Neither of those signs on the Mount Vernon Trail is necessary. Cars can't go very fast on that ramp, and the visiblity is good given the low speed. And the "warning, sign ahead" sign is just overkill.

What I'd really like to see is a lessening of the grade on the approaches to the bridges on that path along the airport. Those mini-hills are brutal after you've been on a long ride.

by Frank IBC on Sep 18, 2012 8:48 am • link • report

Re: Car buying vs bike buying

Speaking as a one-time Grand Prix owner, I'm not sure that the parable holds. Auto manufacturers and dealers push all kinds of performance-oriented accessories, extras, body designs, and engines on cars. If we built cars solely for the drudgery of everyday transportation, everyone would be driving those roomy, fuel-efficient Sprinter vans.

Besides, people do race bikes, or ride for exercise, or take long tours. Does serving that real need somehow diminish the transportation rider? It's not as if the person on a 20-year-old Pugeot, who occasionally stops in for a spare tube, is going to keep the bike shop in business.

by David R. on Sep 18, 2012 8:53 am • link • report

How does Metro manage to screw up even the simplest things? In this case, as the doors article points out, they seem unable to do basic math:
On the Red and Blue lines, which each have 27 stops, an addition of five seconds at each station adds two minutes and 15 seconds for each train to run the length of the line...

But Metro said it is not going to add time to the schedules. "We are not adjusting schedules for a momentary pause, no," Lukas said.

So they're instituting a new policy that, in aggregate, will clearly affect schedules. But they're going to pretend that the 5-second delays won't add up, thus ensuring problems with the schedules. WTF?

by Arl Fan on Sep 18, 2012 8:57 am • link • report

by David R. on Sep 18, 2012 8:57 am • link • report

Of course it is unneccessary for bikes to dismount, cross the busily trafficed road and proceed with a measure of caution. Just like it is unneccesary for bikes to stop at redlights.

by bikes on Sep 18, 2012 9:04 am • link • report

Re: Kent's Bike Blog

Who needs enemies when you've got friends like Kent...some people ride strictly for utility, some people ride solely for racing/training, some people ride for both (including me). There are tons of shops out there that cater to each extreme, and many shops that cater to both. Hell, walk into most bike shops in the area and they will be stocked primarily with hybrids, as those are what customers are after these days. I honestly don't know where these guys are going that they think "everyone" is only trying to sell them specialized race gear.

People like this Kent dude, and most notably Grant freaking Petersen, perpetuate this myth that in cycling, people in lycra are the enemy and only those who putter around wearing tweed on old-timey steel cruisers are "real" cyclists. It's so counterproductive and people need to just stop...ELITE types get uppity too, but they don't seem to be as vocal and defensive in the same way the utility-only crowd does.

by MM on Sep 18, 2012 9:16 am • link • report

A sign along the Mount Vernon Trail by National Airport warns bicyclists about an upcoming sign asking them to dismount to cross a road.

This is one of the most ridiculous signs I know of. The problem is that there is no reason whatsoever to dismount there. None. So, people don't do it. However, just a bit more south is an equally ridiculous sign. Once you pass under the metrotrack, and the car bridge, there are still STOP signs at a closed ramp. So you're supposed to stop for traffic that will never be there.

View Larger Map

Traffic signs need a reason if you want people to follow them. By placing (or leaving) unnecessary signs, VDOT and the park service are undermining the validity of other signs that are necessary.

@ Arl Fan:So they're instituting a new policy that, in aggregate, will clearly affect schedules.

If you think that 2 minutes really matters in the unscheduled rush-hour chaos that is metro, you don't ride metro a lot.

It's not the two minutes that matter. It's that metro is once again admitting to failing technology and irritating its riders. Fist the turn-styles become slower because of "more complex pricing" and now doors open slower. The whole world runs faster and faster, and metro runs slower and slower. That is the problem.

O and P Streets in Georgetown will open today after a long rehabilitation.

And they're still very bumpy. Less than before, but then again, they were barely roads to start with. It is beyond me why abandoned rail tracks are considered historic and need to be preserved. Another example of Georgetown residents' insanity.

by Jasper on Sep 18, 2012 9:17 am • link • report

I can see need for a dismount warning or heads up (rather than an outright command) for an area congest with pedestrians. I rode the colonial parkway from Jamestown to Williamsburg and there were dismount signs for the pedestrianized Duke of Gloucester street which should be apparent anyway due to all the people during the regular hours.

Though a "congested area ahead" sign would work as well.

by drumz on Sep 18, 2012 9:26 am • link • report

The agency said the new door protocol is not directly related to any one incident.

Ok, so what were the multiple incidents then?

by drumz on Sep 18, 2012 9:28 am • link • report

@Jasper; I doubt that is VDOT. Park Service.

And O&P are really much improved. While I like the cobblestones to slow traffic down I don't really understand the need for the tracks either.

by charlie on Sep 18, 2012 9:47 am • link • report

@Arl Fan, if the doors have typically opening 2-3 seconds after the train comes to a full stop, extending that to a formal 5 seconds only adds 2-3 seconds per stop or up to 81 seconds overall for a 27 stop run.

However does keeping the doors closed a couple of seconds longer when arriving lengthen the total unload and boarding time at each station? May give people on the train a couple of more seconds to get into to position to exit for a quick group exit before those on the platform try to get on the train. The dynamics of the flow of people off and on the train is not a simple matter when it gets crowded. We should not assume that keeping the doors closed for 5 seconds upon coming to a stop equals 5 seconds added to total station dwell time.

That said, keeping the doors closed for a full 5 seconds is long enough to really irritate people waiting to step off the train to get to their destination. Not going to be a popular policy change.

by AlanF on Sep 18, 2012 9:51 am • link • report

The examiner article mentions that the doors have opened before trains fully arrived into the station.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't all of the railcars equipped with systems that are supposed to make it impossible for the doors to open while the train's moving? I could have sworn I saw something about that in the 7000-series RFP.

by andrew on Sep 18, 2012 9:54 am • link • report

@ charlie:And O&P are really much improved. While I like the cobblestones to slow traffic down

Try biking over them.

I doubt that is VDOT. Park Service.

Probably. But then again, it might be the MWAA. Who knows. It's irrelevant. The point is that whomever put those signs there is undermining its authority.

by Jasper on Sep 18, 2012 9:57 am • link • report

Another example of Georgetown residents' insanity.

It's sane if your objective is to reduce the attractiveness of driving down the street for those who could use alternatives just as easily. The rails are speed bumps dressed up in historical cloth.

by ah on Sep 18, 2012 10:01 am • link • report

Echoing Andrew, I thought that the new railcars had a mechanical latch that absolutely prevented the doors from opening while the wheels were in motion. It's not that hard of an engineering problem, so if the railcars don't have that feature, or if it's broken somehow, WMATA should explain what's going on.

by Tom Veil on Sep 18, 2012 10:02 am • link • report

Car dealers once did push "racing" accessories. It was called the 60s and 70s and most makes from the humble Chevy II Nova onward had cars that nodded toward "racing" with tachometers that no one really knew how to use, 4 speeds floor shifters, big engines (often made available off the formal market), turbocharging, etc. It made driving seem more fun not more intimidating.

by Rich on Sep 18, 2012 10:04 am • link • report

@JasperIf you think that 2 minutes really matters in the unscheduled rush-hour chaos

I agree that rush hour is chaos, and that the 2 minute aggregate delay won't meaningfully affect "schedules" (IIRC, Metro doesn't even publish its 'schedule' for rush hour). But I think it may have consequences for railcar availability. Metro already is straining to keep enough railcars in service to have enough trains to maintain rush-hour headways. An increase in the run time even by a couple of minutes is going to make it even harder to build enough trains -- which could mean fewer 8-car trains, longer headways, and more crowding, with all the obvious second-order results.

During the rest of the day, there will be other problems. Metro's decision not to update the schedule will most noticeably affect the accuracy of itineraries generated through Metro's Trip Planner, which relies on the schedules rather than the real-time positioning data. The 2 minute delay at the end of the Red Line towards Glenmont may not mean much if you're going to Glenmont, but it's going to affect the accuracy of rail transfers at Fort Totten and bus transfers in general. To be sure, if you rely on Trip Planner, you're going to be late/disappointed much of the time -- but when you're headed somewhere new via Metro, especially with a bus connection, there's little choice but to rely on it.

The whole world runs faster and faster, and metro runs slower and slower. That is the problem.

Yes, without a doubt.

by Arl Fan on Sep 18, 2012 10:07 am • link • report

@Rich, or Porsche today (steering wheel optional). High end BMWs. MINIs. Even the new Dodge Dart. Or another words a highly male demographic.

@Jaspar; Paris-Roubaix.

by charlie on Sep 18, 2012 10:11 am • link • report

@ah:It's sane if your objective is to reduce the attractiveness of driving down the street for those who could use alternatives just as easily.

No, that is disingenuous and insane. It is pretending you live on a quiet neighborhood street, while in reality you live in the heart of a touristic neighborhood, next to a major academic institution in the Capital of America.

This is Georgetown, DC we're talking about, not Georgetown, MD in the late 1700, yet these people behave like they live in something akin to The Plains or Halfway.

Let's not forget that it is P St that connects Georgetown University to WI Ave, across Rock Creek Park to Dupont and Logan Circle, ending at the intersection of FL and NY Ave.

@ Arl Fan: To be sure, if you rely on Trip Planner, you're going to be late/disappointed much of the time

Exactly. Two minutes is not gonna make a difference.

But we're not so much disagreeing here. I just think the focus of the story is not the few minutes, but the fact that once again metro's infrastructure is falling apart further.

by Jasper on Sep 18, 2012 10:24 am • link • report

The cobblestone streets in Georgetown are fine for biking now thanks to this project. I did so a couple weeks back and it was no bumpier than your average gravel bike path.

by Phil on Sep 18, 2012 10:33 am • link • report

@AlanF: However does keeping the doors closed a couple of seconds longer when arriving lengthen the total unload and boarding time at each station? May give people on the train a couple of more seconds to get into to position to exit for a quick group exit before those on the platform try to get on the train. The dynamics of the flow of people off and on the train is not a simple matter when it gets crowded. We should not assume that keeping the doors closed for 5 seconds upon coming to a stop equals 5 seconds added to total station dwell time.

Good points -- your suggestion is entirely possible, and so we'll have to wait and seewhat the efects are. It could also work the other way, obviously: people jockeying for position on the platform could end up blocking the doors to a greater extent than they do now, or people on the train may decide to remain seated until the train actually comes to a stop.

It's also a good question as to whether this is a 3 second increase or a 5 second increase. Right now it seems like a 5-second increase, but that may be because of the supervisor monitoring they're doing and may not reflect actual long-term implementation.

(Unrelated: I've twice received an error from the Metro Captcha problem when the answer has been "West Hyattsville". Anyone else having that problem?)

by Arl Fan on Sep 18, 2012 10:35 am • link • report

I tend to think the 5 second delay will make it harder to get off the train as the crowds waiting to get on will be larger and more impatient.

Though, I still don't understand waiting 5 seconds after stopping will solve the problem of doors opening while the train is moving.

by Colleen on Sep 18, 2012 10:47 am • link • report

re: the 5 second delay
A number of times I've seen trains roll in and the doors open right as the train is reaching full stop. I always figured it was drivers who had their timing down exactly.
It seems like this policy (I know I know) could be turned into a policy where the operator is asked not to open the door until his/her head is out the window. Seems like it would accomplish the same thing and be easier to monitor.

by Thaps on Sep 18, 2012 10:50 am • link • report

re: P Street in Georgetown:

How much did it cost to preserve unused streetcar tracks? Is the area any more "quaint" and "historiacal" than it was before?

I wonder how many school meals that could have provided for poor children or how many senior citizens' utility bills would have been covered for the same cost.

by ceefer on Sep 18, 2012 11:41 am • link • report

@MM

Hell, walk into most bike shops in the area and they will be stocked primarily with hybrids, as those are what customers are after these days. I honestly don't know where these guys are going that they think "everyone" is only trying to sell them specialized race gear.

Absolutely. I have never seen a group with a larger chip on their shoulder than folks in the Peterson/Copenhagenize camp. It's a Hell of a lot easier to walk into most bike stores in DC and buy and upright bike than it is to buy a $4000 mountain bike. If you stride into one of the few racer-oriented shops and demand a 3 lb Brooks saddle and a kickstand, you deserve to be laughed at. It's like walking into Fleet Feet and shouting, "What's the hurry!?! Feet are made for walking!"

by oboe on Sep 18, 2012 11:59 am • link • report

"What I'd really like to see is a lessening of the grade on the approaches to the bridges on that path along the airport. Those mini-hills are brutal after you've been on a long ride."

Once upon a time, all those bridges were at grade crossings; I presume the hill is whatever it needs to be to get service trucks under the bridge.

by Kolohe on Sep 18, 2012 12:02 pm • link • report

@ Kolohe - I'm not questioning the need for those bridges, or their height. I'm saying that the approaches should have been made less steep, i.e., longer.

by Frank IBC on Sep 18, 2012 2:02 pm • link • report

Yeah, that bike shop stereotype might be true somewhere else, but the DC bike shops largely seem to be in tune with the needs of urban cyclists.

Even the "more hardcore" shops know this. My bigger gripe is that very few shops in DC seem interested in selling me something between a 50-pound steel frame fixed-gear and a $4,000 carbon-fiber race bike.

by andrew on Sep 18, 2012 2:49 pm • link • report

The O & P Street rehab was obnoxious. Bone-shaking cobbles and tire-grabbing, useless rails make O and P streets inaccessible to bikes (even though P street is the direct route from Dupont and anywhere further east). And the unwarranted "rehab" shut down public transit access to Georgetown's main campus for 16 months, forcing any off-campus staff or graduate students in the area around the formerly G2-serviced East Campus to walk to Wisconsin for a MetroBus or to the GU Hospital to take an infrequent GUTS Dupont bus (whose route length doubled due to resident complaints).

[Deleted for violating the comment policy.]

by Ronald on Sep 18, 2012 3:22 pm • link • report

"Typical comment from the mooching 47%"
-----

If you're serious and not being sarcastic, that's pretty damn sad.

by ceefer on Sep 18, 2012 4:04 pm • link • report

O and P used to have signs explicitly banning bikes. Not sure if they still do.

Still, I like the streetcar tracks. Yes, most historical preservation is "frivolous" and seems like a waste. Why restore the Lions on the ends of the Conn Bridge or the old streetcar poles. There are millions of aesthetic and cultural expenses that we undertake - and the reason is that we'd all hate to live in a totally utilitarian world. If you want to give kids school lunches, then raise taxes. It's not historical preservation vs. hungry kids. It's historical preservation vs lower taxes.

by David C on Sep 18, 2012 4:46 pm • link • report

@Ceefer

Take a look at the posters name used. I was offended as well, until I read his name. Chuckled at that point :)

by Kyle-w on Sep 18, 2012 4:48 pm • link • report

@Charlie: few can afford a Porsche. Many could buy a GTO.

by Rich on Sep 18, 2012 10:21 pm • link • report

No no no no.

Bikes are ADVISED to dismount. Not "must," not "shall," they are advised. Yellow means caution, "we advise you to..." It's just like a yellow S-curve 25 mph ahead sign. The speed limit might be 45 mph, but you are advised to drive 25.

We’re all dumb natives. Yellow signs are advisory cautions. White signs (like speed limit signs) are regulatory. Red signs (like stop signs) are regulatory right-of-way markers. http://www.trafficsign.us/signcolor.html Drivers and cyclists are dumb animist natives with their own independent beliefs about what they think the regulations are. Traffic engineers and planners are speaking the King’s English from their well structured bibles. The two groups meet in a clearing and babble their inscrutable languages at each other without any understanding. No wonder everyone's so angry, we're all dummies who can't communicate.

by crin on Sep 19, 2012 9:00 am • link • report

Bikes are ADVISED to dismount. Not "must," not "shall," they are advised.

I'm going to have a very realistic sign made which I will then put on a post next to GW Parkway. It will read "DRIVERS: Stop, And Exit Your Vehicles". During the resulting chaos, I would hope folks wouldn't get too upset. After all, it's only an advisory, not a command.

by oboe on Sep 19, 2012 10:32 am • link • report

@ crin:No no no no.

Bikes are ADVISED to dismount. Not "must," not "shall," they are advised.

Interesting interpretation. The sign says:"Bikers DISMOUNT before crossing". I interpret the capitalization and imperative mood as an order, not a suggestion.

There are no other yellow signs with direct orders on them. Speed suggestions, for instance, just mention the suggested speed. They do not say: "Drivers SLOW DOWN TO 25mph".

by Jasper on Sep 19, 2012 12:03 pm • link • report

I love Kent's analogy. Someday people in America will realize that you don't need a $500 logo-infested lycra outfit just to bike to work.

by ox4 on Sep 19, 2012 3:22 pm • link • report

Someday people in America will realize that you don't need a $500 logo-infested lycra outfit just to bike to work.

Someday "citizen cyclists" in America will realize that not everyone lives within 5 miles of work. If I run an hour to work, I'm going to wear jogging shorts and running shoes. If I swim an hour to work, I'll wear swim trunks. If I bike an hour to work, I'm going to wear Lycra. If I only were only going 5-10 blocks, I'd probably wear street clothes.

I pass scores of people wearing street clothes riding into the city and never give it a second thought. I find the obsession with lycra by people who self-identify as "cyclists" to be fascinating.

by oboe on Sep 19, 2012 4:05 pm • link • report

@ oboe:I find the obsession with lycra by people who self-identify as "cyclists" to be fascinating

I try to overcome their smugness by feeling smugger when I pass them on my CaBike in my regular clothes ;-)

by Jasper on Sep 19, 2012 4:24 pm • link • report

Oboe - "Exit car" is asking a bit much. I suggest "Stop car, put in park/neutral, put brake on, open door, and place both feet on ground." ;)

by Frank IBC on Sep 19, 2012 4:53 pm • link • report