[lordofthemark]

@Kbikeva 212191 wrote:

The speed limit there is 35mph… supposedly a safer speed for vulnerable users.

Friends who have advocated for bike infrastructure in McLean have told me often how much it is than it used to be. It must have been really bad.

Why is that now people cry out, “It’s the fault of the infrastructure?” rather than, “We need speed limit enforcement”? And while I agree that poorly designed infrastructure encourages drivers to make poor choices, ultimately it’s the person operating the more dangerous vehicle who should be most on his/her toes.

While infrastructure can’t do everything, in general it’s hard to get good results from enforcement when the infra encourages speeding (I say this without knowing the details of this location). And note, until this last session of the General Assembly, speed cameras were banned in Virginia – and even now, they are only allowed near schools and at road construction sites. I don’t think any jurisdictioniin Va has implemented them yet. There is of course human enforcement – but that is costly, and sometimes problematic.

[lordofthemark]

https://fabb-bikes.org/fabb-statement-on-mclean-bicyclist-killed-in-crash/

[lordofthemark]

@Steve O 212097 wrote:

I will once again sponsor the Clever Caption Pointless Prize.

It will work similarly to previous years: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?18172-Clever-Caption-Photo-Pointless-Prize-FS-2021-photo-no-1

Keep your eye out for separate threads containing photos that are begging for a clever caption.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25444[/ATTACH]

Note, I believe it’s really hard to ride a bicycle while carrying a full length musket (even without the bayonet) I think that is why the Spencer Carbine was adopted in the US Army in the 1860s.

[lordofthemark]

@SarahBee 212124 wrote:

Cyclist killed in McLean crash

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2021/12/1-killed-in-mclean-crash/

[lordofthemark]

@Steve O 212127 wrote:

(ignore the dislike. I only really really and sincerely “like” it)

It’s cool, my friend

[lordofthemark]

@Sunyata 212113 wrote:

You must either be rather young or rather old…

I remember when the Alleycat was played at every bar or bat mitzvah.

[lordofthemark]

I am currently on team backpack – because I still haven’t put a rack on the Giant Contend, and I haven’t commuted with the Cannondale since the pandemic began (and I never used to carry my laptop home in that golden era) I find carrying it in my backpack kind of unpleasant, and want to try the pannier. OTOH I really think I need to either get a second govt laptop (agency says no, so far) or get back to connecting from my home computer (I need to recheck with IT I guess)

[lordofthemark]

@cvcalhoun 211924 wrote:

We’ve still got three people who have registered but have not confirmed their e-mail addresses. If you’re on this list, can you please see the post above for how to correct the situation?

• lordofthemark
• cadolley
• Noob618

Will do, my most humble apologies.

[lordofthemark]

@cvcalhoun 211837 wrote:

The function is fixed now. Can you please go back to https://freezingsaddles.org/authorize and try again?

It’s fixed now, thanks guys, y’all are excellent.

[lordofthemark]

I get an internal service error message whenever I try to authorize FS to access my strava.

[lordofthemark]

@komorebi 211686 wrote:

I’m not a coffee drinker, and I’m usually not hungry that early in the morning. So coffee club for me is actually more like “hang out with friends and buy a pastry to eat later” club. But that doesn’t roll trippingly off the tongue.

Oh I hear you, and I did remember you are not a coffee drinker. I guess I have been to some coffee clubs and not had coffee.

I do expect to get my booster in the next couple of days (thanks FDA!), and I also hope to do the igloo thing very soon. Will revisit the question then. Thanks to all for the info.

[lordofthemark]

@komorebi 211683 wrote:

It’s probably safe to assume that CC will be indoors for the next few months, unless it’s at least 50 degrees outside and there’s sun at the outdoors location.

Indoors locations are (I think) as follows: Mondays at Swing’s on E. Monroe, Tuesdays at Mah Ze Dahr on Crystal Drive, Wednesdays at Best Buns in Shirlington, Thursdays at Whole Foods in Pentagon City, and Friday at Misha’s on Prince Street. I generally keep my mask on when we’re indoors.

I mean if I could take my caffeine intravenously ……

To be clear – I had my two shots months ago, and have been doing more things since then. But at least one member of my household is very COVID cautious, and I respect that – mostly I have been waiting to get my booster, and to see local case #s go down a bit further before unmasked indoor dining – ALX is down to 10 cases per 100,000 people per day, but national case #s are up (yeah, I know vax vs unvax, cases vs hospitalizations, etc – in my household we would like a lot more infor on long COVID) Plus I have this OCD thing where I insist on dining in one of those “igloos” before full indoor dining – we missed that last winter when we didn’t go out to eat at all – I haven’t managed that yet. Hopefully I will get my booster in the next few days, and we can manage an igloo meal soon, and then I can discuss it with my HH.

OTOH 40 and cloudy seems like its fine for outdoor coffee, to me.

[lordofthemark]

So it was mentioned this morning that Whole Foods Thursday CC will usually be indoors for the winter (outside this AM, because nice weather). I am wondering which CC’s are planning to remain outdoors, which indoors, and for those that vary with the weather, if anyone could (I know this is a difficult ask) somehow specify the weather conditions that will lead to indoors (or to outdoors)?

For the benefit of those of us willing go to CC again, but not quite ready to eat indoors, even with vaxxed friends (or waiting to get boosted).

TIA

[lordofthemark]

@elbows 211619 wrote:

I was assaulted last night on Met Branch Trail at 6:15 pm (just after dark). There were a fair number of people on the trail, but there were still isolated pockets. Two guys on a foul-smelling motorcycle/dirt bike were doing laps on the trail and decided to target me on my bicycle. While what happened to me could have been much worse, it still should not have happened and I think that guys who are comfortable doing that would be looking to do more. I appreciated that MPD took it seriously when I flagged them down in Brookland.

Please keep your eyes open if you use the trail. You might be able to help someone else.

Personally, I appreciate seeing a little bit of police presence on bikes. An officer mentioned that they don’t ride when it is below something like 45 degrees.

So sorry this happened to you.

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 211611 wrote:

I used to think that maybe through education and outreach we could change things so we didn’t have roads entirely oriented around moving cars through an area. Now I’ve seen that we can’t even get people to wear masks during a pandemic without that turning into a ridiculous political culture war, and have no hope for improvements in something as controversial as human-oriented infrastructure in my lifetime.

When I first rode to work in DC (intermodally, from Annandale) in 2013, DC infra was far more lacking than it is now. While DC has a long way to go (as shown by the collision record) there is a lot more really good bike infra – and it’s getting better as we speak.

The suburbs are harder with a different mix of constituencies – I am more hopeful about Alexandria, after this week’s Council election – but we will see what happens in future. Of course there are even greater obstacles in suburbs further out. But I have not lost hope in progress, even if it is so much slower and more uneven than we would like.

“It is not your job to complete the work, but neither are you free to refrain from it”

[Author]

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