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If you wish to avoid the left turn from westbound Huntington onto Blaine, here’s another alternative you might consider: you could turn right onto Mt Vernon Drive and then take Farrington to cross Huntington at a traffic signal. At which point it would probably be easy to just make a left onto Huntington eastbound and then a right onto Blaine, or you could take Biscayne up to one of the other streets.

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I’m not fond of the TR Bridge, but it’s definitely the best route to the Kennedy Center / Watergate area.

Is Irving to Clarendon legal? I usually take Highland through there and avoid that confusing intersection.

The Memorial Bridge option underscores the need for a Route 50 southside trail from Fillmore to Pershing. Who wants to cross 50 twice?

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@Tania 116486 wrote:

I think the reason I’ve gotten better on hills/faster in general is because I usually get shoaled at most stop signs/signals (because, you know, I’m a GIRL and clearly we’re slow). Which just makes me want to pass you going uphill that much more. 😎

And the flip side: if you’re going to pass somebody, it’s way more gratifying to do it while they’re actually moving!

Unless they’re cars stuck in traffic, of course

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The bike lane will probably improve things there a bit, but I wonder how much use it will get since the commercial district out along Sudley is pretty hostile to bicycles. Further west, Sudley Manor is a nasty stroad. It looks like there is an adjacent MUP in places, but not between Chatsworth and Sudley.

Maybe there will eventually be a trail connection to bridge over the stream between Splash Down and Loch Lomond?

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Neutral to mild positive sounds about right to me. The road choices appear to have been motivated by the ease of creating bike facilities without inconveniencing any drivers, not by how useful those facilities will be to actual bicyclists. I think it’s a case of checking a box to say “look here, we’re making bike lanes”: these are merely the low-hanging fruit, not the ripest.

Annandale Road:
Agree that sharrows and climbing lanes are the way to go with the hills on this road. Narrowing the lanes could help slow down drivers.

Backlick/Amherst:
Those three blocks are presently the only place on this road that’s not too bad to ride already. Not to mention there are parallel alternatives right there. So this is definitely a case of putting bike lanes where they are easy, not where they are needed. A full-on road diet is needed all the way from the Beltway to Annandale. I suspect traffic levels are too high to justify that under current metrics, but most of those drivers are just cutting through to avoid freeway congestion anyway. Also, the bridge over the railroad desperately needs sidewalks on both sides. I’ve seen pedestrians walking in the street over that bridge on multiple occasions. Perhaps another project is addressing that.

Franconia Road:
This is the biggest nugget here from my perspective. But again, the portion east of Van Dorn is not where most of the problem lies on this road. What is really needed is a bike lane running further west to connect with the existing lane at Beulah. Even better would be an extension much further west to Commerce Street, making it much easier to get across 95. But of course that would slow down drivers.

When I bike commute, I presently take the rightmost lane on Franconia westbound from Brookland to Beulah; traffic is very light early in the morning. In the afternoon, it always jams up approaching Van Dorn from the west, but then cars are off to the races as soon as they clear that intersection. I usually ride up Em, then filter past stopped cars using the sidewalk (pedestrians are rare) until the Edison HS parking lot, using the signal at the far side of the lot to create enough of a gap that I can cross the road back over to Brookland. I have tried using the lane from Van Dorn until the first Edison driveway (because that stretch of sidewalk is quite awful), but the drivers are just so aggressive there that I stopped doing that.

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Hey, those are real American churches and businesses you’re talking about.

These red bicycles, with their redistribution schemes, are socialist. Get the vans out of the way and surely those bikes will trickle down to where they are needed.

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For the reasons others have stated, I think the bike lane is probably the best place for the CaBi van at this station. (Unless there is room on the sidewalk near the edge of the bridge, behind the station)

If the van stays out of the bike lane but blocks the right travel lane, bikes traveling behind the van will also be temporarily invisible to the drivers turning onto M Street.

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I’ve resorted to just calling “passing”, but often end up saying it multiple times and slowing down a lot. Especially on the Potomac River bridges, because with the traffic noise and wind I have no idea at what range my voice becomes audible to others.

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@jrenaut 116268 wrote:

On the bright side, taking the lane there saves you from the daily attempts at right hooks. My favorite is the far left lane right hook without even looking. That’s extra-special.

I’ve only ridden through Thomas Circle a few times, but I’ve taken the lane every time. If someone still tries to right-hook you (from the left lane), you at least have more time to react.

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Me: CaBi rider behind two cars, southbound on N Garfield St in Clarendon, all of us approaching the 4-way stop at 11th Street N, around 6:30 last night
You: driver right in front of me

The car in front of you navigated the intersection correctly. But then you stayed back and didn’t move up to the stop line. Why? Because apparently a two-second pause is too long to go without texting. I yelled at you to wake up, but you didn’t hear me. So I started to inch forward enough that I could rap on your trunk, but before I had the chance, you momentarily escaped your obliviousness and noticed that the roadway was now clear to move forward.

But that’s all you noticed. You sure didn’t notice the red octagonal sign (which should have been really obvious given that it was the reason we had stopped in the first place!). Nor did you notice the pedestrian who had cautiously entered the near-side crosswalk but who then needed to step back as you blew way past the stop line (before suddenly slamming on your brakes only when you were already more than halfway across the intersection).

One good thing: the pedestrian and I did have the pleasure of exchanging brief remarks castigating you for your inattention.

Drive if you want to drive. Text if you want to text. BUT DON’T TRY TO DO BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.

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@Tim Kelley 115619 wrote:

It’s been opened up for testing, but we haven’t officially publicized it.

Don’t mean to pressure you, but it appears that PotomacCyclist’s summer plans hinge on your decision here

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@Becca 115640 wrote:

Any suggestions on routes? I’m new to the area, so I’m not sure if there are any trails near me (I don’t think so).

Hi Becca,

You did not indicate which side of 395 you are on. This makes a big difference because Duke & 395 is a tough interchange for riding, so I’d recommend crossing the freeway elsewhere if necessary.

In either case, Holmes Run Trail (HRT) is the only off-street trail close to you. And even if you’re totally comfortable with riding hills in traffic, you’ll have to at least cross HRT. So the first step is to find the best place to access it. West of 395, you can access the trail at Chambliss Street or at the intersection of Beauregard and Morgan. East of 395, you can access it from Van Dorn, Ripley, or Pickett. Cameron Station also offers good trail access further downstream; that could be convenient if you follow lordofthemark’s suggested route above.

Note that the trail tunnel under 395 is often wet, and sometimes floods, plus the concrete stream crossing at Ripley can also be submerged at times. Also watch out for the staircase at the Ripley crossing. Sanger Avenue is a useful alternate underpass. The bridges at Pickett and Cameron Station are reliable stream crossings, since they are much higher.

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@mstone 115523 wrote:

I’m not sure that freezing saddles has the ideal environmental conditions for this design.

If the lamp housing has an extremely high coefficient of thermal expansion, it could mimic the appropriate behavior.

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@Rockford10 115558 wrote:

identify important routes for people who choose to travel by bicycle

That’s easy: Lincoln Ave. I’ve heard that there’s a parallel route but it must not be important since it has a stop sign every block. 😡

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@thirstyman 115448 wrote:

I hope there will be a more bike-friendly route connecting the FCPT to the Mt Vernon trail, and maybe that will come with the US1 road project. In the meantime the best I’ve found is Newington Rd-Telegraph Rd-Jeff Todd Way-Mt Vernon Hwy.

There are only three options for getting to Mount Vernon from the west (i.e. Newington): Route 1 (yikes!), cutting through Fort Belvoir (requires federal ID), and Jeff Todd Way. Otherwise you’d have to go all the way around the north side of Huntley Meadows Park. So you’re not going to improve on that route much, at least until the construction makes Route 1 accessible. There are other ways of getting to Jeff Todd (Franconia-Springfield Parkway east either to Beulah or Hayfield), plus I’d choose Sacramento to Old Mill in order to avoid most of 235, but these are just personal preferences.

This assumes you are trying to reach the southern end of the MVT. If you want to access MVT at Alexandria instead, you can of course follow the route linked above, from F-S Metro station down to Eisenhower Ave.

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