[Steve]

Also, if you are just looking for a spot that you can bike into the city from, Crystal City has a lot of hotels and easy access to the Mount Vernon Trail, basically cutting the trip into the city in half.

[Steve]

“Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years.”–The Sun

Ok, the sun wasn’t out, but there was some color (pinks and blues) in the sky on my commute for the first time in a long time. It made me happy.

[Steve]

I’m sure you’ve tried to figure out different ways to store them in the APT, but here’s some pretty cool ideas, some pricey, some less pricey:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/12-space-saving-bike-rack-solutions

[Steve]

Thank you for all the hard work on this.

On that note, I figured if anyone would get a little chuckle out of the placement of the NPS service truck today, it’d be you:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2431[/ATTACH]

[Steve]

@dasgeh 43991 wrote:

did I see someone call it the Custis Chute

If my memory serves me correct, I believe that is what the strava segment there is called.

[Steve]

@rcannon100 43990 wrote:

According to official statements from NPS, that’s not why they are put there. They were put there because of construction traffic. The problem is that it has a rather significant impact on the safety of cyclists.

As would construction traffic?

Look, I’m not saying I like them. That wasn’t the intent of my original post. And when they aren’t there, I typically ride thru the parking lot, though not if the lot entrance is blocked by people stretching or riding up the other way. But I guess I just think in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me. Maybe I’m wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time. To call the danger of the barriers or the right turns “significant” just doesn’t quite add up to my experiences. The barriers are easy to see, and the turns, though tight and narrow, I’ve never seen a wreck, not that have to wait for a wreck to fix something. Again, I know it’s not ideal, and it should be fixed probably, but in the list of things on my commute I’d like to see changed, this isn’t even close to the top of the list.

1. Remove the many broken bottles on the Douglass Bridge and path to JBAB. Like, they’re everywhere.
2. Remove the sand from the base of the Douglas Bridge (courtesy of the sand/gravel place at the northwest end of the bridge)
3. Remove gravel from a continuously growing number of Arlington bike lanes, typically near construction zones (Veitch from Lee to Wilson, Fairfax by GMU campus, Wilson by Earl’s in Courthouse, etc.)
4. Pave over vertical cuts on Calrendon Blvd bike lane from basically Highland to just beyond Barton (puts my in the lane all the way thru Clarendon each morning).

[Steve]

I think the right angle turns are a fair way to slow bike traffic thru and area with a lof of people and congestion. I’ve said it before on here, if we are going to advocate for many streets to have a tight turning radius to slow cars down, that we also have to accept them when appropriate for bikes. Every bike route shouldn’t be a bike highway. There are cars, lots of peds, different activities (kayaks drop in here, fishing, etc), and bikes going thru a fairly small area here. Slowing things down a little doesn’t seem out of line to me.

[Steve]

@slowtriguy 43923 wrote:

Point taken!

W&OD -> Custis -> Lincoln turnoff on one end and W&OD -> Bluemont on the other.

I assume then you’re going to somewhere up by Quincy/Lincoln. Not that its much different, but a lot of times to get up there I do W&OD -> Access turn off at S Columbus/S Park/S Aberdeen -> Cross 50 at Henderson/Quincy and ride straight up to Ballston. Just a thought if you are looking for slightly different scenery (especially because all the Bluemont crossings can be a little less than fun.

[Steve]

I have a hard time getting too mad about this one. All the barriers do is force you to stay on the bike trail and not cut thru a parking lot. It seems reasonable that when provided a paved MUP about two feet away, NPS or whoever doesn’t want you to ride thru the parking lot.

[Steve]

@acc 43817 wrote:

Eat at Magnolias. Have a beer. Ride back.

Or do the same at Carolina Brothers BBQ in Ashburn. Mmmmmmmm. Plus maybe a little easier to “only” have another ~30 or so miles left on the ride, not ~50.

[Steve]

@DismalScientist 43871 wrote:

Good idea, but why a place like Ballston for a park and ride “facility”? There are areas with free parking located near the trails. Westover park? Bluemont park? The parking lot over I-66? The could potentially be co-located with a pit stop and could encourage such driving and riding behavior.

Those are really good ideas too. I think I said Ballston just because it is right off 66, well known to most people, even those not from Arlington, near an existing pit-stop, there is a lot of parking, and I was fairly sure the county owned the lot. I also thought perhaps the county would like the idea of attracting people into a commerce center. You figure maybe people eat something or grab a drink in Ballston on the way home or something like that.

That being said, some of your ideas are really good too, I just hadn’t thought about them. Like a park-and-ride pit-stop, I could see that being very effective, because that could be a long term solution for people (if its free every day, folks might realize how easily they can do it). The only bad part about parks is that there probably isn’t security at the parking lot, though the Mall some may say has none either.

[Steve]

I was thinking about Bike to Work Day in terms of people trying this for the first time. Many of us think about it as a home-work ride, but for some, that’s just not possible. Part of BtWD is encouraging people to ride part of their trip, like ride to the metro, or park and ride. I wonder if any of the participating counties or BIDs would consider providing free or reduced parking for people trying to participate in part (drive to a ride point). I think that Arlington owns the Ballston Mall parking garage (at least it had to go to county approval to raise rates, so I imagine they do). Ballston is a great launch point for BtWD because of its access to a number of the trails. Does anyone know if there is a way to request that the county support reduced or free parking at the mall for the day for anyone with a printed registration for BtWD?

Just a thought.

[Steve]

@TwoWheelsDC 43780 wrote:

My wife hates that I did this, but before I got my garment bag pannier (one of the best bike-related purchases I’ve made in a while), I put my dress clothes (shirt/tie/suit pants) in a rectangular tupperware container and carried it in a pannier or backpack.

That is so awesome.

As an aside, I find that rolling clothes as opposed to folding them helps a lot with reducing wrinkles. My Grandpa owned a clothing store and ALWAYS wore suits, and he said that with suit jackets, it is best to turn them inside-out before folding to prevent creases.

[Steve]

@essigmw 43673 wrote:

I commute to the Navy yard every day.

Beat me by mere seconds (or minutes)!

[Steve]

Here is the way I went when I worked at the Navy Yard (I worked there until recently): http://goo.gl/7ud1P

To me that’s the safest/easiest way to get there. There is no gate at the southern entrance, unfortunately. This route keeps you off M St. until the last block, which is usually backed up with people getting onto base (i.e. slow going there).

As far as getting cleaned up/etc, there is a free gym in the building that Google Maps shows in the middle as housing “Rice King.” The gym is right off the food court in that building. It is free to anyone with a CAC Card. You have to sign up, but if you have one, my guess is they will allow you to use it for the week without signing up. They might just give you temporary access to use it. There are showers and a locker room there. While I don’t think you can leave things there overnight, my guess if little would be done if you left things during the day. Also, they have towels there if you need to shower. There are bike racks in the parking garages. A main one is inbetween Isaac Hull and Patterson, south of Tingey. They racks are wheel busters, but if you get there early you can park it on the side of the rack. Either way they can usually get the job done and lots of people use them. They are safe.

I think that about covers it for me. If you have more questions, please let me know and I’d be happy to try and help. I think someone else on the forum commutes there (can’t remember who), so they might be able to provide more guidance.

[Author]

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