[GB]

Thanks for the great ride.

[GB]

@KayakCyndi 68751 wrote:

On Monday night I was one of the last to leave the blinky give-away and ended up with a few spares of both the red and white lights. I put one of extra of each on the bike and a few in the backpack. Tonight on the way home I passed one very dark rider. I came up next to him and queried, in the nicest way possible, no lights? He said his headlight just got stolen. So the extra blinkies migrated from my bike to his and one of my BA ankle bands went his way too. He was SOOOO grateful.

I’ll have to restock for tomorrow’s ride. Thanks BikeArlington!

Nooooooo. I only meant to Like that post. Is it possible to un-dislike?

[GB]

Venue has changed to the N. Arlington hills, meeting time and location (6:00 am and the Italian Store on rt.29) remain the same.

[GB]

@KLizotte 68699 wrote:

given that trails are not an excludable good (meaning you can’t keep out folks who don’t pay for the snow plowing) this is the generally agreed upon argument for government providing the service. A conundrum…..

I agree, governments have a place providing non-excludable goods. In my initial post (where I suggested we all chip in to have the trail plowed) I was wondering if the population of people actually wanting to use the trail in winter was (a) large enough to make it cost beneficial per person to have the trail cleared and (b) small enough that the free-rider problem would be minimal. – Judging by the posts that followed few people are interested in paying.

I like the clear it our selves suggestions. To add an idea to that train of thought – Fill, or partially fill, old holey panniers with sand/salt on your way in to work and enjoy sanded/salty trails on your way home.

[GB]

Anyone interested in joining me for the Arlington loop starting at 6am at the Italian Store, and finishing at FMCC I or II at 7:15ish? Temps in the 40s with no rain.

[GB]

@NickBull 68701 wrote:

But you’ve ignored everyone else’s proposed solution: This is already something that should be getting paid for out of the taxes that we pay to Arlington. And you ignored my analysis of the costs of clearing the Custis Trail. As Tim Kelley points out, the trail is only 4.4 miles long, so take my estimate and multiply by 4.4/7 to get a re-estimated annual cost to clear the Custis of $3400.

I’m not ignoring everyone’s proposed solution, Arlington County Government is. I was proposing a solution in light of / in lieu of that.

Sorry I missed your assessment that put clearing the Custis at $3,400 – That’s great, thanks for doing that math! That should make clearing the trail cost beneficial for more people.

[GB]

@mstone 68689 wrote:

Congratulations, you’ve managed to turn the most accessible form of mechanical transportation ever invented by humankind into something that many current users can’t afford, just to provide the benefit of being able to tell people that cyclists pay a special cyclist tax.

OMG – hyperbole.

And if we’re handing out sarcastic congrats – Congratulations, you’ve complained. Again.

[GB]

Ok – So far I’ve proposed two solutions – 1) we pay for it our selves with a direct bill to those people who volunteer to be billed. 2) we propose a bike tax to pay for it (I don’t accept the “the bike tax will cost more to implement than it will generate” argument b/c you simply raise the tax to cover implementation + desired service).

I’ve read a suggestion that we clear the trail ourselves. – Which is an option and something I’d participate in.

And I’ve read a lot of complaints. Unfortunatly complaints didn’t clear trails (although they are helpful in identifying problems).If they did we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

The point of my post – which someone said they missed, was to propose a solution to snowy trails.

I think I’ve said my piece on this topic; which is in summary, that (winter) trail users should and can pay for snow removal if they really want it.

[GB]

@guga31bb 68639 wrote:

I’m not sure I follow. Is de-icing the roads paid for exclusively by people who drive to work? I doubt it. Unless I’m completely missing the point of your post, is that not what our taxes are supposed to be doing (paying for things that we consume)? I’m probably already, in some way, funding the county’s de-icing of the roads, even though I never drive on them. I have no objection to that — it’s important for people to be able to get to work — but is it so unreasonable to expect that my cycling commute is also possible during the winter?

I don’t know the details of the road de-icing pay structure. I know that there’s a gas-tax that goes toward road construction/repair/maintenance, so there’s at least a correlation between driving and paying for road use. (we sneaky cyclist get to use the road w/out paying this tax – unless there’s a special bike tax that I don’t know about? – Maybe there should be and that money could be used to pay for trail creation/maintenance/clearing)

I wasn’t trying to be a jerk, just brainstorming a solution to a problem (see proposed solution #2 in the bike tax mentioned above). But judging by your post you don’t want to pay (directly) for trail de-icing, so I guess it doesn’t pass your cost benefit analysis (which is fine, it’s really borderline for me).

To the suggestion that we clear it ourselves, that could work. Maybe we clear/salt the weekend after a snow? – I imagine turnout for this would be less than the $10 collection, but that’s just my guess.

[GB]

My guess is clearing the trails isn’t cost beneficial. – but maybe we can find out:

Question for the forum – What percent of winter riders are on this forum? I’m guessing it’s pretty high ~ 75%. How many forum members are there? How much would you pay to have the trails cleared for your commute? (I’m topping out at $10 b/c that the cost of parking at my office / ~round trip metro)

We need minimum of 1,000 people to each pay $10 per snow event (see $10,000 estimate from somewhere near the start of this thread – I forget which trails that is for, but it wasn’t for all Arlington trails).

If we went to Arlington with 1,000 signatures on a form that said please bill me $10 when it snows and Arlington has the trails cleared within 24hrs I think there’s a pretty good chance they’d do it. – At least a much much higher chance than if we just said please clear the trails. (Maybe next year snow clearing signatures are collected along with blinky-light distribution?)

I think we’re a small enough group that this doesn’t have to be a tragedy of the commons situation. If there are a 1,000 forum members we could collect $10 in cash now and get the contractor to be on standby for 1 snow fall and then reassess for the 2nd snow fall. – If you think that there’s no way that would happen, then I think you’ve answered the cost benefit question – unless you think that a high percentage of the forum are free-riders (riders – get it). Personally I think we’re all ELITE citizens who would be happy to pay for the things we consume (like cleared trails).

[GB]

0 – ramps at both ends

[GB]

@Subby 68058 wrote:

How do we get the message across?

I agree with Hozn, just tell them. As politely as possible you can say, “your light is extremely bright”.

To the ninjas you can say, “you are very difficult to see”.

Lead by example.

[GB]

I’ll help on Monday if people are still there when I go by (generally that’s pretty close to 7pm)

[GB]

I like the idea of have a prize category for miles, and different one for points.

I like getting points for a destination. – I’m thinking each team captain gets to pick 1 destination during the competition and it’s active for 1 week.

For points not automatically calculated using based on mileage & days, I think everyone can track their own. Then if your points put you in a position for a prize they can be verified.

[GB]

Fair point; we already have a system of tracking miles, so making points match miles doesn’t make much sense. Since people will ride for points when they wouldn’t ride just for the miles then I’m fine with a points system that doesn’t closely match miles.

To the extent that this is a social thing on forum, how about points for photos? – you and your bike covered in snow, frozen water bottles, monuments in the snow, etc. These would be added at the end, rather than incorporated into the automated system (I assume it’s automated).

[Author]

Posts