Hi!
I commute regularly from TakPk to near the White House. I’ve been doing it for about eight years now, and through trial and error I’ve found it’s best to go home through Howard University and up Seventh Street. You get a bike lane along the resevoir and up Seventh, and the traffic circle on Kansas Ave. is relatively mellow. Once you hit that traffic circle, stay on Kansas Ave. I generally turn left on Third Street – no bike lane, but relatively little traffic and wide street. That puts you at Coolidge High, a few blocks short of Takoma Metro.
Going in, take the same route but turn off Kansas onto Fifth Street, before you hit the traffic circle.
Downtown you have a few options, but there’s more traffic. I generally go by the 9:30 club to Vermont, then Logan Circle to 13th. But I wouldn’t do that with a toddler trailer. Perhaps Ninth Street south to R, where there’s a bike lane, and take that west.
Best of luck!
