[NickBull]

@rcannon100 108551 wrote:

Doesnt sound like a motorcycle to me.

Does it have a motor? Yes. Therefore it is a motorcycle.

[NickBull]

@hozn 108548 wrote:

This could describe any number of people on non-electric bicycles. (Electric motorcycles are something else.) Would the situation be any different if the person was pedaling? Probably the e-bike would be safer than an oxygen-starved KOM pathlete.

But I think you are focusing on the wrong aspect of the problem here.

So far in twenty-five years of riding up Rosslyn Hill, I’ve never been passed by anyone going that fast.

[NickBull]

@rcannon100 106746 wrote:

Hi Mark
NPS put some sort of paint on it to make it super slick whenever wet, and thus it is always taking down cyclists.

The corner of death was taking down cyclists (including me) for many years before NPS put that paint down. A big part of the problem is the algae (or whatever) that grows on the wood and that makes it really slick even when it is only damp from dew. The paint is marine paint that is supposed to suppress algae growth and is also supposed to be less slick than the wooden surface when wet. In that sense, it’s probably an improvement over the wood. But I agree, it is still way slicker than most people expect and cyclists continue to go down in that corner. If the park service actually gave a shit about cyclists, they’d solve the problem. Making that part of the bridge concrete would not cost a lot of money. I’ve seen runners go down on that corner, too, so I guess they don’t care about runners either. As far as I can tell, the park service is mainly concerned about cars.

Nick

[NickBull]

@Fast Friendly Guy 78546 wrote:

Aren’t we missing the 800 pound gorilla in the room? If the goal is increased safety at TR ……REPLACE TROLLHEIM plank bridge!
with a non-slip flat surface! It’s deterioration is exponential with whole sections rotting out (now marked by cones) It’s worse than corduroy and UNSAFE!

I’ve lost count of the number of serious falls, spills, accidents at the chicane turn intersection with TR Bridge that I know of personally! I, myself have fallen even when I know the hazard and I’m being cautious. Signage is NOT ENOUGH to stop people from being hurt!

I honestly don’t know how we can seriously focus on the parking lot when the benefits of repairing/rebuilding the plank bridge far exceeds the relatively minor changes offered in the parking lot trail crossing!

Am I alone in this?

Dave

No you are not alone!

Even if all they did was to make the north-west entrance to the trollheim concrete through the turn and then leave it as wood for the rest of the way, it would be far safer, and with essentially no environmental impact and very little cost.

Every single regular bicycle commuter I know has gone down in that corner.

As to the parking lot alternatives, #1 is clearly better. Bikes are separated from the roadway. In #2, ditzy cars trying to park in the north parking lot are going to back into the bike “lane”. Cars dropping off pedestrians will pull to the right and park next to the curb, right in the bike lane. As to the diagonal crossing, in #1, by keeping the path that bikes stay on at the same level, it says to cars “you are crossing the bike path.” In alternative #2, bikes that are on the roadway suddenly cross the path of cars in the same roadway. It’s insane!

The only benefit to #2 over #1 is that by giving pedestrians a little area of their own, it might help to keep some of the fishermen off the path. But I don’t see any reason that #1 can’t be modified to include a separate pedestrian walkway.

Nick Bull

[NickBull]

@Steve O 78248 wrote:

CUSTIS REPORT, WOD to Rosslyn – 9:45ish

Snow was falling heavily but mostly not sticking–just wet. Bridges over Glebe & Lee Hwy were sticking but not slick yet. Area behind Adams apartments was accumulating snow but not slick yet. Not sure what will happen through the next few hours. If temps stay well above 32, might be no problem, but if snow accumumulates a little & then gets squished down, it could be dicey, particularly on bridges and the apt/Spout Run area. Good luck.

And CUSTIS Rosslyn to MVT to 14th St …
All clear at 8:45ish but the Trollheim bridge by Roosevelt Island was starting to have a little snow sticking. I bit the bullet and rode studded tires. Overkill for the morning but with 1/2″ to 1″ of snow forecast, maybe necessary for getting home safely.

Can anyone tell me why people call it the Trollheim?

Nick

[NickBull]

@Tim Kelley 77429 wrote:

This came across my inbox:

And … the park service reverts to form. Pro-car, anti-bike.

[NickBull]

I rode the W&OD from just before Brandymore Castle out to Purcellville (and then roads down through Middleburg to The Plains), then reversed route back to Arlington for a total of 127 miles. The only place with “issues” was the W&OD on the westbound descent from Clarke’s Gap where there are 3 or 4 sections of ice, each about 20 feet long. Actually, now that I think about it, the section just east of Clarke’s Gap going under the bridge and up the hill was pretty icy, too. But easily avoided by just taking the road, there.

Of course, with the forecast tomorrow for frozen mix, etc., all bets are off.

Nick

[NickBull]

Thanks for bumping this, I hadn’t seen it before. I submitted the following:

Twice now, I have had the opportunity to use the new warning lights at the Columbia Island crosswalk across the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Cars slowed down immediately — that’s the first time cars have _ever_ slowed when I crossed at that crosswalk. So it is an effective safety improvement that I hope will become permanent.

The one thing that I do not understand is why cars are not _required_ to stop. By making it optional to stop, there is always the risk that a pedestrian will think cars are stopping, but some car decides not to stop and wipes out the pedestrian.

I can understand a concern that if every pedestrian who comes up to the intersection presses the button, then at certain times the signal could be red for too much of the time. But a solution to that would be to have the signal delay switching to red if it has been pressed “too recently” so that more pedestrians can clump up and cross at once. This would help to balance the needs of motorists and pedestrians, while maximizing the safety of both.

Nick

[NickBull]

@dasgeh 75914 wrote:

… went down…

Ouch. Glad you’re OK. I was looking forward to riding on road tires today, but it wasn’t to be, so studded tires it was. I got surprised in several places by ruts or clumps of ice hidden under the snow but kept my balance over them.

[NickBull]

@dasgeh 75832 wrote:

You have to ride on part of the TR wooden bridge to get on to/off of the TR Bridge. So that part is totally fine. I imagine the rest of it is the same, but don’t know from experience.

Wooden bridge is pretty-much clear. A few spots with ice but easily avoidable. That’s pretty-much true for the entire route from the top of Rosslyn Hill down the river and across on the 14th Street Bridge. Tomorrow will be my first day riding without studded tires and I am very much looking forward to it.

Nick

[NickBull]

I rode from the little park at the top of the hill in Rosslyn, down the Custis to MVT, down the river along the wooden bridge to the crossing for Memorial Bridge (got to press the new signal button for the first time … cars stopped!) across Memorial Bridge to Ohio Drive past Jefferson Memorial and the fish market and thence on surface streets to Ford House Ofc Building.

On Nokian Extreme 294-stud 26″x2-1/4″ tires this was pretty straightforward, though a lot more work than regular tires on clear pavement. And I sure wished that the other people who seem to ride inferior tires and slide all over would quit doing that because it makes for a more sketchy ride in! Usually I cross the river at 14th St, but I figured that it is faster to ride on Ohio Dr than to ride on the MVT, and given the pictures of the humpback bridge I think that was probably the right call. Memorial Bridge itself has had the sidewalks cleared, so from there in to work could have probably been ridden on non-studded tires, though with a few sketchy bits.

[NickBull]

@Fast Friendly Guy 74171 wrote:

The roots are especially bad heading into town, just beyond the exit for Ballston (Fairfax Dr.)–they redid so much in that area–why not this, the worst? (they did grind down, somewhat, a few, but it wasn’t enough)

Also in desperate need of repair is that totally rough 10 ‘ section on Custis going down to Rosslyn on the left of the yellow bollard, just before crossing N Scott St. It took me down hard about a month ago!

I was also going to post about the problem near N Scott St. Just to clarify what the problem is: Heading east-bound toward Rosslyn, just about where the sound barrier next to Lee Hwy ends, the bike path merges onto sidewalk before eventually crossing Scott St., which is the first road crossing on the downhill run to Rosslyn. The merge from the east-bound lane of the bike path to the sidewalk is fine. The problem occurs when an east-bound cyclist has to go in the west-bound lane to pass pedestrians. The merge from the bike path to the sidewalk creates a diagonal edge that can easily catch a tire and cause a cyclist to go down (as it sounds like happened with Fast Friendly Guy). This hazard has been repaired before, but as I went through that section this morning I noticed that the blacktop has worn down / disintegrated in that spot so that the hazard has returned.

Nick

[NickBull]

@dasgeh 71963 wrote:

If anyone wants to copy-and-paste squeak, here you go (though the “Arlington mother” part may not apply to you).

Done. Though with appropriate variation and increased emphasis on the fact that they’re violating their own snow ordinance.

Nick

[NickBull]

@chris_s 71939 wrote:

countyboard@arlingtonva.us
countymanager@arlingtonva.us

Squeaky wheel.

Wheel’s been squeaking since I moved here in 1991. Single-party governance means elected officials don’t have to listen to the electorate because the same party will stay in power no matter what they do. Bottom line: If the government of Arlington knows that the people of Arlington will vote Democrat no matter what the Democrats do, then the Democrats can do whatever they want. I’m sure that there are places where the Republicans always get re-elected and you end up with the same problem. This has nothing to do with which party always gets re-elected, just that anywhere that has the same party re-elected for half a century builds up the expectation that they can do whatever they want.

Based on reports I’ve been reading about this county board, only Libby Garvey has any backbone.

Nick

[NickBull]

Dirt: Are those 49North Dillinger 26×4 studded tires? They look awesome. Are you on a Surly Pugsly or Moonlander or what? If so, did you have that bike/tires back in 2010 (?) when we had the back-to-back 3 foot deep snowfalls that left the trail axle-deep in snow for a month? Can those tires float on snow like that? That’s the only time in the last nine years that I haven’t ridden to work every day.

My ride in today on 26×2″ Nokian Extreme 294 and WXC300 studded tires had nothing noteworthy. But I’d hate to ride on this stuff with anything much less than that. I have some 700Cx42 Nokian W240’s that I might try tomorrow, hoping for a little less rolling resistance with hopefully not too much compromise in riding the ruts.

Nick

[Author]

Posts