[jrenaut]

@DismalScientist 193507 wrote:

But wait a minute….
Don’t reflectors and reflective gear interact with special gear called headlights that are put in cars?:rolleyes:

Yes. However, any reflector interacts with any light, and cars have been required to have headlights since forever (citation needed). Let’s just say we passed a victim-blaming law that said every cyclist had to ride with a Don’t Kill Me Beacon and every car had to have a Cyclist Sensor (And I like my typo in the previous post, I’m not fixing that). What would that COST? It would realistically be YEARS before every bike and every car had the right equipment. And you know that UPS would lobby against having to put Cyclist Sensors in their trucks, and they’d be made exempt. USPS would be the same. WMATA buses. Police cars. Range Rovers.

It’s just another expensive tech solution to a problem that could be solved by punishing drivers for dangerous behavior.

[jrenaut]

@drevil 193502 wrote:

OK, y’all can get back to arguing

No YOU can get back to arguing

[jrenaut]

I don’t object to cyclists being visible. I encourage lots of lights and reflective gear. What I object to is specific gear requirements to interact with special gear we’ll put in cars so that drivers can say “well, my Cyclist Censor didn’t see you, so it’s not my fault I ran you over”.

[jrenaut]

I rode with clipless pedals today! This was a bit of a psychological hurdle to get over. Last time I wore these shoes was the day I tore it, and I remember sitting in the ER with my shoes on for a while until the foot swelled enough to hurt and I had to take the right shoe off. And for months after the surgery, my foot was too swollen to wear the bike shoes. But today I put them back on and rode and it was fine.

Next hurdle – getting back on the fixie. It’s currently geared at 46/16, which I think is a hair aggressive for my current fitness level and leg strength.

[jrenaut]

@matteblack 193418 wrote:

I like the idea of an individual leader board (no cap on miles) vs. the team leader board (capped miles)

Just to be clear – we DID (and still do) have this.

[jrenaut]

There is a huge difference between riding around at night with no lights and being required to wear some special reflective gear to trigger some sensor we’re now going to require in cars.

[jrenaut]

@Shepard 193363 wrote:

This may be entirely too complicated but is there a way to create a points system that rewards the nervous newbie with extra points for riding more often or longer. In other words can we create a scoring system that rewards challenging oneself and improvement.

It wouldn’t be hard to give a points bump to someone classified as a newbie. The hard part is classifying newbies properly. New to cycling vs new to winter riding vs new to BAFS? We don’t want to give bonus points to year-round 300 miles a week riders just because this is their first BAFS

[jrenaut]

I vote no participants tear their Achilles in early March and miss the end of the competition.

I didn’t like the mileage cap. I don’t think it made it much closer, and it annoyed higher mileage riders. I’m okay annoying people for a better competition, but if I’m going to annoy people simply for annoyance sake, I’d rather be more creative about it.

I love that i nearly died of heat stroke two days ago and today we’re talking about Freezing Saddles.

Local teams do not work well for DC residents. On average, VA and MD residents have longer commutes and just do more miles. The year I was on a DC team I was our leading scorer but would have been 4th or 5th on the top teams, and I don’t think this is unusual. If we want to do regional teams that might work? MD teams and VA teams and then DC folks go one or the other depending on location in the city? Sounds complicated, though.

I’ve said for years that we should drop non-participants. I think the threshold should be more towards days ridden rather than mileage – if you ride 1-3 miles 4-5 days a week, awesome. If you ride once a week, regardless of mileage, bye.

[jrenaut]

A good chunk of bike safety advocates, myself included, consider this to be pretty equivalent to victim blaming. Drivers running over cyclists riding legally is a driver problem, not a cyclist problem. Shifting responsibility onto cyclists, requiring us to wear special gear to survive, is just one more way we absolve drivers of all responsibility for their actions.

[jrenaut]

@Judd 192537 wrote:

I like the CVP. Feels like the gear ratio is wider. I also like that it doesn’t slip gears.

Maybe I just need to wait until my leg is back to something resembling normal

[jrenaut]

I hear the e-assist CaBis are returning this fall.

I rode a CVP version yesterday. It must take some getting used to – I constantly felt like I was in the wrong gear. Although my right calf is still mostly jello compared to pre-surgery, so part of it is probably me.

[jrenaut]

This is actually pretty good, and I’m shocked that DDOT had anything at all to do with it. Kudos to WABA for sticking with this and getting what seems to be a pretty good result that should be replicated for every single construction site across the city. And I can’t wait for that stupid S turn to be gone. The greater Washington area is only big enough for one S turn, and it is the S Turn of Doom on the Custis.

[jrenaut]

@LhasaCM 192310 wrote:

Not to say that ALL drivers are bad…

Actually, all drivers are bad

[jrenaut]

@bentbike33 192308 wrote:

But which way were the cyclists going, with or counter the car traffic in the adjacent lane?

Not sure, but I don’t think it matters. There are pedestrians on either side of the street as well – clearly drivers just aren’t looking.

[jrenaut]

@scoot 192305 wrote:

Or … put the southbound bike lane on the southbound side of the street?

People have been hit by left turners and by right turners. I don’t think that’s going to help

[Author]

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