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@bobco85 65873 wrote:

Have they made any progress with the golf course connection? I thought the idea of building an escarpment for a trail was thoroughly rejected and opposed by the golf course membership, with some members even going so far as to threaten litigation.

I believe some of the members did threaten to sue the club’s management over it, but since the club had already given the county a right-of-way for the trail in exchange for being exempted from some zoning restrictions when they remodeled a building, it doesn’t seem like this could have stopped the trail anyway. I don’t know if the county waited on the trail because of this issue anyway or just decided to do it as part of the Pike improvements for funding reasons, but hopefully the fact that it’s still on the map means that it’s still part of the plan.

The bike boulevard page has a contact email address on the right, so I suppose someone could try to find out more.

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It’s not like you need to wear special bike clothes all the time and consider yourself as being an ELITE cyclist, but I think there’s a point where working really hard to make a statement that you aren’t making a statement becomes slightly contradictory.

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If the Park Police are all on furlough, traffic is low, and the trails are closed, we might have no choice but to illegally ride on a certain scenic highway.

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@DismalScientist 64684 wrote:

Seems the phone number is wrong anyway. http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/bik/4077899014.html

Now, if one was to sell a stolen bike on CL, why would one list it with a bad phone number and no other way to reply? Come to think of it, if one were to sell a legit bike on CL, why would one do this?

I’m thinking this phone number must belong to an ex who has extraordinary animosity towards bike nerds.

Maybe they just have a very bad case of dyslexia and are wondering why nobody is calling to buy their bike for $521!

Edit: But kidding aside, I ran google image search on it and found that the photo is apparently taken from http://www.memphishightailers.com/content.aspx?page_id=2155&item_id=179510 and the phone numbers from there and Craigslist seem to contain an awfully large number of digits in common (although the order is different).

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@bikeeveryday 63042 wrote:

You: Jogger on the CCT between Conn. Ave. and E-W Highway this morning running toward Bethesda. In the right lane, wearing a highly visible white t-shirt, and NOT wearing headphones.

Me: Cyclist passing you in the left lane without providing audible warning.

You: “Please provide an audible warning when you pass.”

Me: “Sorry, …… but I had plenty of clearance…”

You: “That doesn’t matter!”

Me: After thinking about it… He’s right.

As an added incentive: if you call your pass when there’s a bike rapidly approaching from the opposite direction, I will be glad to yell “bike up” at the top of my lungs at no charge.

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I think if you’re going to take that sidewalk path going east you’re better off just using the Washington Blvd on-ramp just outside of the frame to the left of that picture:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3506[/ATTACH]

You can then cut onto the path:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3507[/ATTACH]

On the other hand, if you’re coming from the right lane you do have to go about a meter in the wrong direction, but there aren’t that many cars coming out of the Pentagon in that spot so it’s not really that bad.

The gravel section you have indicated is indeed pretty dangerous and it would be good if they either fixed it or rerouted bikes around it somehow.

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@Rod Smith 54078 wrote:

Not secret but the bike ramp with eight switchbacks that connects Eisenhower Avenue Connector to Clement Drive that I discovered Sunday is really cool and fun to ride.

I just encounter this for the first time two weeks ago. I was riding a route I had assembled on ridewithGPS (apparently without paying any attention to how it was routing certain parts) and I was quite surprised that something like this even existed, much less that the gods of the internet had seen fit to send me through it. It was certainly fun to ride up, though.

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@PotomacCyclist 50490 wrote:

I didn’t read the site carefully. I thought it was some guy’s rage against cyclists, not a reposting of other people’s tweets.

I agree that it could be made a lot more clear (the text in the upper right sort of explains it but it’s tiny) and I just used the question submission form to suggest that the author do so.

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@PotomacCyclist 50372 wrote:

The right to free speech doesn’t extend to immediate threats of violence. That site definitely skirts along the line. Frankly I think the authorities may want to look at this one, especially if there are unsolved hit-and-run cases in that area.

I may be misunderstanding your meaning, but are you saying that the police should investigate this website? It seems to be reposting tweets for the purpose of drawing attention to how widespread dangerous anti-bike attitudes are among drivers, rather than to express approval of their message. If the police should be investigating people it should be those who actually wrote the tweets.

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ARLnow has an article up now, which will hopefully get the word out to non-cyclists using the trail: http://www.arlnow.com/2013/04/03/police-investigate-armed-robbery-on-custis-trail/

Unfortunately the police haven’t found the suspects.

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@PotomacCyclist 47677 wrote:

All this will improve cycling in certain sections along Columbia Pike, IF all the plans are carried out. Some sections of the road will still be difficult for cyclists. There’s also the streetcar project in the coming years. The tracks could be an issue for those brave souls who ride on the Pike, but it shouldn’t be a problem for those crossing the Pike at a 90-degree angle.

If Southgate goes away and they start installing tracks for the streetcar before they expand the sidewalks on Columbia Pike and build the elusive Army-Navy Country Club connection, it’s really going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Edit: Maybe we should take this to a new “complain about Columbia Pike” thread since it’s not really CaBi related.

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In the year or so I was commuting into DC from Silver Spring, I got about 1 flat per month and also had 1 or 2 tires ruined by sharp objects (and for most of this time I was using Vittoria Randonneurs which are supposed to be tough) . On the other hand, after moving to Arlington, I think I’ve only gotten one flat on my commuter bike in just under a year, and this is on really cheap tires.

My commute is shorter now so I suppose the difference may be less when you calculate it out per mile, but I think it’s really just an issue of how much debris there is on the roads you’re riding on.

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@bobco85 47589 wrote:

Part of the plan is to create bicycle boulevards on parallel streets (9th and 12th), but I do not know of any improvements that would make it easier to get from Pentagon City to Courthouse Road.

Here’s a link to information on the bicycle boulevards: http://www.columbiapikeva.us/multimodal-street-improvements/bike-boulevards/

I really wish we could get that Army Navy Country Club Access Road to Queen Street connection (WARNING: it’s a big can of worms should you want to look into it). It would make traveling between Pentagon City and the rest of Columbia Pike much safer.

It’s unfortunate that the bike boulevard plan doesn’t appear the two main problems of 1) the parallel streets not running continuously along Columbia Pike and 2) the lack of a good connection from the Pentagon end.

The Army Navy Country Club thing is really weird because despite the internal lawsuit within the country club, Arlington County apparently already has the right of way for the path so as far as I can tell there’s no reason they shouldn’t have already constructed it. Heck, if Arlington just stated that people could bike along the right of way I might do it even if they don’t construct a path. If anyone has any connections, it would be really great if they could find out what exactly is going on with this.

I can only hope that CaBi will lead to more interest in improving Columbia Pike for biking in the future.

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Maybe this should go in classifieds. A house falls under the category of “bike accessory”, right?

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@consularrider 47138 wrote:

Single speed with who knows what chain ring and rear cog set up. Put some studded tires on it for winter commuting (note, each studded tire that size retails for about the same price as the bike! )

It’s tempting but even at $200, and regardless of whether the reviews are good, I think it would be a little bit silly in the DC area.

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