9am east bound, but not as many west bound. Left turns on or off are near impossible – and kindness to pedestrians/cyclists was rarely seen nor even to cars waiting and waiting and waiting to turn onto or off the road (or crossing it, as I do now on bike). Evenings it is a little less crowded, but with more cars west bound than east bound. Everyone races at the George Mason intersection where two lanes turn to one at between Glebe and Buchanan where it does the same thing. Turning left on to Glebe (east bound route) will not be pretty since (1) I doubt bikes can make the signal know someone is there to have a left and (2) without the left arrow, it will be tough to turn.
(Prior to accepting my reasons for not bike commuting as excuses, I drove Washington Blvd to work every day)

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