Anonymous wrote:Cyclists who think that saying "On your left" means that pedestrians are required to step into puddles or dog crap to avoid being hit.

+1000

Also dog owners who don't keep a right enough leash on their dog and the dog is constantly running over to smell me.

"On your left" is a courtesy to let pedestrians know your bike is coming up behind them to pass. It's not intended to tell anyone to move over, get off the trail, or step in a puddle. If you're surprised by the warning, that's the entire point. It would be a lot more disconcerting to have a bike going just 10mph pass without a heads up.

None of the close-in multi-use trails are for hard bicycle training. Even in the off hours, you can't run at 25mph+ on those trails for 40-50 miles. That's what rural roads and Hains Point are for.

On the Virginia side, the Mt. Vernon, Custis, and WO&D have 15mph speed limits. While I often exceed that speed for short burst, I only do so when there are no one else around. I like to think of pedestrians and strollers as helping me do high intensity intervals by forcing me to come to a stop and rev back up again.

In defense of the spandex, cyclist need the padding and it prevents plumbers butt.

Buttcracks on bikes. Seriously guys, it's getting to be an epidemic. Cover your asscrack.

And keep your shirts on. Everyone's hot and sweaty, but a shirt acts as a sponge barrier so your sweat isn't flying off you and hitting other bikers/runners. It's gross, and people don't want to see you topless in public.

People on the rocks with no idea what they've gotten themselves in to

I am surprised to not see this yet: People on bike share bikes and/or tourists.

The worst! We were out biking last weekend and these stupid tourists were blocking the entire path crossing the 14th Street Bridge. They were stopped to take pictures. It created a total cluster f and they didn't even seem to notice.

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, the more expensively equipped the cyclist, the bigger the jerk.

I have seen people in street clothes do really stupid things on bikes (and not only folks riding CaBi bikes) and lots of lycra clad passing appropriately. Of course the latter do go faster, so they do different things when they act jerky.

Anonymous wrote:
Well excuse me, perhaps it wasn't *you* on the trail. proper trail etiquette does not work when someone is screaming on your left when there is no time to react. That is, the rider is already on top of you and whizzing past. No one wants your encouragement. what they want is for you to slow down and recognize that you are on a shared, mixed-use trail. Otherwise take your gold plated huffy out on Connecticut Avenue where you become the hunted. These are the same pricks that hang out at starbucks and the bagel place all day in between "races" in their spandex.

Yes, people should call a pass several seconds ahead, if it is at all possible. I find most people do.

I don't think any kid minds my calling "good job".

As I said I fully recognize it is a shared multiuse trail. Some cyclists do not. Some runners do not. Some pedestrians do not. It kind of sounds like you do not.

As for Connecticut Avenue, I do not ride in Upper NW, excepting one jaunt up the C&O canal, when I can assure you I was not going very fast. Your tone toward cyclists is rather hostile I might add. I sometimes do have to deal with jerk motorists (and the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed by motorists is far higher than than pedestrians killed or seriously injured by cyclists) but I do try to avoid that kind of bitterness toward all motorists.

BTW, lots of folks who wear lycra are nice and polite. The lycra is functional. And what is wrong with coffee and a bagel?

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Anonymous wrote:We're a family of runners and cyclists (DH commutes via bike and kids have biked to school and summer jobs), so we're on the Crescent Trail a lot. I don't hate anyone, but I do find it very annoying and rude when cyclists expect that saying "on your left" will immediately result in the runner,cyclist or walker they're trying to pass moving to the far right or even off the trail. On a multimodal trail, you need to accept that you'll have to slow down sometimes.

I can only speak for myself and not other cyclists, but when I say "on your left" it's not because I expect anyone to move off the trail. I say it because a lot of pedestrians or other cyclists will get into "their own little world" and will suddenly swerve to the left with no notice. By saying "on your left" I'm just warning them that I am coming and to not suddenly move directly in front of me. If the pedestrian/other cyclist maintains how they were going, it's all good

Exactly!

PP I take my DC's to ride on the cap crescent trail on the weekends with every other family out there and I am no pro and neither are they. They are little kids enjoying the ride and while I try to steer them in the right direction and teach them the "rules" about staying over to the right etc each time we are out there someone like you, probably meaning well, starts yelling at my kids "on your left, ON YOUR LEFT" to bring them out of "their own little world" where they are concentrating on the "rules" of the trail. Each time they have crashed into the brush while some pro bike riding asshat in full tour de france gear speeds off.

This is your problem, not the bicyclist's problem. If you kids can't ride well enough to negotiate traffic, you should take them to a park or let them ride on your sidewalk or something.

they ride just fine, why don't you take your $3000 racing bike and all your gear out into traffic and leave us alone or something

I ride a $600 dollar hybrid. I call on your left when passing a child rider, because I assume their parents want them to learn proper trail etiquette (or why would they be on the trail) and for the sake of safety. I do not yell "like a lunatic". I have never seen a kid go off the side when I do that. I will often call a word of encouragement as I pass "good job"

Well excuse me, perhaps it wasn't *you* on the trail. proper trail etiquette does not work when someone is screaming on your left when there is no time to react. That is, the rider is already on top of you and whizzing past. No one wants your encouragement. what they want is for you to slow down and recognize that you are on a shared, mixed-use trail. Otherwise take your gold plated huffy out on Connecticut Avenue where you become the hunted. These are the same pricks that hang out at starbucks and the bagel place all day in between "races" in their spandex.

Anonymous wrote:Shirtless men. I see maybe 2 men all summer that really, truly have an attractive physique while running/biking. Not saying you're a hideous monster, but cover it up. Wear shirts in public, dudes.

LOL. +1 million!!!!

In my experience, the more expensively equipped the cyclist, the bigger the jerk.

People with their dogs off leash!!!

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Anonymous wrote:We're a family of runners and cyclists (DH commutes via bike and kids have biked to school and summer jobs), so we're on the Crescent Trail a lot. I don't hate anyone, but I do find it very annoying and rude when cyclists expect that saying "on your left" will immediately result in the runner,cyclist or walker they're trying to pass moving to the far right or even off the trail. On a multimodal trail, you need to accept that you'll have to slow down sometimes.

I can only speak for myself and not other cyclists, but when I say "on your left" it's not because I expect anyone to move off the trail. I say it because a lot of pedestrians or other cyclists will get into "their own little world" and will suddenly swerve to the left with no notice. By saying "on your left" I'm just warning them that I am coming and to not suddenly move directly in front of me. If the pedestrian/other cyclist maintains how they were going, it's all good

Exactly!

PP I take my DC's to ride on the cap crescent trail on the weekends with every other family out there and I am no pro and neither are they. They are little kids enjoying the ride and while I try to steer them in the right direction and teach them the "rules" about staying over to the right etc each time we are out there someone like you, probably meaning well, starts yelling at my kids "on your left, ON YOUR LEFT" to bring them out of "their own little world" where they are concentrating on the "rules" of the trail. Each time they have crashed into the brush while some pro bike riding asshat in full tour de france gear speeds off.

This is your problem, not the bicyclist's problem. If you kids can't ride well enough to negotiate traffic, you should take them to a park or let them ride on your sidewalk or something.

they ride just fine, why don't you take your $3000 racing bike and all your gear out into traffic and leave us alone or something

I ride a $600 dollar hybrid. I call on your left when passing a child rider, because I assume their parents want them to learn proper trail etiquette (or why would they be on the trail) and for the sake of safety. I do not yell "like a lunatic". I have never seen a kid go off the side when I do that. I will often call a word of encouragement as I pass "good job"

Anonymous wrote:Mixed use trails are just that - mixed use! That means avid cyclers, walkers, runners, kids learning how to ride their bike. As someone who lives off the custis trail, I definitely see a bike commute culture between the hours of 7-9am and again 4-6pm. I LOVE that people ride to work. I tend to avoid the trails at those times. However, they don't own the trails. As a parent who taught her kids to ride their bikes on the bike trails, I avoided high peak use times.

They do not own the trails. They have the obligation to pass properly, on the left, and to call their passes. They are not obligated to treat the trail like a city sidewalk, and slow to walking speed when they pass. You need to let you kids know that the MUT does not function like a city sidewalk, or a walking path in a park.

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Anonymous wrote:You are not a car. Move your bike off to the right. You are holding up hundreds of cars behind you that now have to go 30-40mph below the speed limit.

I am an avid runner and biker. Multiple marathons and bike races, countless training hours and I never for once thought I was a car.

People are taking the lane on a 55MPH road? Where is this?

I never take the lane on a road faster than 35MPH posted limit. For that to make someone go 30MPH below the speed limit would mean I am riding at 5MPH (I go faster than that even uphill, and I do not take the lane uphill on steep grades) Also if I am taking the lane on a 35MPH road, there is usually either an easy way to pass in an adjacent lane, or I do it for a very short distance only.

Most of the places I take the lane are 30MPH posted limit or 25MPH. You do the math.

Congrats, and when you take the lane going uphill on Wisconsin, 16th St, Connecticut or Reno Road during rush hour, and the speed limit is 25 or 30 as you point out, please explain why the 50 cars stuck behind you should be delighted to be going 5 mph (which is what you're doing uphill, don't lie) instead of 25 or 30 in the case of Connecticut.

-- a sometimes cyclist who has done all those hills, many times, so she knows you're FOS when you claim in a minute that you're keeping up with traffic.

I do not live in, work in, or ride in Upper NW. I have a lot of sympathy for folks who do ride there, as its a pretty terrible place to ride. I suppose I would would take the sidewalk uphill. I hope you are not one of those complaining about cyclists on sidewalks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are not a car. Move your bike off to the right. You are holding up hundreds of cars behind you that now have to go 30-40mph below the speed limit.

I am an avid runner and biker. Multiple marathons and bike races, countless training hours and I never for once thought I was a car.

People always bring the move to the right point up, but that is simply not the law. Does it suck driving on Beach drive behind someone on a bike going 20 miles an hour, yes. But no kore than driving behind a car doing the same. Bikes are legally permitted to be in the middle of the lane.

And I don't think I have ever encountered a bicyclist on a road whee the speed limit was above 30 miles an hour, so I don't know why you are driving 30-40 miles below the speed limit. Maybe on a hill, but most people who ride in the road are going between 15-25 miles an hour on their bikes.

We are just as pissed when a car blocks a lane of traffic by going unnecessarily slow, believe me, but at least the slow car is going 20 or 25 in a 35 mph zone, not 10 mph as the bike is. Even if I am not in a hurry and can be patient, it creates a dangerous situation because most of the cars in the line behind the bike will be trying to change lanes and the whole street will suddenly back up for two blocks or more because of one person on a major two-lane connector.

My biggest peeve is this, which has happened to me a couple of times on Wisconsin Avenue: traffic is backed up behind a slow biker, I patiently wait for a break in the left lane and pass the biker, and then when the cars stop at a light, the biker rides between the stopped cars and runs the red light to get back in front of us and then block the lane again.