How can a charity bike take over my neighborhood streets?

[Anonymous]

I feel you, OP. Hell hath no fury like mine when its Rock and Roll Marathon time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they have a permit, but it’s sucks that you were not notified. If they could put up direction signs, they could put up some warning signs a week or two in advance.

I feel like this is one of the things the local listserves were great for (letting people know there would be road closures), before they turned to Nextdoor and rants about mundane things.

I used to live in Cleveland Park and that was my all time favorite yahoo group. I wonder what happened to it.

Now I live in Oakton and there is no neighborhood listserv or Facebook group. The closest one is a very exclusive neighborhood that not only didn't let me into their group, they banned me so that I can't even SEE their group on FB anymore. I hate it here.

[Anonymous]

Living in Potomac is so hard, boohoo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://bellringer.org/

Is it this one, OP?

Yes. And to answer the other question, when it's happened before, I could not even turn out of my neighborhood. The signs went up today but it's almost as if they are concealing what's going to happen--there's a tiny line on the sign with the group name and that's it. I am involved in community events/government and there is no effort to warn residents that there will be disruption.

Take a look at the image of the start on the website. It is a huge group and these are not the speedy cyclists who work out every weekend. This is a charity ride with lots of slow people.

The ride is raising money for cancer research. I can understand your frustration having to go slowly behind some cyclists for a few minutes leaving your neighborhood over something as silly as raising money for cancer research. It’s honestly worse than a Stalinist gulag.

It’s a vanity project so some people can get together and have fun. This is not how cancer treatments are developed.

You’re a lovely person. Do you hate babies too?

Stop being a brat. Donate to my charity.

[Anonymous]

We had one in our community recently. Also windy, hilly, curvy roads - a very, very dangerous location in which to mix bikes and vehicles. The cyclists had the bald faced gall to call it a fundraising ride for a terrible disease. It's a calculated maneuver to legitimize the fact that they want to have a nice bike ride in a beautiful location and they don't give a rat's ass for the inconvenience they create for the locals. At best. In fact, I rounded a curve once to find an 18-wheeler barreling towards me ON MY LANE. Why was an 18-wheeler traveling in the wrong lane? Because the driver rounded a curve, encountered two idiots riding abreast of each other, and in an effort to avoid striking them, the driver quickly moved over to the wrong lane. I was forced to drive my car into a deep ditch to avoid a head-on crash with an 18-wheeler. Do you think the cyclists stopped and offered help? The same cyclists to earnestly state they're riding for a charity to end cancer? Not a chance.

It's time to call their bluff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remove the signs or flip them.

^^^ THIS ^^^


Orr print your own. Hilarity ensues.

[Anonymous]

Who owns the streets in your neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

Cyclists have to be the most entitled group of miscreants ever created. Imagine thinking you are so important that it's ok for you to impede traffic for your own amusement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://bellringer.org/

Is it this one, OP?

Yes. And to answer the other question, when it's happened before, I could not even turn out of my neighborhood. The signs went up today but it's almost as if they are concealing what's going to happen--there's a tiny line on the sign with the group name and that's it. I am involved in community events/government and there is no effort to warn residents that there will be disruption.

Take a look at the image of the start on the website. It is a huge group and these are not the speedy cyclists who work out every weekend. This is a charity ride with lots of slow people.

The ride is raising money for cancer research. I can understand your frustration having to go slowly behind some cyclists for a few minutes leaving your neighborhood over something as silly as raising money for cancer research. It’s honestly worse than a Stalinist gulag.

It’s a vanity project so some people can get together and have fun. This is not how cancer treatments are developed.

+100 This is so true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://bellringer.org/

Is it this one, OP?

Yes. And to answer the other question, when it's happened before, I could not even turn out of my neighborhood. The signs went up today but it's almost as if they are concealing what's going to happen--there's a tiny line on the sign with the group name and that's it. I am involved in community events/government and there is no effort to warn residents that there will be disruption.

Take a look at the image of the start on the website. It is a huge group and these are not the speedy cyclists who work out every weekend. This is a charity ride with lots of slow people.

The ride is raising money for cancer research. I can understand your frustration having to go slowly behind some cyclists for a few minutes leaving your neighborhood over something as silly as raising money for cancer research. It’s honestly worse than a Stalinist gulag.

It’s a vanity project so some people can get together and have fun. This is not how cancer treatments are developed.

You’re a lovely person. Do you hate babies too?

What a disingenuous and moronic comment. I agree with pp. These types of charities are vanity projects.

[Anonymous]

This is an hour or two of your year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cyclists have to be the most entitled group of miscreants ever created. Imagine thinking you are so important that it's ok for you to impede traffic for your own amusement.

+100. The majority don't follow rules of the road or obey traffic signals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would call the police non emergency number and make sure they have a permit.

This is one reason I hated working in a downtown area of a large city; every Saturday there would be some damn race and I would have to park a mile away.

NP. This, above. OP, it's after the fact now, but I'd talk to the police non emergency line and maybe ask to speak with a community liaison officer if they have one for your area (my town does have them). I'd point out that this happens repeatedly---it does, right? -- and that day-of-event notice increases the danger to cyclists and drivers alike.

When there's an event that closes or affects roads around me, it's publicized all over the place well in advance, and for one event that closes down my street each year, we get a letter a month ahead of time. I know, we're fortunate. And these aren't hilly, narrow, semi-country roads where the risk is much higher. I'd contact tha police liaison. You'll have better luck getting the police's interest, though, if you are sure to be very cool and calm and not bring up any extraneous stuff about whether it's a legit charity, or whether it's just slow "amateurs" blah blah as in some posts here. Stick to "This creates a hazard that seems to pop up without warning, and advance notice would increase safety," if you want the cops to take your concern seriously. Deal with what you can deal with, because you can't keep them off the roads entirely, but you can point out the hazards of their utter lack of notice and their lousy signage.

[Anonymous]

As a current breast cancer patient at the Georgetown Lombardi Center, which is the beneficiary of this ride, I am grateful it exists. Says it was started in 2022 and has raised $4.3M for cancer research so far. Sign me up.

Roads do not only exist for cars, and the speed limit is just that - a limit - no one is entitled to travel unfettered and the limit at all times. You live in society and sometimes that means sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://bellringer.org/

Is it this one, OP?

Yes. And to answer the other question, when it's happened before, I could not even turn out of my neighborhood. The signs went up today but it's almost as if they are concealing what's going to happen--there's a tiny line on the sign with the group name and that's it. I am involved in community events/government and there is no effort to warn residents that there will be disruption.

Take a look at the image of the start on the website. It is a huge group and these are not the speedy cyclists who work out every weekend. This is a charity ride with lots of slow people.

The ride is raising money for cancer research. I can understand your frustration having to go slowly behind some cyclists for a few minutes leaving your neighborhood over something as silly as raising money for cancer research. It’s honestly worse than a Stalinist gulag.

And only a tiny amount of the money coerced from friends and families is actually given to the charity. most is claimed by the sponsors. That's the shameless part of these things.