advice needed re a bike route to new job

[jrenaut]

I hope you like hills.

I would probably take Connecticut to Porter, possibly on the sidewalk. Porter becomes Klingle then right on Adams Mill, left on Irving (and this part sucks, but it might be your best option). Right on 11th (bike lane) or Sherman (sharrows and more direct). If you take 11th, left on Florida. If you take Sherman, it becomes Florida. Straight at U and it becomes 9th. Left wherever it’s convenient to 7th (I do a hook left at Q when biking the kids to school) then right on 7th. Left on PA Ave, past the Capitol, right on 1st, left on East Capitol.

Home I would go back to PA Ave, right at the White House and follow the 15th St cycletrack up to Columbia. Left on Columbia, right on Mt Pleasant (you have to go around the park at 16th and Columbia), left on Park, and back to Klingle.

Again, hills.

You could also take the scenic route down the Rock Creek Park trail, which is lovely in the winter when the cold scares the joggers and walkers away.

[Greenbelt]

I’ll also throw in the great northeast bypass as a suggestion if you want to avoid the downtown area for the most part.

Q street has a pretty good bike lane eastbound (toward work). You have to jog a bit at Rhode Island, but you get back on Q pretty easily. Take a left (!) northbound for a block at 1st Street and cross Florida northbound. Then take a right on R street to the Met Branch trail south. Turn right at the bottom of the Met Branch trail u-turn at M street and then take 4th street bike lane southbound to east Capitol.

For the return, 6th street NE has a bike lane northbound. Again, left at M, take the Met branch to R street, which has a good bike lane all the way west to Rock creek.

[cyclingfool]

Here are a couple ideas of other routes that take advantage of a lot of official DC on-street bike routes AND the Calvert St Bridge to avoid the the really steep climbs through the Rock Creek Park valley. I’m familiar with most of these streets on a bike, though not necessarily at rush hour, so others may very fairly critique these, though they will hopefully be helpful as you think about possible routes.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6274669
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6274676

Oh, and welcome!

[dkel]

@Greenbelt 97006 wrote:

You have to jog a bit at Rhode Island, but you get back on Q pretty easily.

You mean get off the bike and run?!

[Greenbelt]

Here’s a map of what I had in mind for bypass/hill avoidance, but I’m not too familiar with NW DC, so take with a grain of salt:

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6274707

All the circling around turns it into a 10 mile commute (which is perfect in my opinion, but may not be very fast).

[Terpfan]

If you want the hilly long route, but with very mild traffic then you can cut up Yuma to 37th and take that clear to Porter. Then left at the weird stop sign and go like one block and right on 36th (well here you can cut over this one or others) down til it dead ends into the Cathedral then left on Woodley.

Now is sort of a decision-time. If you continue down Woodley until it dead-ends go left on Cathederal, right on 29th, left on Calvert and then that will drop you at Rock Creek Park Trail entrance right before Connecticut.

OR you can go from Woodley right at the traffic light on 34th, first left onto Cleveland (it’s got annoying concrete type bumps, but easy to be in dooring zone without worrying much), and then straight downhill until you hit Calvert at the bottom where you go left. I tend to prefer this route because if you hit the red light at at Garfield, then when you get to the bottom of the hill the light to turn onto Calvert is green. I should note Calvert has a bike lane on it.

Then I would take Rock Creek Park clear down to Ohio Drive. And then it’s a matter of your comfort level either taking Independence or giant sidewalk all the way up until top of Capitol Hill and then just Penn via road or I suppose you could do back roads there if it added some comfort. The other way instead of getting off Ohio Drive, you could just take it all the way down under 395 then left at the stop sign (Buckeye Drive I think is name), left at the first road, and you’ll see the path. The Case Bridge path or Long Bridge, whichever it’s called, drops you off at a circle by L’Enfant that will allow you to either go down to M/I etc streets and cut over in SW then up 7th or go over to Independence.

My wife works over that way so I’ve never done your drive with rush hour, but have done it a handful of times without (I work not far from your house, minus the hill from Connecticut up to near Reno Ave). The Woodley way is pretty quiet and you will only encounter a few cars. BUT there are schools that way that are somewhat annoying although I think you early departure would mitigate most of that. Of note, at the bottom of the Rock Creek Park Trail hill coming down from Calvert right before the bridge there is often a lot of sand. It’s mentally tough to slow down given how much speed the Calvert descent on the trail gives you, but it’s a wise decision to slow considerably right before the bridge lest you wish to test cyclecross skills at 30+mph.

The other above ways work well too.

[Crickey7]

I would hop off the RCP trail at the Zoo entrance, take a right and go over the bridge to Adams Mill Road and then 18th to P Street. I find the lower parts of the RCP trail downright treacherous.

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