[PotomacCyclist]

So if people independently complain about feeling endangered by an ELF rider on a bike trail (where authorities have asked him not to ride), then he brings in the race-baiting cavalry to go on the all-out attack. OK. Good way to convince your Cause is right. Engage in scorched earth Internet tactics. Sounds smart to me… :rolleyes:

[PotomacCyclist]

@OneLessCar 128430 wrote:

I would ignore me if I were on the opposite side of common sense, too, but my guess is you’d rather condemn pedal travel to the effete, recreational, overpriced-brand-name-Chinese bike, stretch pants crowd, than have it actually displace ICE travel. Maybe there are many in that area of the country who are deathly afraid that a year round, all weather, fun, healthy alternative to the automobile could seriously cramp the styles of some pretty powerful forces in this country. I have had no negative reaction to my ELF in Minnesota, only smiles, waves, curiosity, and people wanting to ride it.

(Yes, I take it on bike paths all the time)

Nice how you think you’re on some side of “common sense” when you are trying to turn this into a racial issue, bashing everyone over the head with the Thread of the Yellow Horde and Those Evil Yellow People over and over again. Nope. Not trolling or offensive or insane at all.

FYI: Some of us do a lot of riding on bikeshare. Those are/were made in Canada. While not quite the U.S., it’s not produced by those scary yellow people. But maybe the Canadians don’t fit into your acceptable political spectrum. Too Commie-like for you, maybe, eh? If it’s not Ted Nugent-made, it’s Communist and a threat to your very freedom?

[PotomacCyclist]

Usually the GGW comments can be quite informative. There are a couple cranky people there. But in general, there are some very intelligent and thoughtful people who post there. I actually learn quite a bit about transportation planning, urban design and local neighborhoods in the greater DC region from many of the comments. Not kidding.

[PotomacCyclist]

@bobco85 128487 wrote:

I was a bad cyclist on my trip to Hawaii as I did no cycling! I recognize both of those areas, though, the second being on Sand Island looking east toward Honolulu with Diamond Head in back, and the third being somewhere east of Diamond Head looking east toward Koko Head which is near Hanauma Bay (I hope you were able to bike to Hanauma Bay, it’s really beautiful). I was on the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, and Kauai during my trip. I did get some pics of bike racks to add to Rackspotter, though.

I may have been grumbling more about having to wake up early to go to work, but the chilly air did not help. I will say, though, that I still rode to work regardless

Me, too! I enjoy wearing my shorts as often as possible (I will sometimes wear a heavy coat to make up for the lack of warmth of my legs). I had fun, though, telling Hawaiians that, “Yeah, back home we’ve been having a really warm November. The temperature has been in the 50’s!” and seeing them almost start shivering at the thought of temperatures below 70 degrees (F).

BikeArlington/RackSpotter is well along on the way to world domination! Those will be the western-most and southern-most racks on the map.

We need to find some government science researcher (plenty of them in the DC area) who has assignments at the Antarctica bases and have him/her set up a bike rack there, photograph it and map it. They use fat bikes down there, don’t they? If not, they could.

[PotomacCyclist]

“Be Our Guest” while wielding a straight razor?

[PotomacCyclist]

In actual everyday circumstances, I’m not comfortable riding on Columbia Pike at all. I’ve had a driver ride up on me from behind, even when I was toward the middle of a lane, and of course drivers passed when I was closer to the curb. They did this even when the other lane was occupied by a car/driver so they squeezed by with only a few inches to spare. After one or two such instances, I decided not to ride on Columbia Pike again. I don’t ride there that often but when I do, I take the sidewalk or a slower parallel street.

There are safe passing laws and such, but that’s not really going to help me if I were to get hit by a driver. The key for me is to recognize problems in advance and adjust my behavior accordingly (while also helping to point out inadequate infrastructure and support efforts to improve roads, trails, etc. when I’m off the bike). Save my rear now, then participate in efforts off the bike to improve the infrastructure. I do this mostly because I really don’t want to get hit by a car driver, many of whom are texting. (I see this when riding in taxis or while standing on a sidewalk and observing passing traffic. There are ALWAYS 10-20 percent of drivers texting whenever I make these brief observational surveys. Larger studies find the same thing.)

[PotomacCyclist]

Cool. I can see cyclists riding to College Park from Hyattsville, but are that many cyclists riding up to Baltimore? I thought only a few hardy souls do that, and not on a regular basis.

The comments on the article are surprisingly grumpy. What’s up with that?

[PotomacCyclist]

Cool. I can see cyclists riding to College Park from Hyattsville, but are that many cyclists riding up to Baltimore? I thought only a few hardy souls do that, and not on a regular basis.

The comments on the article are surprisingly grumpy. What’s up with that?

[PotomacCyclist]

I’ve done a few multi-hour CaBi sessions, but never hitting that many stations. Either I do some out-and-backs or loops and return to the same stations or nearby stations, or I string a few of those loops together. Or I head in a line, sometimes when I was mapping bike racks for RackSpotter earlier in the year. I exceeded the 30-min. limit a few too many times because I was more focused on street and rack coverage than getting to the next station in a hurry. But at least the money goes toward the CaBi system. I don’t mind paying $1.50 extra for CaBi, on occasion.

My max number of stations in a single day is probably no more than five or six.

[PotomacCyclist]

A recent article about the Virginia Capital Trail:

http://www.richmond.com/outdoors/article_142c917f-0bce-5645-8e5e-a90e0bc37291.html

[PotomacCyclist]

Design does play a significant role for this station, since it will be above-ground and it will be one of the central features of the new Potomac Yard mini-city. While I don’t think the design of the above-ground Metro station would be the primary factor for companies who decide to move to the future office buildings, a shoddy-looking Metro station wouldn’t help. The future success of the new neighborhood and the resulting tax revenue will be a major part of Alexandria’s finances in the coming years and decades.

Access seems to be similar for all the proposed designs. The form of the station doesn’t seem to affect the number or the placement of the pedestrian ramps and walkways.

[PotomacCyclist]

I just filled out the survey. It focuses only on the overall design of the station and the Potomac Greens park. It doesn’t include any specific design elements.

There are four options for the shape of the station. All of them are similar, but one is blockier in appearance. Two are smoother with curved roof lines. One of those has a partially enclosed station. I chose that one, mostly because it looks like the modern Battlestar Galactica ship. No other reason.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10117[/ATTACH]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkYaxkDO3c

[The video does not use the original music from the military sci-fi TV series, which was named The Best Show on Television by Time Magazine and other publications.]

There’s nothing about station access points or location of pedestrian entrances, or bike racks.

Since I don’t live in Potomac Greens, I’m mostly neutral about the three options for the park on the east side of the tracks. I doubt I’ll visit that park that often.

[PotomacCyclist]

There’s also the bike/pedestrian path along Potomac Yard Park, and the very wide walkway closer to the railroad side. I’m not sure what bike improvements WMATA could make here. A separate bike lane on Potomac Ave. might have been nice, but WMATA doesn’t control that.

As far as cycling, I’d say one of the few items could be a connector to Potomac Greens on the east side of the tracks. There will likely be a pedestrian bridge to Potomac Greens. Cyclists would probably have to dismount, but I don’t see that as a big issue. Most bike commuters won’t be headed over to Potomac Greens.

A direct connection to the Mt. Vernon Trail might be nice, but that would require a long bike bridge over the GW Parkway. Would that be worth the added expense when cyclists can ride a short distance north to Four Mile Run and connect to the MVT there? I suppose such a connection might help some cyclists, but I’m trying to think of whether there would be great demand for such a bike bridge. NPS probably wouldn’t go for that. That doesn’t seem like a battle worth fighting, for something with limited benefit for a minority of cyclists.

[PotomacCyclist]

WMATA hasn’t always been great about finding space for CaBi stations at Metro stations, but they have made a big push on bike racks and bike lockers. Almost every single Metro station (other than a few in the downtown DC core) has bike racks and lockers now. Some of the stations without bike racks have bike lockers, and there are usually plenty of non-WMATA bike racks nearby. I think almost all of them are U-racks, not wheelbenders or other old-fashioned types of racks. I’ve mapped many of these on the RackSpotter map. bobco and ezeitler have mapped some Metro stations too. The bike lockers are clearly marked at many stations with large blue panels on the side that read “I’m a Bike Locker.” The new signs are pretty hard to miss. (Older lockers may not have these signs.)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10116[/ATTACH]

I wouldn’t be too worried about bike racks at any Potomac Yard Metro station. I could almost guarantee that there will be plenty of bike racks there. All the other Metro stations in Alexandria have bike racks and bike lockers. I wouldn’t expect Potomac Yard to be any different.

[PotomacCyclist]

The bridge was reopened at 1:30 pm.

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/11/19/suspicious-package-closes-14th-street-bridge-causes-major-delays/

[Author]

Posts