To Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse from Gallery Place?

No fan of contemplating riding ON the Pike, in traffic, especially rush hour and dark… of those three routes, I’d pick the one that skirts along RT 50, for myself.

I ride the Pike from the Pentagon to the Drafthouse on a somewhat regular basis & don’t find it too bad. I have found that as long as I take the lane, cars are pretty good through there. Also, consider taking Southgate Rd to cut out the hill near the Air Force Memorial.

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@scoot 186374 wrote:

The southside Route 50 trail is nice from Iwo Jima up to Pershing Street, but I avoid the northside trail west of there, which has multiple dicey crossings/intersections. Whenever I use that trail, I instead take Pershing west across Washington Blvd directly to Fillmore southbound.

This. Route 50 trail to Pershing. Pershing to Fillmore. Fillmore becomes Walter Reed and takes you right there. This is my route to Cinema & Drafthouse, too.

@Steve O 186382 wrote:

This. Route 50 trail to Pershing. Pershing to Fillmore. Fillmore becomes Walter Reed and–voila!–you’re there. This is my route when I go to the Drafthouse after work.

I’ve used this route plenty of times too, and it’s my preference. I find it to be safe, not too hilly (although definitely a hill), and overall a pleasant ride.

Google has some bad information, so isn’t giving you some of the better options.

If you don’t mind a little bit of riding on the Pike, I’d take this route (Memorial Bridge -> 27 Trail -> Pike (stay on the trail there) -> Southgate Road -> Orme -> Pike (sidewalk) -> NEW TRAIL STARTING AT TOWERS PARK -> 6th -> Walter Reed (If you’re feeling confident, you can save the detour via the new trail, but the sidewalk along the Pike gets very, very bad, so you’ll have to take the lane — the trail route adds 1/2 mile).

If you want to avoid the Pike entirely, I’d take this route: the south side 50 trail to Pershing, as recommended, but I’d then take Edgewood to the “Secret Trail” (I don’t know what the official name is, but it runs behind Long Branch ES), and then the trail along 27 to Syphax.

The Rte 50 route adds 1 mile over the Pike + trail route. Personally, I’d take the Pike + trail route.

I’ll muddy the waters even more.

I’d take 50 to Pershing to Edgewood, then get on dasgeh’s secret trail (it’s a wide, paved neighborhood path with some lovely houses — she pointed it out to me a few months ago) and stay on that back down to 50. Then go right on 50 (west bound) on the service road past Fillmore – the service road ends there but then a neighborhood path/trail starts there. Just be careful crossing Fillmore from service road to the path. Stay on that path/trail to Irving and cross 50 at Irving (for a little extra adventure, take the raised bridge!). Then stay on Irving down to 9th, make a left to come back over to Fillmore/Walter Reed.

I’m not a fan of Fillmore around 50. It’s narrow and there’s no bike path. Doable? Sure. Awful? Not really. But I’d rather do the slightly longer, much more pleasant route.

@Tania 186415 wrote:

I’m not a fan of Fillmore around 50. It’s narrow and there’s no bike path.

True. But in my experience it makes a huge difference which direction you are going. Northbound it is unpleasant, because some drivers become very impatient following a bike when they can see a green light ahead at 50. Or if traffic is heavy, one could encounter a long line of cars waiting for the light. Southbound neither of these situations is an issue at all, plus the slight downhill puts you closer to vehicle speeds. I usually divert over to Irving when heading north toward Clarendon but stick with Fillmore when heading south.

The underpass along Washington Blvd has high-speed highway ramp crossings. Drivers going from 50EB to 27EB are especially reluctant to stop or yield. I prefer to avoid this interchange entirely.

@scoot 186428 wrote:

Basically, if you ask ten cyclists, you’ll get twenty different route suggestions. There’s no one great option that stands out above the rest; each route has its positive and negative aspects. So it all depends on how you ascribe relative costs between the various criteria (hills, distance, difficult road crossings, riding in shared traffic, etc.)

My personal choices for routes vary a lot depending on time of day, weather, etc. I enjoy having lots of options for how to get places, and I appreciate that Arlington’s general bike-friendliness is why so many options exist.

Ha, true. I’ll almost always take the least stressful way. When driving I’ll also avoid left turns (without left-turn lights) and major roads.

The SO: “wait, why are you going this way?”
ME: “I’M NOT GETTING ON 495 NO WAY AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!”