My Morning Commute

[GovernorSilver]

Pretty sweet today. Different route than usual – Crystal City by Pentagon, through LBJ Grove to 14th St. Bridge. More here:

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?10344-Crystal-City-Coffee-Club-Forming&p=142973#post142973

[KWL]

@GovernorSilver 142974 wrote:

Pretty sweet today. Different route than usual – Crystal City by Pentagon, through LBJ Grove to 14th St. Bridge. More here:

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?10344-Crystal-City-Coffee-Club-Forming&p=142973#post142973

Hey! That was my route after CCCC this morning. I should have waited a few more minutes and joined the crowd.

[huskerdont]

Took the fixie because of probable rain, maybe for the first time since May. It gets old using every day in dreary late winter or spring when it’s wet all the time, but once every couple of weeks and I’m reminded of how much fun it is.

[DrP]

Humid. Been on and off work travel since the holiday, so a rare chance to bike in today. Definitely not the most pleasant humidity-wise. However, nice to be on the bike. Expecting to be riding home in the rain – which would have been welcome near the end of my ride this morning.

Gripe: ended up behind a couple of cyclists on the Custis starting at the block before the Marriott until I could finally pass in the Roosevelt parking lot. Going slower than I like, at first, tolerably slow given passing wasn’t safe here. Yet, when they got to Ft Myer drive, the crossed at the “0” count (so, they needed to be “safe” on the downhill, but not crossing the street?). I managed to somehow just make the IOD light the next time around and they were there making it across the IOD heading down to the lot, going even slower. It is curvy. There are other users of the trial, in both directions. One shouldn’t go at top speed, but in the hilly area we are in, I do like to convert some of the potential energy I created into kinetic energy, not just burn it off as friction breaking the whole way from the IOD to the parking lot. Sigh.

[Tania]

@DrP 142999 wrote:

Humid. Been on and off work travel since the holiday, so a rare chance to bike in today. Definitely not the most pleasant humidity-wise. However, nice to be on the bike. Expecting to be riding home in the rain – which would have been welcome near the end of my ride this morning.

Gripe: ended up behind a couple of cyclists on the Custis starting at the block before the Marriott until I could finally pass in the Roosevelt parking lot. Going slower than I like, at first, tolerably slow given passing wasn’t safe here. Yet, when they got to Ft Myer drive, the crossed at the “0” count (so, they needed to be “safe” on the downhill, but not crossing the street?). I managed to somehow just make the IOD light the next time around and they were there making it across the IOD heading down to the lot, going even slower. It is curvy. There are other users of the trial, in both directions. One shouldn’t go at top speed, but in the hilly area we are in, I do like to convert some of the potential energy I created into kinetic energy, not just burn it off as friction breaking the whole way from the IOD to the parking lot. Sigh.

Maybe they’re going as fast as their comfort level allows. Or maybe they’re just not in a hurry. I get “stuck” behind a woman on the TR bridge almost every morning and almost every morning she apologizes for going so slow. She’s in front of me with the right of way, I can’t (won’t) pass on the bridge so she sets the pace; I accept it and chill.

[DrP]

@Tania 143000 wrote:

Maybe they’re going as fast as their comfort level allows. Or maybe they’re just not in a hurry. I get “stuck” behind a woman on the TR bridge almost every morning and almost every morning she apologizes for going so slow. She’s in front of me with the right of way, I can’t (won’t) pass on the bridge so she sets the pace; I accept it and chill.

Oh, it was clear the person was going as fast as comfort level allowed. And I understand that, especially in that area (I am not super fast either). I was just hoping for a little faster. It just seemed to get slower, and slooower, and slooooowweeer to the point that one almost had to stop. I am not expecting any solutions. We are unlikely to get turnouts on hills for the slower folks to pull over and allow others to pass (even with cars, that only works with the folks that know they are going slow and see the other cars piling up behind them). One just has to bear it. However, one can comment on it.

[Tim Kelley]

@DrP 143001 wrote:

One just has to bear it. However, one can comment on it.

Why not work on your one legged pedaling drills when giving this opportunity?

[Tania]

@Tim Kelley 143002 wrote:

Why not work on your one legged pedaling drills when giving this opportunity?

I practice my mtb attack position and cornering skills/weight placement down the Rosslyn hill and down to Roosevelt Island. I’m sure I look like (more of) an idiot (than usual) but it amuses me.

[DismalScientist]

@DrP 143001 wrote:

I am not expecting any solutions.

The solution is Clarendon Blvd.

[GovernorSilver]

@KWL 142989 wrote:

Hey! That was my route after CCCC this morning. I should have waited a few more minutes and joined the crowd.

It would have been even more fun with you!

I’ll try the same route in reverse this evening. I rode the same route again this morning but forgot to check if Boundary Channel Dr. and Long Bridge Dr. are both two-way roads. Google seems to think the reverse route is ok for cycling.

I also learned this morning why it’s not a bad idea to share the lane w/ cars on 3rd St, heading towards Louisiana Ave, while waiting at a red light. I waited behind all the cars instead and nearly got hit by a car turning left from the opposite direction. I had my headlight on, in blink mode too.

[lordofthemark]

Finally had a two coffee club week, by getting to Hump Day today, after CCCC yesterday, each well attended.

Ride was generally good – the clouds and very light rain is ideal summer weather. Lots of riders on the MVT, but aside from one bad pass, everyone was very well behaved (and seeing my HDCC friends again was nice)

Drivers in DC, well that is another story. Traffic looked heavy on Maine, and I figured with the rain there would be few pedestrians on the sidewalk, so I took the sidewalk – only to have a close call with a right turning driver at the 9th street crosswalk (I was crossing suitably slowly for sidewalk riding) . Then at Eye and South Cap, not one, but TWO motor vehicles proceeded (illegally, and dangerously for a cyclist in the east bound bike lane) straight through the intersection from the right turn only lane – fortunately I had noticed the first one was not signalling a right, guessed she was about to head straight, and hung back.

Oh, and forgot to mention, saw awning guy as I was leaving HDCC.

[Judd]

@GovernorSilver 143013 wrote:

It would have been even more fun with you!

I’ll try the same route in reverse this evening. I rode the same route again this morning but forgot to check if Boundary Channel Dr. and Long Bridge Dr. are both two-way roads. Google seems to think the reverse route is ok for cycling.

It is! This is a great route for avoiding the MVT in the evening when mixed use traffic is really high and for avoiding Gravelly Point.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scoot]

@lordofthemark 143019 wrote:

Then at Eye and South Cap, not one, but TWO motor vehicles proceeded (illegally, and dangerously for a cyclist in the east bound bike lane) straight through the intersection from the right turn only lane

IIRC, you (and maybe others) have experienced that behavior frequently at that intersection. Yet Streetview shows multiple signs and pavement markings indicating a right-turn only lane. What more could be done to prevent this? Put green paint to mark the bike lane all the way through the intersection? Install a tiny traffic island that would force people to curve to the right as they enter the intersection from that lane?

Are drivers are doing this out of ignorance, or are they purposely using that lane trying to shoal other traffic (or to pass left-turning vehicles)?

[GovernorSilver]

@Judd 143021 wrote:

It is! This is a great route for avoiding the MVT in the evening when mixed use traffic is really high and for avoiding Gravelly Point.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Have you found much of a difference between continuing down Clark St, or going back down Crystal Dr. to try to get to our beloved “behind the building” service road?

I love riding the behind-the-building road both ways, but have been trying to figure out how to cross Crystal Dr. at the south end of the road. The traffic light doesn’t seem to sense cyclists. I usually end up riding behind a car coming out of the service road (rarely happens though) or treating the intersection like a stop-sign intersection. I usually end up on Clark St.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@scoot 143047 wrote:

or are they purposely using that lane trying to shoal other traffic (or to pass left-turning vehicles)?

This. They don’t want to get caught behind people waiting to turn left (north) on South Capitol.

[Author]

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