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Methinks a bicycle is a better way to become “familiar with the trail”. Just saying

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Yeah, the major highways are often the gentlest in terms of slope… both because the oldest routes were chosen that way and because modern highways are engineered for convenience. But the drivers? Not so gentle.

@Terpfan 115423 wrote:

I sometimes cut through Rose Hill, but I find the actual hill there to be more annoying then if I climb it on the other side by Beacon Hill (the easiest climb of that long ridge from the north is arguably Rt 1, but it’s not fun).

Do you mean the climb on Belle View / Beacon Hill Road? If I recall correctly, there’s at least one pretty steep stretch in there. Maybe the curve just past the rec center at Fort Hunt?

What’s especially efficient about this route through Franconia is that after you climb about 150 feet up from the Clermont Connector, it is then completely flat for the next six miles. Franconia Road itself isn’t great, but there is a sidewalk and there are very few pedestrians. I’ll either ride fast on Franconia Road if traffic is light (typical in the morning), or slow on the sidewalk if it’s heavy (typical in the afternoon). There are various alternatives (e.g. Castlewellan to Lake Village) that add a bit of time (and a few very small hills) but which avoid that road. I find the initial climb somewhat easier on Glenwood rather than Clermont; I don’t think it exceeds 10% anywhere.

I believe the fastest route may actually be simply Eisenhower to the “trail” alongside Van Dorn. But I prefer to climb in a quiet residential neighborhood rather than on a narrow sidewalk a few feet from oncoming cars flying down that hill under the Beltway.

Any route from Old Town that goes south and east of this one will have ups and downs due to stream crossings and the ridges between them. In particular, Dogue Creek is a valley significantly lower than the surrounding terrain, all the way from TopGolf (on Van Dorn) down to the Potomac River. Beulah straddles the line between the Dogue and Accotink Creek watersheds, so there aren’t any streams to cross.

If you’re going further south, of course, you have to cross Accotink and Pohick creeks before the Occoquan, and there’s a significant ridge between each one of those.

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It amazes me how different it feels to ride on Telegraph (rather scary) vs. Beulah (mostly pleasant), given that the road designs are essentially the same. I guess it’s a combination of the higher speed limit and the hills. To be clear, since I’m unfamiliar with the part in question, I’m talking about the portion of Telegraph southwest of Beulah here. I imagine the new part is similarly dicey, given the terrain.

Also I have never understood the choice for the US Bike Route 1 designation. If one desires to ride from Alexandria to Lorton, a better route (much quicker, and much safer IMO) is: Eisenhower to Clermont connector, cut through Rose Hill and Franconia, then eventually Beulah to Telegraph. Mount Vernon Trail is okay but it takes you far out of your way, and then you have to ride several miles on high-speed highways with limited or no shoulders. Richmond Hwy through Fort Belvoir is insane (never ridden there and plan to avoid it, at least until the improvements are done), but I’m not fond of Route 235 between Woodlawn and the MVT either.

Granted, the route I use through Rose Hill is entirely residential and involves something like 12 turns plus a bunch of stop signs. So perhaps not worthy of being labeled a bicycle highway. But I’ll choose that over the Fort Belvoir stretch of Route 1 any day.

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As of today, FPCON raised to BRAVO.

Expect further increased difficulty accessing Fort Myer, Belvoir, etc.

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Unless those babies have boots on the ground, it’s a stretch to classify them as “pedestrians”.

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I should emphasize my lack of certainty on that. I haven’t tried to access Ft Belvoir without a CAC. I do know that a colleague of mine accidentally left hers in the office one evening and then had to go through an hour-long process at the Tulley Gate visitor center the next morning just to get back to her office. So that seems like a best-case scenario for someone without federal ID.

It may be a similar procedure to what is being discussed in the other thread on changes to the access policy at Fort Myer.

Obviously the best long-term solution would be a safe place to ride in the Route 1 corridor. Better conditions on Telegraph Road would also help to make the new Jeff Todd Way more useful. Have the Telegraph Road bike lanes been extended east of Beulah? I come through that intersection on Beulah often, but I haven’t been on that section of Telegraph in over a year.

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AFAIK, federal ID (e.g. CAC) is now required to enter Fort Belvoir.

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@Steve O 115102 wrote:

serving no particular purpose that I can discern

To prevent those pesky bicycle riders from clogging up traffic in the parking lot?

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@rcannon100 115104 wrote:

Those are historical porta-potties. GW pooped there.

While his SUV was parked in the lot, no doubt.

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@chris_s 115084 wrote:

Word on the street is that NPS is saying that they are supportive publicly while at the staff level pushing to shift the station locations in a way that either makes them useless or delays them ridiculously.

Stuff like:
instead of bikeshare at the airport, bikeshare in Crystal city right next to the trail connector (90% less useful for reaching the airport)
instead of bikeshare on NPS property at the cemetery, bikeshare on cemetery property (passing the buck…)
instead of bikeshare at Roosevelt Island, more bikeshare in Rosslyn near the trail (90% less useful for bikesharing to Roosevelt Island)
instead of bikeshare at the Air Force Memorial, more bikeshare in Pentagon City (90% less useful for reaching the memorial)

I’m guessing there is some history here of which I am unaware.

You are implying that NPS is actively seeking to sabotage bikeshare under the radar while avoiding any appearance of responsibility. Which begs the question… why? If NPS seeks to block bikeshare, why not just come out and say so and why? There’s going to be public debate over it at some level anyway, so why not participate?

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Those markers look about right to me, but I rarely go that way so I’m sure someone here has a better answer.

A slightly related question: the local Army bases require helmets (as well as federal ID) for riders. There are no ID checkpoints for riding streets through the Pentagon reservation (Rotary Road, Connector Road, Boundary Channel Drive, etc.), but would people riding this route be required to wear helmets?

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@dasgeh 114892 wrote:

too dangerous to be useful

But usefulness is all relative, right? It’s useful if it’s less dangerous than taking the lane on the Parkway. For instance, I’m not overly fond of riding on Columbia Pike, but it is especially useful from S. Orme to S. Courthouse. Further west, not so much, because there are other nicer options.

My experience with the Ffx Co Pkwy trail is the part south and east of Burke Lake. That and the Franconia-Springfield Parkway trail have similar issues (or at least they did when I last rode there in the fall): awful signage, poor pavement, some very rough bridge joints, inoperable beg buttons, etc.). Vegetation almost completely blocked the trail in a few spots. Yet it’s still quite usable compared to the alternatives.

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I wonder how much fleet management could reduce the variance in bicycle usage. Does the rebalancing algorithm treat the bikes as distinguishable or indistinguishable? As in, are CaBi employees told which bikes to pick up and where each one should be moved to, or simply how many?

Certainly maintenance flags are tied to specific bikes. If a particular bike is rarely used, should that also eventually trigger a maintenance flag, even if no user has done so? Or if a bike is disproportionately returned quickly? For instance, when I go up to a bike on the dock but have difficulty loosening the saddle-adjust lever, I’ll just move on to another bike without flagging it.

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Heading home on my second-ever bicycle commute, I felt something hit me in the head while passing under a tree. Next thing I knew I heard buzzing inside my helmet and got stung by at least one bee. Perhaps the helmet absorbed some of the impact even though it found a vent, but I’m pretty sure I would not have been stung without the helmet.

Regardless, I almost always wear a helmet. When I don’t, it’s usually when I’m riding CaBi. Those bikes are incredibly sturdy and slow, and seem like a much lower crash risk than mine.

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@dasgeh 114804 wrote:

Oh, and it’s hilly, but not that steep (at least on the segments I’ve been on)

Have you ridden the block from Thomas to Upshur? (Not sure if that’s technically 26th or 31st there) Anyway riding from Military to Marymount is a nice little workout.

I did not realize that 26th street was continuous so far west from there. That is good to know. When I go that way, I usually take Yorktown Blvd, which also feels very bike-friendly and has lots of small rollers. Yorktown is a little far north to serve as an alternative to Lee Hwy for local traffic though.

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