Cyclists on I-66 – Tuesday, August 19

[Emm]

I think this happens more often that we’d expect. I’ve seen ALOT of cyclists trying to bike on GW Parkway during rush hour.

One of my very experienced cyclist friends was recently telling me about how he “almost got killed” on 395 by Shirlington when he offered to take a less experienced friend out for a ride in the neighborhood. Experienced friend was riding a road bike, with a helmet. The idiot-friend was riding a single speed, without a helmet. I guess the less experienced guy biked onto the highway for a few hundred yards because it was the quickest way to get to where he wanted to go. The experienced one followed, but only to make sure the idiot-friend didn’t actually die (something about not wanting to feel responsible for the death of a guy with 3 young kids).

They are no longer on speaking terms.

[thucydides]

I suspect drivers drive onto trails for more often than cyclists get on highways like 66 and 395.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@consularrider 92809 wrote:

In their Morning Notes, Arlnow.com is reporting “Cyclists Stopped on I-66 — A pair of bicyclists “dressed like Lance Armstrong” were stopped by Arlington County police on I-66 this morning, according to scanner traffic. It’s unclear why the cyclists were on the interstate. Police directed them to nearby Glebe Road.” Anybody know them? I wonder which kit of Lance’s they were wearing, USPS, Astana, or Radio Shack?

I have seen a cyclist stopped by police in the southbound lanes of I-395 at Shirlington. I wonder if the ones this morning went straight at the EFC Metro intersection of 19th St N and N Sycamore St and ended up on the entry ramp to I-66? :confused:

I’ve also seen a cyclist on WB 66, near Spout Run IIRC. I figured he must’ve gotten on where Lee Hwy splits off in Rosslyn. It is legal in many parts of the country to ride on the interstate though, and the freeways around here don’t have signage explicitly prohibiting cyclists, so I can understand how some people might think it’s okay.

[mstone]

It’s probably not even all that dangerous on 66 at rush hour, as you’ll be moving faster than the cars.

[KLizotte]

Yeah, if you go to the Tucson, AZ area (and presumably the rest of AZ) you will see signs indicating that bikes are allowed on highways even though the posted speeds are 85 mph in many areas. Yes, 85.

[dasgeh]

@thucydides 92815 wrote:

I suspect drivers drive onto trails for more often than cyclists get on highways like 66 and 395.

Interesting question. Completely unscientific, but I see more bikes on highways (specifically 395 in the District) than cars on trails, if we exclude maintenance vehicles that seem to have a valid reason for being on the trail – and maybe if we don’t exclude them.)

[dasgeh]

@TwoWheelsDC 92819 wrote:

I’ve also seen a cyclist on WB 66, near Spout Run IIRC. I figured he must’ve gotten on where Lee Hwy splits off in Rosslyn. It is legal in many parts of the country to ride on the interstate though, and the freeways around here don’t have signage explicitly prohibiting cyclists, so I can understand how some people might think it’s okay.

If they’re getting off at Glebe, they’re probably headed WB, and probably got on at Spout Run. Here’s the street view — there’s an entrance to the Custis right before the entrance to 66WB. At one point, there were detour signs that made it look like cyclists should take the ramp onto the highway instead of the path up to the trail, but that’s was two years ago, I think.

[cyclingfool]

Yeah, the interstate highway bike riding out west seems alien to me as a native east coaster. I listen to a couple Portland-based biking podcasts, and on one they recently talked about this issue in passing. Even the podcast hosts (PDXers themselves) were surprised at how close to Portland one could ride on the interstate. A little googling found me this thread on bikeportland.com forums, which linked to this user-generated map of where interstate riding was not allowed.

[DismalScientist]

Interstate riding out west is fine. You have 12′ paved shoulders. Who cares how fast the cars are going? The only issue are ramps and they generally have no traffic in rural areas.

[cyclingfool]

No doubt. I wasn’t suggesting it was dangerous by definition. I’ve read lots of bike travel journals and blogs where people ended up on interstates for a while out west and had no issues to speak of. Given the sparsity of the road network in places, there’s sometimes no alternative route within ten or twenty miles, so to ban bikes would be especially problematic to cyclists. So I’m used to the idea in the abstract, it’s just that given how all my stateside living has been between PA and NC, it’s just not something I’m accustomed to.

[cephas]

@TwoWheelsDC 92819 wrote:

the freeways around here don’t have signage explicitly prohibiting cyclists, so I can understand how some people might think it’s okay.

I’ve seen quite a few signs prohibiting cyclists on freeways around here, although I, um, know a friend who’s been on a couple… What’s a guy to do when a bus breaks down on 66 in stopped rush hour traffic and the replacement sent has no bike rack? Or heading south from Anacostia, do people really expect cyclists to go around instead of simply down 295 to National Harbor when you’re already on the ramp? Sometimes I don’t know whether to believe my “friend” or not, but he tells such outlandish tales…

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