[PotomacCyclist]

@ginacico 127886 wrote:

I’ve talked to the station manager at East Falls Church, and their bike & ride facility is under construction due to open next month. Vienna is in the works too.

Vaya is too theft-prone to lock up outside, but I’ve stalled on paying for a bike locker knowing this is coming soon. Especially in the winter, options are good. I just wonder how crowded it will get, as a lot of people bike to that station.

Agreed, I hope Metro plans to build them everywhere!

These bike rooms could be very useful for outer suburban stations. I also hope they manage to build more of these facilities. They may have seen how popular the new Wiehle-Reston bike room is. (It is popular, isn’t it? I haven’t seen that bike room myself, but I think people have said that a lot of people are biking to the Silver Line stations.)

But there isn’t as much of a need for a bike room at the more central/urban Metro stations. There wouldn’t be enough room either, at central stations like Farragut West and Gallery Place.

Bike rooms might be useful at stations not-quite-in-central-DC but not too far out either. Would there be a need at locations like Stadium-Armory, Columbia Heights, Cleveland Park and Braddock Rd.? I’m not sure.

There is a large bike room at Union Station. That makes sense because people bike to Union Station before departing on long-distance trips on Amtrak. A lot of people do bike to the Farragut West/Farragut North area, but not to the same building.

[PotomacCyclist]

How many total miles, and hours?

[PotomacCyclist]

The first person hasn’t been around on the forum since 2011, I think. The 2nd person, who revived a 4-yr-old thread for no reason, appears to be a spammer. He/she has a hyperlink in a signature line. [EDIT: The former “2nd person” is now gone from the thread.]

(I never click on links from unknown or suspicious individuals, usually those who just started a new acct. and begin posting hyperlinks or reviving years-old threads with no new information. But I do hover the cursor over the links to view the URL without going to the site. Then I open a new browser tab and type in just the name of the site, without adding the dot-com or HTTP part. That gets me to Google search results, instead of going to the potential malware site itself. Then I can read reviews about that site. In the Google results page, I can then add the dot-com part without going to the malware site, to get better search results and more info about what’s really going on with that site. Google and other large search engines now mark potential malware sites or hacked sites with warnings. While Google/Microsoft don’t catch every malware/hacked site, they do catch and mark a lot of them these days.

The search results for the BCODE link in the signature show a “hacked site” warning in the 1st search result, although the warning is from some other website that apparently archives defaced/hacked websites. In any case, none of it sounds good, so I haven’t opened any of the links.)

[PotomacCyclist]

“Kids” or teenagers? There should be serious charges for something like this. They could easily break someone’s neck or back and kill that person.

[PotomacCyclist]

I agree that the speed is high and likely excessive and dangerous for other trail users, although it depends on the section of the trail. I’m just pointing out that if a lot of people criticize him for that speed, he (and any supporters he may or may not have) can look at other users and go after them as well. Glass houses and all.

I haven’t ridden on the W&OD in a while, maybe in over a year. I do remember that on some of the long straightaways, especially west of Vienna, that I rode faster than I would ride on the busier Mt. Vernon Trail in Arlington. I’m not supporting this guy. I haven’t encountered him personally, so all I can go on is what people have posted here. I guess I’m playing devil’s advocate here, to help clean up the online case against ELFman. If the initial group of complaints against him turns out to be sloppy, then it would be more difficult in the future to get NPS or other groups to take the complaints seriously.

[PotomacCyclist]

So this means that it would be problematic to go after ELFman solely based on his speed. If he felt like he were getting hassled online, he could turn the tables and criticize cyclists for maintaining the same or similar speeds. Of course, the size of his vehicle and the add-on power source makes him different from cyclists, but not everyone is going to recognize those differences in a dispute. Just pointing out the need to be careful about how to look at ELFman.

[PotomacCyclist]

Someone else’s video, of the same guy

[PotomacCyclist]

Posted here, because I can. I just came across the video.

[PotomacCyclist]

S.H.I.E.L.D. is already investigating Tim Kelley, because of this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10046[/ATTACH]

[PotomacCyclist]

I don’t think WABA should get involved with enforcement, but I think they can play a role in safety awareness. I see this situation as similar to an unmarked hazard on a trail, a specific hazard that is also connected to a larger issue. For surface hazards, the larger issues are maintenance and warnings. For this situation, the issues are the use of a mini car-like vehicle and ongoing danger to other trail users.

Re the average speed and top speeds, it might be helpful to clarify the details. Some regular cyclists approach 30 mph on long straightaways on certain trails (and roads), especially on downhill sections. So while 33 mph is notable, it’s good to compare that to the behavior of other trail users on those sections. Is that top speed a result of the vehicle, or the nature of that section of the trail? I’m not trying to defend him. I’m just trying to tighten up the use of that guy’s data. If the 33 mph number is used against him, it could also be used against non-motorized cyclists.

Same thing with the average speed numbers. I’m not on Strava so I don’t know how the data compares to what some of the faster cyclists are also doing on those trails. As most of us know, some regular cyclists ride at very fast speeds on local trails. The details matter because some complaints could be turned against cyclists in general.

[PotomacCyclist]

Do FABB and WABA know about this guy, officially? Neighborhood groups too, including non-cycling groups. I would think that walkers, runners, roller bladers and casual trail users would also be concerned about this. If other groups know about the problem, there will be more pressure on this guy to change his behavior. While it’s also good to document the admissions on his website, I’d rather see him alter his behavior before he injures someone.

[PotomacCyclist]

@scoot 127382 wrote:

Have fun! I was considering doing something like this also, but you will beat me to it.

By the way, one of the presenters at the most recent CaBi hack night shared an animated visualization of his TSP heuristic for visiting all the existing CaBi stations. That might take more than a day, though!

Some guy rode to all the CaBi stations in the region in one day, but this was in the first year or two of the system. There weren’t nearly as many stations as there are now. I don’t think Alexandria or Montgomery County had joined yet. There may not have been any stations along the Orange Line yet either. So that guy’s task was easier. There’s no way someone could ride to every station in the region in one day now. The CaBi bikes aren’t fast enough and there are so many more stations now, across a much broader geographic area.

CaBi Quest Arlington is more manageable but even that is a lot more difficult than it would have been in 2010 when all of the stations were in Crystal City and Pentagon City.

[PotomacCyclist]

I don’t think I’ve seen this guy myself, but from what I’m reading here, he is not behaving responsibly or safely. As for the issue of a general prohibition on ebikes or not, I won’t get into that because I don’t have a strong opinion either way.

I will say that this guy is clearly looking for attention and building a personal brand around his vehicle. If he is endangering other people on the trails, then get him where it counts, which is on social media. I’m not saying that people should engage in personal attacks. But they certainly can and should post comments and use the Twitter hashtag that he is promoting, to highlight instances where he has created a nuisance or a hazard for others on the trails. If he is only semi-self-absorbed, then maybe the social media pushback gets him to reconsider his behavior.

Even if it doesn’t change his attitude or behavior, at least it’s worth a shot. In the longer run, it can be a key example if and when the NPS and other agencies and jurisdictions re-examine the rules for the trails.

[PotomacCyclist]

@83(b) 127327 wrote:

As one of the ebike rule breakers, I’d be okay with this being our preferred approach if it weren’t for the issue of liability in the event of a crash. Here’s my nightmare hypo: I’m riding my ebike from DC over to Crystal City at ~15mph to go to the dentist. Near Gravelly Point I’m approaching a runner and the opposite lane is clear for me to pass. I move over and ring my bell at ~30 feet back and then again at ~10 feet. The runner is wearing headphones, does not hear me, Crazy Ivans, and we collide. We both fall and suffer significant injuries or, worse, one or both of us is killed by a head injury.

Despite the runner having been the proximate cause of the crash, what effect does my being on a (technically) illegal vehicle on the trail have on my potential liability and my ability to recover for my own injuries? The current rules give a motivated insurance defense or plaintiff’s attorney lots of arguments to make against me. E.g., (1) I was on an illegal vehicle and so should be fully/partially faulted; (2) my illegal bike surely moves faster than is safe, making me fully/partially at fault; (2) my illegal ebike is heavier than a normal bike, making everyone’s injuries more severe.

Virginia is a contributory negligence state/jurisdiction, the same as DC and Maryland. So only a minor contribution from you to the crash will likely prevent you from recovering any damages. If a judge or jury heard about the rule against ebikes on the trail, I think they would classify that as contributory negligence and shoot down your claim.

[PotomacCyclist]

@vern 127345 wrote:

Hallelujah! The annual debate about what constitutes “good” and “bad” light has commenced!

[Author]

Posts