The One About Hands Free Summer Cycling and Drivers Who Don’t Understand Circles

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Evan

Riding hands free feels great but I usually don’t even try it unless I’m on the trail. City streets are a too unpredictable for me to take my hands off the handlebars. I saw a biker last week who clued me in to how it’s done in the city: ride against traffic! This way you can see the cars approaching and can switch to using hands when needed. Here’s video:

Today on the ride home I was digging the reduced humidity. Riding through less water has to make the ride easier. Less friction perhaps? Anyway, the ride was great and by the time I crossed the DC/MD border I knew I was home free. Not so lucky today.

As I approached the Mount Rainier traffic circle in the left lane I was scanning for cars already in the circle. No cars were there but there was a driver in the right lane who was also scanning for traffic before entering. We both decided it’s free so it’s go time. We simultaneously enter the circle in our own lanes and the driver of the SUV starts to cut me off. There isn’t anywhere to go except the curb or to slam my breaks which doesn’t seem smart (no time to see what’s behind me) so I yell out, “Hey! Watch out!!” She then scoots back into her lane and she continues traveling east on Route 1 while I continue to ride in the circle and exit on 34th.

So, lady in the black SUV, please don’t change lanes in the tiny traffic circle. It’s a two lane road not a single road for your SUV. If you must change lanes, don’t do it without looking to see if someone is there. I have a flashing headlight, a day-glow orange bike and an orange safety vest. I’m visible but you do have to look outside of your automobile.

Another 3 Foot Rule Violator at the Mount Rainier Traffic Circle

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Evan

Since the collision with the delivery truck on July 11th I have been extra vigilant about taking the lane so drivers must maneuver around me safely. This plan has been going well and I’m happy to say the roads have felt safe except once.

On July 12th a van driver buzzed me since it seems s/he couldn’t wait a few moments to pass when there was more room. I can’t make out the logo on the back of the van but the plates are MD A168984.

Music: “Robot Summer” by Gurdonark

Struck: Truck Driver Sideswipes Biker

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Evan

I’ve been commuting on bike for more than ten years and today was the first time a driver ever hit me. It was just a sideswipe, a push from the side of a passing truck, and it was alarming. I didn’t lose control of the bike and I was not hurt.

After it happened, I rode across the street to the Mount Rainier police department to report the incident to an officer who promptly pulled the driver over (!) and brought him back to talk to me and ticket him. Looking back, it feels fortuitous that everything turned out as well as it did.

Here’s the video (click on “HD” for maximum quality):

Music by BOCrew.

Buzzed by a Driver Not Following the Three Foot Passing Law

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Evan

We have a three foot passing law in Washington, DC and in Maryland meaning drivers need to give bikers at least 3 feet of pure buffer space when passing. Too bad not everyone follows this public safety oriented law.

I recorded this buzzing near the strange intersection where Rhode Island Ave meets 7th and R streets. The traffic going west on R was partially blocking the southbound traffic on Rhode Island. I continued past the stopped cars and since the light was red, decided to continue up to the front of the line of cars instead of hanging back with the gridlock. That wasn’t such a good idea because as soon as I neared the front of the line the light changed and the drivers began to go.

I didn’t have a good chance to “take the lane” and partly because of that the driver of the Toyota Camry (MD licence plate GWR358) decides to give me a buzz rather than waiting for a clear 3 feet of passing space. If you watch closely you’ll see her pass me at the beginning of the video when she’s in the lane next to me (thank you). By the end she’s … well go ahead and see for yourself:

Music:”Valiha Trance” by 7thHeaven // 2010 – Licensed under Creative Commons

Dangers of Sidewalk Biking

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Evan

Sidewalk biking can be fun but it’s not allowed in the District’s downtown. This biker and a driver pulling into a hotel parking lot show why it’s a bad idea in the dense downtown:

Driver Swerves into Bike Lane and Narrowly Misses Biker

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Evan

I’ve started video recording my commute in order to highlight the good, bad and the ugly that I come across.

The ride on Friday was beautiful. Humidity was down, the sun was out and many bikers were on the roads.

It also happened to be my first ride with a new camera that let me capture this moment where I was nearly sideswiped by a Lexus SUV driver with MD plates AZ13868 as I rode in the bike lane on Q Street NW. Watch as the driver swerves without signaling into the bike lane. From what I could tell, the reason for the swerve was that the driver didn’t want to slow down as he was approaching another driving turning left onto 7th street NW.

The lesson today for bikers: beware of the driver’s blind spot, especially at intersections.

The lesson for drivers: don’t swerve into the bike lane, especially without signaling.

How to Embed NextBus DC in iGoogle

Posted on July 4, 2009 by Evan

NextBus launched last week for Washington, DC. The system easily allows bookmarks for favorite routes but it doesn’t make it easy to take those bookmarks with you to your iGoogle home page. This is how you setup a new iGoogle gadget to show the status of favorite routes.

Go to wmata.nextbus.com.
Select your route, destination and bus stop and then a blue box at at the bottom of the page shows when the next buses will arrive. This is the piece we want to take with us to our iGoogle page.
Click “Update page address so that it can be bookmarked.”
Using your mouse, Right Click and choose View Page Source in Firefox or Chrome or View Source in Internet Explorer or Safari. This opens up a new window with the source code of the web page.

The address needed is at the bottom of the page in an iframe tag. The quickest way to find it is to press Ctrl + f to access the search function. Search for iframe. The iframe looks like this:

<iframe id="mainFrame"
src="http://wmata.nextbus.com/customStopSelector/fancyNewPredictionLayer.jsp?a=wmata&r=42&d=42_42_0&s=7018&ts=6905&cssFile=http://www.wmata.com/css/nextbus.css&bookmarkableURL=http://www.wmata.com/rider_tools/nextbus/arrivals.cfm#"
width="80%" height="700" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto">
</iframe>

Copy the web site address from the beginning through to the last part before “&css” because this is the direct link to the NextBus page for this route. In the example below the part to copy is marked in red text:

http://wmata.nextbus.com/customStopSelector/fancyNewPredictionLayer.jsp?a=wmata&r=42&d=42_42_0&s=7018&ts=6905&cssFile=http://www.wmata.com/css/nextbus.css&bookmarkableURL=http://www.wmata.com/rider_tools/nextbus/arrivals.cfm#

Login to your iGoogle page and click on Add Stuff on the top right part of the page. Use the gadget named “iFrame” and then add it to your iGoogle page.
Return to your iGoogle page, click the drop down menu for the new iFrame Gadget and finally choose Edit Settings. Use the settings in this example below. Most of the gadget’s default settings work but a few need to be changed:
src: Paste the source link from step 6 here.
Title: Give this gadget a name so it is easy to find on your iGoogle page.
Height: The default height is unnecessarily tall. Try a shorter gadget — 225 pixels worked well on my page.When you’re done click on Save.
If everything worked your iGoogle page will now include a gadget showing your favorite bus route showing when the bus will actually arrive. Here is a screen shot of my iGoogle page with the new gadget showing NextBus for the 42:
Here is this same bus route embedded on this web page to give you a live example:
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And if that isn’t cool enough — try going to your new iGoogle page on your iPhone or Android phone. There you’ll find your new gadget in all of its mobile glory:

Let me know if you have any issues with this or know of an easier way to access your favorite routes quickly.

Thanks to heryandotus for sharing his custom NextBus page since it inspired me to figure out how to do the same thing for those who aren’t web monkeys [via].