At 10:30pm tonight I encountered road work on Key Bridge: rightmost southbound lane and upstream sidewalk blocked. I didn’t look over to see what the crews were doing. Perhaps they’ll be gone before rush hour?
After approaching my usual way whenever coming from anywhere uptown in the late evening (vehicular left off M Street onto the upstream sidewalk), the only choice was to take a full lane in the car traffic. So I treated myself to my first-ever experience taking a lane in traffic while riding solo across a Potomac River Bridge. (On a CaBi no less!) I did see peds and bikes using the downstream sidewalk, but it would have been difficult for me to get to that side given my approach.
It didn’t feel scary at all actually. Drivers were slower than usual due to the road work on the north half of the bridge. I was able to keep up with the cars ahead of me until over halfway across. By that point another southbound lane opens up and drivers could pass easily in the left lane. And the traffic signals at the next few intersections on Fort Myer Drive in Arlington prevented anyone from speeding excessively thereafter anyway.
