My Morning Commute

[Steve]

@creadinger 77067 wrote:

Well that f-ing sucked. On the coldest day I’ve ridden in on this year I got my first AM flat about halfway. I was right near Nats Park.

Not sure if you saw my post a few days ago, but basically the exact same story, just on Water St. instead of M. I think the thing about Metro’s policy that most upsets me is the inability to metro the bike home. Instead, you have to drive the next day just to recover the bike.

Either way, I hope the day goes better.

[DismalScientist]

Just take the bus instead and you won’t have Metro issues.

[adrienneredwood]

Hi Everyone,

I’m working on a blog post for my website on morning commutes in Arlington VA, and was wondering if any of you commute in/through/around Arlington VA? What are the best commuting routes in the area? Any feedback is appreciated!

-Adrienne Cicero
Arlington RE Map

[consularrider]

Adrienne, a high proportion of us have Arlington as all or part of our commutes. The answer to your question on best commuting routes is it depends. Depends on where you will start and where you are going.

Also am very glad to be on a bike this week because Lynn St in Rosslyn is a mess and drivers at the Wilson/Lynn St intersection are selfish fools.

[DismalScientist]

@consularrider 77080 wrote:

Adrienne, a high proportion of us have Arlington as all or part of our commutes. The answer to your question on best commuting routes is it depends. Depends on where you will start and where you are going.

And what sort of conditions you are comfortable riding in.

Checking Strava heat maps might indicate where people are biking, although much might be more recreational than commuting.

[dasgeh]

@adrienneredwood 77074 wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I’m working on a blog post for my website on morning commutes in Arlington VA, and was wondering if any of you commute in/through/around Arlington VA? What are the best commuting routes in the area? Any feedback is appreciated!

-Adrienne Cicero
Arlington RE Map

Adrienne, welcome. Like consularrider said, you’ve got a ton of Arlingtonians here. What I’ve learned is you can get basically anywhere in Arlington on a pretty pleasant bike route – though it’s not always the way drivers would think. E.g. Lyon Park or Penrose to DC may not seem like the easiest commute, but by bike, you can go through Ft Myer and the Cemetery, and it’s one of the best commutes in the area. Obviously the trails will take you lots of places, but going north-south in the middle of the county, I find it better (more flat, shorter, pleasant neighborhoods) to take neighborhood streets that have traffic lights when the cross major routes. Highland and Irving St N are great around Columbia Pike/50; Quincy – Henderson is great farther west. Monroe is a great secret for avoid the hills around Kirkwood. And that’s just focusing on the parts of the county where I travel often.

And even for people who don’t bike to work, biking around Arlington nights and weekends is great. Just last night, I biked to Screwtop for a gals night, and I beat the ones who drove home.

If you give us more information, we might be able to be more helpful.

Also, if you want to talk biking with families, as here or pm me. I run Kidical Mass Arlington, and my husband and I LOVE getting around by bike with our kids. It makes boring errands, like running to the grocery store, a lot more fun. One of the great things about Arlington is the plethora of options for basics, like grocery stores, and most of them are bike accessible.

[TwoWheelsDC]

At this point, 19 degrees with no wind and mostly daylight makes for an extremely pleasant ride.

[Greenbelt]

It’s tattling on my spouse a bit, but it does show the proper mindset:

Yesterday, she was psyched about riding downtown to work at her clinical practice. She got up early, had all the perfect gear, got out on the road before dawn.

About fifteen minutes later, I get a call — my rear brake has frozen up (mech disk brakes — great in the rain and snow usually, but they can get wonky when it’s really cold if not really clean).

She’s royally pissed — she never gets flats or mechanicals like the rest of us — as this has spoiled her commute.

I load her bike in the car, bring her home, she gets out of bike gear and into dress/work clothes, and drives off to the Metro instead.

Gets to work downtown, realizes that she doesn’t actually have to work that morning — isn’t on the schedule until afternoon.

So she gets back on the Metro, comes home, cleans her brakes, changes back into winter bike gear, and gets back on her bike to commute back downtown.

Gets downtown (almost) in time for her afternoon schedule, and despite the double commute, got her glorious bike ride in after all, dammit.

[Terpfan]

Ditto what Consularrider said. For real estate purposes, I can say that when my wife and I bought our house last year, the accessibility for me to continue riding to work (trails, on-streeth paths, and decent streets to ride on) was a big part of the consideration. I know I’m not the first to raise that point (except perhaps with our agent), but I do think if you have clients interested in it or even the thought of it, that providing some explanation for at least regional trails would be helpful. I’m always amazed at how many people I meet who say “how do you bike to work if you have to cross the 14th St Bridge?” Despite driving or Metroing daily, they’ve never actually noticed the multi-use path on the side of it that makes riding up the Mt. Vernon Trail into DC a cakewalk. The easier way to approach your question may be from starting points and then presuming finishing points in downtown DC. Then you can highlight on road network of bike lanes, trails, etc.

[Arlingtonrider]

Any real estate agent working in Arlington should have copies of the Arlington Bike Map to hand out. It speaks for itself. Copies are available at all Commuter Stores and at many other locations around the County.

Later: Adrienne, I’m glad you came to this forum and I hope we can help you. Even people who don’t ride bikes enjoy having easy access to places where they can walk or run, and I think a lot of people who don’t yet bike would enjoy having good places to ride in case they later decide that they want to. That’s what happened to me. I was excited about being near a running trail when I bought my house, but after seeing all the cyclists going by, decided to get back into biking, and then into bike commuting. In truth, there are so many great bike commuting routes from various parts of Arlington that it’s hard to narrow it down to a few. I’ve suggested to a few real estate agents that they leave a copy of the bike map open somewhere and put a star or arrow where the house or condo they are selling is located. You can pretty easily bike commute from almost anywhere in Arlington. Usually there’s an easy, easier and easiest way to go, keeping in mind that sometimes the most enjoyable routes may not be the most direct routes.

[consularrider]

@Arlingtonrider 77099 wrote:

Any real estate agent working in Arlington should have copies of the Arlington Bike Map to hand out. It speaks for itself. Copies are available at all Commuter Stores and at many other locations around the County.

Best answer ever!

[OneEighth]

@consularrider 77104 wrote:

Best answer ever!

Betcha ArlingtonRider was smiling when she typed this.

[DismalScientist]

@Arlingtonrider 77099 wrote:

Any real estate agent working in Arlington should have copies of the Arlington Bike Map to hand out.

This is also because it is also the best street map of Arlington, and it’s free.

[Terpfan]

@Greenbelt 77094 wrote:

It’s tattling on my spouse a bit, but it does show the proper mindset:

Yesterday, she was psyched about riding downtown to work at her clinical practice. She got up early, had all the perfect gear, got out on the road before dawn.

About fifteen minutes later, I get a call — my rear brake has frozen up (mech disk brakes — great in the rain and snow usually, but they can get wonky when it’s really cold if not really clean).

She’s royally pissed — she never gets flats or mechanicals like the rest of us — as this has spoiled her commute.

I load her bike in the car, bring her home, she gets out of bike gear and into dress/work clothes, and drives off to the Metro instead.

Gets to work downtown, realizes that she doesn’t actually have to work that morning — isn’t on the schedule until afternoon.

So she gets back on the Metro, comes home, cleans her brakes, changes back into winter bike gear, and gets back on her bike to commute back downtown.

Gets downtown (almost) in time for her afternoon schedule, and despite the double commute, got her glorious bike ride in after all, dammit.

She was helping her teammates on BAFS SS score some more points and we appreciate it!

[dbb]

@Greenbelt 77094 wrote:

About fifteen minutes later, I get a call — my rear brake has frozen up (mech disk brakes — great in the rain and snow usually, but they can get wonky when it’s really cold if not really clean).

She’s royally pissed — she never gets flats or mechanicals like the rest of us — as this has spoiled her commute.

I load her bike in the car, bring her home, she gets out of bike gear and into dress/work clothes, and drives off to the Metro instead.

Gets to work downtown, realizes that she doesn’t actually have to work that morning — isn’t on the schedule until afternoon.

So she gets back on the Metro, comes home, cleans her brakes, changes back into winter bike gear, and gets back on her bike to commute back downtown.

Gets downtown (almost) in time for her afternoon schedule, and despite the double commute, got her glorious bike ride in after all, dammit.

Doesn’t she have a pit crew for that stuff?

[Author]

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