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@brendan 17520 wrote:

Just be aware that the path on the south side of the reflecting pool between the lincoln memorial and WW2 memorial is (was?) under serious construction and closed.

But if you’re headed to 18th NW, you want to cut over to the North side at the Lincoln. Otherwise, you’ll have to go out of your way to 17th Street AND deal with the tourist mess that is the sidewalk by the WWII. The sidewalks along Constitution aren’t too crowded with tourists, and you don’t have lights, especially in the morning. You’re not allowed on sidewalks North of Constitution.

In the mornings, the cutting across the plaza in front of the Lincoln isn’t so bad. It can fill up with tourists, especially in the afternoons, but you can do the slightly longer route around the back of the Lincoln. Sidewalks are large and I’ve never encountered a crowd.

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Oh, right. On my ride home last night ~5:40pm, there was police activity on the North crossing of “Washington Blvd” on the almost-VA side of the Memorial Bridge (in other words, the cars were coming off of the Memorial Bridge heading either to 395S or 50W/GWP N). I always cross on the South side of the bridge, but from what I could see, there were 3 police cars, maybe 2 stopped “normal” cars pulled off on the grass and a couple of tourist-looking families stopped. I have no idea if anyone was hurt (no ambulances) or if any cyclists or peds were involved. I admit I’m just curious, but does anyone know what happened?

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Personally, I’d take 15th St N downhill, which turns into 14th St and then Fairfax Dr (along Rte 50). Turn R on Meade, L on Marshall (or go through the Iwa Jima), then take the path beside the cemetary/Rte 110. Turn L on Memorial Dr, which will take you across the Memorial Bridge (I’d recommend the South side of the Bridge), then past the Lincoln, along Constitution, turn L onto 18th and you’re there. Should be a beautiful ride. The reverse is crazy uphill at the end.

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If you don’t mind getting off your bike, you can cross the canal on one of the bridges and head down to Canal street. There’s no option without dismounting, but it’s not a big deal.

Another option, depending on your destination, is stay in Virginia on the MVT to either the Teddy Roosevelt (66) bridge, the Memorial Bridge, or the 14th Street Bridge.

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A friend got a ticket for FAILING TO SIGNAL WHEN CHANGING LANES. My understanding of the story is this: he’s biking around the Point, near the point part, in the right lane, and a few pedestrians dart into his path. No one was in the left lane so he swerved into the left lane and kept going. $50 ticket. Apparently, DC law provides that ALL bike tickets are $5. So NPP – not so hot with law, physics or math.

Seriously, don’t we deserve better?

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@CCrew 17409 wrote:

I always heard the best way to clean them was wear it in the shower. Makes sense really.

I find riding in a nice, strong rain helps clean the helmet and the bike.

I think there’s a difference between wear and tear on a helmet worn for commuting (i.e. not a lot of sweat) and on one worn for working out (stinky, stinky). I also worry less about the Styrofoam itself, and more about the stuff holding the styrofoam in place, and the straps. My advice, once a year or so take a hard look at your helmet, and all your bike gear. Try to move things that aren’t supposed to move. If they don’t seem to work as designed, fix them or get new ones.

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@JeffC 17111 wrote:

It reminds me of reading about the recently deceased UCLA Political Scientist James Wilson and his “Broken Window” theory, namely that the more decay such as broken windows and grafitti one sees, the more it acts as a green light for others. There is something similar with driving/biking behaviour. When one constantly sees moronic behaviour as described in this thread, it seemingly gives a pass to others to act that way, e.g. everybody else is texting and driving even if it is against the law so why can’t I?.

In my mind, the part that we can control is rationalizing the law. For example, stop signs. On a bike, the Idaho stop makes the most sense, but isn’t the law. So as I roll towards a stop sign, then roll through either when it’s my turn or there’s no one around, I am technically breaking the law. So jumping the light doesn’t seem that bad, because it’s the same class of “breaking the law” that I do with the stop sign. Or take light timing — around here, I have little to no faith that the lights are timed to be efficient, and from my experience I think they disadvantage cyclists and peds. So as I cyclist/ped, I am more likely to ignore them. This is in stark contrast to my experience in Germany, where most of the time if the ped light is red it’s because there are cars coming. As a ped, you don’t bother to look around for cars — if you see the red ped sign, you stop. Compare to the area around the Lincoln, where there are light cycles where there is no way for a car to be coming (because of reds at other lights, and no other feeder roads), yet the peds have red. So it makes sense to look around for cars even if the ped signal is red.

If the law — and the timing of the lights — were such that the rules really did make sense for safe and efficient cycling, then I believe most people would follow them.

I give you that there will always be a few morons who break laws just to break laws. And a small percentage who follow every law because it’s the law. I think the majority of people do what they _think_ is in their best interest – i.e. safe and fast. The best solution is for what’s fast and safe to be the actual law, because then others would know to expect it.

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@SpokeGrenadeSR 17023 wrote:

If the universally used “On your left” confuses peds (a point we seem to agree on to an extent), what makes you think they’ll have enough common sense to handle “Bike passing” and decide which way to move?

I believe the point is that peds often only hear “left” and think that means they should move left. From personal experience, this seems to be more true with out-of-towners. So if you say “passing”, they know you’re coming and don’t have a direction to confuse them. Though if they’re not used to bikes, they’ll probably turn when they hear anything. I just assume that will happen and plan for extra space.

I’d also like to make a plug for calls when passing other cyclists. Cars don’t honk every time they pass because (1) other cars have lots of mirrors and (2) cars generally make noise. I look for passing bikes, but the blind spot is just bigger than the comparable spot on a car. And the fact that bikes coming up behind you are pretty much silent makes it more dangerous. So please, call passes.

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@MCL1981 16960 wrote:

And how do you keep people from abusing the giant security hole and keep them out of the “inner core”?

If you’re caught with a bike in the inner core during the window, you get a ticket. It’s really not that hard. It’s the same enforcement that’s used for most everything else — e.g. you jump the fare gate, you get a ticket.

@MCL1981 16960 wrote:

We’re conceding they don’t belong on metro during rush hour because they DON’T.

I simply disagree with you. I think any functioning public transportation system should serve all of its riders. Some of those riders choose to ride bikes to and from stations, and taking the bikes on the trains just makes sense. I’ll give you that Metro currently isn’t a functioning system, so limitations on bikes now make sense. But as we work to make it better, I believe we shouldn’t concede that bikes don’t belong. There are plenty of examples from Europe and elsewhere in the U.S. where bikes can go on trains all the time.

Oh, and I meant to second the point that’s been made that the rush hour window is currently too big. If only Metro released ridership data like some public transportation systems…

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I think if you defined an inner core, and said no bikes in the core during rush hour, you’d be fine. It’s easy to forget that some of the distances even between two stations can be great as you get further out in the system. Bikes during rush hour would only be allowed for those staying outside the core — e.g. the Columbia Heights to Greenbelt example. It would probably make bike commuting more attractive for some who work, say 3 miles from a Metro stop, but 10 miles from home, and aren’t up for the long commute.

I realize that even the outlying stations can be full during rush hour, but that’s where you make the common sense rule that people have priority.

Enforcement and communication wouldn’t be much harder than for the current rule.

Lastly, why should we concede that bikes DON’T belong on Metro during peak hours? Given the overcrowded system we have now, it makes sense to have some restriction in the short term, but as we expand they should be planning for ways to make Metro bike friendly all the time.

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It’s a sad day when the bunnies choose Metro over a MUP…

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Great to hear. You may want to try going to the South side of the Washington Monument/Reflecting Pool to get to the Lincoln. That should cut off one of the worst tourist spots (that corner by the North side of the Lincoln)

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@OneEighth 16295 wrote:

Perhaps we start a new thread on the forum?

I would love this idea. That way if, god forbid, someone gets injured, we’d have a way to find other witnesses to a pattern behavior. I strongly believe that there are a few bad-apple drivers out there, who should be stopped.

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I was listening to NPR at work, and a “sponsorship” message came on: “This hour sponsored by the city of Houston, Texas, where the average temperature in March is 73 degrees Fahrenheit”. I laughed.

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Walking home last night (long story) along the Memorial Bridge, I noticed (1) EVERYONE running and biking and generally being outside and (2) much lighter car traffic on both the Memorial and TR Bridges. I smiled.

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