My Morning Commute

[Powerful Pete]

Where did spring go this morning? And I am rather dismayed with the weather forecasts over the next few days… highs around 15C/60F? I do not approve. Ugh.

[kcb203]

Forgot my helmet for the first time in 15 years, but didn’t realize until I was almost halfway to work. I must confess, it felt good to have the remaining hair on my head flapping in the wind.

[rcannon100]

@americancyclo 114205 wrote:

Second time on a fixed gear (borrowed). I figured why not just jump on in, right? The first three minutes were frightening, and I almost turned back to get a shifty bike. The next ten minutes were better. By the time I was half way in, I felt pretty good. Looking forward to the commute home, and I’m glad there is a front brake.

[lordofthemark]

Nice ride in from HDCC. Some slight bike and bike car traffic jams – I went vehicular on Arlington Mill to Shirlington Rd to the 4MRT, and when I was ready to turn right onto 4MRT, I got stuck waiting behind cars who were waiting for a northbound cyclist to go by. At the end of the 14th street bridge, the sharp right on the sidewalk by the Jefferson I nearly got hit by a fast cyclist passing me on my right as I slowed to avoid hitting the lamppost.

The construction vehicles slowed Maine Ave down enough I couldn’t resist taking it – this time after using the empty far right lane, I changed lanes left to make a vehicular left from Maine to 7th Street. It went pretty well.

NJ Ave from Eye to Maine was pretty good, till one motorist got behind me at the red light on Maine. She followed close and then passed to close – right in front of the USDOT main entrance – and she shrugged her hands at me. The right lane on NJ was taken up by (ironically) a bus decorated with Vision Zero slogans – evidently she did not realize I had the right to the left lane at that point. I hoped she was not USDOT, but when I turned in to show my pass (I used the wide sidewalk by the historic structure, rather than Tingey) I saw, alas, she was USDOT. We have a way to go in educating people.

[KLizotte]

Cut and paste story from DOT’s intranet:

Recent FTA headquarters addition and mother of two Danielle Nelson raves that the time she spends using Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) as part of her work commute provides a little treasured time to herself in an otherwise packed schedule.

Danielle joined FTA’s Office of Program Management, Rural and Targeted Programs, as a Program Analyst in January 2015, where she manages the Section 5310 Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities Program and the Rides to Wellness Initiative, which is part of the Secretary’s Ladders of Opportunity Initiative and aims to encourage healthier lifestyles, among other things.

Danielle, a member of the Health & Transportation Working Group, had a one seat commuter train ride from Virginia into downtown Washington, DC before having children. Once her girls entered daycare, however, her journey to work shifted dramatically with the addition of an extra stop. Integrating the new stop into her commute made things very disjointed.

Although daycare was only 1.5 miles from her office, there was no ideal connection. Making the trip by subway required two transfers, four stations, and about 22 minutes. Walking took Danielle about half an hour. She even tried jogging, but then she needed time to change her clothes once she arrived, which eliminated any time savings.

Danielle was frustrated that the short distance was such a thorn in her side. When she was nearly at her wits end, a solution presented itself in the form of a Capital Bikeshare – or CaBi. She discovered she could drop off her kids, hop on a CaBi bike, and transform her frenzied 30 minute connection into 10 minutes of freedom!

Getting over the initial hurdle of learning a new system was tough. At first, Danielle bought a once day pass. She says that building confidence on the clunky bikes and figuring out the best route took time, but it has been totally worth it.

“Capitol Bikeshare made my life more seamless,” gushes Danielle. Now her husband and some of his coworkers are using CaBi. Danielle is even inspiring her colleagues and her boss to try CaBi, especially for in-town meetings during the work day.

The personal freedom is one of the greatest benefits for Danielle, who refers to her CaBi bike as her “sports car.” When she is on her bike, she has a brief moment of time in her day that is just for her.

“I just focus on myself,” she says. “I’m not handling someone’s Cheerios or a juice box. It is time to focus on me. And really the only exercise that I get most days is the time that I’m on CaBi.” The ease of adjusting a CaBi commute was even a factor in her decision to take a job at the USDOT.

But Danielle is not stopping at CaBi. She and her husband both just registered for the Federal Bike Challenge and they purchased their first adult bikes and a two-child bicycle trailer. They plan to break-in their new rides while participating as a family for Bike to Work Day on May 15.

When asked about advice for others who are looking for a little extra encouragement to integrate bicycles into their daily lives, Danielle’s first pointer is to not be afraid or feel insecure – with each trip comes more confidence. And for women, just because you bike, it does not mean you cannot wear dresses or skirts.

Working for the USDOT, Danielle is especially tuned in to the role of public involvement in transportation decision making. She is engaged in her community and has spoken up publicly in support of maintaining multi-modal access in a proposed road diet project on the Kingstowne Village Parkway. She is also working with the USDOT Green Team to explore options for easing CaBi membership for employees in the DC area or for supplementing the USDOT motor pool with access to bikes for easy, in-town trips.

[Emm]

I think this bike in my work’s parking garage was trying to see how many spaces it could take up???

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8474[/ATTACH]

I fixed it for them. Not because I’m a jerk (well…kinda), but because they were blocking my lock, along with another persons. I’m assuming they’re new since I haven’t seen the bike before. Maybe they’ll get the hint by next week.

If nothing else, it was an amusing end to an overall pleasant morning commute.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Emm 114870 wrote:

I think this bike in my work’s parking garage was trying to see how many spaces it could take up???

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8474[/ATTACH]

I’m assuming they’re new since I haven’t seen the bike before. Maybe they’ll get the hint by next week.

Yep, looks like they pulled it out of the BikesDirect box last night!

[DismalScientist]

@TwoWheelsDC 114908 wrote:

Yep, looks like they pulled it out of the BikesDirect box last night!

Lies, Lies, Lies!
The current SST does not have bullhorn bars, has front and rear brakes, and has rack mounts so you don’t use one of those cheap seatpost-mounted racks.

[dplasters]

Bonus points for what looks like the rear light that is mounted basically behind the back wheel and does little to nothing?

[TwoWheelsDC]

@DismalScientist 114909 wrote:

Lies, Lies, Lies!
The current SST does not have bullhorn bars, has front and rear brakes, and has rack mounts so you don’t use one of those cheap seatpost-mounted racks.

Maybe not “current,” but I think still available.

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/dawes/images/sst_x_gallery/

[DismalScientist]

Well, they would still have to take off the rear brake.:rolleyes:

[vern]

As I rode along 4MR a bird got in line with me, about 5 feet above me and 15 feet in front. It was flying at my speed and then, as a parting gift, it dropped it’s load on me and flew away. Still, it was an awesome morning to be on a bike!

[Terpfan]

As I was coming up the hill from M to Prospect on 33rd in the bike lane, the city had a crossing guard posted at the top. He asked what was I going and I said straight. He waved me through and kept one car at the sign so I wouldn’t have to stop. To top it off, he said, you have a great morning. Small gesture, but made my morning. Hurrah for the awesome crossing guard. Hope he’s there every morning.

[worktheweb]

My morning route on the MVT was beautiful. I was remarking at the beauty around me — flowers in bloom, new shoots of life springing forth from the earth, birds chirping their mellifluous songs.

Then I got into the city.

I had a black Lexus SUV dangerously dart around and in front of me only to realize that people were turning right in my lane, so he darted back out. Then there was a beat-up looking white sedan that decided that the cyclist who was going the same speed as the car in front of him needed to be passed. So he made a right turn from the center lane at 7th and Constitution onto Constitution, forcing me to panic stop as he went immediately in front of me. I was inches from a crash and I have a feeling I left half a tire’s worth of rubber on the pavement.

I don’t get it. How wonderful are these people’s jobs? They are more than happy to endanger the life of another human so they can get there maybe 5 seconds faster? And in fact, neither of them did. The Lexus kept driving dangerously all the way up 7th, but I kept passing him, and by the time I made my turn off of 7th, I was several blocks ahead of him. As for the white sedan? Well he had to panic stop too since there were pedestrians crossing the crosswalk, which he almost hit. Is it really so hard to slow down and be safe?

[Terpfan]

Things were great for me in the city. The crossing guard guy at same spot said “good morning, y’all be safe” in a very pleasant and uplifting voice. But then I ran into crazy jogger.

I’m not sure there is a term for it. She’s not a ninja since it’s broad daylight and I can see her. She didn’t pull a crazy ivan in the literal sense of turning around. But as I was biking on Wisconsin Ave in the right lane with plenty of traffic to the two lanes to my left, she’s running toward traffic on the road. I’m thinking, okay, she will obviously be smart enough to yield to me with the vehicles parked in the right lane. Nope. She wanted to play chicken with me. I couldn’t bail right because of other parked vehicles and damned if I was going to cut left unexpectedly into traffic (wise decision given as jogger and I approached, so did a vehicle on my left by two feet or so), so I just continued. She had to basically go jump against the car and flatten herself to it to avoid a collision. And I didn’t feel the least bit bad. Maybe it will be a lesson to stop the shennanigans, but this is the second time something similar has happened with this same jogger, so I doubt it.

[Author]

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