[eminva]

@DismalScientist 81326 wrote:

Shamed by my spouse, questioned by the neighbors, and ignored by my kids.

I understood what you meant. If you’re fighting this battle imagine what a leap it is for a family where no one has a lengthy experience with cycling.

@dasgeh 81339 wrote:

All I can say is we’re working on it. APS has a SRTS coordinator and he’s great. Now if we could get one on the County side, to free the APS SRTS guy to focus on education and encouragement (he spends a lot of his time on engineering and enforcement, since there are lots of infrastructure and enforcement issues to be addressed), that would be awesome. He’s already doing a lot in Education and Encourage (see, e.g. Sunday’s Bike Show & Tell), but he’s got a lot on his plate. Also, SRTS seems to be geared towards the older elementary/middle school set. I believe there is awareness of this and desire within APS to expand it to all students, but it’ll take a little more work, as the off-the-shelf SRTS stuff is often too young to be helpful to HS. A lot of it is educating parents, and I think Kyle gets that too. The big question is: how. It seems really hard to get parents’ attention.

You are miles ahead of us in Fairfax, but at least we have a SRTS coordinator now.

We have had success in Vienna and more recently, Reston in getting elementary students to bike to school. Some parents conceived of a competition between schools and it has kind of taken off. The competitive instinct seems to be a great motivator. The elementary school closest to my house, Vienna, has huge participation. It is the smallest school in the county so it serves a compact geographic area and it is right on the W&OD. An obvious fit for bicycling to school.

At our house, my son (age 13) has suddenly and unexpectedly decided to identify as a cyclist. He takes long rides by himself on the weekend (the only time he really has free with school, homework and extracurriculars). He’s already using the new cargo bike to get to music rehearsal. He claims he’s going to ride to high school next year, which involves crossing Gallows, the Beltway and riding along a lengthy stretch of Route 7 (there are options, but all routes involve those three features, among other horribles). I think it’s a pretty rare kid who’s going to overcome all the obstacles and expectations and do something like that.

Liz

[eminva]

They aren’t focusing on health benefits at that age (unless they are say, cross country runners and are getting in some cross training).

I think “safety” was always an issue or at least an excuse. In 9th grade, a neighbor and I rode our bikes the ~2 miles to school. We had to cross what was effectively a busy state highway without a signal. She got hit by a car, not injured, but her parents responded by buying her a car (you could get a DL at age 15 at that time in Texas). In retrospect, it’s ridiculous that a road leading to a school with 4000 students didn’t have a signal at its only means of ingress, but our parents didn’t think about advocating for infrastructure changes. Unfortunately, that’s still largely the case 35 years later.

Once driving age comes for teens with access to a car, that opens up their range and convenience. While most of our communities have as many amenities as you could want within an easy bike ride, that “safety” issue rears its ugly head due to our congested roads.

I agree that this journal could be an interesting tool for our local bike advocates.

Liz

[eminva]

@consularrider 81275 wrote:

I offered someone some air last week (in front of my house no less) and he acted offended.

Was he going up the hill or down? If the former, that might not have been offense, but the early warning signs of cardiac arrest.

Liz

[eminva]

@hozn 81078 wrote:

I didn’t post when competition started, but I was weighing in right at 180. I was 169 last week, so have dropped 11lbs (6%) this winter. This was strictly by paying attention to what I eat (I rode less than I had been), which has been quite a revelation. My wife finds it a little annoying that I can continue losing weight while eating 4,000-4500 calories a day (I burn about 1200-1500 on a normal commute [roundtrip]).

Without meaning to sound all, “You kids, get off my lawn!”, it is possible that you will not be able to sustain this for your entire adult life, even with that level of physical activity.

I can maintain my weight eating about 1500-2000 calories a day. I can lose weight at 1200 to 1500. I guess because I weigh less I’m not burning as many calories on my commute.

Liz

[eminva]

Thanks everyone — great turnout — and thanks GB for instigating this! Nice to meet dkel and see some others that I usually only pass on the trail.

@Dickie 80695 wrote:

Liz, is this going to remain a weekly thing?

That’s the idea. There certainly does seem to be interest. Do join us when schedule allows.

@culimerc 80706 wrote:

pictures!!!

There is a picture on the “post pictures of your bike” thread. I’ll take more when we inevitably spend the weekend seeing just how much stuff we can attach to it with bungie cords.

Liz

[eminva]

Hey, I finally have something to add here!

New long tail cargo bike. We had a mountain bike that had been largely abandoned by all members of the family. It was transformed with the Xtracycle Free Radical kit.

To be used as a grocery getter AND to allow my son to get himself and his electric bass to and from music lessons and rehearsals, which are just three or four blocks away (but always involved a car trip up to now).

Other uses TBD. Come check it out at Vienna Thursday Coffee Club tomorrow.

Thanks to Bikenetic for answering my multitude of questions over the last few months and for setting it up.

Liz

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[eminva]

I rode the W&OD from Citizens Bridge to Vienna (Tapawingo Road exit ramp). Most of the trail was fine, but icy in the usual shady spots. There were only a couple of stretches without a clear path, but you could walk those easily if you didn’t want to ride. I rode through okay on MTB tires.

Liz

[eminva]

If you want my thoughts on dealing with the particular challenges of leading a ride of younger and older teens, feel free to ask at FCC II one of these days.

The LAB book is $29 and we LCIs can order it.

Liz

[eminva]

Wait a minute, is this serious? I thought it was tongue in cheek (he’s no Jonathan Swift, but intended as satire).

Liz

[eminva]

Excellent work, Slowly but Surely and Sloppy Seconds!

Any other team or individual entries? Any further trail reviews? Get them in by April 1st to be considered for a fabulous prize!

Liz

[eminva]

@peterw_diy 80068 wrote:

My older child wanted to ride some sidewalk laps with the Strava app to increase my speed so I could win the pointless 7th slowest #bafs prize.

Oh no, tell me there is NOT a 7th slowest prize . . . because I just looked and . . . GAH!

Liz

[eminva]

And no one has mentioned the effect of sunlight — this might not be an issue for those of you going through at 0-dark-30 or with reverse commutes. Certain times of the year, when I am coming downhill on Virginia, the sun is directly in my eyes. I figure it’s the same for the motorists. I don’t want to be in the path of someone straining to see in the first place.

I’ve done it both ways but generally stay on the trail. It’s not a great intersection and I’m just trying to get through safe and sound.

Liz

[eminva]

@Steve O 79778 wrote:

I went through this thread and compiled the Pointless Prize ideas people have volunteered for so far. As stated before, there is no “official” list, nor official end date, so if you want to propose and offer another, you may–right up to the happy hour.

The side bets (FSSB) are not listed here. Check that thread for details.

• 11th most miles ridden – GB (GregBain)
• King/Queen of the world – KayakCyndi
• Ride titles (multiple winners) – Steve O
• Single digit riders (multiple winners)– Steve O
• Mileage first day (already awarded to vicegrip) –Arlington Rider
• Liar,Liar Pants on Fire (sandbagger award) – Justin Antos
• Every day points (10 awarded; tie-breaker least sleaze) – Dickie
• GPS Art – vvill
• Team Billy Goat. Team that climbs the most: Elevation Gain (feet) / Distance traveled (miles). Rob-O
• Team Turtle. Team with lowest average speed (mph). – Rob-O (scrapped due to conflict of interest)
• Hains Point laps – Arlington Rider
• seventh lowest for the average number of miles per ride – CPTJohnC
• Strava ride art: Bicycle – BikeArlington
• Volunteer award – rcannon

There is also the “Maryland Rail Trail Mixed Use Trail Pointless Prize” that I will be awarding. I guess I forgot to cross post on this thread.

Liz

[eminva]

@GuyContinental 79605 wrote:

I suspect that question 7- “Do you come to a full stop at intersection crossings?” Is going to come back to haunt us.

In my email, I mentioned that this question assumed the person answering is a cyclist, which is a subset of the trail users taking the survey. I think they will get meaningless results because they will have no way of distinguishing answers provided by cyclists, walkers, runners, equestrians and whatever else.

@creadinger 79632 wrote:

I wish there was an option to ban charity rides and runs from using the trail. At least charity events of a certain size.

I also made this point in my email. The “Team in Training” running groups tend to clump up and run across the full breadth of the trail on Saturday and Sunday mornings in spring and fall. I noted that it would be very easy to get the message to these folks via shoe stores and training promoters — the latter are running with the gangs they are training.

You are all continuing to raise good points — make sure you are getting them to the NVRPA and not just this forum!

Liz

[eminva]

You all raise excellent points. Apparently, there will be a trail safety workshop on April 11 to discuss the survey results. Some folks from FABB have been invited. I would encourage you to make comments either in the comment box on the survey, via their feedback email address, as I did, or at a minimum, through your local officials who will be at the workshop.

For my part, I told them it’s time to separate pedestrians and cyclists a la the Netherlands:

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Liz

[Author]

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