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I think it’s more about location than luxury/power combination. The people I have negative interactions with are usually in my neighborhood in Southeast. Downtown luxury vehicles are just as likely to stop as any others, but Arlington has the most drivers willing to be courteous to bicyclists.

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Had an entertaining verbal confrontation with a lady in a car this morning. She took exception to me taking the lane where construction had narrowed the usually two-lane Alabama Ave down to one, 10-ft lane. As soon as the cones stopped she whips around me with tires screeching and… stops at the stoplight 50 yards away. She was telling me to use the bike lane or sidewalk, to which I told her that there is no bike lane and I’m perfectly within my rights to ride in the road. She insisted that roads are made for cars and if I wanted to use the road I should drive a car, or be on my bike at my own risk. I told her that biking in the road should not entail the risk of being intentionally hit by angry drivers. This conversation obviously wasn’t going anywhere and ended when the light changed. In the end I told her she had an attitude and just don’t hit me. I usually don’t participate in this sort of altercation.

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I see deer often but turkeys almost daily. in the city.

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There was a fatal crash that I passed yesterday, or, passed the accident investigation team, four hours after the crash. This was on Naylor Rd at the top of Good Hope Road, where a car plowed into the back of a Metro bus. At first I thought it was a shooting investigation since it was the same spot that Charnice Milton was killed waiting for the bus last May. While I’m glad it wasn’t a shooting, it’s still a bit disturbing that someone could even get going that fast, along a route I ride twice a day. This is the second very serious accident in two days. Yesterday evening it was a Chrysler 300 and a classic Chrysler Imperial convertible T-bone incident at Alabama and 30th SE.

Watch out for crazy drivers!

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Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll check out the FB page and see about dragging everyone to a bike shop for helmet trying.

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got the chance this morning to return a dropped pannier to a fellow on a recumbent. He was heading into DC over Mem bridge and the expansion joint covers popped it off. He’d stopped at the end of the bridge to look at directions and was pretty incredulous when I rode up with the pannier – he’d ridden 600 miles without losing one.

In other news, it was actually nice this morning, and I’m 90% recovered from my crash 10 days ago. Yay commuting.

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Yeah, the design could be so much better if Mem Bridge was pedestrian only… as it is currently it requires careful checking to make sure no speeding cars come around faster than their sight-lines allow, which that particular area begs for.

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@chris_s 143556 wrote:

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

1) I’m looking into some of the routing issues. So far most of them I’ve been able to figure out – they’ve been related to how the bike paths & streets are connected together and tagged at Open Street Map.

There’s lots of places that the cycling directions may differ from driving directions, and no map I’ve seen can really intelligently parse those… another example would be the section of the “Anacostia Riverwalk Trail” that runs in front of the fish market on the sidewalk. Many cyclists will use this and then the sidewalk to get down to a crosswalk by the Jefferson, and then use Ohio drive to access the Mt. Vernon Trail. Similarly, DC bound cyclists coming off that trail find themselves on a one-way street and most just hop onto the sidewalk. It’s hard to make a map take those routes as a primary suggestion.

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I have designed my commute to utilize low-speed surface streets and specifically NOT the Mt Vernon Trail between 14th St Bridge and Roosevelt Island. This takes me down Ohio Dr and over the Memorial Bridge to the paved path around Arlington Cemetery. I cannot make the DC Bikemap follow that route, even thought the trail is clearly marked as a paved MUP.

Also, I’d be interested if there were a way to filter or color code streets with speed limits of 25, 35 or 35+

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@mohonk 143364 wrote:

No this was on the VA side (unless we are talking about another accident). Both points on the DC and VA side are similar in their grade but the VA side is worse because of the curve.

I think this may have been a second accident then… the rider appeared to be repairing a flat, had removed himself to the vehicle barriers along the sidewalk behind the Jefferson. I didn’t think his wheel was destroyed… and said that someone had hit him coming around a curve too fast, by which I inferred they were barreling down the hill towards Ohio Drive…

Who knows… could be the same crash.

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@Subby 143358 wrote:

That’s a bad spot, to be sure. Not sure how much bang for your buck you would get with a sign though. Probably more effective working to get that foliage cut way, way back so you have better lines of site.

I think this was on the other end of the bridge (DC side), where the trail empties onto Ohio Drive by the Jefferson Memorial… at least that’s where the injured cyclist I saw was… where there are plenty of sight lines but the nature of the curve and lining up for the sharp curbed access ramps makes spacing tricky. A climbing cyclist wouldn’t have any way of avoiding an unexpected downhill passer while heading up the ramps to the trail.

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I spoke to the VA bound cyclist to ask if he was o.k. or needed assistance, around 9:20 or so… he’d been bleeding a little from a cut on his face. He said that someone came around the curve going way too fast, but that hey, these things happen. Nobody else was there, so I’m guessing the other cyclist is the woman mentioned previously.

I am not a supporter of the attitude that “these things happen”… that does not have to be the case if we all can recognize dangerous situations and take basic precautions… like waiting until you’re off the narrow bridge and onto Ohio Drive before passing a CaBi / slower cyclist. Most do, but enough don’t that it’s regularly dangerous. This is part of why I go up Ohio Drive to Memorial Bridge.

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@GovernorSilver 143157 wrote:

Oh man, did you stop anywhere to un-bonk?

No, pushed through it knowing there was dinner at home… arrived lightheaded and hungry. speaking of hungry… is it lunchtime yet?

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I hate those warm headwinds…
Yesterday was a slog. Hot, humid, windy, my legs felt like jelly and I think I didn’t eat enough during the day… bonking halfway home.

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@GovernorSilver 143136 wrote:

take 4 Mile Run Trail like you did before, except skip the switchback – ride it all the way to the Rt. 1 connector. From there, ride on the sidewalk to cross the bridge, then use 4 Mile Run Park Trail to get to Commonwealth.

https://goo.gl/maps/7MvJagFbNAz

Yep. I used this route exclusively when I commuted to the PTO from DC. I was of course going in the opposite direction of almost everyone else, plus I feel much safer on Commonwealth than on the trail, especially at night.

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