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@GuyContinental 22832 wrote:

What they need to understand is that pfunk shares the trail, I share the trail, heck even if 95% of riders do share the trail, THEY and their kids are the ones that are in danger from the 5%- there aren’t a whole lot of philosophical points that I would make at the expense of my kids’ safety. Somehow peds never get that and me, the guy who first yielded and then expressed concern for their safety gets the brunt of it. Still, I think I’d feel worse if I found out that one of these fools got hit after I just passed them.

One I haven’t gotten up the courage to ask on the trail (that I see almost daily) is WTF is with helmets on backwards? Is there some reason that completely escapes me that makes sense for ladies with long hair or is it just complete cluelessness?

Having worked at a slew of bike shops, although mostly as a wrench, I would say that a solid 20% of people buying helmets put them on the wrong way. Some say that it is more comfortable. Some have no clue as to what a helmet is. But the most interesting explanation I ever heard was that “Don’t you want all the supporting stuff in FRONT of your head?” – which is a kind of logic, just not that sound.

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@rcannon100 22815 wrote:

Think of it this way. The first cyclists that passes a touron, they are going to respond like tourons. The second cyclist, it might occur to them that there is a pattern here. And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in to Alice’s Restaurant and signalling their passes! They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in to Alice’s Restaurant and signalling their passes. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.

Seriously. They may react like idiots to you – but by the third cyclists you may have saved an accident.

I have cleaned up after one of those tourists accidents. Lots of blood and a bent frame on a bicyclists who took a dive in order to evade a tourist who stepped left on the trail down near the cemetery.

Call often; call early – or like Dirt, just sing.

Singing La Bamba saved my ass yesterday just before the Lincoln Memorial – BSA Troop Minnesota needs to work on their orienteering skills – “Bill you got it wrong the Vietnam Memorial is down by the Smithsonian – were going the wrong way” (walking assertively towards me without looking, me – “No Bill’s right – it is right there.”

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@GuyContinental 22810 wrote:

I’m not really confrontational but this might have been one where I would have stopped for a chat… I haven’t really figured out the best segue for these situations beyond:
“Hi, you may not know this but ; ; is really dangerous because lots of people go really fast… yes, yes, you have the RIGHT to lie down or push your SUV stroller into traffic, and yes, cyclists should slow down, but not all will so it’s just not such a good idea to do X/Y/Z… have a good day…”

Just yesterday I had a similarly awkward talk with two side-by-side stroller pushers on the Custis. One was rocking a normal stroller while the other was double-wide. Needless to say they were spilling over into the WB lane in a big way. They seemed to understand my cause for concern but the slightly older lady also went off on a tangent about how “I need to share the trail.” I took it in stride and used my deep knowledge of fractions to explain how my bike takes up a mere 1/4 of the space that they were taking up. Oh and they had a dog – crazy.

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@MCL1981 22649 wrote:

Because you’re still not getting the difference. This guy saw the pedestrians “in his way” and made the conscious decision to simply mow them down. That is not an accident. That is intentional. And if someone in a car decided to willfully mow someone down, they would be charged the same.

You’re talking about a driver accidentally hitting a ped. Ok, there are a lot of circumstances to consider because every accident is different.

What got him into this dill of a pickle was a cavalcade of bad decisions, with his final one being the enormously difficult choice of deciding who to mow down for his own incompetence. Making a temporal argument about when this guy started making bad decisions is inconsequential. He was going to fast and decided to nail a turn anyways – that is dumb.

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If you are rocking out the child trailer I would avoid the Roosevelt – then again I would avoid it without a trailer. Your final destination is pretty important if you are going to stash the car and ride from a point in Arlington. So far the Penrose, Ft. Myer, Memorial option is probably the most straightforward, with the understanding that the security folk at Ft. Myer will probably want to rummage around in the trailer for a bit. Also, on the way back, the Ft. Myer climb can be a little much if you are hauling stuff. Parking on Adam or Barton St is unregulated for now and available in quantity.

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@PotomacCyclist 22576 wrote:

There have been some cyclists balancing out the comments section in recent weeks. (I’ve contributed to the cause as well.) The funny thing is that when there’s a story about an aggressive driver, people go on and on in the same manner about the crazy D.C./Arlington area drivers. It’s a mix of some mischief, boredom, bile, “get off my lawn,” and some outright hatred, but of many groups and issues, not just cyclists. A few take themselves too seriously but many of the others seem to be mischief makers/Internet warriors.

I didn’t do too well on the SATs, but: Cats are to Robot Overlords as Arlnow.com is to “Kalima Kalima!” from Indiana Jones.

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Had this conversation yesterday while contemplating one of the crossings on the W&OD in Falls Church. Just obey the posted laws – it is never THAT much of an inconvenience. If I have to slow down at a stop sign it tags on maybe 20 seconds – worst case scenario, while if you are a driver it takes maybe 10 seconds – and all they have to do is mash a gas pedal.

Also, this needs to be made into a t-shirt. Albeit I’ll be damned if it is anything but a tank and or tube top.

“Put the enforcement where the bodies are, not where the sanctimonious point fingers.”

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Dear lady dressed like a ballerina riding a CaBi on Independence at 9:30pm last night while texting on your iphone. You keep doing what you doing.

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Man this is huge – forward progress, NPS, I’m just so confused… Does anyone have access to any statistics regarding incidents at the intersections in question? I feel like it is time for some public monitoring.

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@jnva 22246 wrote:

Yep, I feel the same. That’s why I am so carefull on the trails but I try to stick to the roads as much as possible. Pedestrians step into the trail not realizing that it’s a “transportation corridor”. They don’t read this forum nor do they care about cyclists rights or rules. Most of them are just out for a walk and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I had this exact conversation with a woman not too long ago who was out walking her dog with what appeared to be the world’s longest leash. I acknowledged my pass, very politely asked her to reel in her dog, and was greeted with a fusillade of nonsense – “I can use as much of the path as my dog needs!” Unfortunately we live in an increasingly urban space that people still treat like suburbs, streets and trails are pretty much equally dangerous nowadays.

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@vvill 22222 wrote:

I’ve tried two or three mirrors.

This one:

And two drop handlebar mounted ones.

I haven’t found one that’s really worked and haven’t really missed not having the mirror so I still commute mirrorless. Whenever I had a mirror I found myself fiddling with it to try to make it useful, more than actually benefiting from it. The Italian one Dirt linked to looks decent though.

I’ve been commuting for at least six years now and have never even thought about getting a mirror, maybe I put undue faith in those riding behind me. Also running away from the masses is kind of my M.O. so I don’t worry about fasty passers that much.

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I live next to an HOA and am currently holding them hostage with my compost pile until they lower the wattage on their security light – it is a waiting game I say!

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Ditto, I’m REALLY not a doctor, but I have done reading on fusion/disc surgeries – it is often better to leave it be.

Hibbert: [whistles] Your spine is more twisted than Sinbad’s
take on marriage. [chuckles]
Homer: So? Just give me some drugs and surgery.
Hibbert: Oh, I’d love to but, uh, to be honest, modern
medicine has a lousy record of treating the back.
We spend too much time on the front.
Homer: Yeah, there’s some neat stuff on the front.

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Here are my questions:
1) Do you have a sense of balance with fitting cycling into your life?
b) If so, how does it all fit in for you? What have you given up to achieve balance?
6) If not, What can you do to adjust and make things a bit more manageable?

1 – Cycling is an integral part of my life, but like everything else in my life, is very much organized and regulated. EVIDENCE I SAY! I’ve been doing yoga recently and the mental benefit that others get from it just isn’t there for me since I meditate everyday on my bike – the same mileage, the same path more or less (on the upside I feel like Gumby). I almost never ride on the weekends. I’ve never been motivated to go on group rides or compete – although I crush in Cat6. I’m less of a cyclist and more of a bike (cycle) commuter. My weekends are dedicated to other hobbies that I hone into perfect little polished nuggets of goodness – home brewing, gardening, building stuff.

SIGMA! – I haven’t given much up. I never bought into the biggest time suck out there – TV. I also am a very kinetic person, so cycling just helps me bring that down a notch. I still fidget like a madman in meetings – but whatever.

GAMMA – Holy crap is this all going to change when we have kids – but that bridge will be crossed or the adjacent river forded when I get to it. Sometimes I feel pretty drained at the end of the week from biking plus fidgeting all the time – but that is why we have sleep.

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Bummer: http://www.arlnow.com/2012/06/11/woman-seriously-injured-after-being-hit-by-cyclist/

Apparently the woman has passed away.

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