[oxie]

I’ve had this issue too, since my favorite commute route involves taking 17th to L to 15th. WABA has a Cycletrack 101 page that gives the following options for turning right from the L St lane:

-Wait for a pedestrian signal and cross traffic in the crosswalk.
-Maneuver in line with the traffic waiting at the cross street. Proceed across the intersection when the light changes.
-If you are comfortable doing so, before reaching the intersection, merge into the main roadway and over to the rightmost lane, then turn as normal. Remember to yield to oncoming traffic and be safe, if you choose this method.

I’ve personally found that the last one works best for me at 15th St — so I just basically stay in the right lane for the couple blocks that I’m on L St. If you’re on L St for a while, though, maybe it would be best to wait til you hit your last red light before 15th and use that as an opportunity to get over to the far right lane?

[oxie]

I totally agree on avoiding 16th St. I usually take 17th Street southbound most of the way and then cut over on L St. 17th is a lot faster than 15th but not as hectic as 14th AND you get to ogle cute dogs at the S St dog park. Going north from downtown I usually take 12th, sometimes 11th, and then cut over on R St to 18th. Both 12th and 11th are a little stressful before the bike lanes begin, but not too bad.

[oxie]

Hi! I have a very similar commute. I take Connecticut Ave to Adams Morgan in the mornings. If you’re on Connecticut during rush hour times when the parking restrictions are in place and drivers have plenty of other lanes to pass you in, it can be pretty fun.

In the evenings I prefer to take side streets to the west of Connecticut Ave. It’s a bit longer and hillier, but I’m not that fast on hills and I rarely make it out of work before the parking restrictions are lifted at 6:30 so I feel more comfortable on quieter streets. I roughly follow the bike route with sharrows (you can see it in Google Maps when you hit the bicycling option). I make a few tweaks to that — the biggest one is that I don’t try to take Warren St across Reno Rd, instead I take Van Ness St to 38th St to Albemarle St — but overall it’s a really nice ride.

I’m afraid I don’t have much experience taking RCP — it’s not that accessible from my apartment and I prefer being on streets for my commute.

Hope that helps!

[oxie]

If you don’t own a bike or if you aren’t sure you want (or even are able) to bike the whole way, Bikeshare can be a great way to get your feet wet. I started out using CaBi, just going from downtown to Dupont Circle at first and then to Adam’s Morgan and then to Cleveland Park and then to Van Ness… and then I decided I needed my own bike to get me all the way home!

In addition to having some time outside and exercising every day, one big thing I love about bike commuting is how it really puts you in control of your schedule. I’m no longer at the mercy of the bus and metro and I don’t really get caught up in traffic snarls. Since I’ve gotten a hang of the light signal patterns and how fast I can go at different levels of effort, I’m now able to tell with a high degree of certainty exactly how long it’s going to take me to get to work.

[oxie]

To the cyclist who helped put my chain back on when it fell off this morning as I was turning off the Rock Creek Park trail near P St: thank you so much! I was pretty flustered by that happening to me for the first time and being on the off-ramp, so I’m not sure that I properly expressed my gratitude. I’m going to try to learn how to do that myself in the future, but if you read this forum I just wanted to say thank you so much — you saved me from from a long walk of shame to the Bike Rack!

[oxie]

I’ll have to give Tilden a try! I’ve been a little bit shy about going across the park that far north ever since I made the mistake of following bikeplanner.org’s suggestion that Klingle Rd/Porter St was the most bike friendly AND least hilly route… But it’s probably worth giving it another try.

I’ve been staying on Connecticut more lately, riding in the street in the middle of right traffic lane. It’s been pretty fun — I find that as long as I’m good about taking the lane, cars tend to be willing to give me enough room when passing. Taking the side streets takes longer, but it is a bit less stressful since there are fewer cars. I think I’ll probably vary my route based on my hill v. traffic tolerance.

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