[Greenbelt]

Have a great ride! As in Montreal, we have bike thieves, so be sure to lock up well. And even though the trails are nice, always take basic precautions. It is the USA after all. If a sketchy person asks for the time, just smile and respond in French that you don’t speak English and keep moving!

Here was a weekend ride I did at the Lachine canal on a very windy morning this spring:
[video=vimeo;23054612]http://www.vimeo.com/23054612[/video]

[Greenbelt]

Riding on sidewalks illegal in downtown DC, but not in the rest of town. There’s a short-timed light at one point on my route that requires a slight uphill takeoff — sometimes I ride on the sidewalk to help let more cars through the light behind me. But it’s probably not a good idea.

[Greenbelt]

I ride those trails every day — they are safe and beautiful. You’ll cross under University blvd, under Route 1 by the University, under the Green line metro tracks, past Lake Artemesia, under East-West highway on that route — virtually no traffic to worry about until you’re near to DC.

And that section of NE DC isn’t bad — mostly residential and quiet, not threatening at all and lots of bikes usually. I’ve got a video link for everything, but this one shows the section between Lake Artemesia and the Monroe Street bridge on your route: http://www.vimeo.com/23366829

[Greenbelt]

@ronwalf 7089 wrote:

Can you hook the blinky to the frame? I’ve seen a number of backpack and helmet mounted blinkies that are nigh-invisible because they end up pointed the wrong direction.

I do have a seat-post light that I use in addition to the helmet light when it’s raining. But I usually just reach back and turn on the helmet light at dusk — it may be a good idea stop and turn on the seatpost light too — I’m not bendable enough to do that while moving though.

[Greenbelt]

The billowing effect would drive me nuts…

It doesn’t parachute or flap around. I don’t even notice it except when I see my shadow. Shadow does have an odd cape-like form though!

[Greenbelt]

My favorite are the folks who powerwalk against the flow in the bikelanes. In groups sometimes. With a sidewalk right next to them. I’m sorry, but they’re jerks.

[Greenbelt]

How in the heck do you get from Bowie to SW DC? You should write a post explaining your route — others might be interested.

[Greenbelt]

16 miles in 65 minutes on a good day, 70 minutes if I’m dragging. So that’s an average net time of about 14 I think including stops (there aren’t too many). Seems like it’s usually around 16-18 on flat, straight trail sections, more if tailwind, less if headwind. 14 or 15 in the neighborhoods, 21-24 coming down the MBT most mornings (it’s usually wide open and little traffic), depending on the wind.

[Greenbelt]

@CCrew 6982 wrote:

Cross bike. Road geometry with larger tires to absorb the bumps.

My feeling also. Most fun, best combination of speed, comfort, handling. But need better brakes than what come standard on many cross bikes in my opinion.

[Greenbelt]

“The volume through the intersection of N. Lynn St. and Lee Highway WB is extremely high, especially in the morning and evening weekday peak hours. With about 4,500 vehicles traveling through the intersection during the peak hour, there is no capacity in the signal cycle to allow for an exclusive pedestrian and cyclist phase.”

Comments like this irk me a little. It’s as though car traffic convenience is the dominant criterion, and convenience for non-car traffic is incidental. And pedestrian/bike safety is a non-priority. I’ve heard similar responses when I advocated for improvements to an intersection in Greenbelt. “Well, that intersection isn’t ‘failed,’ so we don’t need to fix it” was the response. As in, traffic isn’t inconvenienced by unusual delays more than an hour or so each day. I responded, well to me the intersection is a “failure” if there have been lots of crashes and injuries and it’s a hazard for bike and pedistrians, not if car traffic is delayed once in a while. They’ve defined the measurement of “failure” totally based on car traffic convenience, without factoring in safety and non-car traffic convenience at all. To me, safety should be just as high a priority as congestion, and convenience for drive-through traffic shouldn’t be a higher priority than convenience to local people who just want to cross the dang road to get to the other part of their neighborhood! OK, rant over..

[Greenbelt]

I can’t help you specifically, but when I use Google bike directions from point to point, sometimes the most direct route that shows up is on streets that are too busy for me. So I sometimes experiment by dragging the route line up or down to see some alternatives that might be longer in miles but less traffic. I’ve read about riders going through Fort Myer to connect with the bike trails, but there may be some restrictions. Good luck!

[Greenbelt]

I think I linked to this “instructional video” before probably, so apologies for the redundancy, but still… it was a fun one. The rain really gets going a little after the 1 minute mark.
[video=vimeo;26239230]http://www.vimeo.com/26239230[/video]

[Greenbelt]

Riding in the rain does seem just a little naughty, doesn’t it?

[Greenbelt]

@americancyclo 6762 wrote:

At what point did you decide to start filming, and was it motivated by fun or safety?

Officially, I got the helmet cam just to show the route more than anything. That was my excuse anyway. I’ve run into a lot of people who were like me and never even imagined that you could do a low-traffic commute from way out here all the way to DC. So now if somebody Googles “bike Greenbelt to DC” or “bike College Park to DC” they can see some examples of a route. But now it’s just mostly for fun.

[Greenbelt]

Hi BR40 — glad to hear you’re taking up longer distance commuting. I think the hybrid vs. road bike issue is a question of trade offs between comfort and efficiency. I generally think what happens is that riders gradually get faster over time, and they tend to make tradeoffs for more efficiency. As you get faster, wind resistance becomes a bigger issue. Likewise, the more aggressive posture of road bikes or cyclocross bikes helps me put more force on the pedals than an upright position like on my mountain bike, where I feel like my legs are doing most the work and I’m not putting my whole body into the pedal motion. Finally, wider lower pressure tires are more comfortable, have great traction, and are less prone to flats, but also are heavier and have more rolling resistance than narrower, higher pressure tires. I think the main thing at first is comfort, but if you find that you’re really tiring yourself out as you get faster, maybe an upgrade to a road bike or a cyclocross-style bike would make sense. I started a thread a while back asking what would be the perfect bike for a long-distance commuter, and got some great comments — the only problem is that when you start thinking about the perfect bike, you can get in to the fantasy price range pretty quickly! http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?834-Ultimate-longer-distance-commuter-bike

[Author]

Posts