NPS cracking down on cyclists?
 

http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-on-foot...ly--12585.html

Seems that the National Park Service may be enforcing their rule banning bikes from the Clara Barton and GW Parkways. I generally don't ride the CB (although there is no good alternate route to get from Arizona Ave to the Chain Bridge) but I sometimes ride the south end of the GW near Mount Vernon. Inconvenient, but I can stick to the MVT or the residential streets west of the parkway.

What bothers me is the NPS attitude to the trail crossings near the Memorial Bridge. Isn't the GW parkway in Virgina, and doesn't Virginia require cars to stop for pedestrians at marked (or unmarked) crosswalks. Is the NPS exempt form the laws of Virginia? I use those crossings often and it can take several minutes before there is a gap in traffic or a cars stop to let pedestrians and bikes across. Punishing a driver for following Virgina law and being a good road user seems absurd.
Perhaps demand signal crossing lights are the answer, although the speeding drivers on the parkway would through a fit.

cross-posted to the other Mid-Atlantic forum

My understanding, and I'm not a lawyer or anyway involved with law, is that the NPS operates under federal law and it supercedes state law on federal land. An example is (I'm not making this up) the nude beaches on Fire Island. As long as you are on the National Seashore there is no federal law banning nudity, and NY state law isn't applicable.

The NPS ruling (http://www.nps.gov/gwmp/parkmgmt/upload/Scan001.pdf) says no bikes on the CB from Chain Bridge to MacArthur. From Chain Bridge to Arizona, it is Canal Road and bicycles are allowed.

The part I call BS on the part of the NPS for the CB is saying that the C&O Towpath is a safe alternative route. I'd just love to see all the road bikes with 700X23 tires tying to ride that dirt/gravel path. I'm surprised that they didn't throw in MacArthur Blvd where there is another fight going on between cyclists and drivers.