My Morning Commute

[bobco85]

I’m finding that I like the 50-degree weather most for morning commutes. Shorts, sandals, long sleeve tech tee, and tech tee shirt were enough for me to keep warm while biking in the “just bright enough to need sunglasses” morning. I had 2 events that occurred on my ride this morning, both on Beauregard St near Mark Center just south of Seminary.

1st event: while waiting at a red light at Reading Ave in the field of cars (I take the lane because I’ve almost been hit when I’ve hugged the curb), the driver of an SUV rolls down his passenger side window and says to me, “Thank you for stopping. You’re the only bicyclist I see that does that.” Being the morning and my brain unable to come up with much of a response as the light turned green, I replied, “Thank you… (several seconds pass) …There’s more of us.” Yes, there’s more of us that stop at red lights.

2nd event: about a block later but before the road expands from 2 lanes to 3, I get buzzed by a Land Rover idiot. The whole time this happens, I picture the opening scene of Star Wars (episode 4, I think) where a star destroyer buzzes the camera so closely that you can see small details like the turrets and other structures (luckily, Land Rovers don’t have turrets yet). I got it on camera, so when I get home I’ll check out the video even though the lens angle will make it look farther away.

Still, I like my commute, and biking up the Beauregard-Mark Center hill on my heavy commuter bike has become routine instead of challenging. (Leg strength +1)

[dbb]

Traffic sucked at the start of my commute!

I was eastbound on South 26th and when I got to Eads there were two cyclists in the southbound bike lane so I had to do a foot down stop for traffic (rather than the stutter stop I normally do). I hate rush hour traffic!

If this forum was sponsored by AAA, I would be arguing for wider and grade separated bike lanes.

Good seeing so many cyclists out there.

[GovernorSilver]

I tried dasgeh’s northbound MVT detour route:
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/10735970

For some reason, I thought I could just follow Abingdon, which led me towards S. Smith Blvd, and another stream of cars turning from Smith to Abindgon, which is ironic because I took the route to avoid the stream of cars going down Aviation Cir. to the GW Parkway onramp. I didn’t realize there was a left turn I should have made from Abingdon to West-something to enter the parking lot full of trucks and whatnot, in order to cut back to the trail.

I didn’t like the stream of cars coming from S. Smith Blvd. but I’ll give this route another shot. The alternatives for riding through airport property don’t look that much more promising.

Other than that, beautiful morning ride! Despite the 54-55F temp I was still sweating when I arrived at the office building.

[Emm]

*sigh* my lungs are asthmatic little babies. Apparently they don’t appreciate biking in sub-60 degree weather. This morning kinda hurt. I’ll bear with it another month or two since the evening rides are so gorgeous, but it’s a little frustrating to have energy, want to bike, and then then have my entire chest and throat burn.

Today’s commute did wins bonus points for a friendly driver. I have a stop sign that’s on a downhill on my way in. I have to stop, but cross traffic doesn’t. Friendly cross-traffic driver stopped and waved me through while smiling so I didn’t need to stop. Plus no cops were there to give me tickets for running a stop sign . I love it when drivers are super friendly.

[DrVoidberg]

Lovely weather this morning with a bonus: donuts waiting at the office!

[lordofthemark]

Rode, as usual up 30th in Fairlington to my right onto Abingdon. Was not wearing lycra (my one jersey and one set of bike shorts are in the laundry bin) As usual I did a proper Idaho, approaching the intersection slowly (the grade helps with that) and looking carefully for pedestrians (none) and SB traffic on Abingdon (none)

Some old guy sitting on the bench there calls out “Stop for stop signs” I failed to summon my inner Dirt. I stopped, called to him that there were no pedestrians or cross traffic. He repeated himself. I am afraid I called him an idiot (at least I refrained from curse words) and mumbled “Go die of heart attack”

I am growing less patient with this. Probably didn’t help that when crossing King, there was one car stopped right in the crosswalk, the left turning traffic as usual did not yield to me when I was at the pedestrian island (no one ever does, though I believe technically I am in the crosswalk at that point) and one car turning right from NB King to 30th failed to signal.

My mood improved when I got a nice greeting from FastFriendlyGuy on the 4MRT, and saw Phil (I have the name right?) at the Alpe de Crystal.

Crystal Drive NB is nicely repaved as people said, but orange barrels block the bike lane from 27th to 26th, and the right lane near the Water Park. But motor traffic was light enough, and bike traffic heavy enough, that going further left was particularly comfortable.

On the Eye Street lane, there was a leaf blowing machine, whose driver decided that because his vehicle was narrow enough to fit, and went relatively slowly, that the bike lane was the place to be. I wonder what DC law is on that.

Eye and South Cap was more of a mess than usual, with cars pulling out of the hotel, and pulling around left turning traffic, and essentially making all options there bad.

[bentbike33]

@Emm 126238 wrote:

*sigh* my lungs are asthmatic little babies. Apparently they don’t appreciate biking in sub-60 degree weather.

Have you tried breathing through a scarf of other winter accessory that will cover your nose and mouth? Loses style points, but might help you keep riding.

[Emm]

@bentbike33 126308 wrote:

Have you tried breathing through a scarf of other winter accessory that will cover your nose and mouth? Loses style points, but might help you keep riding.

It may help–I considered it. I do often add a scarf when it’s REALLY cold.

Today instead of a water bottle I used a thermos of hot(ish) watered down tea. It actually helped ALOT. I just had to make sure to cool it to hot-but-drinkable before I left. It stayed mostly warm through the 40 min ride which was great.

[Crickey7]

There is a temperature inflection point every 20 degrees or so, at which a particular set of clothing choices is perfect. 30, 50, 70 degrees. Today was perfect for the winter set, without worrying about overheating on the ride in.

[dasgeh]

After trying unsuccessfully for half an hour to find long underwear, I threw on sweatpants and biked in. Passed a bunch of runners, but few bikes on the Custis. Approaching the monolith, I was pessimistic – would it have passed 200? 300?

Lo and behold, I was almost #500! Way to toughen up, NoVa cyclists! Sorry I underestimated you.

[bobco85]

It was the first day of the upcoming cold season that I could see my breath on my morning commute. I was nice and toasty but definitely felt a little slower than normal (Strava disagrees with me, though).

@dasgeh 126392 wrote:

After trying unsuccessfully for half an hour to find long underwear, I threw on sweatpants and biked in.

I hadn’t gotten my winter clothes out yet this year, so I spent the same amount of time trying to find my long johns, a suitable winter hat, winter biking gloves, and super-awesome-amazing BikeArlington scarf:
[IMG]http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=9858&stc=1[/IMG]

[DismalScientist]

How are you people going to survive when it actually gets cold?:rolleyes:

[GovernorSilver]

@DismalScientist 126410 wrote:

How are you people going to survive when it actually gets cold?:rolleyes:

I’ll just do what some of you do – drive to work with the Strava app on, then post to Strava as a “bike ride”.

[kcb203]

I dislike cycling when it’s <40 degrees, but I also dislike driving to work more than I dislike cold-weather cycling.

[Anonymous]

@DismalScientist 126410 wrote:

How are you people going to survive when it actually gets cold?:rolleyes:

I’m not. I’m going to freeze to death. First, though, my fingers and toes and nose and ears will all get frostbite and fall off. It’s going to be horrible. ::shudder::

[Author]

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