[Mark Blacknell]

I think you’re thinking about Bike DC, and not the Air Force Cycling Classic. As to the mess around Iwo Jima last year, that was primarily caused by an unplanned closure of half the road. It’s always a little tight around there, but had worked in years past. That said, there were lots of lessons learned. More info soon.

[Mark Blacknell]

@arlrider 45977 wrote:

Ah, right, because a person driving down a bike path at 40 MPH certainly couldn’t be, you know, INSANE and would surely allow himself to be paced by a bicycle riding in front of him. And he’s certain to be extra happy due to the fact that you just called the cops on him.

I’d do it

[Mark Blacknell]

@jnva 45966 wrote:

The guy was either a good actor or he was really lost. It seemed like he was late for something and was frantically trying to take a shortcut. I told him that the trail ended up ahead so he had to turn around. I estimate he was doing about 40 mph. Craaaazy.

If others encounter this, please:

1) Call the police.
2) Get in front of the car as it heads off the path and ensure that you moderate the driver’s speed, if you’re comfortable with that.

Thanks for the video.

[Mark Blacknell]

@sjclaeys 45303 wrote:

Do I get AAA?

No.

[Mark Blacknell]

It’s one guy that lives there, and he’s been known to have the occasionally friendly conversation with folks. Yes, it’s private property*, but I hope folks will just let him be. Been there for years, and never – to my knowledge – has he been a problem to anyone.

*Possibly the most valuable piece of undeveloped private property in DC, depending on what the judge sez.

[Mark Blacknell]

The horse, it is dead. That said – one of the reasons that I prefer the parking lot is that people in cars backing/pulling out are *looking* for others in the parking lot. Kids running onto or adults stepping to the trail don’t really expect anyone there.

[Mark Blacknell]

@dasgeh 44778 wrote:

Madras flip flops…

I want to see it in Shirlington. There will be a group that gets wasted enough to try Heartbreak Hill (to continue the party in Clarendon), which will be hilarious.

(Un)fortunately there’s a backup/assist motor on the trolley, it seems. Good for safety (I was wondering how they’d clear some intersections, late in the evening), but bad for our personal amusement.

[Mark Blacknell]

@sjclaeys 44754 wrote:

It is apparently drive your truck on a trail day for Arlington County. The fellow pictured here was parked on the W&OD at the Carlin Springs underpass at 7:40 this morning with no cones or other warning. It was just an inconvenience going east, but someone going west could have easily found themselves riding into the front of a truck. Later this morning I saw a full-sized trash truck tooling along 4MRT between Carlin Springs and Columbia Pike and an Arlington County truck pulling on to 4MRT near Shirlington.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2461[/ATTACH]

Woah. Yeah, that’s one that needs to go to trails@arlingtonva.us (as Bob notes). I’m not that aggravated about maintenance trucks on the trails, and they usually do a good job of sharing it when they are. But this was super dangerous if there wasn’t anyone flagging around the corner.

[Mark Blacknell]

@ShawnoftheDread 44770 wrote:

I’m glad to know I don’t need to stash my flask in the trunk. Why had no one told me this sooner?!

Just to clarify things – taking, uh, “advantage” of this law isn’t a very good idea. The linked law creates a “rebuttable presumption” about drinking while driving that could easily come into play if, say, you’d had a single beer at happy hour, your passengers pile into the car with go cups, and then you get pulled over for some other reason on the way home. Would result in an expensive tour of the court system, I’d bet.

One is on somewhat safer ground if the driver – say, Chris! – hasn’t had a drop, and the passengers decide to go to town. Still, that’s not something I’d want to risk as the driver. But I guess these trolley folks are comfortable with it. Man, I cannot wait until one of them takes a side trip on a Friday night into Lyon Village. That’s gonna end well.

Also, I predict a marked increase in the amount of single shoes found on Clarendon Boulevard on Sunday mornings.

[Mark Blacknell]

@baiskeli 44767 wrote:

Ah. whoops. I misread you, and confused this with someone else who made a different claim.

Yeah, good point.

I need to stop drinking so early in the morning.

I prefer to just play it straight through, myself.

There’s one upside, I suppose, to Virginia’s lack of an open container law. Because Virginia doesn’t comply with the Federal requirements for open container laws, they are required to transfer large sums of Federal highway money to safety and other uses ($17m, last year). One of those uses is the Virginia Capital Trail, it turns out. So, lax drinking and driving laws = more multi-use trails, I guess.

[Mark Blacknell]

@baiskeli 44765 wrote:

I don’t like doing this.

§ 4.1-308. Drinking alcoholic beverages, or offering to another, in public place; penalty; exceptions.
A. If any person takes a drink of alcoholic beverages or offers a drink thereof to another, whether accepted or not, at or in any public place, he shall be guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor.

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+4.1-308

What does that have to do with an open container law for passengers in a vehicle?

[Mark Blacknell]

@baiskeli 44762 wrote:

I looked that up a while back, Mark, and I remember being disappointed to find that you’re wrong. I remember finding such a prohibition in state code.

I’ll try to find it again.

Please do. Here, I’ll give you a head start.

[Mark Blacknell]

@baiskeli 44744 wrote:

Yeah.

This begs the question, do newspapers need to be as dumb as blogs to survive?

WaPo’s working on it. Also, the explanation for why this is legal (not something I’m entirely convinced of) is incorrect. “Since Trolley Pub counts as a registered, for-hire vehicle, like a limousine, there’s no ban on open containers.” No. There’s no ban on open containers because . . . there’s no ban on open containers for passengers in Virginia!

[Mark Blacknell]

@DaveK 44452 wrote:

IIRC the NPS location was actually part-way around the cloverleaf ramp to the point where CaBi’s operations staff said they couldn’t safely serve the station because there would be nowhere for the truck to pull up and park. Even if there was, it would lock their truck into going to Crystal City afterwards which would limit their mobility. They didn’t like the location at all.

Oh, scratch that then. I had assumed that it was on the Memorial Drive side of the hedge.

(And everyone has now witnessed me use up my annual Giving NPS Benefit of the Doubt Allowance.)

~

I do take the viewshed concerns seriously, though (and could take them even more seriously, if ANC didn’t use Memorial Drive as an employee parking lot). Putting a station where the existing bike rack is would be fine if they put in sidewalk connection to the Metro entrance.

[Mark Blacknell]

The existing Capital Bikeshare station at ANC:

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