My Evening Commute

[ronwalf]

Winds ahead the storm?
Head winds of the storm?
Storm winds on the head?

[chris_s]

Holy Headwinds Batman.

[KWL]

Now THIS is my kind of commute. Where’d everybody go?

[dplasters]

After four full months of bike commuting I FINALLY was lucky enough to get to share about a mile and a half of commuting with a very nice gentleman who rides from Vienna to Alexandria everyday.

It was a pleasure, sir. I’m glad you liked my belt drive. I enjoyed the bit of company much more.

[dasgeh]

Traffic was pretty bad downtown, so drivers were correspondingly more awful than usual. And tonight, I saw the worst abuse of cycling infrastructure I’ve seen in DC: I was head westbound on the Pennsylvania Ave NW cycletrack. Traffic was much heavier than normal along PA. Drivers apparently thought this meant that rules of the road no longer applied: They completely ignored the “left only” lane into the Reagan Building (13 1/2th St NW) and made that lane a “straight” lane — which put drivers into the WB lanes of the cycletrack. This wasn’t one lone idiot, but an entire line of unapologetic jerkholes that drove in the cycletrack for half a block, until the cycletrack veered left, and continuing straight cars ended up in the new left lane on PA. I was dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. I was really, really pissed. I couldn’t really think of what to do. The best I could come up with is snap and tweet a picture of it (which accidentally went from @kidicalmassarl instead of @dasgeh – oh well).

So I’ve been meaning to ask: does anyone have contacts for DC’s bike ombudsman and/or their BAC? We need to talk.

*edit to add: as those of you who bike here during rush hour know, there was a steady stream of cyclists riding both east- and westbound at this time, so it’s not as if the jerkhole drivers could have thought no one was using the cycletrack.

And here’s the photo

[culimerc]

@dasgeh 95736 wrote:

Traffic was pretty bad downtown, so drivers were correspondingly more awful than usual. And tonight, I saw the worst abuse of cycling infrastructure I’ve seen in DC: I was head westbound on the Pennsylvania Ave NW cycletrack. Traffic was much heavier than normal along PA. Drivers apparently thought this meant that rules of the road no longer applied: They completely ignored the “left only” lane into the Reagan Building (13 1/2th St NW) and made that lane a “straight” lane — which put drivers into the WB lanes of the cycletrack. This wasn’t one lone idiot, but an entire line of unapologetic jerkholes that drove in the cycletrack for half a block, until the cycletrack veered left, and continuing straight cars ended up in the new left lane on PA. I was dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. I was really, really pissed. I couldn’t really think of what to do. The best I could come up with is snap and tweet a picture of it (which accidentally went from @kidicalmassarl instead of @dasgeh – oh well).

So I’ve been meaning to ask: does anyone have contacts for DC’s bike ombudsman and/or their BAC? We need to talk.

*edit to add: as those of you who bike here during rush hour know, there was a steady stream of cyclists riding both east- and westbound at this time, so it’s not as if the jerkhole drivers could have thought no one was using the cycletrack.

And here’s the photo

Take pictures of their license plates and make sure they see you doing it, even if you dont do anything with it, they’ll think twice about doing it next time.

[lordofthemark]

Generally uneventful, most positive thing was seeing so many people on bikes closer to where I live – one who passed me on the Lucky Run trail, one turning into 28th Street, and one going in the opposite direction on Ford.

[Supermau]

@dasgeh 95736 wrote:

Traffic was pretty bad downtown, so drivers were correspondingly more awful than usual. And tonight, I saw the worst abuse of cycling infrastructure I’ve seen in DC: I was head westbound on the Pennsylvania Ave NW cycletrack. Traffic was much heavier than normal along PA. Drivers apparently thought this meant that rules of the road no longer applied: They completely ignored the “left only” lane into the Reagan Building (13 1/2th St NW) and made that lane a “straight” lane — which put drivers into the WB lanes of the cycletrack. This wasn’t one lone idiot, but an entire line of unapologetic jerkholes that drove in the cycletrack for half a block, until the cycletrack veered left, and continuing straight cars ended up in the new left lane on PA. I was dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. I was really, really pissed. I couldn’t really think of what to do. The best I could come up with is snap and tweet a picture of it (which accidentally went from @kidicalmassarl instead of @dasgeh – oh well).

So I’ve been meaning to ask: does anyone have contacts for DC’s bike ombudsman and/or their BAC? We need to talk.

*edit to add: as those of you who bike here during rush hour know, there was a steady stream of cyclists riding both east- and westbound at this time, so it’s not as if the jerkhole drivers could have thought no one was using the cycletrack.

And here’s the photo

That’s a pretty clear illustration of why painted lines are totally useless.

[dplasters]

If you have the time to spare you could just decide to sit broadside in front of one of the cars (the red suv/crossover looks like a good one) in the bike lane. Overly aggressive and not the responsible solution though for sure. But its what the devil on my shoulder tells me.

[americancyclo]

@dasgeh 95736 wrote:

Traffic was much heavier than normal along PA. Drivers apparently thought this meant that rules of the road no longer applied

and this is why i never take the PA cycle track westbound in the evenings anymore. Drivers like this and really poor light timing. Independence is faster for me, and at least the cars are (somewhat) predictable.

[KLizotte]

@dasgeh 95736 wrote:

Traffic was pretty bad downtown, so drivers were correspondingly more awful than usual. And tonight, I saw the worst abuse of cycling infrastructure I’ve seen in DC: I was head westbound on the Pennsylvania Ave NW cycletrack. Traffic was much heavier than normal along PA. Drivers apparently thought this meant that rules of the road no longer applied: They completely ignored the “left only” lane into the Reagan Building (13 1/2th St NW) and made that lane a “straight” lane — which put drivers into the WB lanes of the cycletrack. This wasn’t one lone idiot, but an entire line of unapologetic jerkholes that drove in the cycletrack for half a block, until the cycletrack veered left, and continuing straight cars ended up in the new left lane on PA. I was dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. I was really, really pissed. I couldn’t really think of what to do. The best I could come up with is snap and tweet a picture of it (which accidentally went from @kidicalmassarl instead of @dasgeh – oh well).

So I’ve been meaning to ask: does anyone have contacts for DC’s bike ombudsman and/or their BAC? We need to talk.

*edit to add: as those of you who bike here during rush hour know, there was a steady stream of cyclists riding both east- and westbound at this time, so it’s not as if the jerkhole drivers could have thought no one was using the cycletrack.

And here’s the photo

Send your pic and story to that infamous WashPost columnist (Milroy?) and the transportation journalist at the same paper. This is quite extraordinary!

[vern]

Bugs. A 21.4 mile long cauldron of bugs, constantly bouncing off of every part of my body, DARING me to open my mouth just once to gulp some air on an ascent.

[lordofthemark]

Due to a change in plans, it turned out I was able to bike home last night – not straight home – but to Bradlee Center, where my wife met me to get free burritos at the opening of the new California Tortilla. And home from there (I took Fairlington home rather than the sidewalk in the middle of King.) So that’s two complete commutes in one week, about 40 miles in the two days. I now hope to keep up 2x per week for a while before upping to (gasp!) 3x per week. Oh, and went up the evil hill on 31st from Shirlington, since I didn’t know any better way to get to Bradlee than going through South Fairlington.

[cyclingfool]

@lordofthemark 95958 wrote:

free burritos at the opening of the new California Tortilla.

Nice. I was there, too, though I didn’t do it as part of my commute. I went with wife and kid in the family cage, er, car. Three cheers for free burritos!

[Steve O]

@dasgeh 95736 wrote:

So I’ve been meaning to ask: does anyone have contacts for DC’s bike ombudsman and/or their BAC? We need to talk.

I went to a DC BAC meeting a while back and met Mike Goodno, who is the ddot rep I believe to the committee. Seems like a good guy and on our team. His email is: mike.goodno@dc.gov

Not sure if he monitors the forum. He probably should.

[Author]

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