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BTWD2017

Page history last edited by jerry 6 years, 11 months ago

BTWD2017

Introduction/Definition/etc

Bike To Work Day is an annual event in Bike Month,

where, before it gets to August and oppressive heat,

some people get some free SWAG, others don't...

Body

Early Start

Like work and commuting, early is cooler,

most of the time, and in spring/ summer,

it helps, but may not be your routine...

Plan ahead, do it regularly, see sunrise,

sometimes, and maybe it's easier

than a quick flip flop type sleep schedule?

Weather Dependent

Some years it has been rainy like the

previous Thursday, and Snorkel and Mask

required as standard equipment,

especially for the trail underpasses,

though I'm not recommending going in

the likely polluted and fast moving streams...

Rosslyn Pit Stop

One of the big ones,

event cars/ trucks/vans blocked getting

in the area, and people were lining

up for stuff, one side closest

I went to and told there was a line,

I went around, steps, and crowds,

I got in the line, asking the crowd

why we wait in line, when we don't want

to wait in traffic, and was hawked

at, first what were were in line for,

then by political people,

which I asked:

If Poverty is a disease

(as one major candidate's lit says)

and you take a vow of poverty,

by syllogism are you therefore a disease?

After not understanding it,

mentioning that may be the only

attribute people care about,

particularly some doctors,

(+marketing, etc)

and people behind saying my kid

has to read him, leave him alone,

or similar...

She proceeded to blame me for

her dropping the candy on her

clipboard... And she wondered away...

Other litter, the same candy was

found later on, I'm trying to be low

sugar, but making people bend over

for them, is annoying, especially if

it is a maneuver that causes pain,

is embarrassing, or just making

people bow to you, and your ego's...

Got free socks, too red/purple,

but cost me some privacy,

("Are you registered to vote?"

"then we know you")

and a cold drink, a fruit smoothie,

which gave me brain freeze

while waiting in the next line,

for someone to be mean to me there

too, I didn't want to stick my grubby

biker sweaty hands in the bag to

pick a raffle ticket, so asked him

to, and then "you have gotten

enough, you cost us enough,

or similar" and that was BikeArlington,

a black bag, reflective, I don't like

the older red one, so was looking to

replace it, other SWAG was ankle

strap reflectors, and a better other

table for premium merch like jerseys,

etc were if you were drawn a different

colour ticket maybe red, IDK...

Bananas

One booth had a big pile of bananas,

nice enough, I should probably find out

who did that, some company, (Commonwealth

Joe, a coffee cart company, afaict)

good PR, not sure I had issue with them,

wonder what they did with the left overs?

ThePracticalitiesOfFoodDistribution2012

? I only took one, and could only put it

in my back jersey pocket, they smoosh

too easily, and have to leave the peel

somewhere that it doesn't cause a

biker's accident...

Hungry Excluded From Food?

Homeless guy(s) and others around?

At least one guy hanging around the park,

usually there are people panhandling

around there plus police presence all around,

and politicians, so not sure what

problems others had...

Video Cameras in Your Face

During the second wait time,

big professional type camera

without any ID / logs, etc, so a rental,

was stuck in my face,

and I saw him, put my hand

over my face, and someone

said it means he doesn't want

to be photographed... Has a right

to privacy, or similar...

One of the sponsors of the event(s)

are likely media, like NBC4 which

as stuck cameras in faces at another

pit stop, other years and basically

you are sidelined if even able to participate,

so exploitation is likely and not really

regulated/ monitored/ controlled, as in

get the weird looking biker on the set,

similar to get the widow on the set...

(see old music references, for younger

folks)

DCBikes

For ~$70 I could have gotten an event

shirt and odd single strap bag,

the sponsors for the event were

CareFirst, iirc, a medical organization,

and few bars? It benefited

WABA, the Washington Area

Bicycle Association, and closed

streets all around on a Sunday...

They used to say don't block the

path to God, for route planning,

ironic because the previous one

BikeDC, back in 2008 or so,

I was a ride marshal, which helps

people along the way, light mechanically

and possibly directions, etc

and a guy was taken out on an ambulance,

along the Virginia Side, near 110

and the Pentagon, maybe heart problems,

along a long warm stretch.

I was not a first responder (sp?),

and saw him raise his hand/arm

waving from a gurney on the way out...

He may have died in the hospital,

which would explain the org changes...

Jersey For Kid(s) Stuff

Looped around the event for about

four times, or so, on the way out,

some ladies, with a young person,

a young lady wanted my jersey,

said they were learning sizes,

had won one, and not sure which

size to get, I suggested get

larger, you can take them in,

easier than adding to them,

the Large old design Verge WABA

was too small for me, but all

they had at the WABA office at the time,

and jerseys are generally at minimum $45

(The Bike House group purchase in quantity)

more like $70-90+ are not cheap to buy,

and maybe they wanted to trade,

but it would need to be washed,

I wasn't one to do that any time soon,

and suggested they put it out to a list,

like BikeArlington does a forum,

email list type thing, of someone

who has one laying around,

not used, and would be willing

to help her out, trade for the new

one, etc...

How women deal with clothes,

I've not got a clue, a fashion show

biking may be for some people,

the leather and safety gear on

motorcycles, many wear it, but

don't actually ride... Dress for success,

and looking the part, may be

more important to some people

than actually riding. Having never

been a teenage girl, I'm not sure,

if you look the part, maybe they

treat you better/ different,

I am a fashion nightmare,

and maybe upgrading my image,

I lose my identity, idk...

Some seem to think I'm Crusty,

not the clown, but the great unwashed,

words have different meanings

at different ages, and looking up

in the UrbanDictionary may be

passe if the meaning changed

with the kewl kids in the mean

time, and someone didn't update,

the opposite meaning elsewhere,

read clicks (sp?), etc...

Another common technique

is to ask for the shirt of people's

backs, like the tv commercial

of a kid in a likely private entrance

asking the sports star for

his jersey, I'm thinking he didn't

strip down for the camera(s),

and give the one he was wearing

at the time, but corporate sponsors

give him those and likely PR

expenses, etc... Not being a sports

star, and trying not to crush kids

dreams, IDK...

ABC7 is the local channel with named

trucks in Rosslyn, but likely Iddie media

including Arlington Cable's is nearby,

and it would make sense that people

would crowd around the politicians and

the big pit stop(s)... Ballston, and others

exist, but among 85 or so pit stops, only

some in Arlington, and people trying to

get to work, or working/ volunteering off

hours, say for bike coops, writing up

this crap, etc... Your Mileage May Vary,

(YMMV) and other stuff... Late to work

on BTWD and get fired? Or show up

clad in newer, less smelly gear for the

new riding season, and they are

happy(ier?)...

Political Speeches

Were about to start, one

candidate was there handing

out stuff, I was too busy to get

one, at first, and picked it up on the

way out... Clements, iirc,

for the County Board.

A DJ had music, which I liked,

he/she/it was not present,

and blaring, but noticed it off,

later, maybe people could not talk...

Probably needed later for speeches,

raffling off the big ticket items like

the Bullit tub bike, etc...

The Bike Lawyer

Of the canopies, a biking lawyer

who does personal injury, and

published a book, that I had,

gave a blue water bottle, Purist

brand, after asking me a question

about the cameras I was wearing,

likely the 3D aspect, and he wanted it/

a copy of it, or similar, maybe I try to

find a 3D example, but not having the

disk space, non Linux based OS,

etc to show, I could send the mono

version, likely if I was walking

around to his booth, and had it on,

but likely didn't....

(I later think he may have been

concerned about a record of what

was said probably confidentially

to other people...)

I think I said I had told some people

about his book, but could not say whom,

etc... He had talked to me, "I had answered

his question" or similar so he gave

me a water bottle... A better interaction

than I had when my feet were run over

by a Metro Access sent taxi,

and looking for a lawyer, who turned out

to be more trouble than they were worth,

so finding the book and maybe a PDF

online, which is partially promo

for paid professional services, but some

light reading if you can't get out,

and get a police report, which incorrectly

says you have a Huffy instead of a Gary Fisher,

etc... And that was a t boned at an intersection

near Capital Hill... And then MetroAccess stranded

me within a week or so, claiming I was well

enough to bicycle, and didn't want to bother

doing multimodal, actually show up for trips,

well before the rape and other problems,

hit the papers, they have been known for

like locking a disabled advocate in a warm train,

threatening/almost killing him/ harassing/

intimidation, etc... Standard transit union

stuff, afaict... /Cough

Trek

A Trek booth was there,

bike manufacturing was represented too...

They bought Gary Fisher, the first

mountain bike manufacturer /designer,

or large scale production of his stuff,

etc... Check the history sometime...

Old clunky cruisers going down a mountain,

need heavier frame, mine a hard tail,

etc...

Bullit (Tub) Bike

Prominently displayed was a tub

bike, probably a raffle item,

with stuffed animals all around,

a police man, in full gear,

I suggested they keep an eye

on the stuffed animals,

as I get a lot of attention for the

Robot Dog on the back...

Typical on duty, non response,

maybe a snort, but whatever,

dude/ette...

CounterFlow

Left out and headed counter flow,

using a bike lane, and sidewalk closed

(check if Rosslyn is a Central Business

District for no biking on the sidewalk)

but the other way, past where tacos

and food trucks will eventually block stuff,

maybe later in the day, two police, traffic

cones, rerouting and nearby construction,

another high rise, and more urban type stuff,

I didn't talk to them, they didn't bother me,

but I let others pass, checked back

on some noise, to see if I dropped

anything, trash recycling and moving

type van truck, nearby. I motioned

for them to pass, and went when clear,

up to another intersection and crossed,

where not as bad, imnsho...

Congested and high speed ramp,

not expecting slow moving stuff,

and having to slow down, quickly

not running into mere mortals...

Rental Bikes

A double dock, big station was near the

event space, some were going in and out,

but I thought I needed to use my personal

one, which caused problems elsewhere

earlier in the day, and I don't like going

places where you can't bring them in...

Falls Church

At my first pit stop I mentioned to a WABA

community organizer (a popular title since

Obama...) a few things:

Phoenix Bikes Moving Into A Green Building

and likely toxic stuff, many parts have causes

cancer/birth defects in women in California

and/or similar cautioning labeling so don't see

why it wouldn't here in Virginia, DC, Maryland (DMV)...

Bike Share Crowd Sourced?

Falls Church would have to buy into the system...

Adding Cargo and Kid Trailers Options

For example Bike Share near National Airport

along the National Parks and other trails instead?

Would allow regional funding if The Little City

can't won't afford it, maybe the bridge near Washington

Blvd is more important for now? But what about

construction delays, rerouting, detours, accessibility,

etc?

As a second bike/ accessory, docking separately,

and rent the two parts, each having a docking connection,

as mentioned in a BikeArlington meeting, but not in

the minutes, and not really heard there either...

He mentioned other systems have cargo type stuff,

so maybe a more useful system includes

people carrying stuff, like groceries,

toddlers, pets, etc, but this system

it's a violation of the terms of service,

but marketing "most people use it for errands"

basically regulating use, so that

it's not useful, and would need

the Public Transit system instead

for those, just fooling around on bikes,

for tourists, etc...

Rent a Car Share instead, ZipCar,

Car2Go, etc... Which don't have bike

racks, or need a special one, etc...

Falls Church City Bike Map?

I had hoped to ask about the Falls Church

City bike map, if they got around to creating one

of those... And why/ why not?

Fairfax County Bike Comfort Map

New this month is the county's new comfort

map, which may replace the regular map(s),

idk... He wanted to know what I thought of

it... I told a lady listening in, trying to get one,

that I ride on the black diamond ones in the

Arlington Comfort map, and find errors,

like the missing hills near the Arlington Mill

Community Center, where PheonixBikes

is rumored to be moving to next...

I look later at home, for a few things,

maybe checking the 70 mile ride route,

Reston, Manassas, South Arlington...

it's a much bigger county, and over time some

things change... Arrows for hills which

we did with Alexandria's first map,

King Street from MetroRail,

basically where to snow plow,

is good for off season for bikers, and

planning routes with kids, trailers,

heavy luggage, slow granny gear

old people, in the heat, sun, etc...

Plus finding residential cut thrus (sp?)

like Arlington Drive in Mount Vernon,

but not listed, for that focus group,

public comment time(s), as they didn't

want people going into the rich

neighborhoods, say to Sherwood Hall

area, from Route 1, avoiding the Beacon

Hill Nursery where the Special Forces guy

picked flowers and was killed by police,

or maybe where the police ran thru a light

and killed someone, the officer(s) getting

desk duty until they eventually quit, iirc...

Plus maybe around the INoVA hospital

in Merrifield where the guy was killed by

the system(s), incliuding security, and

eventually the sheriff's office, etc...

Maybe that is more like graffitti and hobos

tagging places to keep people out based

on discrimination, hatred, and police and

other killings, say the R Street garbage

truck killing Alice Swanson, in North Dupont

circle, after we had ridden with her in

Critical Mass, going to her new job

at a Think Tank for middle eastern affairs,

or similar... Secret Service coming out of

Cosi nearby trying to revive her, but

could not... The ghost bike left for a while,

then the city, taking it down, the protesters,

having lost a person permanently, putting

it back up for her birthday, I still remember,

passed by there recently, and nothing

currently marking the spot, no placque (sp?),

spray painted body image, biker lost here

on the crosswalk painting, etc... Gone

but not forgotten, difficult to to, with so

many losses, and so little way(s) of

remembering them, over time,

and cross jurisdictions...

Conclusion

Summary of experience or similar

Beginning to see why some people don't

like bikes and the culture...

Reading about poverty as disease

and worried about the political

and promotional / commerce,

bar nature of the event, especially

in Rosslyn, akaa The Intersection Of Doom,

they call it and wondering if it will still

be a death trap, fumes (calculate out

emissions from traffic volume, speed,

etc as I used to get sick as a kid going

down town in fumes?)

and high speed traffic, near slow speed

trail, pedestrians and bikers,

and marketing movie nights with

Bars, and other touristy trap stuff,

near the Big Hill(s) where getting

up those hills will probably be like

The Reluctant Gourmet recent posting

of his heart problems especially as it

gets warmer, this summer...

What interests do locals have in keeping

it unusable and unsafe? Property values?

Construction noise? Imminent Domain?

or corporate interests in hotels, hiding the truth,

and not changing a federally funded, interstate,

multi jurisdictional problem, for decades, and

are they held personally for the deaths during

the delays, or just bridges collapsing type of

safety issues? Like out west, in more rural

areas, as infrastructure crumbles, and lifetime(s)

of concrete and bad design, over time...

There is the argument for keeping cities

busy at night for safety, becoming a ghost

town after offices close, and safety in

having some nightlife, around, but

good clean and sober fun?

I'd like the no drinking like no smoking

type seating at events, and not to be

basically assaulted for not wanting alcohol,

when bars, maitre d's, hosts, etc

push alcohol on people, for profits,

cab fare, force to rail, police charges,

medical billing, and incapacitating

people with food and wine, mickeys,

etc to get rid of people they don't like,

don't make them enough money,

social stigmas, discrimination, etc...

Discussion

A place for feedback on the page presented

What corporate interests are involved in making

something supposedly Free?

(check the sponsor list on the back of t shirts,

etc and determine what they get out of it,

namely secondary gains...)

How friendly is bike culture?

For those starting out?

I passed one guy, with a blown/ missing

tube, along the ArlBAC "undulations" area,

and didn't stop, recently having my patch kit

found missing it's contents, maybe someone

helped themselves, to my stuff, in my bag,

and I got none to replace it with this year...

Different size tubes, I might have had a

pump, but noticing nobody helping,

skinny tires are a problem, keeping them

high pressure, Presta valves, are different

from Schrader, no adapter with me, etc...

The Standard Excuses (tm), but still

not very nice, running late and not being

that helpful to newbies, as could not deal

with people after some other stuff, earlier,

and going to more crowds, and other issues...

Bike To School Day

If BTWD is the grown up version of Bike To School

Day, what are we teaching kids? Bigger is better,

better SWAG, etc in the professional series?

Dress for success by buying professional

bike attire at great expense?

Personally, I like the back pockets,

someone could hack t shirts to have those,

adding reflective, and a little extra fabric

for the plumbers problem of bending over

so much on a bike, and be a neat contribution

to the sport/ mode of transit, the back flap

being bigger, unlike onesees (sp?) where

you poop out of the back flap, in sleepwear,

this where you keep bananas (gay jokes aside),

frozen fruit drinks, etc. As front pockets get

pinchy (sp?) and some bike intro literature

says you don't need special bike attire,

maybe for shorter rides, but 40-70-100 miles

you may notice the difference,

(and starting out, soreness building up callouses,

and thicker skin on the bum, padded diaper like

bike shorts helps, etc)

plus (open cell) cotton with rain, and it gets

water logged...

Water bottles that are insulated,

freezable, like Polar, keep it cool,

longer, air flow and volume differences

too, plus fitting the water bottle

cages, many wedgie (triangular non recumbent/

aka bent) bikes have two spaces/slots

for them, those little screws / hex bolts

space down on the middle of the frame,

might be for that, other geometries

see where it might fit, P clamps

and bags maybe necessary, like for

PedalCarts2015

and PedalCartAlternatives2016

and other kid bikes, trailers, etc...

Clean filtered water, and frozen

water bottles, what we do at home,

but need along the way, too,

water bottles that don't break,

leak, etc, when frozen and can

clean easily, like dishwasher safe,

non polluting, bPBA? etc toxins,

and would in some cases pay 2-3+x

for a frozen water bottle, than just

refrigerator cold, as to last an hour,

or more and have cold instead of

luke warm, hot water to drink when

cooling off when riding, exercising,

for safety, and comfort...

License

Creative Commons Share and Share Alike,

Non Commercial, Non Derivative,

for the whole site's contents

unless otherwise explicitly stated

Page History

20170523 20070510EthicsDignityRiskJerry

adding more opinions
Fairfax Comfort Maps
might add the Bike Camp
but second week build a bike
sold out, scholarships,
having those in Virginia, as well as DC, etc
much more, but getting over that event,
and processing the social problems involved...
still, harassing calls, 10+ and other problems
after, you didn't give me anything, etc
and financial restrictions on giving things away,
child hood expectations from strangers,
Etc..

20170521 Jerry

Jerry created this page to log an event...

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BTWD2017

Introduction/Definition/etc

Body

Early Start

Weather Dependent

Rosslyn Pit Stop

If Poverty is a disease

Bananas

Hungry Excluded From Food?

Video Cameras in Your Face

DCBikes

Jersey For Kid(s) Stuff

Political Speeches

The Bike Lawyer

Trek

Bullit (Tub) Bike

CounterFlow

Rental Bikes

Falls Church

Phoenix Bikes Moving Into A Green Building

Bike Share Crowd Sourced?

Adding Cargo and Kid Trailers Options

Falls Church City Bike Map?

Fairfax County Bike Comfort Map

Links

Poverty As Disease

Bicycle Mapping

Ghost Bikes

Ride of Silence

BackGround

Conclusion

Discussion

Bike To School Day

License

Page History

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BTWD2017

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