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I agree with everything you just said about how safety should trump convenience for individual riders (and drivers). It should also be noted though that convenience and safety can go hand-in-hand at a macro level when the question is infrastructure. Every delay that adds to biking travel time (e.g. having to walk your bike through Cherry Blossom crowds) will make riding a less competitive option, and some riders will respond by choosing other modes, such as driving cars. Proposals like the temporary contraflow lane can encourage people to use bikes instead of cars, which does at least marginally help to improve safety for everyone.

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@jrenaut 114793 wrote:

That kind of study is pretty much impossible to do scientifically. Pretty tough to measure passing distance, and even tougher to do it without some sort of measuring device that would probably change passing distance.

Walker used ultrasound. I didn’t see a description of the sensor itself, so it’s hard to tell if it was visible to drivers or not.

Here’s another paper which disputes the significance of Walker’s results. TLDR, but it appears that Olivier and Walter conclude the following: The entire effect observed by Walker occurred for passing distances that are already sufficiently wide (i.e. > 1m). When only passes closer than 1m are considered, there is no significant dependence of passing distance upon helmet-wearing status.

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Or maybe a couple million to build a connection from Iwo Jima to the dead-end downstream TR Bridge?

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@mstone 114644 wrote:

Without a canoe that’s almost the worst possible trip in the region. Great example of why we need a pedestrian bridge over the potomac, though.

Doesn’t the American Legion Bridge need to be replaced soon? Will the next one allow peds/bikes?

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Note to DDOT: Improve traffic flow for cars, and you will then just have to deal with more cars. If you want people to leave their cars at home, you should redo this and instead optimize for 15MPH traffic.

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I too tend to use CaBi instead of my own bicycles whenever my destinations are in CaBi territory. I would tell you why, but PotomacCyclist already hit all of my reasons and then some

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@bobco85 114577 wrote:

What do you guys think about a route passing through Mount Eagle Park and using Huntington Avenue? I’m unfamiliar with Huntington Avenue during rush hour, so I do not know if it would be a viable option.

If one did take Huntington Avenue, they could go either direction:
– east on Huntington Ave (uses Mount Vernon Trail): http://goo.gl/maps/6FjhV
– west on Huntington Ave (uses Potomac Yard Trail): http://goo.gl/maps/xasLq

I’ve only ridden on Kings Highway in that area twice (first time was due to a wrong turn, second time was taking a new route where a guy passing by in his truck yelled at me, “What the F*** you doin’?”), and I would not ever ride that bicycle-unfriendly roadway again due to the high speeds and dangerous drivers. Whatever steps can be taken to avoid that road are likely much safer.

Those N. Kings drivers are also awfully aggressive coming down the hill toward Telegraph. 20MPH+ right turns on red from the center lane are very common. Fort Hunt drivers turning onto Route 1 aren’t much better, so pick your poison trying to access either of those bridges over Cameron Run.

The cut-through to Huntington Ave is a nice idea; Huntington is certainly the best ride of any major thoroughfare through that area. I would not have been comfortable riding Huntington as a complete newbie, though. There are sidewalks, but they cross an awful lot of intersections and driveways.

If she does use Huntington, she might be able to minimize the right-on-red hazard (at Fort Hunt and Route 1) by going straight across Route 1 to the traffic signal at Fort Hunt, then across Fort Hunt to the office building service road, then rejoin the sidepath immediately before the bridge. This also makes you more visible to the many drivers who fail to yield to sidepath users after bypassing the intersection via that service road.

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@rcannon100 114445 wrote:

I am begging for a station

Will a CaBi station make you less likely to double-park at Ballston Metro? :p

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@Steve O 114175 wrote:

It does not appear that one need be a resident of Bluemont to participate in the survey. Or at least there does not appear to be any way they could tell otherwise if one were not.

Well, if I truthfully answer what street I live on, they’ll certainly know. Then again, if I were to leave off the “S” they might assume it’s “N” and not catch on.

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@sjclaeys 114136 wrote:

Please fill out the general questions with the recommended responses

Just curious: How are these “recommended responses” being communicated to the intended responders? Email to residents?

Any other thoughts about this site or Capital Bikeshare in general? A suggested response:
As recommended at the last Bluemont Civic Association meeting consider locating a station 1/4 mile west down Fairfax Drive at the junction of Westover Park and Bon Air Park.

Fact check: The Underpass of Eternal Darkness (which is what I assume they mean by the “junction of Westover Park and Bon Air Park”) is 2500 feet from the proposed station on Harrison Street.

IMO, Harrison Street overpass is the ideal location for a CaBi station in that area. It maximizes both east-west and north-south connectivity.

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This thread certainly illustrates how little bicycles have been considered in the overall transportation plans for that area.

It is seven miles, as the crow flies, between the Piney Branch and Bonifant crossings of the Anacostia NW Branch. There are only two intermediate options (Route 29 and Randolph Road), both of which carry traffic at high speeds and only offer narrow sidewalks immediately adjacent. Google does show another crossing at the north end of the Rachel Carson Greenway Trail, but I’m guessing that’s more of a hiker trail and is entirely unrideable.

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I just wanted to satisfy my curiosity as to whether the guy might eventually realize what the signal means. But yes, you could do that too!

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What’s particularly bad about that spot is the fact that the northbound bike lane is between southbound general lanes and the southbound bike lane. This leads to close head-on encounters, and makes it very difficult and unsafe to bail to the street to avoid any obstacles. Combine it with turning drivers unaware they need to check both directions for bicycle traffic, then add lots of pedestrians, many of whom are tourists: it’s a recipe for disaster.

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I used to signal exclusively with the old-school left-arm upward method. One day, riding on Fort Belvoir, I encountered a police officer directing traffic at an intersection that was partially blocked by construction. I signaled my intended right turn to the officer who responded with a steady stop hand, in spite of the fact that my turn did not conflict with any of the traffic he was letting through. In no hurry, I decided to relax and wait it out rather than walk over to a sidewalk that bypassed the intersection entirely. For a good 30 seconds, I stood there with my left arm at a 90 degree angle pointing upward and he stood there with his left palm held out to me. Once he let everyone else through, he turned back to me signaling that I could go. When I turned right, I heard him yell out something like, “You should’ve told me you were going that way!”

So now I use the right-arm method the vast majority of the time.

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@Steve O 113507 wrote:

Have you tried Military to the Donaldson Run trail?

I’ll have to check this trail out sometime. Is it paved all the way?

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