[CPTJohnC]

@rcannon100 42689 wrote:

Okay, so lets take for me what I see all the time – the CJ bridge.

Wow- you’re old-school. It hasn’t been the Cabin John Bridge since the 80s

@rcannon100 42689 wrote:

These are morons commuting from MD to VA or from VA to MD. We start with the problem of why you dont live where you work – but that is a different discussion.

Hmmm– judgmental much? There are lots of ‘non-moronic’ reasons people might not live and work in close proximity. The vast majority of people who work in the district don’t live here, and never could. But as for the VA/MD dichotomy:

If there are 2 of you (say, spouses?) it isn’t always possible for both to get jobs in the same place, so you have to either choose to live close to one’s work and far from the other or live ‘in the middle’ which can lead to living and working on opposite sides of the river.

People change jobs far more easily (in many cases) than changing living arrangements.

Once one invests in a home, giving that up when changing jobs isn’t always super simple, esp. in the economy of the past 5 years.

Employers move work locations and it isn’t usually possible to changing living arrangements instantly.

Some folks work out of multiple offices or worksites.

Some people choose to live close to other things, like schools or community amenities, which are not always convenient to their work locations.

Everyone who commutes MD to VA is a Moron? No, I don’t think so. Not really.

As for me: I am multi-modal in the extreme. During the school year, I drive from home (Fairfax) to my son’s School (NE DC). I park the car and get on the bike and ride back to my office (NW DC). However, as an alternative, I can take metro, along with my son, and do with some regularity. I also have a telecommute option.

During the summer, I ride from home to work most of the time, with Metro as my back up, except when I have to go up to my other work-site in Baltimore.

Let me be clear: I hate driving in and out of the city, but it is both the most economical and time efficient solution for the 2 of us, most of the time. In the mornings, I can drive from home to school in about 45-50 minutes. The longest days have still been under 60 minutes. The trip home is about 60-75 minutes, with a long of 95 minutes. Metro takes about 45 minutes from station to station for me, and about 10 minutes longer for my son, presuming no delays. However, one has to also add either a drive, walk, bike or bus from home to the station, and from the end station to the ultimate destination (insignificant for me but over a mile for my son). As for $$s — even using government’s $.55 / mile figure, the cost for the two of us to drive is $24. My actual ‘day to day’ expenditure is closer to $10 given my gas sucking car (and discounting maintenance, as many parts have to be done on somewhat the same schedule whether the car is driven or not, and cars don’t like ‘not being driven’ very much). Metro costs $23 plus $4.50 for parking, or whatever bus fare would be for each of us. Obviously biking or walking is free, but I’m not 100% ready for my son to bike on busy streets and around Vienna metro at 6:15AM, and walking takes 25 minutes or more.

For comparison, biking home to work takes about 85-90 minutes in the morning, and about 95-110 minutes in the afternoon/evening. But I love it!

Obviously, driving makes zero fiscal sense if it is just one of us, which (in addition to the fact that I hate doing it) is why I almost never drive into DC when it is just me. Add the inconvenience, such as the inability to use I-66 as a non-HOV commuter, and that makes it a non-starter. But for 2, it makes sense.

[CPTJohnC]

There’s something incredibly frustrating about the rapid weather shifts we experience; I don’t mind cold, and I don’t mind hot, but I mind going from one to the other with great rapidity. Of course, today isn’t really going to be ‘hot’ exactly, but highs around 50 sound awfully warm after last week’s highs in the 20s, right? However, despite being more than 15 degrees warmer this morning than mornings were last week, it didn’t feel so warm, I believe because of the humidity. This caused me to overdress by one layer. Tomorrow is supposed to be truly warm (over 65?!) but rainy. Decisions, decisions.

Oh, and if you’re really bored and need something to do with about 13 minutes of your life, consider watching my first ever ride video. I can’t promise excitement or thrills, but hopefully you can enjoy the music.

[video=youtube_share;9eYnt-9htZ8]http://youtu.be/9eYnt-9htZ8[/video]

[CPTJohnC]

The car portion of my commute was not so great – a slight late start and it seemed like each segment was about a minute or two longer than usual.

Once on the bike, everything was awesome, right? not really.

I had an extra item to carry this morning, and I had not worked out the mechanics last night, so an extra stop was required to re-secure the load. As if that weren’t enough, some of you may have noticed that it was cold. At temps below 30, I opt for a balaclava, and for some reason this morning, every exhale was directed right up onto the lenses of my glasses, making things very foggy. It was particularly bad while climbing a hill on 12th St. NE. Very hard to climb and wipe at the same time. Also, even with the balaclava, the bridge of my nose was exposed and apparently it was cold enough to make even that small expanse of bare skin uncomfortable.

I enjoyed the expressions of amazement from a couple of co-workers when they realized I had ridden, though

[CPTJohnC]

@acl 41053 wrote:

hmmm, i can’t quite compete with 1000 miles over the ocean, but according to Strava, I took a random dip in the potomac today. It was only about 35F out, that’s pretty suspicious!

So far I haven’t had any of these on Strava, but I have a ‘GPS verified’ track in another app wherein I traveled from Falls Church, VA to Dallas, TX and returned in something like 2 minutes, 35 seconds, while also riding from Fairfax to DC in about an hour and twenty minutes. Which begs the question: If I can travel at hypersonic speeds to and from Dallas, how come I can’t travel that fast on the W&OD?

[CPTJohnC]

I was pleased to have one of my rare non-summertime opportunities to ride all the way from home to work this morning. The weather was cooperative, so I had a great day to ride.

Pre-ride checklist: Seasonal headgear? check.

Layer upon layer of clothing for warmth? You betcha.

Warm socks? meh. The real problem was that I forgot to loosen the toe boxes of my shoes to provide extra space for my lofty wool socks.

Plenty of water for the 19 mile ride? Oops. I mentally reminded myself no less than 4 times to grab my camelback, and make sure my water bottle was full. Did I do either? Nope. Not as big a deal in winter as in summer, of course, but still — got to work feeling a bit less-than-optimally hydrated (which may help explain my ruddy glow). At least I can leave for home this evening with a full bottle… if I don’t forget again.

[CPTJohnC]

@DaveK 37809 wrote:

Exactly – it’s not a blinky that bothers me, it’s literally the ones that blind me that I yell at. It’s the Paul Oakenfold DJ Tiesto boom-tisk-boom-tisk strobe lights that makes me want to get some glow sticks out of my panniers, put on a candy necklace, and start raving if I could only use my eyes.

Sorry, I watched Go again the other night. I’ll watch something from the 21st century tonight and be back tomorrow with up-to-date references.

Is it okay as long as I’m blasting “We Own the Night” or, to be more current, something by Skrillex…?

I definitely don’t strobe on the trails, but I use them on the street (one strobe, one steady) most of the time in high traffic areas.

I’ve noted the problem of having a high powered light come from behind before (increased shadows) but never really thought it was bad enough to get angry over.

[CPTJohnC]

My commute this morning was completely incident free. Perhaps I should wear Christmas Socks all the time. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2145[/ATTACH]

[CPTJohnC]

@vvill 34928 wrote:

Generally I’m going with either
– layers of non-windproof technical/cycling jerseys with arm warmers (TOO COLD!)
or
– one layer + one mostly-windproof jacket (TOO HOT!).

My one question is how heavy is the windproof layer? I own a very light Performance Bike jacket that I find to be ideal as an outer layer in most conditions that require a jacket. (actually, I just realized that’s probably a newer version of what I have – mine doesn’t have the reflective stripping on the sleeves or the slash pockets on the front) It is essentially an unlined nylon shell. I’d call it wind resistant rather than wind proof. I use it as an outer layer from about 35-49 degrees F (this is very rough – I have probably worn it in both colder and warmer conditions from time to time). For temps 50 and over, I generally just use a jersey or technical T-shirt. Under 35 I use a showers pass jacket that is heavier and less breathable than the Perf. Bike jacket, but is also essentially an unlined shell.

I rely on a series of layers under the shells for warmth, with my coldest riding (from the high teens) involving a technical t-shirt under a long sleeve base layer, a fleece mid-layer and one of the shells mentioned above. I prefer wind shells to insulated jackets for the reason you mention — to hard to avoid overheating.

Obviously, though, temperature control is very personal. What works for me would never work for my wife, for example. She’d need at least another layer or two to feel comfortable in comparable conditions. Also, the length of the ride matters a lot. Now that I’m usually riding for 20 minutes or so, I find that a) I don’t need to worry as much about keeping myself warm, but b) I don’t have time to sweat as much as when I am riding for an hour or more.

worth noting also: I find that hats and gloves can make a huge difference in temperature control. keeping your head and hands warm seems to be important for feeling warmer, generally.

Oh, and the toughest part is often the old adage: Dress for the ride, not the parking lot. I take it to mean suck up some cold at the beginning, because soon enough your hard work will warm you up plenty!

[CPTJohnC]

I’m pretty sure my supplemental cycling kit for Tuesday will be my Smartrip card. Or working from home.

[CPTJohnC]

@Certifried 34343 wrote:

The sign on the wall appears to be paper, likely printed at a motorcycle rider’s desk.

time to play “rock, paper, scissors”.

To answer the questions: The sign is metal, permanent and affixed to the wall. And yes, bldg management put the bike rack in the M/C spot. Bolted in place.

And yes, the suggestion of perpendicular (or even angled) parking along the wall is excellent. What you can’t see, though, is a blower unit of some sort over the cruiser, which I’m guessing the ZX-14 rider wants to stay far away from. I don’t think it drips, but I’m not 100% sure.

Fortunately, most days it is just the ZX, so it isn’t so bad, really. And I think he’s learning a little about parking a few feet in front of the rack, finally.

How I miss the days of parking in my office!

[CPTJohnC]

@mstone 34271 wrote:

I, on the other hand, am a huge fan of red light cameras. They do change behavior, and I don’t really see a down side. (No, I don’t care about increased incidence of low speed rear-end collisions; I’d rather have a thousand fender benders than one squashed kid–it’s just a hunk of metal getting bent.) Also, as a driver, I find that traffic flows much better when you don’t have “just one more” car going through after the red and getting stuck in the intersection.

People do get hurt in rear end collisions – even low speed ones. But overall, I agree that the benefits seem to far outweigh the costs. I don’t particularly like automated enforcement of any law, on general principle grounds, but I am a fan of the general change in behavior.

And I completely agree with you about the ‘one more car’ problem – a good bit of automotive gridlock is caused by the box-blockers.

Now if I can just do something about the brewing motorcycle / bicycle parking dispute in my building, I can be happier:

[CPTJohnC]

@dasgeh 34200 wrote:

Constitution is the worst. I used to cross it (at 21/20th NW) on my commute, and cars routinely would blow through the red — I honestly think some drivers just tune out the whole “traffic lights on the side” thing. If only MPD/NPP would EVER enforce the rules here…

I wish I were talking about blowing through a late yellow/ early red. This guy went through on full red, with cars stopped and waiting.

I’m not a huge fan of red light cameras, but I will admit that they do change behavior, at least when people know they’re there. The camera at 15th has really helped, at least right there, I think.

[CPTJohnC]

I don’t see why carrying a wheel is different than carrying any of the thousands of ridiculous things I see other folks carrying. Bicycles are prohibited but bicycle parts are not.

[CPTJohnC]

The Bike portion of my commute was fine today. However, during the 4 wheel portion of my commute I think someone declared it “Red lights are only a suggestion” day for everyone. I saw 4 really egregious red light violations. Egregious, as in they weren’t even close to the intersection when the light turned, but proceed through a fully red light. In reverse chronological order: #1 came around me after I had fully stopped at the red, and just blew through the intersection (big pick-up). The second was a bike, and he nearly caused a multi-car-and-bike event because he was running a red on Rhode Island Avenue. The third was on Constitution Avenue — I don’t know what the guy was thinking (or texting), but he just kept going well after the light had turned. Unfortunately, it was not at one of the camera intersections. The last was near home, and involved a small car following an oversize vehicle way too closely, so that she couldn’t see, so she followed after the truck that had already run the red pretty badly himself. I think there was also one on 5th St. but I guess I’ve blocked that one out.

Be careful out there!

[CPTJohnC]

This morning was one of the very few times I’ve ridden to work in the rain by choice. Mentally I had committed to riding much earlier in the week, because I so rarely get to commute more than 4-5 miles at a shot these days.

It was, predictably, wet, but not so bad. My ankles and legs weren’t nearly as grimy as I expected, and with the weather being so warm, the rain was almost pleasant. My panniers performed quite admirably in the off-and-on, light drizzle, and other than both my GPS and my phone shutting down time/distance tracking, I had no equipment issues. Now if I could just figure out a better solution to foggy glasses.

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