[lordofthemark]

If I buy from bike and roll, they don’t offer the same service as a shop would, right?

How would you compare the Trek 7300 to say the Novara Transfer? Lighter, I guess?

[lordofthemark]

@ShawnoftheDread 65069 wrote:

Bikenetic stocks the Kona Dew for around $500 new. Fits most of your parameters, easily takes fenders and rack, and is a fairly light hybrid.

$500 is a bit more than I want to spend now, but it definitely sounds like I should take a look at that.

[lordofthemark]

@DismalScientist 65067 wrote:

I think you will find a much bigger selection if you go with 700 C wheels. It is hard to find relatively narrow tires that go to high pressure for 26″ wheels.

I suggest you look at flat bar road bikes with 28 mm tires as they may be substantially lighter than other hybrids.

Light is good – as that would help me on hills and bridges. Would such a bike be less comfortable/more likely to need repairs when ridden on poor pavement, up curbs, over gunk, etc?

[lordofthemark]

My building’s garage is accessed from 3rd Street SE between M and Tingey. 3rd is closed to through motor traffic – the north half is closed to ALL motor traffic (and hence is a wide but short MUP in effect) and the southern half, which one must traverse to get to and from the garage entrance, is open only to motor vehicle accessing the garage (at the entrance to both halves one must navigate bollards). One must show one’s ID to the sec guard to enter, as motorists must. There is adequate bike parking. I get nervous exiting, because its a steep ramp, and I have issues on hills, but motorists here seem to be careful, and I have had no problems so far.

[lordofthemark]

@KLizotte 64836 wrote:

O….M……G.

Forget it Jake, its Tysons.

On the original topic, a colleague of mine (she does not bike commute as she lives a few blocks from work and walks, but she’s much more elite than me – not in attitude (she is quiet and humble) but she is apparently pretty fast, does that loop around Hains thing regularly, and just bought a carbon fiber road bike) and myself (dumpy bike, slow rider, but I HAVE begun to commute) were having a water cooler conversation with two folks about different kinds of bikes, different approaches to exercise, etc. I don’t think we got another would be commuter, but maybe one more recreational bike rider who is more aware of commuting.

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 64660 wrote:

VDOT has some people who really care, and their spare change dramatically affects the funding picture, but their policy direction sucks.

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2013/09/shared-use-path-a-casualty-of-the.html

You know your state DOT doesn’t “get it” when even members of the Board of Supervisors of one the least bike supportive local jurisdictions think there’s a problem.

[lordofthemark]

@cyclingfool 64745 wrote:

Unless they significantly changed the structure of the ACS questions (doubtful) for the most recent dataset, you’re right. I did a project for one of my planning courses last semester and did a fair amount of digging through data on commute mode share. The grouping of bikes with motorcycles and taxis was a major shortcoming of the data. As far as distance-related commute statistics go, also not well covered in the ACS. It’s possible MWCOG or some other local planning agency has done some surveys, but I am not aware of any offhand.

I think the type of info you’re thinking about would be really interesting to look at, though, dasgeh.

The problem can’t be the questions, or they couldn’t put out any bike data at all. Its the mode granularity that they publish in the tables with the various cross tabulations. They only cross tab after consolidating the modes into a smaller number of categories. I am not familiar enough with the deep nitty gritty of ACS to know if there is any way around that with any public ACS data. But census has the individual survey responses to create that. It would take some agency with sufficent clout, and, I guess, with funding to share via MOU (or just a congressional committee that cared) to get the cross tabs done with bike specifically broken out.

[lordofthemark]

“commuted” for my fourth time. More complicated this time. We still only have one bike in the household (long story). My daughter who is currently living with us and who is observant of Jewish law, has been getting frustrated that its difficult to get to synagogue on sabbath and jewish holidays without riding in a car. The nearest synagogues to us (olam tikvah and Chabad Fairfax – neither of which is the one we belong to, BTW) are a long and nasty walk. She is of the opinion (I can discuss the rabbinic sources if anyone is interested) that its proper to bike on Jewish holidays (and less of an infraction on sabbath than driving) The good news is she has gotten back into biking, she has a very transportation biking attitude (“daddy, why don’t we live in Copenhagen?”) and she’s exploring routes west of the beltway that I’m not familiar with. The disadvantage is that yesterday, Sukkos, she biked to Chabad, and kept the bike there till sundown (at which point she was willing to ride in a car- she is not strict on the second day of the holiday, another long story). She forgot I intended to ride to work (I usually take the 29G to the pentagon and bike to M Street SE from there) today. But I don’t have a light good enough to feel comfortable riding after dark. So the bike had to be left at LRT and Prince William overnight.

Undaunted, I accepted a lift from my wife to Prince William (from Hummer). I then took the 29X to do my commute, thinking that won’t be bad, the 29X is fast cause it goes on the beltway, doesn’t amble through downtown Annandale. Well, instead it wends through the SFH areas along Braeburn. For a long time. Despite getting to Prince William around 7:30, and getting on the bus at 7:53, didn’t get to the Pentagon till 8:30. And I was out of shape, not used to riding in the cooler weather (I wore shorts, I’d heard it would be warm) and so I went even slower than usual. Finally got here about 9:25.

Sigh. OTOH it was lovely out, no particular traffic or similar hassles. And we have all decided that buying that second bike is a priority.

[lordofthemark]

@dasgeh 64735 wrote:

But is any broken down by commute distance?

Specifically, does anyone know of any commute (or other) mode share data for our region broken down by distance? I’ve seen lots of “of all trips taken in Arlington; X% are by car, Y% by bike, Z% walking, etc”, but I’m looking for: “of all commutes of 3 miles or less [in Arlington or region-wide], A% are by foot; B% by bike; C% by car, etc”

Does that make sense? I bet google could help, but I’m super short on time these days (today is my last day in this office – Monday I start on the Hill).

The census page on the american community survey has a lot of mode breakdowns by other variables, including I think distance, but I also think those group bikes into “other” along with taxi and motorcycle. The only table that spefically breaks bike out is the one that has total for the jurisdiction and by gender. Thats from some quick examination after looking at yesterdays post by WashCycle. There may be more there.

[lordofthemark]

So, the jurisdictions that FABB deals with are 1. Fairfax County, including FCDOT, FCPA, FCPS and FCPD 2. NPS 3. NVRPA 4 VDOT? Am I missing any?

Of those is it fair to say that VDOT and NVRPA are the more problematic in terms of getting biking issues?

[lordofthemark]

Looks like it will be an interesting meeting – a lot going on with the bike master plan moving forward. Unfortunately I will be unable to attend.

[lordofthemark]

@CycleNinja 64074 wrote:

I also think the first thing I do when I move in to Fairfax is get involved with FABB. The general feedback seems to be that it’s getting better in Fairfax so I can contribute to making it better if I am going to be riding on the roads right?

That would be great. While there are folks here with much more experience in dealing with biking advocacy issues in FFX than me (I am new to FABB myself) I do think its a place where more advocacy can have payback, and more involvement by cyclists will help FABB. I think the board of supervisors gets that biking is part of the solution to Fairfax’s transport issues, and that recreation cycling (as well as transportation cycling) is not only a public health benefit, but will strengthen real estate in the County. Countering that is the legacy road system, issues with VDOT, a county electorate that is a bit more resistant to change than the Board is, and, IIUC, sometimes the board’s own caution or lack of understanding of biking issues. But there have been new bike lanes striped, we have a full time (I think?) bike planner at FCDOT, there is a county bike plan (we hope it will be officially adopted soon) that will guide improvements, we have had attempts by the County to educate the police on biking issues, we have the bike racks on Fairfax Connector buses, etc, etc. AFAICT the biggest push the County is making is to make Tysons more bikeable, which is important as they are increasing density there and reducing auto mode share there is crucial to making that succeed. That plan is already officially approved and will be discussed at the upcoming Fairfax County Bike Summit, which you might want to attend.

[lordofthemark]

This is motivating me to switch my telework day so I can up my bike commuting to once a week. YOLO, as the young people say.

[lordofthemark]

We have just received word that we WILL be allowed to exit the building to go home, from the main entrance which is closest to the metro station, and FPS will protect us, but we must move quickly to avoid congestion at the metro station entrance.

[lordofthemark]

@Mikey 64251 wrote:

A coworker and I were on the corner of M and NJ when a sedan pulled up and pulled a gunshot victem out. We scattered and went inside 1100 NJ. I had my tire off of my bike and gear all over the sidewalk. I grabbed the big stuff and went inside then went back out to get the rest if my stuff.

So THATS what happened at that corner. There have been rumors he was shot on that corner, that he was medevaced by chopper from NavSea, etc.

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