My Evening Commute

[bentbike33]

Yesterday afternoon, Custis Trail, ~5:30, nasty fumes (volatile organic compounds) were coming off the construction site where what I assume to be a new condo building is going up between the Lee Highway overpass and the Bridge to Nowhere. I did not notice it this morning, but I wasn’t breathing real deep at that spot either.

Is there an ArlCo agency that’s supposed to monitor this sort of thing?

[vern]

Dammit!! Who snuck into my office and put that sharp thingamijig in my front tire?

[wheelswings]

The WOD right now is EXQUISITE. Four Mile Run is fabulously flooded and looks like the raging Colorado River. All the underpasses are completely un-passable. Absolutely gorgeous…not to be missed!!

[Terpfan]

I have a newfound respect for those of you riding from DC to Reston every day. I rode out to my sister-and-brother-in-laws place for dinner and it was a nice taxing ride. I’m used to my climbing at the end of the ride rather than the beginning. Although once I got near Vienna, even the slight uphills seemed real easy to speed along. Flip side, I prefer the traffic and bumps this way than the MVT.

[GovernorSilver]

I was convinced by the fellow bike commuter at work to leave the office early and try to beat the thunderstorm home. He also really wanted to show me his route home as well as an alternate route that he thought I should know about.

The ride south on N. Capitol St, Louisiana Ave, Constitution, then 3rd St was an adventure to say the least. My guide took advantage of the high traffic volume to go between cars, then cut across Constitution when a bunch of cars were turning left onto 3rd, shielding us from traffic on Constitution going the other way. I barely got the hang of changing between going between cars and taking the lane – not sure I would do that so often by myself. One cool trick that I probably will use in the future is hanging out on the island on Raoul Wallenberger southbound when the traffic light on that street and Maine is red, and waiting until it turns green to go, in order to take advantage of the hill descent to accelerate. What followed was a sprint on Ohio Dr. to E. Basin Dr. that quickly exhausted me but the alternative was going on the sidewalk and trying to go around the heavy foot traffic.

The alternate to Old Town Alexandria: Take Four Mile Run instead of continuing down MVT. Take path/stairs uphill (it’s too winding and steep for me at my current skill level and conditioning to climb so I just walked the bike up) to Potomac Ave. There’s a brand new MUP that runs along it. Take the MUP to Potomac and Main Line Ave. Leave the MUP and take the sidewalk on Potomac and Rt.1 to Slaters Lane. Go down Slaters Lane (or the sidewalk) to Powhatan St. which is a sharrow road. Unfortunately the closest cross street to where Powhatan meets Washington is Montgomery which is one-way headed west. I rode on the sidewalk along Montgomery, briefly dismounted because of the restaurant/cafe, then eventually rejoined the MVT (Royal St. branch). The advantage of this route is it avoids all those wooden bridges along the river, as well as walkers/joggers doing their late afternoon/evening workouts. I’ll probably stick to the MVT on sunny days but if there’s any threat of freezing on those bridges I have another way now.

When I got to Jamieson Ave. there was a steady stream of car traffic turning left on S. West St as I had anticipated. However, a stop sign does control that car traffic.

I managed to climb maybe a quarter of the way home after turning from Huntington but when I saw another cyclist walking her bike up the sidewalk, I just said to her “I give up!” and walked with her. I think it was all the extra sprinting that drained whatever energy reserve I could have had for that final climb.

BUT… I made it home alive! Cue in the victory music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmbA2cpHyhs

[komorebi]

@GovernorSilver 119299 wrote:

The alternate to Old Town Alexandria: Take Four Mile Run instead of continuing down MVT. Take path/stairs uphill (it’s too winding and steep for me at my current skill level and conditioning to climb so I just walked the bike up) to Potomac Ave. There’s a brand new MUP that runs along it. Take the MUP to Potomac and Main Line Ave. Leave the MUP and take the sidewalk on Potomac and Rt.1 to Slaters Lane.

FYI, an alternative to the Slaters Lane/Powhatan St. route is to continue on the Potomac Avenue MUP all the way to the end, at Braddock Road. Cross the westbound lanes of Braddock on the crosswalk, turn left to join Braddock’s eastbound lanes, then turn right onto West Street. If you follow West Street all the way south, it’ll take you to Jamieson Ave.

I haven’t done this during the afternoon rush hour, but I sometimes go this way in the evenings and I usually find the traffic on Braddock and West to be pretty light.

[Crickey7]

The overwhelming weight of scientific data leads to the conclusion that I have successfully cowed the rain gods.

[Terpfan]

@GovernorSilver 119299 wrote:

I was convinced by the fellow bike commuter at work to leave the office early and try to beat the thunderstorm home. He also really wanted to show me his route home as well as an alternate route that he thought I should know about.

The ride south on N. Capitol St, Louisiana Ave, Constitution, then 3rd St was an adventure to say the least. My guide took advantage of the high traffic volume to go between cars, then cut across Constitution when a bunch of cars were turning left onto 3rd, shielding us from traffic on Constitution going the other way. I barely got the hang of changing between going between cars and taking the lane – not sure I would do that so often by myself. One cool trick that I probably will use in the future is hanging out on the island on Raoul Wallenberger southbound when the traffic light on that street and Maine is red, and waiting until it turns green to go, in order to take advantage of the hill descent to accelerate. What followed was a sprint on Ohio Dr. to E. Basin Dr. that quickly exhausted me but the alternative was going on the sidewalk and trying to go around the heavy foot traffic.

The alternate to Old Town Alexandria: Take Four Mile Run instead of continuing down MVT. Take path/stairs uphill (it’s too winding and steep for me at my current skill level and conditioning to climb so I just walked the bike up) to Potomac Ave. There’s a brand new MUP that runs along it. Take the MUP to Potomac and Main Line Ave. Leave the MUP and take the sidewalk on Potomac and Rt.1 to Slaters Lane. Go down Slaters Lane (or the sidewalk) to Powhatan St. which is a sharrow road. Unfortunately the closest cross street to where Powhatan meets Washington is Montgomery which is one-way headed west. I rode on the sidewalk along Montgomery, briefly dismounted because of the restaurant/cafe, then eventually rejoined the MVT (Royal St. branch). The advantage of this route is it avoids all those wooden bridges along the river, as well as walkers/joggers doing their late afternoon/evening workouts. I’ll probably stick to the MVT on sunny days but if there’s any threat of freezing on those bridges I have another way now.

When I got to Jamieson Ave. there was a steady stream of car traffic turning left on S. West St as I had anticipated. However, a stop sign does control that car traffic.

I managed to climb maybe a quarter of the way home after turning from Huntington but when I saw another cyclist walking her bike up the sidewalk, I just said to her “I give up!” and walked with her. I think it was all the extra sprinting that drained whatever energy reserve I could have had for that final climb.

BUT… I made it home alive! Cue in the victory music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmbA2cpHyhs

After the firestation on Powhattan, veer right and then go straight through that stop sign. It puts you on Columbus St, which also has sharrows. Then after you cross King/Duke/etc, make a right at the stop 3-way stop light (Wilkes St) onto a very wide sidewalk (it’s like a triple-width) and proceed straight. That will take you to the light at Rt 1 and Wilkes and you can take Wilkes up 2 or 3 blocks and go right then left again and it brings you up to basically where West/Jamieson meet.

Or if you stay on Columbus, go left at Jefferson St and then take sidewalk up the west side of Washington St about three blocks and it will connect to that path between Washington St and Rt 1. Then it’s that light timing thing I mentioned before.

[Steve O]

@Crickey7 119324 wrote:

The overwhelming weight of scientific data leads to the conclusion that I have successfully cowed the rain gods.

You and me both. Despite June being the wettest or second wettest ever or something, the only rain I rode through the entire month was last Saturday. And I could have taken the car instead if I wanted. I just chose to ride in the rain that one time.
And according to Strava I rode more miles in June 2015 than any previous month since I started recording in late 2012.
Go figure.

[Terpfan]

@Steve O 119341 wrote:

You and me both. Despite June being the wettest or second wettest ever or something, the only rain I rode through the entire month was last Saturday. And I could have taken the car instead if I wanted. I just chose to ride in the rain that one time.
And according to Strava I rode more miles in June 2015 than any previous month since I started recording in late 2012.
Go figure.

You two need to start posting right before each ride so those of us less fortunate can also avoid the rain. I swear it rained on half of my commutes.

[Anonymous]

@Steve O 119341 wrote:

And according to Strava I rode more miles in June 2015 than any previous month since I started recording in late 2012.

Hey, me too! I think I’ve fallen in with some bad influences or something…

[Vicegrip]

On the other hand I seem to miss much of the rain. Not superior planning or the like. Pure chance has left me dry or riding behind or in front of oceans of water it seems. Had a good soaking a time or two at best and in fact I have to admit I like a good 15 mile rain ride in the summer. Water cooled motor

Karma gonna get me.

[hozn]

Yeah, me too! — I’ve somehow managed to only get rained on once this spring/summer. But that one time was pretty intense. (And now I’ll get rained on consistently.) It helps greatly that I can leave work by 4pm (or earlier).

[hozn]

@hozn 119389 wrote:

Yeah, me too! — I’ve somehow managed to only get rained on once this spring/summer. But that one time was pretty intense. (And now I’ll get rained on consistently.) It helps greatly that I can leave work by 4pm (or earlier).

Well, make that twice. I should know better.

[GovernorSilver]

Belated thanks to komorebi and TerpFan for the route suggestions. More routes to try!

[Author]

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