Gift from Thailand! Liz’s awesome package came through today and I can’t even describe the amazing Engrish-amazingness and creatureness of the collection. I can start with this plastic makeup/pencil case entitled “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf”. Siggggh.

“Amazing ‘oily’ feel and look?” What the heck is the target market for these?

This is the new 16th Street NW contraflow bike lane at Q street, heading south on Martin Luther King Day. See how great it works? Not only do you have to come to halting skid at every cross (ie: every block) because traffic and pedestrians are NOT expecting 20 MPH traffic coming in the wrong direction, but the lane is not cleaned because now it’s apparently not “road”. This section was a giant pile of refuse, leaves, bottles, trash, McDonald’s bags and other junk. Additionally, for the final 4 blocks of the route, the “bike lane” was little more than a poor excuse for a pothole storage unit, complete with mountains of gravel and giant holes that are more than a match for the average slick-tired city road bike. Another though – how the hell are you supposed to make a left turn if you’re 3 lanes to the right on a one way road, going the WRONG way? Giant bike lane fail. How about just painting them on the way the other ones are – with the flow of traffic, so everyone can just follow the regular road rules and the junk and potholes get fixed along with everything else?

I wish I had all next summer to try this – so cute! It would be fun to try knotting squashes too!

New Bike Lanes on 15th Street heading south, Crossing RI Avenue. Not only are they going the wrong way down a one way street, they are one way lanes, and have an entirely excessive number of yellow reflector cones outlining the entire lane at least for 5 blocks. Why on earth would DC make lanes in this manner? I ride to and from work (and everywhere else) every single day and the only way to ever sensibly share the road is to make bike lanes that go with traffic, since cyclists are supposed to behave like traffic. If I’m hurtling downhill on 15th street and cars/pedestrians/etc. are going north and turning left, whatever, there’s no reason they would expect to see traffic suddenly coming in the opposite direction. Literally – makes no sense. Why would I go down a one way street when I could simply go over one street to 14th or 16th like all other traffic on a two-way street? This only encourages bad bike commuters who think they can go the wrong way down one way streets and creates anxiety for nervous drivers. Bad call.