Losing my commute

[Tim Kelley]

What’s the route to and from?

What about an e-bike?

[TwoWheelsDC]

Any public transit to do multi-modal?

[Tania]

Quote:

2. Drive part way, and ride the rest

I used to do this when I lived in Frederick and worked in Herndon. I’d drive to Leesburg, park in a commuter lot near the W&OD and bike on in!

[dagamon]

@Tim Kelley 123217 wrote:

What’s the route to and from?

What about an e-bike?

Falls Church to Rockville.

[Tim Kelley]

@dagamon 123230 wrote:

Falls Church to Rockville.

Bike in one morning and ride metro home in the afternoon and do the reverse the next day!

[DismalScientist]

Bike to Bethesda and Metro to Rockville.

For the bike ride, cross at Chain Bridge and take the rough trail up to the CCT. Might be about 10 miles each way and you miss all the nasty riding in traffic in Montgomery County.

[83b]

@DismalScientist 123233 wrote:

Bike to Bethesda and Metro to Rockville.

For the bike ride, cross at Chain Bridge and take the rough trail up to the CCT. Might be about 10 miles each way and you miss all the nasty riding in traffic in Montgomery County.

That seems like a great idea. And it leaves a bicycle bail-out option for mornings when the Red Line is a disaster.

[Anonymous]

@dagamon 123216 wrote:

I’ve ridden the 9 miles to and from my work just about every day, all year round for the past 5 years, and I’ve loved it. But it’s coming to an end. I took a new job, and the commute is too far, and covers too many interstates to work on a daily basis.

So my options are now:

1. Ride evenings, mornings and weekends
2. Drive part way, and ride the rest
3. Ride the whole way, but only 1-2 times a week
4. Lunch rides (may not be doable)

Thoughts? I really don’t want to give up on the bike.

Over the past couple years, I’ve done various combinations of 1, 3, and 4.

option 4– Lunch time rides obviously require being able to carve out enough time to change into ride clothes, ride, clean up and change back into work clothes. And you probably want to eat something at some point. I don’t know your job, but you may find yourself going out of your way to try to avoid scheduling any kind of meeting in about a two hour window just to make sure nothing goes long and interferes with your ride. Oh, and you either need to bring your bike to/from work every day or have a safe place to store it overnight. A very big plus is breaking up the work day with some sunshine and exercise in the middle makes for a much more pleasant day. It’s an especially good time to ride in the winter when it’s generally not as cold as commuting hours and if you work inside all day might be the only time you see daylight all week long.

option 3– When I commute I ride home on the first day then ride back the next day, leaving car at work. This way I always have my car which I often actually need for work, and also means I always have the option of not riding if I don’t feel up to it for some reason or schedule changes. I have a second vehicle at home so I have the option of not riding the next morning after riding home if needed, though I’ve not yet used this option. Rockville/Falls Church means you have metro which can serve the same purpose for you. My morning routine does get all messed up switching between “ride” days and “drive” days. I mean, I kind of have two separate morning routines, now, but if, like me, you rely very heavily on routine to not forget needed things while getting yourself out the door in time to get to work, it’s a consideration. And I have to get up ridiculously early on ride days to get to work on time. But it’s a good way to get 30 miles of riding in the same time I could otherwise get a maybe 20 mile ride plus drive commute.

leading to option 1– Riding mornings/evenings but not commuting means eventually you start to think it’s kind of ridiculous to get off work, go for a 20 or 30 mile bike ride, then get in your car and drive 25 miles to get home. You can always add in weekends when you want and have time to, regardless of what other options you have. I do still ride on weekends, but get plenty of riding in during the week so when I have other things to do over the weekend, not getting time on the bike is not a big deal. For me, this was the gateway drug to lunch time and commute rides.

[trailrunner]

At my previous job (which I left a while ago), I was a lunch time rider. I would make up for the extended lunch by coming in early in the morning, but I’m naturally a morning person anyway. I brought my bike in the morning in the back of my pickup truck, or in the back of my car. I could ride ~20 miles in about an hour, and with the prep time before and shower time afterward, I’d be away from my desk for about 1h30m, or maybe a bit longer.

One thing that helped was picking good routes that were appropriate for mid-day. We had some dedicated riders where I worked and we put together some 20 mile routes and shared them among ourselves. We would use multi-use trails, or residential streets that were quiet during the day. One of my co-workers came up with a killer hill route through the neighborhoods of Lake Barcroft that I probably rode a hundred times.

[dagamon]

I don’t know the area well, but there may be some lunch riders there already. We’ll have to see how things fall out.

[Steve O]

Just a tip that when you are Metroing through Rosslyn and north on the west arm of the Red Line, you can shortcut at the Farragut Crossing, changing trains by walking from Farragut West to Farragut North (or vice versa in reverse). My experience is that between 25-50% of the time you can catch the one-earlier train than you would by switching at Metro Center.

[dagamon]

@Steve O 123284 wrote:

Just a tip that when you are Metroing through Rosslyn and north on the west arm of the Red Line, you can shortcut at the Farragut Crossing, changing trains by walking from Farragut West to Farragut North (or vice versa in reverse). My experience is that between 25-50% of the time you can catch the one-earlier train than you would by switching at Metro Center.

But you can’t bring bikes on the Metro during rush, correct? Or has that changed?

[Steve O]

@dagamon 123289 wrote:

But you can’t bring bikes on the Metro during rush, correct? Or has that changed?

Right. Actually, even when you can bring your bike, I wouldn’t recommend this shortcut with a bike. I meant to say on those days when not biking, but Metroing all the way, the Farragut Crossing is a nice little secret to know.

[hozn]

@dagamon 123216 wrote:

Thoughts? I really don’t want to give up on the bike.

If this is about fitness/cycling-strength, I wouldn’t mess around with multi-modal commutes; that just sounds like a pain in the ass (unless it’s actually going to save time over driving or whatever single-modal commute path you would take). (Obviously if the goal was to drive your car less, this doesn’t apply.)

I would probably just work up to doing the longer commute. My Google says that you’re looking at an 18.5-mile commute from center-to-center, so this seems like something that could definitely work a few times a week, or more if you’re willing to invest the extra time. (I think @dcv does a ~20-mile-each-way commute daily.)

OTOH, you can also just ride early morning. That’s what I would do if there was no way I could commute to work. Most of the folks I do early AM rides with don’t commute to work. But we do 30 miles by 7:30AM; they do that 3-5 times during the workweek and then long rides on weekends. So you can get lots of miles in without ever riding to work. Of course, you have to get up early. Finding a group is probably the key there.

[dasgeh]

@hozn 123305 wrote:

If this is about fitness/cycling-strength, I wouldn’t mess around with multi-modal commutes; that just sounds like a pain in the ass (unless it’s actually going to save time over driving or whatever single-modal commute path you would take). (Obviously if the goal was to drive your car less, this doesn’t apply.).

But even if it’s just about fitness, it could be worth it. Say he dagamon can drive the whole way in 45 minutes. Or he could drive to a convenient parking spot in 30 minutes, then bike the rest of the way in 30 minutes. Over the course of the day, he gets in an hour of working out, but only adds 30 minutes to his commute. Sounds like a good deal to me.

[Author]

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