During last week’s DownEast Cyclist Club meeting, I heard that one of the bicyclists that routinely ride the Jacksonville Rails-to-Trails multi-use path had been involved in a nasty crash along the fenced area of Highway 24/Lejeune Blvd near the Camp Lejeune Main Gate. The culprit in the bicyclist’s fall? A tattered “welcome” sign fashioned from a bed-sheet. The sheet had been ripped free of three corners and was flapping into the path. It snagged the cyclist’s bicycle and pulled her to the ground. The group was nearly certain she’d broken a collar bone, but apparently it was just a bad bruise. If only Camp Lejeune had been warned about the dangers of these sheets and signs to bicyclists and pedestrians. Oh, that’s RIGHT! They were. And Camp Lejeune’s Deputy Safety Manager for Marine Corps Base dismissed the concern as “not their responsibility.”

Late last week, Mr. Richard Sparks was killed when he was hit by a car while attempting to cross Highway 17/Marine Blvd near the intersection with Western Blvd. Mr. Sparks was visiting Jacksonville to watch his son graduate from a Marine Corps training. It was late (about 10 o’clock P.M.) and there is no marked crosswalk at the intersection. The Jacksonville Police Department and Onslow County’s District Attorney Dewey Hudson will not press charges against the driver, Mr. Charles Adams. This is the second pedestrian death in 2009 in Jacksonville (Ms. Talissa Hatchell was killed in February) and Mr. Hudson had some pretty tough words for the City of Jacksonville.

How many people have to die before the city protects pedestrians?

Jacksonville Daily News writer Lindell Kay blogged about the accident. He noted that Mr. Sparks had previously spoke to family about being concerned about the safety of crossing Highway 17/Marine Blvd, but attempted to do so, anyway. Mr. Mike McHugh, an employee of the Jacksonville Daily News, made an interesting recommendation to the City in a comment:

The city should consider constructing pedestrian “bridges” enclosed with chain linked fencing above the roadway, high enough to allow trucks and other tall vehicles to pass below.

These walk ways are common in larger cities such as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.

The reason this recommendation is interesting is that a project of such magnitude would be pretty darned expensive, especially considering that sidewalks would have to be constructed leading to these pedestrian overpasses. Mr. McHugh is known for his “fiscal conservatism”, is even a member of the Daily News’ editorial staff and has spoken out against the Rails-to-Trails and the pedestrian bridge which crosses Highway 24/Lejeune Blvd.

The City of Jacksonville and the State of North Carolina are stuck in a fight over who has jurisdiction over the streets in this City. Unfortunately for pedestrians, this fight is prohibiting anyone from doing anything. So, like Mr. Hudson, I have to ask, how many people have to die before someone (anyone!) does something? 

It was 2,100 miles and 8 months in the making, but I had my first bicycle crash this week.

It was raining pretty hard and had been for a while. The roads were wet and puddles lined the edges of Stone Street aboard Camp Lejeune. Camp Lejeune isn’t known for its road maintenance (Really, where in NC is?) and the edges of most roads are crumbling and have large cracks. I must have been paying too much attention to traffic and not enough to the road’s edge and caught a crack in the pavement. I was brought down, pretty hard, but didn’t have any real damage. A scraped up left knee and some bruises.  Fortunately, I was on my way home and didn’t have to work a whole day feeling beaten up. The bicycle is fine, too, just some scratched paint and I had to realign the chain.

I guess the point to all this is: I’m glad the week is over.

I’ve been reassigned from II MEF Family Readiness to Camp Lejeune’s Installation Personnel Administration Center (IPAC) located further into the base. The daily ride is 22 miles (11 miles each way), which is just about twice the previous distance.

I was worried about my body adjusting to the distance and longer ride-time (just short of an hour), but all is well. My legs were tired at the end of the days during the first week, but last week, I felt pretty good after the ride home.

Thanks to the longer ride, I’ve ridden over 700 miles this year and over 2000 miles total (2005.02 to be precise). The good news is that I should be able to easily beat my goal for the year. The bad news is that my chain is stretched and has damaged the rear cassette (thingy with all the little gear-sprocket-things). I saw Jack at The Bicycle Shop this morning and he recommended that I get a replacement within 500 miles (about 4 weeks…). It’ll cost about $80, but with proper care, a new chain should last 2000 or more miles and the cassette could last pretty much forever.

So, that’s that. Now you’re up to speed.

I’m going to stop publishing the weekly riding reports. They’ve gotten boring and, hopefully, they’ll stay that way.

This isn’t the end of Bloviations, just the end of the commute reports. I’ll have some stories to tell, but they’ll come in time.

I was hit with a migraine at work on Tuesday and wasn’t able to ride home. AM  came to the rescue with a pick up, which meant leaving the Day-Tripper at work. Wednesday, I stayed home with left-over migraine funk and she was ill, too. Thursday, I bussed to the Tarawa Terrace gate at Western Blvd and walked the rest of the way in. I biked home after work.

The mileage ended up being less than 40 miles. The daily break down is after the jump.

26-Jan-09	Home to Bldg 40	Commute	6.2
26-Jan-09	Bldg 40 to Home	Commute	6.7
27-Jan-09	Home to Bldg 40	Commute	6.52
29-Jan-09	Bldg 40 to Home	Commute	6.7
30-Jan-09	Home to Bldg 40	Commute	6.5
30-Jan-09	Bldg 40 to Home	Commute	6.7

I didn’t take ride notes this week…Out of nothing but pure laziness. They’d be boring anyway, since the only thing of note was watching a Jacksonville Police Officer driving his patrol car around at just after 6:30am with no lights on.

I will say that the fenders are great. My water bottle stays clean and my feet stay dry.

Follow the jump for the mileage summary and the ride notes.

The week’s mileage was just over 41 miles and the longest ride just more than 9.

It was a boring week of riding (which is not necessarily a bad thing…).

13 Jan – AM:

- COLD and WET – 38° (F) and rain

- Fenders –

- Underdressed – Fingers and knees numb

13 Jan PM:

- Cold – 39°-40° (F) and rainy

- Knees and hands numb

14 Jan AM:

- Much colder than yesterday – 30°(F)

- Heavy frost thanks to rain

- Dressed warmly – long pants, wool socks, 2 long-sleeved shirts, fleece, jacket, fleece beanie and gloves

- Nice ride with heavy traffic

14 Jan PM:

- From Russell Marine and Family Services Center to AM’s office

- Traffic on Onslow very inconsiderate – Several cars passed too close or veered into other lanes of traffic

15 Jan AM:

- Cold – Frosted leaves in gutters, frozen puddles

- Slow ride, uneventful

I’m near a pretty important (to me) milestone. I crossed over 1400 total miles on Thursday’s ride home. 1400 miles isn’t too shabby but, more importantly, it means I’ll be hitting 1,500 miles by bicycle soon. And that means I’m getting myself something shiny (and by shiny, I mean black plastic, of course). I’m hoping to hit 1,500 before the spring rains start to get too heavy (mid-March to May for NC, normally). Of course, I could just get them this weekend and say it’s an early reward…I wonder if The Bicycle Shop is having a hard-ware sale?

Mechanically, things are going smoothly. I should probably start thinking about replacing the chain around 1,500 miles. I know it’s a little stretched and there are some marks on the rear cogs. I can’t tell if they’re designed that way or if the chain is wearing on the cogs too much. If we have much more wet weather, I’ll be replacing the resin brake pads with some heavier duty ones.

Speaking of wet weather…The next two days, which I have coincidentally taken off, are supposed to be cold and wet.

I was hoping to get in a nice long ride and test out my new ATC2K helmet camera. But, hey, I’m a wuss and if it’s going to be chilly and wet or cold and wet, I’ll pass on the ride.

I found out on Monday that the new office I’m moving to isn’t quite ready (there is apparently still an occupant…) so my daily rides haven’t yet extended to 11 1/4 miles. Even so, my mileage wasn’t too short this week: There were a couple of unusually long rides scheduled.

The week’s total was nearly 70 miles.

The Monday ride home through Camp Johnson was after meeting AM at the Highway 24/Lejeune Blvd Pedestrian Bridge and planning to spend some time at the Camp Johnson Fitness Center. This required some back-tracking (from the bridge back to the Tarawa Terrace entrance at Western Blvd) and a ride though military housing and Camp Johnson. By the time we got to the Fitness Center, it was dark and cold and we decided to call off the visit and instead went home.

Tuesday morning’s long ride was due to having to visit MCAS New River’s Marine Corps Family Team Building to solve some technical issues with their VTC (video teleconferencing) system. It was an additional 5-mile ride (from my apartment there) for exactly 10 minutes of changing settings and 15 minutes of gossip (Oh, the stories I could tell about a certain military service’s Family Readiness efforts and the personnel involved…). But I enjoyed the ride and the time spent out of my office.

Here are the notes from the week:

5 Jan – AM:

– Left early – On road at 6am

– Still dark

– Cloudy and warm – 59°ish

– Quite, quiet ride

5 Jan – PM:

– Planned to meet AM at pedestrian bridge at 5:15 and ride to Camp Johnson’s Fitness Center

– No joy on Fitness Center, rode home through TT and Camp Johnson

6 Jan – AM:

– Rode to MCAS NR MCFTB to assist w/ VTC issues

– Nice ride

– Heavy traffic near NR’s main gate

– Rode from NR to office

– Damp, light drizzle

– Bike is way sandy – I need fenders

6 Jan – PM:

– Straight home, quick

– Comfortable weather – 60°ish

7 Jan – AM:

– wet roads from over-night rains

– Comfortable weather – 60°ish but windy

7 Jan – PM:

– Windy

– Beautiful sunset

8 Jan – AM:

– Cold – 39°-40°

– Accident on West-bound Hwy 24/Lejeune Blvd near Bell Fork

8 Jan – PM:

– Cool ride

– Accident on Hwy 24/Lejeune Blvd just east of Hargett intersection

I was hoping to clean Day-Tripper this weekend, but what-with being lazy yesterday and today’s rains, it doesn’t look likely. A weekend ride doesn’t look likely, either.

And that was the week that was.

Dear Editor,

The January 6th, 2009 edition of the Jacksonville Daily News featured an article titled “Rails-to-Trails bridge earns state engineering award”. This article unfairly portrays the Rails-to-Trails project, and the associated pedestrian bridge, as unused and unpopular by using quotations from two outspoken citizens, Messrs. Robert Hitch and Eddie Quinn.

The article quoted Messrs. Hitch and Quinn as saying neither has seen pedestrians or cyclists use Rails-to-Trails path or the pedestrian bridge over Highway 24/Lejeune Blvd. They may not have seen anyone using the bridge, but they are wrong when they claim it isn’t used. I, personally, use the path and bridge twice a day, every day Monday through Friday. There is a group of recreational cyclists that use the path and bridge nearly every day. I have passed, been passed by and met dozens of walkers, runners, cyclists and families on the path and
bridge. The Rails-to-Trails path and bridge is well-used. To believe anything else is to refuse to accept reality.

Messrs. Hitch and Quinn were quoted about their disapproval of the appearance of the bridge. I am not a structural engineer. I don’t believe Mr. Hitch or Mr. Quinn is, either. I, like City staff, can only go by the advice and recommendation of the engineering firm used to design and build the bridge. Their advice was to use a method called “weathered steel finish” to reduce long-term maintenance costs. Essentially, a layer of rust protects the interior steel from corrosion. This finish does not require stripping and repainting as galvanized steel would. Additionally, the dark, non-reflective coating reduces glare from a rising or setting sun which could cause the already-dangerous Highway 24/Lejeune Boulevard to be even more so.

Messrs. Hitch and Quinn said that they did not appreciate the use of tax-payer monies to fund the Rails-to-Trails project. They feel the monies used could be better spent in other areas. This is clearly a misunderstanding of several government budgeting and funding processes on their part. More than $1 million used to fund the Rails-to-Trails project came in the form of NC Department of Transportation grants. Had the money not been used in Jacksonville, it surely would have been used elsewhere. Other funds used were already budgeted to the
Recreation and Parks division. No existing City need was ignored in order to fund the Rails-to-Trails project.

Messrs. Hitch and Quinn are certainly entitled to their opinions. They are not, however, entitled to their own facts and, in this case, their facts are lacking. The Rails-to-Trails path is  often-used and well worth the money spent.

Thomas Brock

Mileage was low, what with only two days of riding each week, but I was able to get a couple really nice recreation rides in during the off days. The 4 commute-days equaled just less than 55 miles.

Notes from the commute:

22 Dec 08 – AM:

- Cold – 29°(F)ish

- Saw several frozen puddles

- Light traffic

22 Dec 08 – PM:

- Cold – Mid 30°s

- Windy – Bike felt slow/sluggish

23 Dec 08 – AM:

- Cold – 24° at start

- Many frozen puddles

29 Dec 08 – AM:

- Chilly, cloudy, mist on Northeast Creek

- Wet roads

29 Dec 08 PM:

- Windy and cool

- Cars blocking crosswalk at Main Gate

30 Dec 08 – AM:

- Cold

- Dressed poorly – 2 shirts, shorts and windpants – Fingers cold

30 Dec 08 – PM:

- Comfortable weather

- Took long way home through TT and Camp Johnson

The recreation rides totaled just more than 25 miles.

The first ride was to test out AM’s new tires and bike computer and my new handlebar bag (which is teh awesome). It seems that AM prefers thin slicks to the knobby mountain bike tires that were on her ride…Something about making the ride smoother and faster, I think.

The second ride was a bit too ambitious and we were both a little more fatigued than we would’ve preferred at the end. Also, my fingers were cold.

I’ll link the maps for the rides once I get them drawn out at MapMyFitness/Ride/Run (whichever you prefer).

My xmas haul was bikely awesome (and otherwise, too!). I got an ATC 2k helmet camera, the previously-mentioned handlebar bag and (and this one is my personal favorite because it will help with some of my 2009 goals) Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance (also, it’s already helped with changing out AM’s tires and adjusting her brakes). I also got a couple of Jimmy Buffett novels.

AM talked about her xmas haul over at her place. She appears quite content, I think.

And that’s the weeks that were.

There’s only two notable things to mention: I installed new grips and a new cyclometer on Day-Tripper.

The grips are Bontrager grips with more cushion and a slightly extended palm-rest. So far, they’re much more comfortable than the set originally on the bike.

I got a Planet Bike Protege’ 9.0 wireless cyclometer. It’s friggin’ awesome. One screen displays all the data needed during a ride: Speed, speed comparator (is current speed faster or slower than average), distance, ride time (which stops when the wheel stops), temperature and clock. The thermometer is pretty darned accurate and fast, too.

In the hopes that you guys enjoyed reading the ride notes last week, here are this week’s:

15 Dec 08 – AM:

- Chilly – 60° (Fahrenheit) – Wore shorts and short sleeved athletic shirt

18 Dec 08 – AM:

- Warm and foggy

- Saw 2 folks on bikes

18 Dec 08 – PM:

- Chilly and damp – 55°ish

- Saw deer on path between TT2 gate and Camp Knox Rd

19 Dec 08 – AM:

- Chilly and damp – Foggy

- Left late

- Channel 14 News car at Main Gate

I had nearly 40 miles for the week. Full stats are below:

It was warm this week…So warm that I only needed to wear shorts and a long-sleeved shirt Monday and riding shorts and wind-pants with long-sleeved shirts Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Warmth doesn’t mean the week was perfect, though, as it rained pretty hard on Wednesday and Thursday. So hard, in fact, my brake issues got dramatically, and suddenly, worse. On Thursday, as I was riding to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for a new-to-us couch, I couldn’t come to a non-foot-on-the-pavement stop. That bothered me so badly that AM delivered me to work and picked me up after. I abstained from work on Friday, partly to get the brakes fixed (which I did). The issue is apparently in the brake pads…While not worn out (I would’ve been bothered by pads that wore out at 1,000 miles), the pads weren’t in good shape because of the wet-weather. The rain, combined with road-grit, made the pad surfaces too slick to grip the rotors. A mechanic at The Bicycle Shop got me fixed up in short order, though. I’ll have to keep an eyeball on riding in the wet weather and may need to replace the pads sooner, rather than later, if it’s a wet Winter.

I tried zip-tying a small (and cheap) tripod to the stem for mounting my video camera. The idea is to record the commute and other riding around Jacksonville. All appeared fine when I departed, the camera was secured to the tripod which was secured to the bicycle. Unfortunately, the ride appeared to have shaken the camera too much and wouldn’t allow it to successfully write the video information to the hard-drive. I haven’t figured out a way to provide shock absorption, so if you’ve got an idea, share it.

I’ve taken to writing short notes after rides. Following are the notes made after a few rides this week:

9 Dec 08 – AM:

- Saw several deer next to fenced area on Camp Lejeune’s side of Rails-to-Trails path

- No vehicles blocking cross-walk at Camp Lejeune’s visitor center

10 Dec 08 – AM:

- Rainy but war – 63° (F) at 6:50am-ish

- Mt bike shorts and 2 long-sleeved shirts

11 Dec 08 – AM:

- Flock of pelicans at NEC (Northeast Creek)

- Dead deer on path near CLNC (Camp Lejeune) main gate

- Warm and wet weather

I rode just less than 50 miles this week. The day-by-day stats are below: