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@DaveK 124932 wrote:

Did we meet? I was chatting with a couple of people at the intersection…

https://twitter.com/notthatdsk/status/647035693135491072

It looks like you were a block away. I was at 15th and Independence on the SW corner. Good shot — my camera got before and after, but not the pope himself.

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This morning I was stopped by the Secret Service at 15th and Independence, about 5 minutes later the Pope drove by on his way to the Capitol. He was smiling and waving. Aside from that there were no other issues on my route. Pleasant morning.

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@GovernorSilver 124821 wrote:

Thanks, I’ll try Lee, if only because I’ve never ridden it on my morning commute before.

Glad to help. Just make sure to watch out for that chain in the morning, it is the sort of chain that would throw you from the bike if it is up. You may need to go around to Union or Fairfax and back on Pendleton for that last block on the North to get back to the trail.

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@GovernorSilver 124795 wrote:

Looks like I’ve lost my morning scenic route for now – the “branch” of Mt. Vernon Trail that runs through Union St. There’s construction going on Union St. between Wolfe and King. This is the 2nd day in a row that the northbound lane on Union St. has been blocked by a tractor/crane. I was in a group of 3 cyclists plus a car that was stuck waiting for the heavy equipment to move on and off the road.

Lee and Royal are good alternates that have access to the MVT via Jones Point Park. The only challenge with Lee is that the parking lot between Oronoco and Pendleton sometimes has a chain blocking the North side — it is usually up in the mornings and down in the evenings. Lee is probably the most pleasant, traffic wise, of the three in the afternoon too.

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@Crickey7 124797 wrote:

I can’t agree with this forum advocating lawbreaking. Changing the laws, prioritizing enforcement, fine.

I don’t think anyone is advocating breaking the law. I certainly am not. The problem is that the enforcement is discriminatory and negatively impacts the safety of those subject to said enforcement. Enforcement should never be focused on a minority group (or any individual group) and it should never reduce public safety. Ostensibly the laws are there to protect the public, if they end up doing the opposite they should be scrapped in favor of laws that further the public good. There is plenty of data that shows that stop as yield reduces the number of crashes, as our understanding of safety evolves, our laws should evolve as well.

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They have gone on ticketing campaigns periodically, and have done so during rush hours. I’ve seen them set up at Union and Wilkes and also just past Union and Queen getting people who Idaho. They are good at being between cars and then jumping out to wave you to stop. The last full-court press was late September/Early October of last year.

There is a very vocal group of people who live around there who loudly complain about cyclists to the council, so they do this as a way to placate those people, to paraphrase what I’ve heard one officer say. He also mentioned the cyclist’s safety. There was a person (not an officer) last Spring who was using his iPhone to record every single cyclist who was going past Union and Prince, presumably to complain to the council. He was the only person down there at that hour and had a smug smile on his face while I made a full and complete stop … harassing people seems to be his hobby.

Ticketing cyclists during rush hour is like shooting fish in a barrel. There are rarely any cars or any cross traffic, so they just sit there and print money. After they stepped up enforcement last Fall, I made it a point to stop at every … single … stop … sign … and you know what happened? I went from going the average speed of traffic to being a lot slower. Where I previously had peaceful commutes I ended up getting cars passing aggressively, honking, passing unsafely, and generally being idiots. I definitely didn’t feel safer. It sucks that we’re forced into this catch-22 situation. Ride in a manner which makes you safer (traffic fatalities reduced after Idaho implemented the Idaho stop, we’ve got the data) but opens you up to being fined and cited, or follow the law and endanger yourself.

I ride Union every morning and every car rolls through the stops. I have NEVER seen them get ticketed, not once. This is simply a campaign of targeted harassment toward cyclists at the behest of a small group of residents. Even more frustrating was that WABA had that campaign asking cyclists to stop, further strengthening the local view that we’re scofflaws that need to be convinced to not break the law. We’re not the only violators, and we’re the most likely to incur injury from cars and trucks when they roll through their stops. You don’t see AAA standing around with signs to ask people to stop at stop signs. We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot and justifying our victimization. I’d like to see them advocating for stop as yield in Virginia. It is being considered in the District and elsewhere, the tide may finally be turning, but if we keep blaming ourselves, we won’t see change.

I fully acknowledge that there are cyclists who just blow through stops at full speed failing to yield to traffic already in the intersection, and yeah, they should get tickets. But slowing, looking both ways, and then proceeding through an empty intersection on a bike should not be the subject of enforcement.

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FWIW my Schmidt SON hasn’t given me vibration in my riding up to 40+ mph. For the helmet light issue, I use one too, and I have to charge it periodically, but the real win for me is never getting stranded in the dark. If the helmet light fails, I still see very well.

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Last night I was heading South on 15th on the stretch between Penn and Constitution and I was filtering between the stopped cars and got to the front. The guy in front starts honking at me and I just ignore it and then glance in my rear view mirror and see he pulled out his phone and appeared to record video of me for about 20 seconds. I continued to ignore him and went with the light. He then made quite an effort to pass me and at the next line of traffic I passed him again and was on my way out the city. I wonder what his aim was. Maybe he wanted to send it to the police? But showing me in front of him shows nothing, and everything I did was lawful. Maybe he wanted to mock the guy on a bike on his social media? Who knows.

There was a part of me that wanted to walk back and tell him that nothing I was doing was illegal, and in fact it was actually expressly permitted by the DC code. Alas, I knew it would be futile and I left it at that.

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As long as I get my bike back from the shop in time (was promised for tonight) I’ll be there.

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I have a Schmidt SON laced onto Velocity Dyads (built by Peter White himself) powering a Supernova E3 (old model) and a Supernova tail light. I have ridden it somewhere in the neighborhood of 10k miles without incident and I highly recommend the hub and the lights. The wheel has also never needed truing, either. He does a good job. The only time you notice the drag is if you’re moving the wheel by hand. I’ve never noticed any added slowness while riding. Having ample light all the time, and daytime running lights during the day really makes biking more enjoyable. I don’t have to worry about seeing or being seen, ever. As for phone charging, that’s something I haven’t hooked up yet, but I have heard good things about sinewave’s product, but since I have not tried it I can’t vouch for it personally.

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@Boomer2U 123806 wrote:

I saw this big wheel unicylist on the gravel alongside the Custis Trail at Great Falls intersection, heading west, at about 8am this morning. Very cool. Anyone know who this unicylist is? And no, it wasn’t SteveO!

Hard to tell, but maybe Ben from Proteus? I know he’s an avid unicyclist.

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I put in my first full century last Friday going from FCC up the C&O to White’s Ferry, over to 15 and the W&OD with a spur into Ashburn for lunch and then back on the W&OD back to the MVT and home. It was a lot of fun. I’ll be doing the 50 States Ride on Saturday, hope to see some of you there, too.

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Like Steve O, I have a Schmidt SON generator hub from Peter White Cycles. I use a Supernova headlight with the StVZO compliant cut-off. The setup has done thousands of miles in rain, snow, sleet, tropical storms, and blazing sun while always on without a single hiccup. The system isn’t cheap, but I would not want to ride without it. I never need to worry about the charge status of my lights. The light it puts out is perfectly adequate to see and be seen. Also, having a daytime running light really makes you significantly more visible.

Lately I’ve started using a helmet mounted flashlight during the Winter months (Zebralight SC600 L2 MkII with some velcro cable ties) to be able to get light that follows my head and not my handlebars. It is something that is nice to have, but it isn’t something that is strictly required for safe riding. In a pinch, it would well work solo, too. Usually I have the head mounted light on a very low setting so as not to blind anyone, unless I’m on the MVT very late at night South of Alexandria, where being able to use it in full or half brightness allows me to see deer from a distance via eye shine and illuminate all the trees nearby. Having a light you can direct also helps get the attention of drivers. At low brightness, it lasts for weeks of usage between charges of its 18650 battery. At a full 1100 Lumens, about an hour. And just to reiterate, I don’t shine the full blast power in anyone’s eyes — 95% of the time it is at around 70 Lumens.

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After looking a bit closer it appears that I was seeing just the August data, not the whole competition. Even that bump was short lived. Sorry for the false alarm.

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After chatting with Arlingtonrider at FCC this morning I decided to sign up. I linked my Strava account, and after a bit of waiting it looks like it got my data in the system I think I just pushed you guys into first place with my 2.6k points. I log everything and I usually ride around 100-140 miles a week. Looking forward to virtually riding with everyone.

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