My Evening Commute

[Terpfan]

Well, I almost ran over a large black snake on the MVT. I was passing a jogger by the Belle Haven Marina and when I glanced down I see a large rat black snake, mouth open, on the whole left side of the path. Needless to say, it was a much closer pass of both than I would have preferred. I said “snake” to the jogger who half jumped off the trail. Gutsy snake at a peak time on the trail. I’ll see if it shows up later on my camera when I charge it up.

[huskerdont]

My evening commute was mostly good, except for running over a skink. However, every now and then, going up the Custis from Rosslyn, a guy on an eBike will pass me. He did yesterday, and he doesn’t call his passes, which I’d be okay-ish with except it’s always a surprise because 1) he passes pretty close for a guy on what is essentially a damn scooter, and 2) I rarely get passed going up that hill.

[Terpfan]

My evening commute was great save for my self-induced fall. Going up Beacon Hill from Ft. Hunt I managed to hit a rock or twig or something, lose balance, unclip the wrong side after I tried to steer back the right direction, and fell onto the ground at a whopping 2mph. Embarrassment aside, it was kind of funny in a slowmo theatrical sort of way. Bound to happen sooner or later since I had gone 7 months without any falls/injuries/etc. So now I’m going through FS17.

[DrP]

My extended evening commute was on three bicycles. All pretty cool.

From work to home (first time): old hybrid that I just had the brakes replaced on (picked up yesterday evening – swapping my new hybrid for service). Fastest I have ridden on that bike in ages. Wow. Not only can I now stop well, I can go well. I and the bike shop adjusted those old ones many times but they kept coming out of alignment. This was long overdue, I realized today.

Home to bike shop: On a CaBi (just joined Saturday so I could return from bike shop after dropping off old hybrid). These really aren’t that bad. Sure, I wanted to go faster and the top gear wasn’t quite what I wanted, but it was pretty good for Custis, Fairfax Dr., and Clarendon Dr. I will be using these more often.

Bike shop to home (second and final time): On my new hybrid with a new bottom bracket (9 months and ~4,500miles after purchase, it appears to have developed issues, clunk, clunk). Good ride back. Wonderful evening for extra riding.

Then I mowed the lawn. That was not as much fun as all the bikes.

[KLizotte]

Anybody see the great big tour bus traffic jam on Ohio Drive and E Basin this evening? I went through at 8:00 pm (!) and for the first time ever had to skip over to the sidewalk along Ohio Drive to get to the George Mason bridge because there were so many buses crawling along. It was insane.

And along East Basin Drive the buses got stuck because the parked ones were blocking the street creating a backup. A group of Segway tourists got stuck in the middle of the pack along with a couple of cars. It was so bad that I’m rather mystified the Park Police weren’t out there trying to clear up the mess and prevent any more buses from entering the area.

The buses all appeared to be carrying school groups looking to see the sights around the basin. I’m completely baffled as to why there seems to be exponential growth in tour buses this spring and I’ve lived here for twenty years. Just wait till Metro Armageddon hits.

If possible, avoid the area.

[GovernorSilver]

I’ve been trying to talk my boss out of riding through Ohio Dr/E. Basin when we ride together in the evenings – to no avail.

My ride for Thurs. was solo, so I got to choose my tourist avoidance route: Madison->4th->C St.->6th->D St.->(secret route to Banneker Circle)->Case Bridge

The scaffolding and other construction stuff is still there on Case Bridge, but I didn’t mind dealing with that vs. tour buses. At least the pit in the middle of the sidewalk approaching the ramp to 14th St. bridge is gone.

There were some weird noises/chain snapping in and out going on in my largest cog (34) on the Renegade climbing the hill home. I’m guessing it’s damage from yesterday morning’s chain entanglement thing. Had to upshift to the next largest cog.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I delayed leaving work for as long as I could stand, and emerged to find the storm about to pass. Unfortunately, it was moving slower than I ride, and I was loath wait in the parking garage for 30 minutes for the storm to completely move out of my way. So I spent most of my commute riding southward into the tail end of the storm, so the rain actually got worse as I rode on.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[huskerdont]

Was basically beautiful with perfect weather to charge up the hills back into Arlington. Bewildering though that the secret service chooses this time with all the extra cyclists to close *both* the Lafeyette Park pedestrian plaza and the Ellipse. Not a big deal eastbound when you can just hop on G, but westbound I usually end up fighting the buses on Constitution (alternative would have been going back up to I or K, but they’re no better), which is okay, sure, but I wouldn’t want to be doing it on my first ever bike commute.

[Tania]

@huskerdont 140948 wrote:

Was basically beautiful with perfect weather to charge up the hills back into Arlington. Bewildering though that the secret service chooses this time with all the extra cyclists to close *both* the Lafeyette Park pedestrian plaza and the Ellipse. Not a big deal eastbound when you can just hop on G, but westbound I usually end up fighting the buses on Constitution (alternative would have been going back up to I or K, but they’re no better), which is okay, sure, but I wouldn’t want to be doing it on my first ever bike commute.

Agreed and this impacted me and my new commuter. I’m a confident rider so taking the lanes to get to 17th and M from Metro Center doesn’t bother me but I’d planned on having us walk our bikes from M to L to get in the bike lane and then take 15th Street to the WH for our escape route. We had to take M to 21st St to H (wanted to avoid Georgetown) instead and while she did just fine, I’m sure it was a little stressful.

[ginacico]

@huskerdont 140948 wrote:

Bewildering though that the secret service chooses this time with all the extra cyclists to close *both* the Lafeyette Park pedestrian plaza and the Ellipse.

They choose any time they damn well please to close that area. Apparently security within the perimeter trumps the safety of everyone trying to maneuver around it. And you never know it’s closed until you’re amidst all the honking chaos, and some guard is giving you the wave-off.

Our campus is on M Street between 16th and 17th, and I have yet to find a low-stress way to escape that block and exit the city in the afternoon. No matter which direction I go, bike lanes fail to provide an uninterrupted connection to any bridge. I always find myself taking the lane and/or filtering in dense traffic, either through Georgetown or past Farragut Square and across the Mall, trying not to become a vehicle sandwich. Great job, Tania — I can’t imagine what that was like yesterday for new bike commuters.

Yesterday I was feeling the Mondays big time, and hopped on Metro (early enough to avoid the rush hour bike ban) just to multi-mode across the river. The rest of my ride was great, but the DC portion has been getting on my last nerve. It shouldn’t be necessary to micro-strategize for every commute.

[huskerdont]

@ginacico 140958 wrote:

They choose any time they damn well please to close that area. Apparently security within the perimeter trumps the safety of everyone trying to maneuver around it. And you never know it’s closed until you’re amidst all the honking chaos, and some guard is giving you the wave-off.

Our campus is on M Street between 16th and 17th, and I have yet to find a low-stress way to escape that block and exit the city in the afternoon. No matter which direction I go, bike lanes fail to provide an uninterrupted connection to any bridge. I always find myself taking the lane and/or filtering in dense traffic, either through Georgetown or past Farragut Square and across the Mall, trying not to become a vehicle sandwich. Great job, Tania — I can’t imagine what that was like yesterday for new bike commuters.

Yesterday I was feeling the Mondays big time, and hopped on Metro (early enough to avoid the rush hour bike ban) just to multi-mode across the river. The rest of my ride was great, but the DC portion has been getting on my last nerve. It shouldn’t be necessary to micro-strategize for every commute.

And when they wave you off, they wave you to the sidewalk. Apparently unaware that cyclists aren’t supposed to use the sidewalk downtown, and that it’s BS anyway to cycle through that many pedestrians, and that there’s no effing way someone like me is going to walk my bike that far. So I usually just go to the Ellipse, which is pretty much stress free (you do have to use a short sidewalk spur to get to it, but if there are pedestrians around, I just ride on the grass). But then when they close that, low-stress options become few. (And why do they close that the Ellipse? Lafeyette Park I can see for the motorcades, but they already have E Street permanently closed, the Ellipse is basically a big parking lot, what’s next, close down the whole city?)

[consularrider]

In general we’ve become so blase about the security disruptions caused by VIP travel around DC. I am still amazed at what host governments will tolerate in the way of Secret Service demands when we have been dealing with POTUS visits overseas.

[DrP]

Aside from the wind, which had me barely making headway at one point, the commute was good until I got off the Bluemont trail on Fairfax Dr. Has the world gone crazy or is it just me?

Much higher volume than usual getting off 66 there – Suretrack? A Metro pickup was in the right turn lane, mostly, but partially in the bike lane – especially his honking large mirror. I needed to leave the bike lane to avoid that and feared I would be hit in the head as he came from behind to turn right (unfounded fear – no one turned for quite a while). As I waited for the light at Glebe, a cyclist came from behind me during the left turn signals and moved most of the way into the intersection, effectively going through a red light. As I continued east on Fairfax, lots of people making rights and sitting diagonally across the bike lane waiting for pedestrians to clear. There is now a sign at N Stuart (road on west side of Ballston Metro station) indicating that no cars may turn right, so everyone wanted to pull over right in front of the station. Yes, where the buses park and pull in and out of the “U” and it is illegal for them to stop. Two were in the bike lane. As one pulled in and the aforementioned cyclist had to go completely around, a Metro police officer went to the car to tell the driver that she couldn’t stop there – this I was thrilled to see. Of course she gave him attitude (“Well there is too much traffic for me to go anywhere else now”), which he complained about. I had to take the lane to get around her, the other car and the two buses. I stopped at the next street due to the light and she pulled in next to me to pick up her passenger. Nuts all up and down Quincy (the stretch from Fairfax to Wilson has been packed lately).

Later, returning west down Fairfax towards Custis, there was a Fairfax Connector bus in the parking lane, bike lane and part of the travel lane. I and another cyclist had to take the lane (the cars behind appeared sympathetic – thank you!). We get to the intersection and two cars turning left from the other direction were in the intersection waiting for pedestrians. I was always taught that you shouldn’t start to turn until it is clear to go. On coming traffic and pedestrians do not strike me as “clear to go.”

This stretch is usually crazy, but it was crazier than usual with cars, buses, turning out of turn, pedestrians. Ugh. I hope this isn’t the new norm.

[huskerdont]

Evening commute much less stressful that DrP’s. Just a lot of headwind on the W&OD alternate route I took. At one point I just stopped fighting it and was down to 11 mph. Ended up shunting across the Bluemont Junction trail and sitting on a bench in the sun for a few before continuing home. That would maybe have been the highlight *except* that there was an occasional tailwind along the river so at one point I got to experience that great but rare feeling of going the exact speed of the wind and hearing nothing but the hum of the tires on the pavement. I suppose if you could have that every day it wouldn’t be special, but I’d like to find out.

[gibby]

@DrP 141120 wrote:

Aside from the wind, which had me barely making headway at one point, the commute was good until I got off the Bluemont trail on Fairfax Dr. Has the world gone crazy or is it just me?

I’m convinced (with absolutely no supporting data) that changes in the weather makes drivers go bonkers. I noticed this trend over the winter when we would get an usually warm, sunny day.
With the lower humidity the past couple days, people’s brains become unglued, resulting in hurried cluelessness. We’ll see if the return of disgusting hot weather returns drivers to their usual a-little-less cluelessness.

[Author]

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