Route 7 Advice

[Subby]

@DaveS 93732 wrote:

Dropping down to Great Falls street in McLean may be something to consider. From 7 its all blessedly downhill. You could go Idylwood to Great Fallls to W&OD (Idylwood on that end was just repaved) or Lisle (you don’t need to peddle a single time) to Olney to Magarity to Great Falls to W&OD. I haven’t traveled that length of Great Falls in that direction in the morning but I cross it a lot and it doesn’t look like a lot of traffic is headed south in the morning. Once in McLean you could mix it up some days too: Idylwood-Kirby-Westmoreland-W&OD; Idylwood-Kirby-Powhatan (KOM opportunity)-Sycamore-W&OD.

Dave

The Idylwood repaving is absolutely glorious. You can FLY down that stretch from Rt. 7 to the left on Great Falls. The only downside is that you are going uphill on Great Falls to the I-66 overpass. From there it is downhill to the WOD.

[americancyclo]

@Steve O 93718 wrote:

I once wrote a blog post on another fence in another place. It may or may not be similar.

The issue is cited in the Tysons Corner Bicycle Master Plan Appendix I

Phase 1 Access Improvements
G.C. Marshall Dr Access, Proposed, Remove fence; replace with new access control

Access Improvement 3 total $10,000 – $50,000 each

[Steve O]

@DaveS 93732 wrote:

(you don’t need to peddle a single time)

The things people will do for n+1!

[eminva]

Hello again and thanks so much for all your input. Over the first few days of school, I tested various routes, keeping the rest of the commute the same (although there are variables I couldn’t control for, such as weather, fatigue, time spent waiting for the Gallows light, etc.). The key metric for me is elapsed time, because the whole point is to get to work on time. And the results are:

Pimmit/Idyl/Idylwood/Hurst/Virginia Lane/Trail: 1:38.57 elapsed time, 17.7 miles

Pimmit/Idyl/Idylwood/Barbour/Pinecastle/Trail: 1:35.25 elapsed time, 17.1 miles

Idylwood/Great Falls/Trail: 1:34.45 elapsed time, 16.6 miles

Route 7/Trail: 1:29 elapsed time (approx.; haven’t uploaded Garmin yet), 15.8 miles

So there you have it — the Route 7 route is both fastest and most direct. I didn’t find it all that bad. The worst part is closest to my son’s high school; there never really is a break in traffic. After Idylwood, I used a trick that Steve O taught me for Whitehurst. I just waited until the light changed and the break in traffic lasted until the next traffic light. By then you are in the Falls Church city area and traffic moves slowly anyway.

However, the Virginia Lane route is the least aggravating and the most miles so that would be good if I’m in no hurry.

Finally, when I was researching Route 7 on Google maps, I saw this, just south of the I-66 overpass:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6586[/ATTACH]

Now we can’t all be as ELITE as this young lady, but I want to try!

Liz

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