What to expect when visiting DC with bicycles?

[acorn]

I will let other members respond to your main questions- I will just address the Arlington Cemetery portion since I ride through all the time. Although you can ride a bike through Arlington Cemetery (and it is a great ride), you can only enter on a bike through the Fort Myer entrance, not the Memorial Bridge entrance. Fort Myer is nice to ride in, you just have to check in with the guards and show ID. (And wear a helmet- it is required on base.)

[baiskeli]

Bikes are the best way to see DC. There are some high-traffic streets you want to avoid, but plenty of alternative low-traffic streets, bike lanes and off-street paths to use. You can easily ride around the Mall area, to Georgetown and the cemetery by bike. You can ride on the trails along the national mall, and there are bike lanes down Penn. Ave now.

Here’s a link to the DC bike map: http://ddot.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/On+Your+Street/Bicycles+and+Pedestrians/Bicycles/Bicycle+Maps

Your bikes should be safe with those locks. Bikes get stolen from anyone who doesn’t lock them right, tourist or otherwise. One tip – lock your bikes even when they are in the hotel, because you never know.

[jrenaut]

There’s a lot of stuff in this thread about visiting DC on bikes with kids that may also be helpful to you.

[acc]

Welcome to Washington, DC! It is a great city to visit!

You have plenty of time to do some research and I’m directing you to a few bike resources.

Metro (our subway system): http://www.wmata.com/
You may find the combination of using the subway and your bikes will allow you to see more without exhausting yourselves. Keep in mind bikes are not permitted on subway trains during our rush hours.

Bike Arlington (Encyclopedic coverage of bike issues including maps of the Washington, DC area):http://www.bikearlington.com/

Biking in DC: http://bikewashington.org/visitor.htm

Capital Bikeshare: http://www.capitalbikeshare.com/

National Park Service Bike Tours (Free): http://www.nps.gov/mall/planyourvisit/national-mall-bike-tour-topics.htm

This will get you started.

ann

[Mikey]

First off, welcome!

June is a very nice month to visit. The areas you are planning to visit are some of the most popular spots for bicycles and there are safe ways to get to each. I would recommend getting yourself a DC bike Map before you come, you can download a pdf at http://ddot.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/On+Your+Street/Bicycles+and+Pedestrians/Bicycles/Bicycle+Maps or send an email request for a printed copy to be sent to you. Pay special attention to the reverse side for the bridge accesses, since each bridge poses its own set of challenges. There are many great places to ride with your kids including: The mall (packed limestone with a lot of pedestrians) has good sight lines and is nice for access to the Smithsonian museums; There is a nice bike/pedestrian path on the river side of Ohio drive (West potomac park) that runs roughly from the Jefferson Memorial to K street in Georgetown; one of my family’s favorite rides is up the Rock Creek Trail from its intersection with the previously mentioned trail near the Watergate, up to the back enterance of the zoo (the zoo is free for pedestrians and bicyclists since there is no admission price only a parking price for cars); No trip to Georgetown is complete without a stroll along the C&O canal (access points from the Rock Creek Trail just north of K street, travel a few miles west for a nice outing; If you get a chance during your visit I would also recommend a trip down the bike lanes on 4th street SW to EYE street and then east on EYE and South on 1st street SE to Nationals Park for a baseball game (tickets run as cheap as $5-$10) and there is a free bike valet at the park, you can also bring in outside food so it is a nice relatively cheap family outing; When you make it over into Virginia to visit Arlington national cemetary, I recommend heading south on the Mount Vernon Trail to Gravely point to watch the planes take off and land (kids and kids-at-heart love to watch the planes a few hundred feet overhead and the MVT offers the best views of the river and monuments along the river).

Riding in the city is fairly safe. With kids I would recommend staying on back streets with marked bike lanes, and take extra care during the evening rush (4-6pm). I am not familiar with the trek lock you talked about but I recommend a U-type lock. I use a U-lock with an extra long braided cable when traveling with my family because I can lock one bike up to a rack or post or whatever, and then use the cable to string through all of the other bikes. June can be very hot and humid so please bring plenty of water bottles and sun screen. Make sure everyone has a good helmet (required for kids under 16, good idea for everyone), Lights are only necessary if you plan on being out after about 7-8pm (fairly light in June in the evenings).Take a lot of pictures we would love to see them.

Have a great trip!

[freak]

@baiskeli 18535 wrote:

Bikes are the best way to see DC. There are some high-traffic streets you want to avoid, but plenty of alternative low-traffic streets, bike lanes and off-street paths to use. You can easily ride around the Mall area, to Georgetown and the cemetery by bike. You can ride on the trails along the national mall, and there are bike lanes down Penn. Ave now.

Here’s a link to the DC bike map: http://ddot.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/On+Your+Street/Bicycles+and+Pedestrians/Bicycles/Bicycle+Maps

Your bikes should be safe with those locks. Bikes get stolen from anyone who doesn’t lock them right, tourist or otherwise. One tip – lock your bikes even when they are in the hotel, because you never know.

Is it likely that the bikes will get stripped? Will they take wheels/seats/computers? Do I need to get rid of skewers and bolt the wheels and seat post?

[Mikey]

Pretty unlikely. I usually take my spedometer computer with me since it is easily detached. I leave my lights on my bike. I have never taken my seatpost with me. I have even left a fully loaded chariot trailer attached ( I run the bike lock through the frame, but no one messed with the stuff. For the most part, especially in heavily trafficed tourist areas you and your stuff is very safe in DC. That said I do ensure that I lock up my bike frame and front wheel to a solid object (which is easy to do with my u-lock and extralong brided cable). A popular tactic of thieves is to steal a front wheel from a bike that is only locked to the frame, and a frame and backwheel from a bike that is only locked at the front wheel , assemble a new bike and ride off.

[baiskeli]

@freak 18540 wrote:

Is it likely that the bikes will get stripped? Will they take wheels/seats/computers? Do I need to get rid of skewers and bolt the wheels and seat post?

There are some places where it’s not very likely, but you never know. I like to play it safe. I try to lock both wheels and I always take computers and things like that with me. It’s easier to carry a seat around than it is to ride a seatless bike, I always say. Don’t depend on a cable in any way – a tough U-lock should be around the frame and both wheels, so take one wheel off or lock your bikes wheel-to-wheel with your family’s.

The areas of DC you’ll be visiting aren’t high crime at all. But you still need to be vigilant. Since you don’t know the town well, I would err on the side of caution so you don’t have to deal with headaches on your vacation.

Short answer: probably not, but it’s not worth finding out the hard way.

[KLizotte]

@baiskeli 18542 wrote:

There are some places where it’s not very likely, but you never know. I like to play it safe. I try to lock both wheels and I always take computers and things like that with me. It’s easier to carry a seat around than it is to ride a seatless bike, I always say. Don’t depend on a cable in any way – a tough U-lock should be around the frame and both wheels, so take one wheel off or lock your bikes wheel-to-wheel with your family’s.

The areas of DC you’ll be visiting aren’t high crime at all. But you still need to be vigilant. Since you don’t know the town well, I would err on the side of caution so you don’t have to deal with headaches on your vacation.

Short answer: probably not, but it’s not worth finding out the hard way.

Yes and no. There is always the possibility of theft but on the National Mall I pass bikes parked by commuters and they sit there for at least 8 hours a day, M-F. When you ride the same route every day you eventually start recognizing the bikes along the way. I’d say a lot of them are a lot more expensive and “sell worthy” than your’s. Now that I think about it, most just use a regular u-lock and don’t even bother locking the wheels. Seatposts are always intact.

To save you the hassle of bringing your own bikes, you may wish to look into renting from Bike and Roll. They have a lot of different models for adults and kids and if something happens to the bikes, it’s someone else’s problem.

[dasgeh]

@acorn 18534 wrote:

I will let other members respond to your main questions- I will just address the Arlington Cemetery portion since I ride through all the time. Although you can ride a bike through Arlington Cemetery (and it is a great ride), you can only enter on a bike through the Fort Myer entrance, not the Memorial Bridge entrance. Fort Myer is nice to ride in, you just have to check in with the guards and show ID. (And wear a helmet- it is required on base.)

Just to be clear, you can only ride on 1 road in the cemetery, and only down hill. It would be a lovely loop to ride Mall-Memorial Bridge-trail between ANC (Arlington National Cemetery) and 110-Marshall Drive-Fort Myer (all need photo IDs and helmets)-McNair Rd-past the chapel and into the cemetery, -Meigs Dr-Sherman Dr-ANC gate. Depending on what else you want to see in ANC, you could lock bikes at the gate and walk back to the visitors center, flame, etc. But you couldn’t tour around ANC on bikes (and please don’t try — if you get caught and they get mad, they could kick bikes out of ANC entirely, and for some of us, it’s our daily commute).

It’s on the wmata page, but you can also take bikes on buses, though only 2 at a time (not sure how it works with kids’ bikes). Depending on your route, that could be helpful.

Good luck, and welcome.

[baiskeli]

THIS is what to expect when visiting DC with bicycles:

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?636-OneEighth-Sighting&p=18555#post18555

[Terpfan]

Where you’re planning to go, I would be very surprised if someone attempted stealing your locked bikes. At that time of year, the Mall is very crowded and various police presence is fairly high (Park Police, Capitol Police, DC Police, Secret Service, Treasury Police, Federal Protective Service, etc–and yes, literally this many have various jurisdictions on or adjacent to there).

Some general pointers. You’re allowed to ride on sidewalks south of Constitution Avenue (which includes the Mall), but not north of it. As folks mentioned, there are some ways to ride around town being on the street without the hassles of the street. They’re called cycletracks here and you will see them downtown on 15th Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, and a few other main roads. By the White House, the Secret Service can get picky about riding into the Ellipsde, but they don’t seem to mind if you ride in it once you go in. Namely you can’t ride around their barricades where they have a vehicle blocking access (south side of Ellipsde by Constitution Avenue) or literally through their security check (so on Pennsylvania Avenue), otherwise you can enter between the giant flower pots at 15th & Constitution, usually to the left of guard station at Penn & 15th and from points west or for WH purposes, you can ride up the 15th Street Cycle track and go left down what’s Pennsylvania (confusing since it will intersect south of Treasury, but resume just north of White House past Treasury.

And folks answered Rosilyn question, but short answer is ‘yes’.

Oh and June is very hot as someone previously said so make sure to have water bottles.

[Riley Casey]

Just to clarify the ‘no bikes on the sidewalks’ rule this is a map of area where that is not allowed, Much of the city is OK for bikes on the sidewalks. A couple of things that are probably worth talking over with the kids are these particularly if you as coming from a less urban area. The DC metro area has the second most congested traffic in the country according to some honors lists, worse than NYC and LA if thats believable. The flip side of the sites you are coming to see, the museums, government buildings and memorials is that Washington can have a very strong sense of being the center of the known universe. When you see a line of police cars and blacks SUVs with lights flashing stopping traffic and taking over the road it’s not a rock star on the way to a concert, its someone ‘important’ with a retinue of advisors and machine gun armed guards. Tell the kids to pay attention, be alert and not screw around in time honored young adolescent fashion on the street and everyone will have a fun time in DC on their bikes.

http://dc.gov/DC/DDOT/About+DDOT/Maps/DC+Central+Business+District+-+No+Bike+Riding+Map+on+Sidewalks+Downtown

[freak]

Thanks everyone for your advice. This all seems tricky but in practice it’s probably not that bad.

[freak]

Well folks…!!! Thanks for all your advice and assurances. I will say right up front that I will NEVER visit DC again without taking my bike along. It was absolutely incredible. We could go anywhere and get there quickly. We rode the bike lanes on Pennsylvania Ave. often, rode some roads, rode mall sidewalks and an occasional street sidewalk if I deemed it necessary for my kids safety. I found that cabs and cars with DC plates were very courteous to bikes but you had to watch out for tourists. Tourists were nasty drivers who were lost or not used to the traffic and they would not move over for you at all. That aside it was really fun. We went on a ride with a couple of rangers from the National Park Service and they gave us a tour of the mall. They were great and that tour really helped us tell where we could ride and how to get around. It always made me feel good to see a family with a bunch of tired out kids who had been walking all day. We had it so easy! If everyone knew how much easier touring DC is with a bike you’d have a million bikes in DC. We stayed at the Harrington and while it’s not a 5 star they had no problem with the bikes in the rooms, elevators or lobby. Absolutely awesome trip because of the bikes! Thank you all again!!!
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