Pentagon Metro to Jefferson Memoral, about 7:15 AM

[lordofthemark]

Commuting newbie.

I will be taking my bike on the express bus from Annandale, to Pentagon metro on BTWD. Will ride across the 14th street bridge to Jefferson Memorial, where a retired former coworker will meet me, and ride in to Canal Park together (I’ve only done a test ride across DC once, and he used to commute regularly. ) He wants to meet at 7:45, so I will try to get to take the 6:40 bus (oy!) which should get to Pentagon around 7:10 to 7:15. Leaving me abundant time to cross the bridge.

If there are others gathering around there to do the crossing, I wouldn’t mind joining them (though they may find me going painfully slowly up ANY grade). Don’t want anyone going out of their way though.

Alternatively since probably few are doing the bike on bus to the pentagon thing, can I assume there will be lots of people crossing the 14th street bridge? Actually Im not sure why Im even asking that – I guess there would be lots of such people at that hour in May even if it wasn’t BTWD.

Topic

[PotomacCyclist]

The bus rapid transit system is supposed to start up next spring. Only part of the route will have dedicated lanes. I don’t remember if that includes Crystal Drive or not. The BRT would eventually be replaced by the streetcar several years later.

It seems like Crystal Drive used to be even wider, or not. All of the restaurants between 20th and 23rd Streets were added about a decade ago, I think. None of those smaller structures were there before. Did they remove a traffic lane to add the restaurants? I never walked (or rode) around there much before the neighborhood changed (for the better). I remember thinking that back then, there was very little reason to visit that area, when it was just offices and a couple residential buildings. The road was also one-way. It was designed to be a circulator route, combined with the Clark St. overpasses. Terrible design, but at least they have been changing it. By the end of the year, most of Crystal Drive will be two-way. Eventually, even the southern end, near Rte. 1, will also be two-way, partly to accommodate the BRT and streetcar projects.

FYI – Eads Street is supposed to be repaved and the bike lanes will be extended north to cover most (or all) of the road. Currently there are bike lanes only on the southern section.

[lordofthemark]

Made it back the Pentagon myself, completing the bike commute day.

1. Riding UP the ramp from the parking garage is not my favorite way to start my ride home.
2. The parking folks at USDOT nicely put a BTWD parking permit on my bike for me – I will have to find out the standard procedure for parking.
3. The I Street bike lane was fenced off for construction westbound.
4. I was pleased to note that at 7th and Maine I, of all people, was riding more VC style than some other cyclists (taking the center lane to cross to Water, while someone else was in the right turn lane, even though he was clearly proceeding through to Water) and that someone was drafting me for several blocks.
5. I still dislike riding on the Pentagon Reservation, but will have to get used to that

But all was justified by the satisfaction of completing the day.

[KLizotte]

@lordofthemark 52659 wrote:

Made it back the Pentagon myself, completing the bike commute day.

1. Riding UP the ramp from the parking garage is not my favorite way to start my ride home.
2. The parking folks at USDOT nicely put a BTWD parking permit on my bike for me – I will have to find out the standard procedure for parking.
3. The I Street bike lane was fenced off for construction westbound.
4. I was pleased to note that at 7th and Maine I, of all people, was riding more VC style than some other cyclists (taking the center lane to cross to Water, while someone else was in the right turn lane, even though he was clearly proceeding through to Water) and that someone was drafting me for several blocks.
5. I still dislike riding on the Pentagon Reservation, but will have to get used to that

But all was justified by the satisfaction of completing the day.

I presume you work at DOT HQ. I did a detail there last summer and was told I could park anywhere in the garage at a rack (you have to show your ID before entering the garage of course). The hardest part for me was finding my bike at the end of the day since there are numerous entrances to the garage. I never bothered getting a permit because not long after starting my detail I sustained an injury that kept me from riding for the rest of the summer. I’ve been told by long time commuters that there are bikes parked there that haven’t moved in years so I don’t think anyone keeps tabs on the bikes in the garage.

I found a number of back road routes to DOT so I could stay off the main roads most of the way coming from Pentagon City. I’m not a morning person so I was arriving at the height of rush hour and wanted to avoid the worst.

Too bad you live so far away from work.

[lordofthemark]

@KLizotte 52674 wrote:

Too bad you live so far away from work.

Working on that

[Author]

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