Tag: bike lanes

DC Again and Again

The ride to DC from my home is not hilly and there is very little auto traffic to deal with so I tend to pedal there often. Last Friday I rode to Friday Coffee Club which is held at ME Swings House of Caffeine at 17th and G Streets Northwest, about a half a block from Donny Dementia’s house and construction site. I don’t actually see the White House because Donny has blocked off Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park.

On Sunday I rode to Lincoln Park in Capitol Hill to participate in a rolling protest organized by Hill Family Biking. It seems that without warning Donny’s henchmen had decided to tear out the 15th Street Cycletrack (which I use to ride to Friday Coffee Club) from Constitution Avenue to the 14th Street Bridge. This cycletrack is a two-way bike lane that is protected from auto traffic. It crosses the National Mall at the Washington Monument, continues to the Tidal Basin, and ends on the rear of the Jefferson Memorial. Since the famous cherry trees are at peak bloom today, the destruction of the cycletrack would have been incredibly ill timed. Data shows that the cycletrack has significantly reduced bike crashes as well as vehicle crashes. The administration claims that tearing the cycletrack out would improve transportation in the city..

The protest was led by ride marshals who took us on two laps around the park before heading west past the Capitol to the Mall, where we stopped at the base of the Washington Monument. Speeches were speeked. Conveniently, the president’s motorcade came by while we were there and we treated him to vigorous boos and jeers.

On my way to the ride, I ran into Kevin who is a long-standing member of the 50 States and Cider Ride posses, at the Jefferson Memorial. At Lincoln Park I met up with Robin, a Friday Coffee Club regular. I broke off from Robin during the laps around the park when I thought I saw Beth. Since we were riding in a big crowd it took a half mile before I confirmed that it was her. Beth used to work on my bikes when she was at Bikes at Vienna. She built the wheels that I used on The Mule to ride across the country in 2018. Although she has lived in the DC area for over ten years she is only now becoming familiar with DC itself. (She has an open invitation to join the posse for the 50 States.) One of the ride marshals was Jeanne, who, by day, is a realtor on the Hill. One of her selling points is the fact the Capitol Hill is a walkable, bikeable small city within a city.

After the speeches, Beth took off to explore the entire length of the cycletrack which continues north (except for where Trump’s East Wing construction debacle interrupts it) for a mile or so through the city. Thousands of people use this piece of infrastructure to get around town safely.

Yesterday I rode to DC again to check out the cherry blossoms in East Potomac Park. The trees which line Ohio Drive through the park were in fine form.

Today I rode back to DC to check out the Tidal Basin cherry trees. After I walked around the Basin, I rode to the east side of Capitol Hill to try out what is purported to be the best Italian sub in the area at Mangialardo’s on Pennsylvania Avenue. I rode over to Lincoln Park to dine under the cherry trees there. I am happy to report that Mangialardo’s makes one awesome Italian sub. I have to go back soon. Oink. I rode the cycletrack to get around the Tidal Basin. There were literally thousands of tourists and blossom-distracted drivers to contend with. How did the city ever get by without it?

Back at the ranch my tired body was happy to hang in my recliner and watched the first game of the Washington Nationals season. They beat the Cubs in Chicago 10-4. Alas, this is likely to be the high point for the team as the next 161 games will almost certainly put their many weaknesses on display. I also learned that after firing most of its sports department (and nearly every columnist I read) the Washington Post has hired a beat writer to cover the Nationals. Too little, too late. After over 40 years, on April 1, I will no longer be a subscriber.

Ohio Drive in East Potomac Park
Martin and the cherry trees at the Tidal Basin
Italian sub heaven
Pink trumpet man at the Tidal Basin
Jeanne keeping us safe
Peace Beth
I think this is what’s left of the East Wing of the White House on the golf course in East Potomac Park

A couple of weeks ago I did a meandering ride through the city. Along the way I stopped on Florida Avenue Northeast to check out the ghost bike that commemorates the death of Dave Salovesh on Good Friday 2019. The protected bike lane was not there when he was hit by a driver.

Dave’s ghost bike

The removal of the 15th Street Cycletrack is on hold thanks to a legal challenge from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

Christmas Comes Late

My kids bought me a gift certificate to Performance Bikes. So I took advantage of the good weather to ride to their Springfield Virginia store.

Here’s a tip for bike store companies: try locating your store in a bike friendly place. To get from my house to the store, I rode across US 1, over to South Kings Highway through some neighborhoods. South King’s highway is hilly and has no shoulder (way to go VDOT) even though there is ample room for one. Riding up a hill on Big Nellie, my recumbent, with cars zooming past at 40 miles per hour is not a lot of fun.

Once over the hill I picked up Telegraph Road which has a bike lane for all of 200 yards. In that 200 yards the bike lane gets spliced by a turn lane. Just a totally stupid design.

Next came hilly Kingstowne. Lovely name. Sounds so regal. It has side paths with are asphalt sidewalks so I rode in the shoulderless street. The roads in Kingstowne feed into the Fairfax County Parkway, I-95 and the Springfield Mall area. There is beaucoup traffic. A very unpleasant place to ride a bike. As I crossed Beulah Street I actually picked up a wide paved shoulder (I knew you could do it VDOT). After a turn this took me all the way to the store which is located in a strip mall with very cramped car parking and no bike parking.

In the store I bought some rain pants because my old Marmot Precip rain pants were shredding. The Precip pants are intended for hiking so it’s not surprising that they wear out when confronted with the friction of a saddle (on a regular bike) and a chain (on a recumbent). I also picked up some chain lube and a bell which will probably go on my Cross Check.

For the ride home I made my way back to Beulah Road and took its bike lane south, around most of Kingstowne and the vast Huntley Meadows Park. (Well worth a visit for a leisurely stroll in the woods and out through a marsh on a wooden deck.) When I picked up Telegraph Road I was now two miles or so south of where I rode earlier. Here the road has been redesigned with bike lanes on both sides. After riding up a hill, I let Big Nellie take off on the downhill. About halfway down the hill I took a right on the new Jeff Todd Way. There is a wide side path but at the speed I was going getting on the sidepath would have required a 90 degree right turn through a curb cut. Instead I maintained my speed and stayed in the street.  Jeff Todd goes up and down. On the downs I was going 30 miles per hour, nearly the speed of the cars. On the ups, I was crawling. The right lane seems to be wider than usual and the passing cars gave me plenty of room.

The rest of my ride involved re-crossing US 1, riding to Mount Vernon, and then home via the Mount Vernon Trail.

So my little errand covered 22 1/2 miles. Just the thing for my last day of staycation. Tomorrow it’s bike commute number 1 for 2016.

 

I Bike and I Vote

Today was a pretty nice day to be a bike commuter. On the way to work Little Nellie asked me to take her picture at Dyke Marsh. So I did.

Foggy day on #mvt #dykemarsh

I don’t remember much about getting to work. That’s a good sign though. It means I was in my trance.

My body hasn’t adjusted to standard time yet. I woke up at 5:25 and my body said, “Let’s get going.” This meant that I could leave work a little early. About a mile from the office I spotted the Washington Monument bathed in a faint red glow so I stopped and took another picture.

DC aglow #mvt

I wasn’t planning on voting today. I am really, really sick of politics. And my area of Fairfax County is so Democratic that most of the local election results are a fait accompli. During the day, however, I read Bree’s blog post about biking to the polls. It’s important for everyday cyclists like me to show up at the polls, not so much for our vote, but simply to wave our political flag. This year it was a way to demonstrate my support for the brand new bicycle lanes on Parkers Lane which happens to be where the school that houses my polling place is.

One nice residual effect of the bicycle lanes is that drivers are going a lot slower. Unfortunately, one driver, apparently afraid he wouldn’t get to vote, came flying into the school parking lot as I was leaving. My vote won’t matter a whole lot to me if I am dead. It’s going to take more than bike lanes to change the culture in Fairfax County.