[Mark Blacknell]

@rcannon100 34172 wrote:

??? You have to be kidding me??? What fiscal constraints. Arlington has spent money like it has an infinite well.

Come with me to a budget meeting sometime?

To be sure, I take your general point. Generally, whenever I see a challenge in Arlington, the fiscal constraints are pretty far back in the list of concerns. That said, road maintenance costs a *lot*, and those costs have figured greatly into planning. Maintenance isn’t a capital issue, it’s an ongoing budget concern. Tough stuff, when you have to balance it against a hundred other priorities that bring people out to the annual budget hearings.

[Mark Blacknell]

@off2ride 33957 wrote:

I’d ticket them if I was the law.

For what, exactly?

[Mark Blacknell]

I like the idea. (I’m a big fan of community lending/small transactions – neighborgoods.net, AirBNB, etc.). I also saw a local bike lending business while I was driving back from DCCX yesterday – bikestoborrow.com. (Cargo bikes, too!)

[Mark Blacknell]

@dcv 34063 wrote:

Had a great time, met Tim, Mark & Will on the starting grid.

Indeed, you beat Mark, too – well done.

@dcv 34063 wrote:

Looked for ACC and Pete but didn’t see them. Thought I saw / heard Culimerc and Arlingtonrider cheering (was that you guys?), you guys are so awesome.

You heard Culimerc not too long before you passed me – “Mark, you gonna let the guy on the *track bike* pass you? C’mon!”

Good to meet, you, too – sorry we didn’t get to chat more.

~

Also, I give you people a crash, and I get no photos of it? Ingrates, the lot of you.

[Mark Blacknell]

@Dirt 33667 wrote:

Mr. Cyclo, sir. That may have been one of the stranger PMs you’ve ever received.

You’re welcome.

Dirt.

Well, if Dirt’s sports bra doesn’t fit, I suppose there’s always Liz’s.

[Mark Blacknell]

Tim Kelley engages in comment-doping.

[Mark Blacknell]

http://www.cycleboredom.com/confessions-of-a-former-fanboy/

[Mark Blacknell]

@chris_s 33640 wrote:

NPS refuses to cooperate with any changes in that area because their parkland in that section is a potential future monument site and they don’t want to make any changes now that might end up being detrimental to how the future monument might interact with the site. Because of this all of the upcoming improvements (The Esplanade Project) are squeezed into a tiny strip of land on the north side of the intersection.

SO…here’s my crazy-ass-theory-of-the-day:

One of the best things we could do to help bring about improvements to that area is to get a monument assigned to that site ASAP. Then additional improvements to the intersection along that NPS land could get rolled into the monument construction & landscaping.

Makes a twisted kind of sense to me at least.

But it’s probably crazy.

Here, we already have the Netherlands Carrillion nearby, perhaps we could get Belgium to send us this (from Oudenaarde):

[Mark Blacknell]

@chris_s 33636 wrote:

This is just asinine.

Certainly strikes me as such. Would love to get more details about it.

For those who don’t know about contributory negligence and the impact it has on cyclists, I urge you to start with this memo from WABA.

[Mark Blacknell]

Thanks, Kathy.

I hope that our DC area CFC participants will give some thought to some of the advocacy orgs listed above. Obviously, I’d love for WABA to be the beneficiary of some of your giving, but I encourage other forum members to talk about the bike organizations they donate to, and why they’d encourage others to do the same. I’ve given to both Bikes for the World and the League of American Bicyclists in the past. Bikes for the World, because I believe that they create a lot of value in the lives of recipients for relatively little money from us, and the LAB because I think it’s important to support cycling advocacy at the national level.

[Mark Blacknell]

WABA’s Combined Federal Campaign Number (CFC) is 93587. There are lots of great causes and important efforts funded through the CFC, but I hope that many of you will choose to direct some of your support towards WABA. Our staff works extraordinarily hard to make sure that your contributions are well-earned. Thanks!

[Mark Blacknell]

Ouch.

For those interested, this is the relevant portion of the Virginia Code:

A person riding a bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, motorized skateboard or scooter, motor-driven cycle, or an electric power-assisted bicycle on a sidewalk, shared-use path, or across a roadway on a crosswalk, shall have all the rights and duties of a pedestrian under the same circumstances.

[Mark Blacknell]

To the idiot who was rolling up Wilson Boulevard from Courthouse to Virginia Square last night, with a simple little white blinky light attached to your seatpost – you *do* know that that’s looked like you just grabbed a light off of your backpack (nice dark clothes, btw) and attached it in the wrong direction, right? And you *do* know that it’s getting dark earlier and that you should *always* have a set of real lights on your bike at this time of year, right? And that “oops, I forgot it was getting dark so early” would be a really lame excuse if you got hit because someone didn’t see you, right?

Oh, wait. That was me.

Nevermind.

[Mark Blacknell]

@jopamora 32800 wrote:

How far is the Family Ride at 10:30?

It’s a very short out and back on the WOD/Four Mile Run trails. The length will depend on the composition of the group (younger = shorter). We’re not requiring pre-registration for this one, so we really don’t know how big/small the group will be. Come check it out!

~

Kathy, thanks for the follow up. I just sent all volunteers an email. More to come.

[Mark Blacknell]

@ShawnoftheDread 32772 wrote:

I would, but I’ll have a kid in tow for the ride.

Pssh, use him/her as a wheel stop in case of emergency!

(I figure if I keep saying stuff like this, I’ll never be asked to be involved again . . .)

~

But seriously, thanks. We could use more marshalls, but we’re not dangerously low or anything.

[Author]

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