**new commuter** silver spring —> 14th & lst, dc

[eminva]

Is that 14th and L Street you are trying to get to? It looks like 1st (First) to me. Just double checking your destination.

Liz

[JSPOOL]

@eminva 57640 wrote:

Is that 14th and L Street you are trying to get to? It looks like 1st (First) to me. Just double checking your destination.

Liz

Yes, 14th & L.

[Dickie]

Welcome to the Forum JSPOOL, glad to have you on board. Are you new to the greater DC area? There are many folks on here that live in Silver Spring, in fact I think a few of them tried to get a Friday morning coffee club organized in your area. Unfortunately I rarely ride that route so I am not of much use. Hopefully someone will pipe in (tidy19?). If you are interested and want to meet a bunch of us at the same time we are holding our monthly happy hour next Thursday (18th) in Clarendon, VA. at Northside Social between 5:00 – 8:00pm. Come by, have a drink and say hello!

[JSPOOL]

@Dickie 57645 wrote:

Welcome to the Forum JSPOOL, glad to have you on board. Are you new to the greater DC area? There are many folks on here that live in Silver Spring, in fact I think a few of them tried to get a Friday morning coffee club organized in your area. Unfortunately I rarely ride that route so I am not of much use. Hopefully someone will pipe in (tidy19?). If you are interested and want to meet a bunch of us at the same time we are holding our monthly happy hour next Thursday (18th) in Clarendon, VA. at Northside Social between 5:00 – 8:00pm. Come by, have a drink and say hello!

Thanks Dickie! Not exactly new. We moved here from Las Vegas about 2 years ago. We initially lived in DC, in Petworth. That made my bike commute easy. I’ve been taking the metro from silver spring, but it’s sucking the life out of me. And with the cost of gas & parking…well, I need to get back on the bike. Especially when it’s so nice outside I’d love to meet some new people, schedule permitting, I’ll be there.

J-

[ronwalf]

There are a couple of routes listed on this Bike to Work Day page, one taking 14th all the way down, and the other scooting on over to Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park.

[ebubar]

Welcome to the forums!

I ride from Takoma Park (right on the border with Silver Spring around Piney Branch and Flower).

I suspect you could just take 14th (or 13th!) straight on down into the city. I cut over using 3rd street and Kansas since i’m coming from a bit more east than Silver Spring.

If you want a longer route, I like the Georgetown Branch Trail (pick it up off of Brookville Road) to Capital Crescent down through Georgetown and then, I guess, along M street over to L street somehow.

I guess it depends on how long you want your commute to be . I’ve taken to increasing my commute distances on the days when I get to ride.

[Riley Casey]

Silver spring is an awfully big place these days so your route is probably going to depend a lot on where your ride starts. Since you started your DC sojourn in Petworth I imagine you already have your favorite route from Columbia heights or so to 14th and L. I ride pretty routinely from my shop at the silver spring end of the Capital Crescent trail to downtown and my favorite route is Second Ave to the courthouse, then east to Georgia and on the sidewalk along Georgia ( the road surface and traffic in downtown SS really suck ). Once in DC turn right onto Piney Branch, across Military And then right on Colorado to 14th St. Starting nw of downtown silver spring you may find Sligo Creek Park to Maple Ave a good route to the Metro and a few blocks past the Takoma Metro to Piney Branch. Metro Branch Trail pretty much ends in NOMA and is hardly a trail at all til south of Catholic U. The only real ‘bike highway’ in the sense that the Virginia riders have is Capital Crescent but as ebubar has noted that’s a long side ride to get from SS to 14th & L.

Those of us north of the city are running a serious sociability deficit as compared to the Arlington crowd so coffee hour / happy hour, just sayin’ in case you folks want to meet your fellow commuters sometime.

[JSPOOL]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! It looks like taking Georgia Ave to Walter Reed and then crossing over to 14th street is probably the best option.

[Terpfan]

@JSPOOL 57672 wrote:

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! It looks like taking Georgia Ave to Walter Reed and then crossing over to 14th street is probably the best option.

Eh, I wouldn’t advise riding down any stretch of Georgia. I watched a pedestrian get hit at the crosswalk there before. It’s a high volume road full of idiots. With that said, it’s a great area. I would probably take Piney Branch down to 13th and then shoot in. Or down 14th to where you can cut over the 15th St Cycletrack. I would do the cycletrack to the L cycletrack rather than deal with Thomas Circle in the mornings.

Beach Drive is fine, but it will take you a ways out of the way. I’ve done 16th St, but wouldn’t recommend it. So yah, I think the consensus on 13th/14th is right.

I think MBT takes you too far out of the way.

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