My Morning Commute

[Dewey]

Tried out the new pedestrian/bike bridge by the Kennedy Center. It was great, a useful connection between the waterfront path and the Roosevelt Bridge path and a safe crossing of Rock Creek Pkwy.

[ChristoB50]

@Dewey 193518 wrote:

Tried out the new pedestrian/bike bridge by the Kennedy Center. It was great, a useful connection between the waterfront path and the Roosevelt Bridge path and a safe crossing of Rock Creek Pkwy.

Hows the width clearance? So far I have only driven a car beneath that new bridge — but it seems very narrow for bikes + pedestrians simultaneously?

[dasgeh]

@ChristoB50 193529 wrote:

Hows the width clearance? So far I have only driven a car beneath that new bridge — but it seems very narrow for bikes + pedestrians simultaneously?

As someone who has seen it from the TR Bridge sidepath, it seems luxuriously wide.

[Dewey]

@ChristoB50 193529 wrote:

Hows the width clearance? So far I have only driven a car beneath that new bridge — but it seems very narrow for bikes + pedestrians simultaneously?

Width is fine, gradient is fine not too steep, but the design has some sharp 180 degree switchbacks. No problem on my morning commute when nobody else is using it at the same time, but might be an issue later in the daytime when people are also using it.

[Dewey]

Here is a recording from this morning’s commute showing the new bicycle pedestrian bridge at the Kennedy Center
[video=youtube_share;g-WY3_FPej4]https://youtu.be/g-WY3_FPej4[/video]

[dasgeh]

@Dewey 193554 wrote:

Here is a recording from this morning’s commute showing the new bicycle pedestrian bridge at the Kennedy Center

I was surprised to see you connect to the TR bridge rather than continue onto the main street. That’s going to make the TR Bridge suck more.

[ShawnoftheDread]

That skate park looks awesome.

[huskerdont]

@dasgeh 193563 wrote:

I was surprised to see you connect to the TR bridge rather than continue onto the main street. That’s going to make the TR Bridge suck more.

I thought about this and let it sit overnight, and I still can’t figure out why Dewey is making the TR bridge suck?

[Dewey]

I looked again this morning and it is also possible to not go up to the TR bridge path but when you pass the KC Reach building turn left and follow the path around to the entrance that becomes the sidewalk for the ramp to the KC underground parking garage. You could cross the ramp and ride up the road in front of the Kennedy Center plaza, but there is no crosswalk there and at 10am this morning the garage ramp had a fair amount of vehicle traffic from buses and delivery trucks so did not look very inviting, instead I rode up to the TR bridge path which I think the designers intended for bicycles.

[Steve O]

Once upon a time, while they were building the TR Bridge access at the Kennedy Center, the detour was actually through the parking garage. There was a steep ramp down to the previous parking driveway about where the new ramp is now (but there was no REACH, of course).
It used to be a pretty straight shot through if I recall.
So I’m not sure if that might be an option, too.

[dasgeh]

@huskerdont 193578 wrote:

I thought about this and let it sit overnight, and I still can’t figure out why Dewey is making the TR bridge suck?

Not Dewey in particular, but the TR bridge sidepath is NARROW, and having people use that entrance/exit, with that difficult to navigate turn, is going to make using it to go east-west even worse. Not Dewey’s fault or the fault of people using it.

@Dewey 193584 wrote:

I looked again this morning and it is also possible to not go up to the TR bridge path but when you pass the KC Reach building turn left and follow the path around to the entrance that becomes the sidewalk for the ramp to the KC underground parking garage. You could cross the ramp and ride up the road in front of the Kennedy Center plaza, but there is no crosswalk there and at 10am this morning the garage ramp had a fair amount of vehicle traffic from buses and delivery trucks so did not look very inviting, instead I rode up to the TR bridge path which I think the designers intended for bicycles.

This is a horrible design flaw. They should have made a safe path up the ramp to parking — there’s a lot of asphalt there and no space on that sidepath

[huskerdont]

I rode through there yesterday afternoon. The ramps were fun, but the rest of it, through the KC area, isn’t really going to be any good for cycling if there are more than like 2 pedestrians about. Cycling speeds are going to be so slow for most conscientious riders* that I don’t really think there should be much of a problem. Probably even have to walk your bike during events.

I suppose the junction with the TR path could be problematic if people don’t pay attention.

*I can’t speak for motorized users though.

[Dewey]

As the dying Yoda croaked to Luke…there is another! This morning after crossing the new bridge over the Rock Creek Parkway I turned left and took the ramp beside the Reach building up to the Plaza on the East side of the Kennedy Center, then rode around the corner where the CaBi station used to be located in the good old bad old days, and crossed the road out front. But as @huskerdont pointed out, while fine at 7:45am I wouldn’t recommend this at any later point during the day as that ramp is narrow, plus riding a bicycle on the Kennedy Center plaza is technically verboten as I found out multiple times in the past when bored guards would yell after me for daring to sully the hallowed concrete, reserved for the tires of chauffeured livery cars and the finest Italian calf-skin shoe soles of patrons, with my two wheeled plebeian transit.

Re: ebikes when its busier with pedestrians, fun fact most have a ‘walk assist’ feature that can help give a gentle 4mph push if you want to walk your ebike up the ramps.

[mikoglaces]

Guy on a scooter came off this new ped bridge onto the TR bridge and ran into me when I was biking home last week. Be careful out there.

[ShawnoftheDread]

I broke my chain on the way in and was rescued by a cyclist on a nice BLT who had a chain tool and a quick link. I was stopped for probably less than 5 minutes total. If you’re here, thanks!

[Author]

Posts