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At about 930a today most of the trail around Gravelly Pt to the 14th St bridge was crunchy, rutted ice due to foot traffic. Taking to the snow on the side was much easier going even with skinny tires. The ramps for the airport overpasses were pretty solidly iced with hard pack snow on the overpasses.

The 14st St Bridge is plowed and clear.

I’m heading home early to maneuver the ruts in the daylight.

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They’re really slow and dumb and kinda big so it’s more startling than anything. A couple times on my commutes back then, a cicada would fly right at my head and then slowly bank away as it realized it was about to hit a helmet..

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I don’t think there’s a dedicated parking garage to the convention center, just corporate lots around the area. I’ve parked my (old commuter) bike on L St in the small rack (once) and it was OK and I see alot of bikes parked at the metro entrance at M St, but then again I wouldn’t trust leaving a good bike there.

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This is just a bad stretch of road with so many modes of transport on a narrow road. 1st & K is probably the worst spot with too many NB right turners just not caring if there’s a bike, pedestrian, scooter in the bike lane or crosswalk (not to mention cars stopping to let passengers out–into the bike lane). Since we’re all kinda mooshed in together, everyone gets equal time in “^&%^&(*&^(*&”.
But once you survive that, or come downhill NB, running the gauntlet of metro riders bolting out of the exit (wearing headphones) and not looking at all (didn’t your mother ever tell you…’) can be just as harrowing.
Ya just gotta pay attention and Expect the Stupid.

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@dasgeh 192138 wrote:

A study on the W&OD showed that ebikes on the trail had lower average speeds than pedal bikes.

Can you share a link to that study? I’d love to see the data, since that is definitely not what I experience during rush hour…thanks

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Had an interesting argument with an e-scooter ride this morning on the MVT.

Mr. E passes me on a small hill and proceeds to sit about 3 feet in front of me, not speeding up or slowing down, with another cyclist about 5 feet in front of him. Going up the first airport overpass, Mr. E. moves right alongside the cyclist ahead of me, but doesn’t pass. So he’s now in the left (oncoming) lane as he goes up the overpass. Fortunately no one was coming the other direction and on the downhill, cyclist ahead speeds up and I’m now waiting my chance to pass Mr. E.

Next downhill I pass him and think I’ve lost him, when lo and behold, he comes right up next to me a little later and passes, again barely getting in front of me. So, we’re now in close talking distance.

Me:”You need to learn how to ride that thing when you pass”
E: “I know how to ride it. I’m going the exact same speed.”
Me:”You can’t do that when there’s other people around.”
E:”I’m going the exact same speed.”
Me:”That’s the problem! You have to adjust your speed when there’s other people around.”
E:I’m going the exact same speed. Just like driving on the highway.”
Me: (huh?) “I hope you don’t drive a car.”
at which point, my throat is so cold from yelling as mr. self-centered, I let him pass for good.

Conclusion? I will go my 15 mph (or whatever) regardless of anyone else out here and you all just have to adapt to me and my little scooter’s speed.

[gibby]

Tried the downhill runnel today since I was carrying a heavy load on the back. Fortunately I was wearing recessed cleats vs regular road cleats, cuz walking down those short steps with a heavy bike, picking up speed quickly was a little dicey. If there had been any frost on the steps I woulda been slipping n sliding the whole way down.
Definitely going back to just muscling up and hoisting the beast.

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Not that he did anything illegal, but he may have been a danger to other cyclists, pedestrians, joggers if he did have some mental illness. Not moving when he knows someone is behind him and then wacking me in the face when I pass is rather aggressive and could have been more violent depending on his mood.

I wasn’t about to stop and have a chat to determine that and would have simply alerted police that there is someone on the bridge who may be aggressively violent.
Maybe he was just one pissed off dude—either way, it was not a good situation.

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Just missed the last opening of the bridge today before they closed the VA side so had a nice tour of the Mall and couple extra miles. A rider at work said he was one of the last thru before they closed it and that he was told it would be open later today. That true? Seems all the intel on nps says it’s completely closed thru Friday..

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Glass breaker seems to be back in action this morning. The airport underpass at Smith Blvd (the underpass at the south end of the airport that was reconstructed last year.)
Spoke to a Park Police officer who said they had done a stakeout ‘and I guess we need to do it again.’
I was wondering why I hadn’t seen any glass for a couple weeks. Guess the park police need to work on their undercover skills and actually catch this person!!!!!!!!!

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Very large pile of glass and not just bits, but good size pieces, just north of the north airport overpass, which seems to be the culprit’s preferred location.
Reported to the Park Service maintenance and Park Police, who took my name and number for the first time, so just maybe they’re taking these reports more seriously???

Keep up the calls to the Park Police 202 610-7505. The officers I’ve spoken to have been responsive and they’re definitely getting frustrated with the situation (or maybe it’s just the phone calls).

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Our friend does venture further south some nights. This morning the glass is in the underpass at Airport Access Road, along with new bits of torn up paper.

Left message with Jeffrey Hitchcock (at the Tony M. number). Spoke to (a very chipper) person at the 289-2500 general number, who said the park police are in the process of setting up cameras. Spoke to park police who said “we are getting moving.”

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@SolarBikeCar 164286 wrote:

Ebikes are used to improve uphill speed where stopping quickly isn’t hard even without disk brakes.

Based on e-bikers I’ve seen on the MVT and in DC, they are also used to pass people on a flat, crowded trail doing 20+ mph plus, and also to dangerously cut off cyclists starting up from a red light.

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Had a nice conversation with Jeffrey Hitchcock at the maintenance office this morning. They’ve had several reports about the glass north of the north overpass. I also mentioned the glass at the Airport Access Road underpass and the bits of paper strewn about.
He said they are very aware of and concerned about this (just takes one person to fall in that..) and have been working with police to try to catch the perp.
It’s clearly not an easy situation unless you can stake out a dozen cops along the trail during the wee hours.

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@Emm 163062 wrote:

Also, another broken bottle on the MVT by the airport fencing. Looks like I’ll be taking an alternate route home to avoid it since NPS has pretty much stopped trying to deal with all the broken glass it seems like.

There was an NPS worker cleaning up the glass around 830a and I pointed him to the large pile north of the north airport overpass, so hopefully all is clean on the way home.

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