South Alexandria to DC route–through Old Town and avoiding hills?

[Emm]

So I finally got cleared by my doctor to bike commute again after having the labral tear in my hip repaired a few months ago! My commute has lengthened from 8 miles to 15 each way since I moved in July. I’d like to start commuting once or twice next week to start building my strength up, but I have a few questions for those more experienced riding between South Alexandria/Forth Hunt and DC:

1. Whats the best route through Old Town? Based on Strava I see alot of people ride on S. Royal, but there appears to be a few other options from getting from one part of the MVT to the other. Any particular favorites, or recommendations?

2. Any recommendations on minimizing riding up hills in Fort Hunt for the commute home from DC? This is a request from my surgeon, so it’s something I need to take seriously and can’t just “tough it out”. I live right by Hollin Meadows Elementary school so that’s my end point. The more obvious routes for coming home from DC include getting off the MVT on Tulane, then taking Park Terrace, Westgrove, Fort Hunt, to Mason Hill, but that’s a big hill on Westgrove, followed by another big one on Mason Hill. Staying on Park Terrace to Morningside also appears to include a huge hill. Would staying on the MVT to Alexandria Ave, and then backtracking along Ridgecrest to Morningside work? The hill on Sherwood Hall is fine–the goal is minimizing the number of hills since flat out avoidance can’t be achieved in this neck of the woods.

Thanks!!!

Topic

[Rootchopper]

I’ve been doing a similar commute for a long time. Going home take the trail to the stone bridge and back track to Morningside an;long Ridgecrest. I only cut through Park Terrace/Westgrove when I feel the need for hill climbing practice. You also avoid the wait crossing the GWMP at Tulane by staying on trail. When the leaves fall the section of the MVT from Tulane to the stone bridge can be a problem because of wet leaves. Pick your poison.

In the morning just take Sherwood Hall to Morningside to Park Terrace to Tulane. GWMP crossing can be a pain, especially once school starts, but the downhill is pretty fun on cool mornings.

Finally, another option is to ride Fort Hunt to the US 1 connector then pick up the MVT at the beltway.

[Judd]

Good to hear you’re back in business Emm. Your surgeon advised me that on Tuesdays you need to take a rest stop at the Crystal City Coffee Club.

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[Anonymous]

yeah, Westgrove and Mason Hill are where you ride if you WANT hills, not if you’re trying to avoid them. Park Terrace is not nearly as bad, but is still a hill. I don’t see any problems with the morningside/Sherwood hall route.

I think old town is mostly preference and partly when you ride. Royal is a stop sign every.single.block.all.the.way.through. I tend to use it but might not if it were a commute for me, and then there’s also the school and the church so if your commute timing matches start/end time for school or services it could be annoying. I’ll generally take Columbus (fewer stops) if my destination is west of Washington St., or if I come up the Rt1 bridge instead of MVT. Every now and then I’ll play with the cars on Washington. If you pedal hard, you can get through lots of stoplights before eventually hitting a red…:cool:

[GovernorSilver]

Congrats on getting back on the saddle.

I’ve found the Jones Point Park->Union St. route faster than the Royal St. route. On paper it looks longer, but there is less car traffic, which means less mandatory stops at stop signs, and next no stop lights. There have been enough times when a cyclist was ahead of me – on the descent from Washington St. into the park – and chose to turn to Royal St. while I continued into the park towards Union St… then later I arrive at the fork where the two branches of the MVT reunite either ahead of him or at the same times, despite my considerably more relaxed riding pace.

For all out speed though, the fastest route is up Washington St. Best done while HOV is in effect of course. If you’re fast enough (I’m not!) you can take advantage of traffic lights turning green in a wave, and thus be in and out of Old Town in a flash. My colleague who is an aspiring racer loves this route, for this reason. I started riding it after I heard the cops were ticketing cyclists not stopping at stop signs on Union St, then stopped when the weather started getting hot. I’ll try it again when the weather gets colder – the pace is fast enough to warm you up in a hurry.

[Rootchopper]

I agree that Union Street is preferable to Royal. Also, I always go the river route around the power plant. There is no light and no sketchy merge with cars.

[MFC]

@Rootchopper 145223 wrote:

I agree that Union Street is preferable to Royal. Also, I always go the river route around the power plant. There is no light and no sketchy merge with cars.

Just be careful of the wooden bridge.

[Emm]

Very helpful everyone, thank you so much!!! If we have any decent weather days this weekend I’ll try to set my commuter road bike back up and practice the route.

I’m surprised the number of recommendations to ride on Washington St during rush hour. That’s my route for driving to work, and I’m always shocked when there are cyclists on it with how aggressive many of the drivers are, and how tight the lanes are. You are all alot braver than I am!

[GovernorSilver]

@Emm 145255 wrote:

I’m surprised the number of recommendations to ride on Washington St during rush hour. That’s my route for driving to work, and I’m always shocked when there are cyclists on it with how aggressive many of the drivers are, and how tight the lanes are. You are all alot braver than I am!

The HOV lane is where you want to ride. No guarantees that scofflaw drivers (usually w/ MD plates, heh) won’t sneak into that lane, but they never stay in it long, because that’s where the buses tend to drive. Having to ride behind a bus kind of sucks but it keeps other motorists away because who wants to drive behind a bus?

Admittedly, the scariest part is the turn to Abingdon, because there’s only one lane to take from Washington St to Abingdon, and drivers think nothing of close-passing a cyclist there. OTOH, there’s a bit of a dip as you approach that turn to boost your speed – I can usually hit 25+ MPH on my 35 lb. 8-speed bike there, when I have just enough left in the tank after riding at the pace required to keep up with traffic. Rush hour traffic volume usually slows down motorists enough that a cyclist can ride at about 15 MPH – with occasional sprints at faster speeds – unless behind a bus .

The evening is a bit trickier. Coming off of the MVT, you want to cross Washington St. and ride on the southbound side of Abingdon St, which is less risky than immediately turning left onto Washington. I think after 6pm is when people start to park their cars on the rightmost lane. Parked cars discourage motorists from driving on that lane, so that’s the lane to use, though of course you have to watch out for potential dooring as you pass the parked cars.

[Rootchopper]

I tried it once. Won’t do it again. Bike commuting is much better on side streets.

[worktheweb]

Glad you’re back in the saddle.

I ride Washington Street often (usually if I’m behind schedule and feeling strong) — it isn’t bad if you take the lane most of the time — although there was that one time when a guy threatened to hit me with his car … Usually people are okay, if mildly annoyed. But often I’m passing them anyway. It is definitely the fastest route (saves me 6 minutes, on average). One thing of note, in talking to a really nice Alexandria PD officer who went to the trouble to research it for me, it isn’t clear that riding in the HOV lane is legal for a cyclist. It is for motorcycles, but we’re not mentioned in the code. His unofficial take is that it is unlikely you would see enforcement (and police who have been doing crackdowns on HOV violators haven’t stopped me), but you might get a ticket that may be hard to defend. YMMV.

Most mornings I take St. Asaph to Pendleton, then zig-zag to Royal. St. Asaph has some lights, so if the timing is right you can bypass some of the infinite stop signs, it also lacks the enforcement operations of Royal and Union and the poor pavement of Fairfax.

In the evenings I take Lee directly from the MVT at Pendleton (there is a parking lot that is chained in the morning but not in the afternoon, to get to Lee you have to go through it). No traffic at all, no enforcement, and it ends at Jones Point Park via a gravel path by a community garden and then you can take the “normal route”. Haven’t taken Union in nearly half a year.

Closer to home, I cross over at Tulane and then go up Park Terrace to Morningside and Sherwood Hall (and do the reverse in the mornings) but did Rootchopper’s method of Alexandria Ave to Ridgecrest for years and it is definitely more gentle (and adds about a mile). That’s about as gentle as it gets, you could also go down Shenandoah then left on Karl, right on Collingwood, and then get back on Sherwood that way if you want to avoid that hill.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

[Author]

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