My Morning Commute

[vern]

My plan is to take the Metro from Reston to EFC and then ride my bike the rest of the way to Crystal City. I plan to get to the Metro between 9 and 9:30. I know that bikes are forbidden between 7-10, but thought peak ridership will actually be around 10 because of the FEDS late start. I also anticipate that the Metro station manager won’t follow my logic and will literally follow the rules and make me wait.

[dplasters]

@vern 133352 wrote:

My plan is to take the Metro from Reston to EFC and then ride my bike the rest of the way to Crystal City. I plan to get to the Metro between 9 and 9:30. I know that bikes are forbidden between 7-10, but thought peak ridership will actually be around 10 because of the FEDS late start. I also anticipate that the Metro station manager won’t follow my logic and will literally follow the rules and make me wait.

I picked up a bike in DC on black friday and tried to metro out from union station at around 4:30pm. They refused to allow me entry despite the 3/4 empty trains.

Good luck.

[vern]

@vern 133352 wrote:

My plan is to take the Metro from Reston to EFC and then ride my bike the rest of the way to Crystal City. I plan to get to the Metro between 9 and 9:30. I know that bikes are forbidden between 7-10, but thought peak ridership will actually be around 10 because of the FEDS late start. I also anticipate that the Metro station manager won’t follow my logic and will literally follow the rules and make me wait.

Metro station manager following the in the footsteps of Scalia, refuses to let me in. Metro doing everything it can to enhance ridership.

[Tania]

@vern 133352 wrote:

My plan is to take the Metro from Reston to EFC and then ride my bike the rest of the way to Crystal City. I plan to get to the Metro between 9 and 9:30. I know that bikes are forbidden between 7-10, but thought peak ridership will actually be around 10 because of the FEDS late start. I also anticipate that the Metro station manager won’t follow my logic and will literally follow the rules and make me wait.

The metro was standing room only at Dunn Loring this am at 8:30…so good luck with that.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I had no problems on the roads until I hit 123, which had a wall of snow right up to the fog line, as well as a line of cars backed up for about a mile. So I took my secret detour, which added about 2 miles, but probably saved me time and stress in the end.

[sethpo]

The good news, is the CCT is totally clear. Both MoCo and the NPS have done a great job.

The bad news, getting there was quite the chore. There are no good options that don’t involve snow covered paths or riding on narrowed roads with frustrated drivers. I choose both…and won’t be doing that again for awhile.

[KWL]

I’ve decided to do the full commute tomorrow morning. Potomac Ave ► Crystal Drive ► Long Bridge ► Boundary Channel ► Washington Blvd ► Memorial Bridge. Returning I’ll plan on slogging on the trail from Memorial Bridge to the Pentagon. It’s a great cardio workout.

[bobco85]

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when a fellow cyclist came up behind me on Four Mile Run Dr and it turned out to be Fast Friendly Guy! We rode together on George Mason Dr which switched between 1.5-2 lanes making traffic a little more interesting and on Henderson Rd before parting ways, but it was nice to ride with someone on my morning commute. Usually I see only a few souls with even fewer going my route.

I hear the W&OD was “cleared” between Shirlington and the Custis junction, so I will report how things are Thursday morning. The last I saw of the W&OD was a 5 foot pile of snow at the W&OD/George Mason Dr crossing, so I will be pleasantly surprised if that pile is indeed gone.

[adamx]

On Wed Morning, I took back roads from area of West Falls Church to George Mason/VA Hospital Center to ARL Courthouse, memorial bridge, east Potomac Park to SW Waterfront. at 0700 there was little traffic and roads were not bad. because of snow, there was a BIKE LANE on Memorial Bridge. Sidewalk behind the Jefferson was not clear which meant traveling against traffic to Main St but that was only 30 yds in another snow created bike lane. I heard WOD and/or Custis were clear and i wanted to try that. Return was a bit more tricky. 14th st bridge is clear but MVT is NOT. I turned back to go to Memorial Bridge. Passable on snow/ice at 1700 but then I had to get on GW and travel around the circle because path to Cemetery was snow covered. path around cemetery to Iwo Jima is clear. Then I took back roads again through Arlington. It did look like Custis was clear in spots. When I got to corner of W and Rt 7 (near Mike Deli); the walls of snow had been plowed and looks like WOD in Falls Church is clear. I might try the WOD this morning but will cut off at Rossly to avoid what I am sure is still a snow covered MVT.

although, at these temps and ICE it is probably safe to be on metro today. sounds like the call to avoid the cattle cars on Wed was a good one!!!

[Sunyata]

Other than a detour to avoid the ice covered 395 pedestrian bridge in Shirlington, my morning commute was not too bad. This was my first day back at the office after Snowzilla, so I was not 100% sure to expect, especially on George Mason. Things were icy (a few spots were slick as glass), but my low pressure, super grippy mountain bike tires did okay (but I am so glad that my studded tires will be in this afternoon, thanks Pete!).

I did check out the W&OD last night from Mile 0 to the Custis spur. The huge pile on the west side of the trail at Walter Reed has not been cleared, so getting back on the trail after crossing WR might be tricky. I would recommend taking Four Mile Run until George Mason. From George Mason to Wilson, the trail was (probably all frozen this morning) a mix of dry pavement, chunky ice, slush, hard pack snow, and non-packed snow. I would say 85% of it was rideable on my mountain bike without studded tires. Studs would have made me feel a lot more confident and probably gotten me through some of the parts that were unrideable by me.

I am hoping todays sun and above freezing temperatures will help clear the last couple of inches of ice and snow off the trail. I will commute home that way and check it out.

[notinthe18]

Crystal City to western part of downtown this morning. Roads in Arlington and Pentagon were great, as were the roads in DC proper and the 14th Street bridge. I opted to portage across near the grove to MVT (briefly) to 14th Street bridge, and that worked out but was a bit of a pain; not cleared at all. Hope someone gets out there and clears Memorial Bridge soon, or MVT. From what I could see, MVT looked like a mess.

Pics below from the point where the MVT turns onto 14th Street bridge. Tale of two jurisdictions. (Apologies if they’re rotated.)

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[Crickey7]

I will say, this was a fine morning to have the “Grease” soundtrack running through my head.

[bobco85]

I was very happy to be able to wear shorts this morning (my cut-off for shorts on my commute is 40 degrees). That said, the meltwater splashing up on my legs was quite cold!

[huskerdont]

@bobco85 133815 wrote:

I was very happy to be able to wear shorts this morning (my cut-off for shorts on my commute is 40 degrees). That said, the meltwater splashing up on my legs was quite cold!

My cutoff for tights is 32 degrees, but I wore them anyway to keep my legs clean so I wouldn’t have to shower at work. There was as much water coming up off the surface as there would be after a rain, and it was salty, so I was glad I did.

I did take the CX today because I wasn’t sure how much ice would be left. Only had one patch about 12-feet long, so tomorrow I’m taking the single speed with faster, thinner tires.

[Terpfan]

First commute since storm. Nice warm weather, but annoying that some areas are still full of snow (cough, Humpback Bridge) or they’re 10′ piles of snow courtesy of VDOT. Oh well, better by bike than by car. Legs feel good.

[Author]

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