Bikers on MacArthur Blvd. MD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have any idea how dangerous you make that road. I know it must be fun to dress up like Lance Armstrong and ride your bike in the road despite the fact that there is a bike path NEXT to the road. But do you ever stop to realize that, in order to avoid hitting you, cars routinely swerve into the other lane making a very, very unsafe situation for everyone. There are so many turns in the road that cars either have to swerve around you or drive 5 mph for a mile or two in order to safely get past you.
Honestly, when I'm in a car, I fear for your safety with all these cars backing up behind you and accelerating/swerving to avoid you. But, mostly, I fear that there will be a serious accident with cars swerving all over an already windy road.
Please, just use the bike path!!

AMEN!!!! Use the d*mn bike path!!!

[Anonymous]

I guess I just don't understand the defiance of the bikers. I routinely see bikers swerve through parked cars (at the one lane bridge), zoom from hugging the side of the road to swerving right into the middle of the lane (with no warning). In addition, sometimes you don't see the biker up ahead (b/c of all the curves in the road) an you can come up around a bend and suddenly there's a biker just ahead of you. There's not always warning that there is a biker there. This really endangers everyone.
I'm not sure I know what the rules of the road are w/r/t bikers. I tend to just slow up behind them and wait it out. But drivers behind me will be aggressive and honk, etc. b/c I'm not swerving out of the way of the biker. What is the law about driving? Are we really supposed to drive 5 mph behind a biker?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I just don't understand the defiance of the bikers. I routinely see bikers swerve through parked cars (at the one lane bridge), zoom from hugging the side of the road to swerving right into the middle of the lane (with no warning). In addition, sometimes you don't see the biker up ahead (b/c of all the curves in the road) an you can come up around a bend and suddenly there's a biker just ahead of you. There's not always warning that there is a biker there. This really endangers everyone.
I'm not sure I know what the rules of the road are w/r/t bikers. I tend to just slow up behind them and wait it out. But drivers behind me will be aggressive and honk, etc. b/c I'm not swerving out of the way of the biker. What is the law about driving? Are we really supposed to drive 5 mph behind a biker?

Ppl honk at you bc you don't pass them. Why would you do that? It's just as obnoxious as the biker. Learn to pass or don't drive if you are scared!

[Anonymous]

Bikers have the legal right to use the road. If you come up on one, then you are supposed to await a break in oncoming traffic to pass. At the same time, the biker has the obligation to stay to the right of the lane.

Good luck getting politicians to support the rights of taxpayers (ie bicyclists) from being able to use a road.

[Anonymous]

PP 18:20, are you at all familiar with how windy this road is around Glen Echo - you cannot easily pass a biker bc there are few straigten stretches. I completely agree with poster 18:09 - when the bicyclists themselves respect the rules of the road instead of whizzing around as if their rights supersede all others, drivers and pedestrians, then I will happily share the roads with them. But in that area in particular, the bikers on the road are a hazard.
Likewise on Goldsboro Rd, although I feel for the bikers on that road bc they have no options since there is barely a shoulder, and certainly no bike path ...

[Anonymous]

If the bike path is no good for bikers, can I drive on it to pass them on the street? For that matter, can I drive on any sidewalk if I don't like the street? I promise to obey all traffic laws. Fair is fair, isn't it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I just don't understand the defiance of the bikers. I routinely see bikers swerve through parked cars (at the one lane bridge), zoom from hugging the side of the road to swerving right into the middle of the lane (with no warning). In addition, sometimes you don't see the biker up ahead (b/c of all the curves in the road) an you can come up around a bend and suddenly there's a biker just ahead of you. There's not always warning that there is a biker there. This really endangers everyone.
I'm not sure I know what the rules of the road are w/r/t bikers. I tend to just slow up behind them and wait it out. But drivers behind me will be aggressive and honk, etc. b/c I'm not swerving out of the way of the biker. What is the law about driving? Are we really supposed to drive 5 mph behind a biker?

Ppl honk at you bc you don't pass them. Why would you do that? It's just as obnoxious as the biker. Learn to pass or don't drive if you are scared!

Are you nuts? Have you ever driven on MacArthur near Glen Echo and beyond? It is virtually impossible to pass bikers b/c of the winding road. Your advice is that I should veer out of my lane around a blind bend in the road...or the next bend...or the next (the road bends like this back and forth for over a mile!)?? This is the point of the entire thread: to do that (on this particular road) puts the driver in great danger. All so some Lance-wanna-bees can have a great ride. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Used to live in Bannockburn, near Glen Echo. The bikers were a total pita. They rarely stopped at the stop sign ( where there is a giant sign for riders to walk their bike across the Clara Barton ) and on the curvy sections, would ride two abreast. I often had my stroller out on the bike path and would stay on my side, in case there was an errant biker - gasp - on their bike path. I would not necessarily agree that all stretches of that bike path are not used, our neighborhood used it very heavily to walk on, but some stretches were bare, with bikers on the road and cars piling up behind them. Same goes for Goldsboro and Mass Ave. Yes, there should be bike lanes but there aren't any so any bikers there need to respect the rules of the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bikers have the legal right to use the road. If you come up on one, then you are supposed to await a break in oncoming traffic to pass. At the same time, the biker has the obligation to stay to the right of the lane.

Good luck getting politicians to support the rights of taxpayers (ie bicyclists) from being able to use a road.

I'm very courteous to single bike riders, regardless of their speed. It is beyond maddening to get behind three of them riding abreast and expecting cars to just travel behind them.

[Anonymous]

In my experience from almost 10 years of living around Glen Echo: Bikers around Glen Echo generally are rude, abusive, obnoxious and vile. And care neither for their own safety or that of others. On the canal towpath, it is pedestrians BEWARE. They fly through at full speed and are totally annoyed if THEY have to slow down. On the road they won't use the bike path and go on the road so OTHERS have to slow down. That's right - in their view, they can do whatever they want, at whatever speed they want, and the rest of the world has to conform. Likely because they are wearing spandex (which looks gross on EVERYONE but Lance Armstrong, btw, - don't kid yourselves ... look in the mirror ... it's like some really bad Halloween costume, what the bikers wear). Better yet? The ones who bike on curvy Old Dominion or Georgetown Pike around Virginia Great Falls. Are you all out of your minds? Riding around the Beltway would be safer. And so what if they pay taxes ... if there is a referendum? I bet the bikers lose. There are many more drivers.

[Anonymous]

Or we could just close MacArthur Boulevard to vehicular traffic on weekends and let cyclists, rollerbladers and others use the road. If you need to go somewhere, use a different route or get on a bike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or we could just close MacArthur Boulevard to vehicular traffic on weekends and let cyclists, rollerbladers and others use the road. If you need to go somewhere, use a different route or get on a bike.

now you are talking!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my experience from almost 10 years of living around Glen Echo: Bikers around Glen Echo generally are rude, abusive, obnoxious and vile. And care neither for their own safety or that of others. On the canal towpath, it is pedestrians BEWARE. They fly through at full speed and are totally annoyed if THEY have to slow down. On the road they won't use the bike path and go on the road so OTHERS have to slow down. That's right - in their view, they can do whatever they want, at whatever speed they want, and the rest of the world has to conform. Likely because they are wearing spandex (which looks gross on EVERYONE but Lance Armstrong, btw, - don't kid yourselves ... look in the mirror ... it's like some really bad Halloween costume, what the bikers wear). Better yet? The ones who bike on curvy Old Dominion or Georgetown Pike around Virginia Great Falls. Are you all out of your minds? Riding around the Beltway would be safer. And so what if they pay taxes ... if there is a referendum? I bet the bikers lose. There are many more drivers.

Well that takes the cake. If a cyclist is on the road, they are slowing down the cars. And if they are on a path, it's "pedestrians BEWARE". Don't you see the hypocrisy?

Bicycles are slower than cars and faster than pedestrians. Give them their own lanes or stop bitching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my experience from almost 10 years of living around Glen Echo: Bikers around Glen Echo generally are rude, abusive, obnoxious and vile. And care neither for their own safety or that of others. On the canal towpath, it is pedestrians BEWARE. They fly through at full speed and are totally annoyed if THEY have to slow down. On the road they won't use the bike path and go on the road so OTHERS have to slow down. That's right - in their view, they can do whatever they want, at whatever speed they want, and the rest of the world has to conform. Likely because they are wearing spandex (which looks gross on EVERYONE but Lance Armstrong, btw, - don't kid yourselves ... look in the mirror ... it's like some really bad Halloween costume, what the bikers wear). Better yet? The ones who bike on curvy Old Dominion or Georgetown Pike around Virginia Great Falls. Are you all out of your minds? Riding around the Beltway would be safer. And so what if they pay taxes ... if there is a referendum? I bet the bikers lose. There are many more drivers.

Oh my god, this is so true. And funny. I used to have to drive up there to and from Georgetown a few times a week, and everything you say is true.

They're all a bunch of self-absorbed, maniacally angry, militant, ugly men with skinny legs and pot bellies poking out of the lycra. I used to wonder if any of them were employed since they're out there at all times of the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or we could just close MacArthur Boulevard to vehicular traffic on weekends and let cyclists, rollerbladers and others use the road. If you need to go somewhere, use a different route or get on a bike.

Sure, that's an intelligent thought.

Or we could close the Beltway. Who cares who has to get to work on weekends.....