[RideTheWomble]

Tim — NOW you’ve done it. Queue up the Kill Bill 2 misery!

Pete — You just have to buy Prince Bandar’s old house in McLean, so you can END all your rides down near the Chain Bridge.

[RideTheWomble]

I posted this, and the next day, the owner had cut a vertical slice in the pile, clearing the bike lane. It’s out of the way. Those actions paint them as very conscientious people.

The homeowner across the street left a pile across the bike lanes all summer, though. Since so much depends upon the homeowner’s sense of obligation, I still think it’s worth calmly raising the issue with the Dept. of Environmental Services to ask them to dump mulch closer to the curb, when it’s safe. I have no idea where I developed the belief that you had a fixed window to get your mulch out of the street, but if it exists, reminding folks who order mulch about it might help, too.

I don’t want to publicly shame someone who was so cool about cutting a face into their mulch pile, but this is the general area of the recent pile, and the one that sat all through late summer.

[RideTheWomble]

Never underestimate the Power of Stupid. I’m glad luck was on your side.

I hate those dirt paths, especially the ones down by Memorial Bridge. Most folks on those ones are runners. My question is, if you’re out for a workout, wouldn’t you WANT to run the extra 200 yards to the actual parkway crossings? Every time I ride through a giant mud puddle there, I get bitter.

Back to our tosser, though. It must be extremely lonely to be all by yourself on Planet Earth like that. /shakes head ruefully

[RideTheWomble]

I saw police talking to cyclists between, “The Crossing of Death,” at N Lynn and 29, and the Marriott on Tuesday. I don’t know if they were handing out tickets.

You know how the ped/bike crossing light turns before the light controlling the cars on the 66 exit does, but you get right-hooked every time, anyway? Well, that happened to me for the millionth time, or so, about half a block from the dismounted policemen. There were no negative consequences for the driver who did it, of course. He even greeted me with a hearty Chaucerian turn of phrase, too! It’s funny to me that almost every stop light in Arlington has the ubiquitous (and frankly, somewhat ambiguous) “No Turn On Red When Pedestrians Are Present,” signs, except that one. You know — the one where the cars turning right on red almost kill someone every day.

Once or twice a year, when it’s time to address, “bike safety,” the blame gets placed on us, instead of the real problem. I stop at stop signs, anyway, so my approach during these “enforcement” pushes is to just keep doing what I do, except more so. By that, I mean I even stop for the stupid stop signs, like the ones that protect long-abandoned, jersey-barrier-protected parkway exits, and so forth. Be patient — it will all be over soon, and the police will go back to ignoring red light runners and right-hookers on Lynn Street. No flames, please. I say that in the most world-weary, sarcastic voice possible.

…and if you’re in the habit of blowing stop signs and red lights, would you consider not doing it? Every time I get run down by some aggressive jerk, that’s one of the first justifications to come out of his or her mouth, right before all the lycra-clad, Lance-wanna-be stuff. I have grown weary of paying for the sins of others.

Eh, whatever.

[RideTheWomble]

The biggest expert on this route who I know is Jim the “Unholy Rouleur.” He has given permission for me to both refer you to his blog, and post his suggested route here. His blog has many tales of commuting that route, along with other great reading.

Here’s what he thinks:

If there’s no traffic, take K street East past Gallaudet and turn left on West Virginia Ave.
Cross NY Ave and take Montana Ave under the railroad bridge. Fork right onto (I think) 18th Street. – Doesn’t matter because if you keep heading up and North, you eventually hit Rhode Island.
– First Alternate – take Rhode Island out of downtown, though the first 2-3 miles are a bit hectic with traffic and you may find yourself going up the big hills on the sidewalk due to rush hour traffic.
– Second alternate – take the Metro Branch trail from near Union Station, turn right at the end, then go straight through Brentwood and Mt. Ranier until you hit Rhode Island, then turn left onto Rhode Island)

Follow Rhode Island down through the traffic circle and toward Hyattsville.

Turn right on Ch. Armentrout Road, at the traffic light.

About 200 yards later, turn right across the sidewalk onto the Northeast Branch Trail. You go down a little hill right away, and fork left onto the trail.

Take the NE Branch Trail 2.5 miles Northeast, to Paint Branch Parkway. (You have to turn left off the trail before it goes under Paint Branch, and then turn right to exit the park, *then* turn right on Paint Branch. It sounds complicated but isn’t.)

Paint Branch Pkwy turns into Good Luck Road when it crosses Rt. 201. Take the sidewalk up the hill. It’s steep and you don’t want to be doing 10 MPH as cars whiz past going 40.

Though there’s no shoulder, you can ride in the road when you pass Parkdale High School. Stay on Good Luck Road for quite a while.

After you cross Rt. 193 (Greenbelt Road) you’ll go past two apartment complexes and up a little hill. Turn right at the light onto Good Luck Road (if you go straight it turns into Soil Conservation Road).

At the end of Good Luck Road, turn right on Springfield Road

In about 300 yards, take the first left, Duckettstown Road.

Take that to near the end, turn right on Chestnut Ave.

Turn left at the T on Lanham/Severn Road /Rt. 564

Turn left at the next T to stay on Lanham/Severn Road / Rt. 564

Take this across Rt. 197, where L/S Road/564 turns into Racetrack Road

Follow Racetrack Road all the way down to the T junction at Rt. 450.

Left on 450. CAREFUL – no shoulder, and a lot of crazy/bad drivers on this stretch).

Left at the T on Rt. 3/301 North

Right at the next light onto 450.

Take 450 all the way into Nap Town.

It sounds complicated but it’s actually a pretty simple route that I added some clarifying details to – Rhode Island to Armentrout to NE Branch to Good Luck to Duckettstown to Chestnut to LanhamSevern/Racetrack to 450 to 3 to 450.

[RideTheWomble]

It sounds like you did it right. Grab a cue sheet, and go! For even more information, Arlington puts out a very detailed bike map. You can pick one up for free (well, you paid for it with your taxes and fees) all over town. Most bike shops, and the Commuter Store, have them.

I’m no traffic engineer, but I thought bike route signs were merely for designation of the street or path. I don’t think they have a navigational intent.

[RideTheWomble]

OK. I’m in. We have to perfect the “What? This bike is out of place?” look for the parking lot.

[RideTheWomble]

I agree. After you’ve been on the Dummy for a while, going back to a bike with regular geometry is a little scary. When I ride the Cross Check, I feel like I’m just about to pitch over the bars. The feeling usually lasts about a half hour.

[RideTheWomble]

Yup. I just went back and checked the GPS data. That was me. Those are my stomping grounds, so I’m frequently on the Dummy back there.

I particularly like getting mixed up in the Conte’s ride on Tuesday. Folks look at me like I’m crazy when they pass me climbing hills on that beast.

[RideTheWomble]

Those particular bollards are confusing and redundant, but I’m in favor of keeping them in other places. I can’t count the number of times I have seen cars driving on trails to go places like the picnic pavilions in parks like Bluemont and Barcroft. If you hang out in any of the parks with facilities on a weekend, I promise you’ll see cars driving on the trails.

Drivers need some indication that it’s not OK to drive on multi-use trails. It’s not safe, and the bridges and trail surfaces aren’t designed for it. Expecting someone to haul the cooler from the parking lot to the picnic table isn’t exactly asking them to clean the Augean Stables, either. There are definitely people who maliciously disregard the rules, but for the others, it’s important to give them a clue that, even though the trail is paved, their car is not welcome. I’m a proponent of the design principle, “never underestimate the Power of Stupid.”

Four or five (six?) years ago, someone drove an automobile on the W&OD from the Custis intersection to approximately the Red Caboose in Bluemont Park. They put tire-tracked shaped trenches in the wooden decks of two of the bridges. Who knows how many tens of thousands of dollars were diverted from other uses to rebuild those bridges? Any cavalry scout or civil engineer can tell you that driving over a bridge in a vehicle that is too heavy can cause hard-to-see, permanent damage that only an expert can find.

It looks like Arlington tried more flexible bollards last year, but the snow came, they got plowed up, and now most of them are gone. They were a pretty good solution — an authorized vehicle could drive over them, but they’d pop back up, to tell people not to drive on the trail. As it turns out, though, they just weren’t all that durable. As Dirt’s post on crosswalk signs shows, designing this stuff is hard.

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