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@secstate 201829 wrote:

I’ve seen cars drive up to the gate and turn around, but never this. Incredible. I bet the driver has found a way to rationalize this as somehow not their fault.

it’s times like this I really miss the ELITE button

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Pump handles get removed for various reasons, including the water testing as unsafe for consumption. Some people brute-force the pumps to get water even when the handle is gone, but maybe they don’t know about the water testing thing. The sites are technically first-come-first-served but I’ve never personally run into someone who’d make someone else keep going rather than share. (Nor have I ever tried to claim an entire site when someone comes up and waves and starts setting up their tent.)

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@arlcxrider 201417 wrote:

He should do a piece on the crappy design we’re probably going to get at the bike/ped Long Bridge, with hairpin ramps at both ends…

the problem is that we’re so desperate for infrastructure that any bridge, hairpin ramps or not, will be a miracle if it happens (don’t count your bridges until you’ve ridden across them…)

I guess that’s why it’s hilarious/depressing to watch someone complain that 3 of something like 15 cycling bridges in Copenhagen aren’t quite good enough

[mstone]

At least we don’t have all the problems this guy has! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McvZ68qlho4

Seriously though, I think his head would literally explode if he had to deal with VDOT.

[mstone]

@huskerdont 201380 wrote:

Today I Learned that if you have a tire that won’t seat properly, you can overinflate it and the bead will (may) pop right into place.

Had a new 33 mm Challenge Gravel Grinder that just would not seat properly. I could see the unevenness along the bead, and riding the bike I’d experience a bumpy surge on rotation that was bad enough to abort the test ride. Looking it it on the stand, I could see it wobble side to side and surge up and down. Tried massaging it and reinstalling several times, always with the same result. Finally pumped it up to 80 psi (deflating later) and it works perfectly now.

I’m sure many already know this, but there’s gotta be other eejits out there like me who have only been changing bike tires for 4 decades.

it might happen like that, or it might pop off the rim and blow the tube

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yeah, I bought an extra set of those for a second bike, it wasn’t all that much. (don’t have any of them any more, youngest kid is on a 26″ bike. )

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@Sunyata 201249 wrote:

Where the heck do you live? There are SO many more cyclists out on the roads in Falls Church and Arlington. It has been quite refreshing to see, actually.

Suburban Fairfax. At least I got to see cool pictures from FCFRD of cars flipped over on local roads because they were able to go so fast!

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@SarahBee 201128 wrote:

So… a lot has changed since this article was published. I would LOVE to see a follow up article that notes the increase of bike commuting post COVID-19 lockdowns with updated traffic/collision stats. One of the long standing truisms is that with more cyclists commuting on the roads, incidents and fatalities diminish. Would like to see if the data supports this post pandemic.

Around here I didn’t see more cyclists on the roads but vehicle speeds went up.

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@Drewdane 200532 wrote:

Me: guy whose property backs up against the WOD.

Also me: guy who has stopped using the WOD during the pandemic because it is not only more crowded than he has ever seen, but also because it has been overrun by sociopaths and idiots who clearly couldn’t GAF about even the most basic precepts of social distancing and mask use.

Yeah, I gave up on the WOD more than a month ago. So far I’m managing to find enough low-volume/bottom-tier local trails to get some miles in, but they are painfully boring and unpleasant miles. I’m not in the camp that’s found road riding to be improved…in these parts speeds are up and the drivers seem even nuttier than usual because they’re not as worried about running into another car. The attempt to close park parking in fairfax has led to cars parked up and down the road near park entrances, and there are literally crowds of people milling about (who can’t take a hint). I can’t wait for all these people to get back to the mall or wherever it is they are in normal times. :rolleyes:

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@Relwal Noj 200335 wrote:

http://www.495northernextension.org/documents/pim032020/design_plans.pdf

The proposed grade-separated GWMP trail crossing shown on sheets 24 and 24A under the I-495 on-ramp looks pretty cool.

Once they’ve gotten you to sign on to that cool plan VDOT will replace it with flex-posts in the shoulder at the last minute citing “concern from residents”, will offer a 6 inch curb in response to cyclist outrage and then threaten to cancel the entire bike/ped portion of the project.

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@LhasaCM 200046 wrote:

The science for this is… questionable. In that it wasn’t actually completed yet. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v74az9/the-viral-study-about-runners-spreading-coronavirus-is-not-actually-a-study

It’s questionable for all kinds of reasons. But this is a time to be safe and not take any chances, innit? I mean, every time you bike you breath a molecule that was once inhaled by Julius Caesar, AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM!

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@dasgeh 199886 wrote:

When you live in a house or even a townhome that has its own separate outdoor space, it’s easy to say “just stick to *your* space if there are no safe options”. But lots of people in this area live in high rises. They don’t have their own outdoor space. To get fresh air and exercise (both important for health), they have to go out. The point a lot of us are making is this: we don’t need to dedicate so much space to cars right now. Cars aren’t using it. We can instead dedicate that space to giving people an option to walk, run, bike, BE outside, in fresh air, but separate from others.

I’m not concerned with closing a lane on (e.g.) Military Road, which runs through neighborhoods of mostly SFHs, and is flanked by neighborhood streets. But Lynn and Fort Myer, Four Mile Run Drive, Joyce and Hayes, etc — those streets that run through areas with lots of multifamily housing — We should use the space that we don’t need for cars right now and use it like trails – open to people walking, running, scooting, and biking, where people later on that list have to yield to people earlier on that list.

It’s a ridiculous ask to have DOT people out putting up cones so people can play outside right now. I’m sorry, I don’t believe that the sidewalks anywhere in the region (that is, not desirable destinations that people are flocking to and causing the closures) are so crowded that they are life-threatening.

Advocacy is great, but at some point it’s counterproductive. Making “needs more bike space” the answer to every problem just makes that solution less credible when it actually is appropriate.

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@zsionakides 199874 wrote:

The problem with some parks closing is it’s exacerbating the problem elsewhere. The better solution is to open up more spaces for people to go and be able to spread out.[/quote]
There is already plenty of room for people to spread out, even if they simply don’t like the room that’s available. I don’t understand your apparent fixation on making sure everyone can have an epic bike ride in the middle of a major pandemic which is causing massive disruptions to global civilization. This is really simple: if you can’t make riding your bike work within the current parameters, just do something else. I personally think is a great time for people to explore their neighborhood and try new trails and routes they wouldn’t normally pick, but regardless of that it’s unreasonable to complain about the measures various parks are taking in the interest of public safety specifically in response to problems they are seeing at those parks.

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@zsionakides 199871 wrote:

Just because a on-road route exists doesn’t mean it will be used by all but a small minority. It’s a barriers to entry issue, so people are going to go with what they know or can easily find. Drawing up a neighborhood route that is safe and within someone’s skill level is a lot of work if they’ve never given thought to it. Driving down to the W&OD and going for a ride or walk takes little mental effort. This is why parks and recreational facilities should be kept open as much as safely possible – to spread people out. Even better would be to add more facilities, such as closing off all the NPS roads to vehicular traffic. Those would be easy for people to understand and absorb capacity during this period.

Or, if people can’t figure out any place to ride than the W&OD, they should just not ride and take a walk instead. The parks are closing specifically because people aren’t dispersing, and instead are all flocking to the same places and overcrowding them. The response shouldn’t be to park as close as possible and bull-headedly try to go there anyway, it should be to take a hint and go/do something else.

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@zsionakides 199832 wrote:

limited areas to pleasantly walk outside their immediate neighborhood[/quote]
so walk in the neighborhood…again, it’s a pandemic and people need to make some adjustments and accept that this just isn’t the time for that epic trip

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