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I agree with what people have said on the cycling-specific stuff, but just want to emphasize: Takoma / Takoma Park is a wonderful neighborhood, unique in many ways in the DC area in terms of its level of community organization, investment in maintaining an appealing and specifically local commercial core, neat gardens, and embrace of off-beat neighbors. It is a great place to live.

Bethesda is staid in comparison, but the CCT does make it incredibly convenient.

Edit: I’m not knocking Bethesda specifically (I’ll leave that to my FS team captain), just pointing out that Bethesda and Takoma are not exactly close substitutes.

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@huskerdont 156192 wrote:

Who’s up for a ride? Probably most everyone.

Wouldn’t miss it! I’ve passed the announcement along to a couple of friends. What a good idea.

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This sucks. Very sorry to hear.

My bike also lives outside during the workday — I lock one wheel with a U and another with a cable, but I have noticed a few cut cables around, so maybe I should rethink (or just accept that I might be out a front wheel one of these months).

I’m about to spring for a new saddle and and am considering locking skewers on it so I don’t have to worry.

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@Crickey7 155933 wrote:

Yep, that’s where the person who’d been surreptitiously drafting me ignored my hand signal to slow down, went around me to the head of the line of people climbing over, blocked someone who had been waiting patiently to cross in the opposite direction and then, likely out of guilt, offered me unnecessary assistance on the other side.

Let me guess: SUV with War of 1812 plates?

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Add me to the list. My first week with clipless pedals ended with my first fall of the season: an uphill hairpin turn on gravel, getting off the Georgetown Branch Trail, in the dark. I lost too much momentum, and the bike and I toppled over. It was surprisingly sudden! I’m fine, the bike’s fine, and thankfully the guy I passed on the bridge over Rock Creek hadn’t caught up to see!!

Next time will be in traffic, no doubt.

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@Steve O 155760 wrote:

Because of the awesomeness of the Forum software, this is actually rather difficult. I have adjusted my settings such that I don’t even have a page 10 on this thread, so the link does not work. Doing a search on “ljw” returns no results.

I had no idea! I looked for a way to link directly to the post but couldn’t quickly find one.

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I knew there was a long bike lane on Kansas Ave but never had an excuse to use it until tonight. A friend and I agreed to meet for a drink near Fort Totten Metro, and Hellbender appeared to be the closest brewery. So, after finishing work I headed up 15th and 11th Streets, and then into NE DC on Kansas. It was a pretty chill route even at rush hour.

Hellbender is in a low-key building, tucked away at a dead-end, and hardly marked. If it hadn’t been for the bike rack out front I might have missed it.

They serve eight beers: four standing and four seasonal. Flights come in sets of four. Do the math!

My friend and I agreed that the saison was the pick of them. Interesting, because it’s not a style I’m normally drawn to. Pictured is half of a red ale, also pretty good.

They sell bags of potato chips but otherwise there is no food — supposedly food trucks sometimes park outside. I’m sure they wouldn’t object to outside food, pizza delivery, etc. Kid friendly.

It was criminal to spend such a nice evening at a place with no patio.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13972[/ATTACH]

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@Steve O 155730 wrote:

:confused:

Dude, look it up in the forum dictionary:

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?2783-Forum-Dictionary/page10

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I have a Cygolite Metro 550. I usually run it on the medium power setting unless I’m on gravel, unfamiliar trail, or going especially fast. It swivels nicely, so I just give it a little twist to the right when facing an oncoming cyclist. It still casts some light on the trail but with the main beam pointed away I can’t imagine it violates the safe space of any but the most committed LJW.

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@Harry Meatmotor 155231 wrote:

Lumen Justice Warriors.

Whether or not this is the right name, there clearly needs to be a dictionary entry. The emotions around this are rivaled only by whether trainer “rides” are in fact rides, abortion, and e-bikes on MUPs.

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@jrenaut 155069 wrote:

If you are going to jaywalk through a starburst intersection at rush hour with headphones in, you might possibly want to LOOK FOR *&@#&^#*#@ TRAFFIC before you walk out literally two seconds before an opposing green light.

No.

The trick to aggressive walking is sending a credible signal that you are willing to be run over. There are three approaches to this:

1. The Zombie: Amble straight ahead. If you look up from your phone or otherwise indicate that you’re paying attention, you’ve lost the game;
2. The Demon: Stride through the crosswalk. Pierce each driver with your cold, unblinking gaze;
3. The Nutter: Shout and gesture wildly at your invisible foes as you herd them around the standing traffic. Continue up the median for some ways and gradually to the other side of the road, never less than 50 meters from where you started.

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@Brett L. 154936 wrote:

This is starting to sound like a regular thing……? /headscratch

Seen another way, it’s a miracle that more people don’t drive on the trails, especially motorcyclists. So, this is probably an early sign of the breakdown of social order and the collapse of civilization as we know it.

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@KLizotte 154823 wrote:

How in the world was she able to access the trail? There is now a gate at the entrance. Confused.

When I got back to the Key Bridge, I saw that one side of the gate was open. Either she opened it by striking it with her car (possible but unlikely?) or it was open before and I just hadn’t noticed (more likely).

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Today was a work day for me. I treated myself to blueberry pancakes and coffee at Open City on the ride in, and in the evening decided to take the CCT home.

Water Street (under the Whitehurst Freeway) was a mess, as I suppose is usual for a Saturday evening. I decided to chill and take it slowly, but a car ahead of me with, yes, War of 1812 plates, was having none of that approach. With a honk, she swerved around the vehicle in front of her, went through the stop sign, weaved around peds in the crosswalk, and took off toward the end of the road. She didn’t get far before she decided to turn around. For someone who had been so impatient with cars blocking her way, she was weirdly leisurely with her own backing maneuver. I decided to pass in front of her. There was plenty of room to spare, but I wasn’t exactly a PAL. Still in character, she gave me a honk and we both went our separate ways.

Riding on, I wondered whether my encounter was forum material. Naw. That driver was precious, sure, but sadly unexceptional. I’d keep my chuckles to myself.

But then, a mile or so down the trail: a light behind me. Headlights! Was she after me, the impudent cyclist who had dared to bypass her as she reversed? I kept pedaling. The lights slowly closed in. Either it was a police patrol, a late night trail maintenance crew, or I was about to become the CCT’s first road rage fatality. As the lights approached, I pulled off the trail as far as I could. Unfortunately there was no escape path onto the C&O or into the woods. The car pulled alongside — yes, it was her! — and without slowing or stopping continued into the distance, rounded a curve, and was gone…

Flummoxed, I turned around and slowly pedaled back toward the Key Bridge. I didn’t want to be on the trail with that car. She clearly wasn’t after me, but given her earlier driving, and her now being on the trail, at the very least she was frustrated and confused, and at the most of unsound mind or under the influence.

I called the cops. The dispatcher didn’t seem to know where the CCT was but confirmed that I was in DC, quickly consulted a colleague, very professionally took the details, and asked me to call back immediately “if anything changes.” Having reached the Georgetown end of the trail, I loitered briefly. I thought about taking a different route home but foolishly decided to head back up the trail. Perhaps a mile in, I saw headlights approaching, pulled to the side, and watched her drift past me once again, driving carefully, back toward Georgetown. Figuring deputies would arrive long after she cleared the trail and not wanting to waste their time, I called 911 again, was connected to Arlington, quickly transferred to DC, and let them know the car was headed back into town.

If there’s a moral to this story, it’s always be a PAL so that you never have specific reason to think those headlights approaching slowly behind you in the night conceal murderous intent.

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@bentbike33 154687 wrote:

I do the vast majority of my riding in Virginia, and it is amazing how much bad driving I see adorned with MD War of 1812 tags.

I like to think that most drivers are fairly careful most of the time, even here in MD, but reading stories like this makes me want to stay off the roads altogether:

“Between 2011 and 2016, [Prince George’s County] council members driving take-home cars were involved in at least 15 collisions, including a major crash Nov. 21 that resulted in the arrest of council member Mel Franklin (D-Upper Marlboro), District 9, on drunken-driving charges.

“They also received at least 107 speeding, missed-toll and parking citations, according to public records provided to The Washington Post.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/this-suburb-spends-more-than-110000-a-year-on-cars-for-its-lawmakers/2017/02/10/ef014ba0-d925-11e6-b8b2-cb5164beba6b_story.html

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