[brutal_youth]

@mstone 116482 wrote:

Sounds like you maybe need more light on the bike. If you get a helmet mounted one you can use a fairly wide beam to illuminate wherever you are looking, but still easily turn it away from traffic.

We’ve had discussions before on this forum on the difference between “be seen” and “to see” lights. In the city you typically want “be seen” lights, but in the country and maybe in RCP you need “to see” lights.

That’s a helpful distinction and makes sense. Good idea about the helmet-mounted light; I’ll have to pick one up.

[brutal_youth]

@Crickey7 116471 wrote:

I have often taken that route. I’m not quite sure why it felt so dangerous to you. I never got that vibe, but everyone is entitled to their own vibe. If it makes you feel any better, on the North side of Park Road a big chunk of what you think is Rock Creek Park is actually the Rockefeller Estate, which is fenced, heavily patrolled and swept continuously by video cameras. On the south side, it’s got tennis courts and much of the rest is basically a ridge wedged in between Beach Drive and Park. On the west side, you are in a very, very expensive residential neighborhood, not that this settles the matter, but it tends to help.

I’m not telling you that you should feel safe, if you don’t. I would suggest that what feels unsafe, may in truth not be.

That does help to know, and I appreciate the perspective. I had no trouble with the route until the part of Park Road that’s completely without lighting, so you’re in effect biking alone into pitch blackness with just the occasional car speeding through. I didn’t make it far enough in to know how long a segment that is or what is on the other side of it, but I’ll go again during the day to get a better sense.

Edit: I freely admit the “safety” of street lighting may be illusory more than actual, but there was something viscerally uncomfortable about suddenly losing it with no indication when it might come back.

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