DDOT's Twitter person just told me they weren't aware of the closure. Oi.

I had a great time this year. If you were to do another, or if I were to round up my friends and drag them along on the same route, I'd do it backwards. Seems like a nice slow roll down the MVT would be a great way to end that ride. Although bombing down into National Harbor was pretty sweet.

Agreed. It's not so much passing the Segways going the same direction I'm worried about. I'm willing to be patient in that situation. It's when they're going the opposite direction and drifting into the oncoming lane that's a problem. The same thing happens down by the Jefferson Memorial on that stretch of sidewalk you have to ride on you're coming east after crossing the 395 bridge (where Ohio Drive is one way). The westbound tours will take up the whole sidewalk and force you to either hop the curb into oncoming traffic or pull off into the grass. It's not intentional rudeness, I'm sure, rather just a combination of distraction (sightseeing) and piloting an unfamiliar vehicle. And to their credit, some of the tour guides are good about keeping their groups in single file, but some aren't, and it's kind of dangerous.

I'd actually say that without that central buffer, the Segway tours will become a real safety issue, especially with the 4' lanes. I passed a group of them out there last night and they were sort of drifting all over the place. The buffer meant I could go by without incident, but if it hadn't been there, I'd have been forced to dodge into traffic to avoid them. Also, as DDOT produced any evidence that the extra lanes have exacerbated congestion along that route? I mean, their caginess about the reasoning makes it seem like there doing this because AAA complained, which is obviously a stupid reason to do anything.