Oldtowner
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Oldtowner
ParticipantRootchopper is spot on here. NPS used to be much better at maintaining the MVT. They’d even be out there leaf blowing in the fall. A few years ago efforts all but stopped. They do stay on top of the wooden bridges, at least. As for everything else, it’s just been a slow steady decline and has gotten to be dangerous. If only there were a massive infrastructure bill or something to fund ya know, infrastructure..
ParticipantSo today on the MVT I see a kid about 10 years old on an e-bike with a sign on it that says “Rent me.” He was doing at least 20 mph with no pedaling at all, all throttle. No adults in tow. What could go wrong?
Separately, I was talking to a Swiss visitor who told me there has been a big problem with e-bike accidents and injuries in Switzerland. So I went to look that up and found a study saying that 17% of Swiss ebike riders have experienced a single-vehicle accident, which seems like a lot. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000145751830174X
Ebikes are here to stay, but the trails are going a little more dangerous with them.
ParticipantYou: Two fully-kitted up drop bar e-bikes blowing past us evening commuters on the MVT.
Me: So that just happened.
ParticipantThe biggest problem with scooters is the dockless part. That’s also the part costing the companies the most money. If they want to be profitable, they are going to have to figure that out and once they do, scooters will be less objectionable to the public. The current economic model is not sustainable even at scale.
https://ark-invest.com/research/electric-scooters
ParticipantLooking for an E-scooter? Try the Potomac.
ParticipantAccording to Catherine Rampell E-scooters are like Q-tips.
“In both cases, the products are marketed with explicit warnings about how not to use them, even though everyone knows that’s precisely the way pretty much every customer will use them.”
October 29, 2018 at 9:22 pm in reply to: 14-th bridge ramp closure on the DC side — Done tomorrow 10/26! #1090915ParticipantI appreciate the extra space, but this looks like somebody designed it specifically to cause accidents. Some paint might help, but wow, that looks dangerous.
October 4, 2018 at 10:55 pm in reply to: Why don’t the "Peace Ride" people clean up after themselves? #1090346ParticipantMile 3 sign was still up this on my ride home today.
ParticipantYou: On bike, following school bus in Old Town this morning.
Me: on bike following you (unbeknownst to you)
School bus stops with its red flashing lights on. In perhaps the douchiest move I’ve ever seen you blow past the bus on the right with its door open.
Then after passing you a few blocks ahead, the bus puts its lights on again for the next stop, but this time deliberately pulls really close to the parked cars so you can’t blow past the door again.
You: blow past the bus on the left this time with the red lights flashing.
Me: C’mon man. You make us all look bad. And for good reason.ParticipantJust a heads up – it can be exceedingly hot and humid around here at the end of June/early July. Even a slow early morning ride from Old Town into the District can make you sweat. In the afternoon, it can really be tough going. It’s doable, and much better than walking, but be ready.
ParticipantAs a commuter coming from south of the District, it was downhill both ways!
ParticipantCross posted from Lost and Found: If anybody lost a U lock on the MVT this morning near the north end of the general aviation terminal. One of the daily trash walkers picked it up and put in a tree.
ParticipantNews from Seattle which started taking on dockless bikeshare around the same time as DC: in order to deal with the problem of doBi clutter, Seattle is testing out having actual dockless bikeshare parking:https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2018…-more-orderly/
Here’s a pic of one of the doBi parking spaces in use:
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Great idea. It’s almost like…..a dock.
Participant@dbb 176742 wrote:
Rode Crystal City Connector and north on the MVT across the 14th St Bridge right at sunup (hybrid with 35 mm, no studs)
A bit of the Crystal City Connector is single track (from the bike counter to the GWMP underpass)
The two northern bridges on the MVT at DCA were crunchy with ice chunks. I Flintstoned.
MVT was almost universally clear, with a small amount of single track and only one patch (maybe 8-10 feet) of glaze ice from refreeze (near Gravelly Point)
14th St Bridge was clear except for about 100 feet on the DC end where I Flintstoned.
DC along the Mall was clear and dry.
With the sun, much of the issues I noted will be short lived.
Thanks for taking the time to post this this morning. I was on the fence about trying it this morning from Old Town to Penn Quarter. And this cinched it for me. The trail was exactly as described at around 9. Made it in on plain old 38s. Even the bridges were crunchy enough to ride. Only saw three other bikes the whole time, but the trail was 95% clear. Thanks again!!
ParticipantI had a similar incident on the northbound MVT a few weeks ago. Was going to pass a pedestrian at around 17mph, saw the roadie behind me, put my hand out to let him know I was passing, and the roadie accelerates and passes both of us as we are all three together. I told him that wasn’t cool and then he slowed down and told me, “People like you think you own the trail.” Then he explained to me how much faster he was than me and challenged me to a race to prove it. I declined.
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