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[QUOTE=Steve Whitehurst expressway. I know this seems crazy, but I think it’s actually safer than M St. No intersections, good sightlines for the cars, downhill start to get speed, traffic often stopped anyway towards the end–so it’s not like they are zooming by.

Are bikes legal on the Whitehurst? I guess I always assumed they weren’t (outside of Bike DC).

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I couldn’t begin to count the number of lectures or talks I’ve given over the years where I use AAA as an example of an interest group acting in the name of a membership that doesn’t even know it’s an interest group. Here’s a typical scenario. I ask: “How many of you belong to AAA?” The number of hands that goes up usually ranges from 50% to 75%. “Why do you belong?” Towing service is always the modal answer, some people mention maps or their travel service, students use to mention the bail bond service (!). I then ask: “How many of you know AAA lobbies Congress and state legislatures on various transportation issues?” The most hands up I ever got was 10 in an audience of about 100. “Okay, can anyone name a stance AAA takes on an issue?” What I almost always get at that point is crickets. People join AAA for the services they get. I think most people see AAA as utterly apolitical. It’s just an organization they do business with. But AAA turns around and uses that large membership to help pursue policies supposedly in that membership’s name when the membership really doesn’t know the first thing about what AAA is doing. It’s a real nice racket.

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There’s something vvill said that I think needs augmenting. That’s the test drive. Personally I think it’s a real bad idea to purchase a bike without riding it first. One of the truest cliches in biking is that you really need to get a bike that fits. It can be hard to tell if a bike really works for you from specs alone. I bought a bike once for my wife as a gift and I knew her specs really well. She hated it and developed all sorts of hip and knee issues from it. Not my smoothest move. I’m not saying it’s always a bad idea to buy online from BD, ebay, whatever, but it is a good idea to test drive the same frame first (testing the same components is less important). This then gets into fairness issues for the LBS if you test their models and then order online, but I’ll leave that discussion for another time.

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What jabberwocky said is right. According to my 910xt my last four commutes home saw total elevation gains of 627, 561, 499, & 617 feet. My commute to work gains were 472, 348, 344, & 335. Part of my commute runs the full length of the Custis so you can see that it’s showing more climbing westbound (commute home), but it’s the exact same route every time with ranges over 100 feet. So either some very interesting things are happening to the hills on the Custis or the altimeter just manages to roughly approximate. It’s still pretty cool technology but it’s one part of the 910xt that’s not ready for primetime.

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I had a “nice” run-in with Sparky McSparkles today on H street in Foggy Bottom around noon. Green shirt and courier bag. Old enough to know better. Riding one handed while yakking it up on a phone. He blew through a stop sign (luckily for him the car with the ROW stopped in time), nearly mowed down a pedestrian in a cross-walk, and then swerved way across the road. He would have nailed me but I was pretty much anticipating anything he might pull in my direction. In other words, a poster child for why motorists and pedestrians (who also tend to be motorists) hate us all. I chastised him and got the exact reaction I expected. Oh well. It’s sure a nice day out, regardless.

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The OP has a long and complicated bike commute. I don’t think I would take that one on very often. I was fortunate enough to be able to choose a neighborhood with bike commuting in mind. (It wasn’t the only factor, of course, but a big one.) It’s exactly 8 miles one way (North Arlington to Foggy Bottom). On average it’s 35 minutes in, 42 minutes back. My vague memory on the research is that most bike commuters are 5 miles one way or less. That’s surely affected by available infrastructure.

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After a miserable run Tuesday night, I totally wimped yesterday and drove to work. Driving home yesterday PM on the GW Parkway there was a car swerving, speeding up, slowing down. People are lane changing like crazy to avoid it. I pass. It’s a lady doing her nails. Guess she had a hot date. I’ve heard of stuff like this but never actually saw it before (other than cell phone users, of course). On a road with cyclists she could have easily killed someone. Gack.

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@Rod Smith 40921 wrote:

I don’t believe any Livestrong funds went to cancer research.

I’m always pretty loath to get into Lance threads but on Livestrong I’ll say a couple of things. They did at one time fund research. That stopped a couple of years ago and it was never a huge amount of money (relatively speaking). But there’s always been a perception out there that Livestrong is a research funder. I think that came about in part due to people simply assuming, in part due to journalistic laziness, in part due to the little bit of research funding they did (once) provide, in part due to the fact that Lance talks about research all the time, and in part, frankly and more cynically, because Lance and the Livestrong organization didn’t try to dispel the perception.

Lance did at one time spend a lot of time lobbying for more public funding of cancer research. Personally I think it makes little sense for a foundation like Livestrong to fund medical research. Cancer research is a highly specialized, high economies-of-scale, incredibly and increasingly sophisticated enterprise. Competently evaluating proposals (let alone overseeing and evaluating funded projects) requires a sort of expertise and infrastructure that’s really hard to create and maintain. In short, I personally think we’re way better off — that we get way more “bang for the buck” — by having medical research funded and overseen by NIH (and other comparable organizations around the world). Granted there are definite downsides to this approach, but overall it makes more sense. Therefore, in my view, Livestrong’s research focus should be on building more support for government funding of cancer research.

So what does Livestrong do? The problem is that it’s kind of hard to explain. Everyone understands, more or less, what we mean by research. Some of their efforts are directed towards helping cancer victims figure out insurance, figure out medical jargon, figure out treatment options, etc. In other words, they’re kind of a support organization for cancer victims and survivors in remission. I dealt with this part of the organization a little bit when my Mother had cancer and found them fairly useful. I’ve heard others with similar stories but also others who found Livestrong not so useful. In general I do think there’s a lot of good work being down out there by foundations that’s not about medical research. Ronald McDonald House is a great example.

The rest that Livestrong does seems to be more PR oriented. A lot of it is directed towards influencing public affairs. A lot of it is about that nebulous concept of “increasing cancer awareness.” I think potential donors really do need to think about whether these awareness campaigns (Komen as well) are that valuable. I’m a bit skeptical overall on that point.

Finally, there are, of course, real issues about Livestrong and it’s two variants (.org & .com) and various other conflict-of-interest issues involving Lance. These concerns are more than enough to keep me from contributing.

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@brownnugen 40035 wrote:

Right now, the only thing I am hesitant on are the schools. When I checked out Rose Hill Elementary on the Greatschools website, I saw it was only rated 4 out of 10. I have school age kids and anticipate anyone that would want to rent or buy this house when I get transferred out of the area will also likely take into consideration the schools. There is also Clermont Elementary school very close by that gets a 9 out of 10, but the houses in that area are significantly more expensive. I am not sure how much of a premium it is worth paying to be in the Clermont versus Rose Hill school zone. I also noticed that once out of elementary school, all of those Clermont kids will go to the same middle and high school (Twain and Edison).

I would appreciate your thoughts on the schooling issue. This is an expensive investment and I just need to make the best educated decision. .
-Nick

I used to live in exactly this neighborhood (on La Vista, a bit north of Franconia). Had we not moved to Arlington my kids would have gone to Clermont (and then Twain & Edison). All three have good reputations and Edison just upgraded its facilities. It is true that Rose Hill (and Bush Hill, which is also in that neighborhood) suffer from lesser reputations than Clermont, but not dramatically so. I don’t know what criteria the goodschools website uses. Overall I think there are more kids at Rose Hill that have English as their second language so it’s distinctly possible that that that school fares worse on the SOLs (standardized tests) than Clermont, merely because of that (and not so much because of the relative qualities of the schools themselves). That said, the Clermont attendance zone does include much more in the way of what we call McMansions than Rose Hill. But the Clermont area actually does feature fairly diverse housing stock. There are still plenty of solid 1950s era houses in there that are relatively affordable, such as the one we lived in. (Of course, they are all ridiculously expensive compared to most other places; in this area you lot is typically assessed at a much higher amount than your actual house.)

Lots of current and retired military live down there. (Belvoir is fairly close.) I found bike commuting from there a challenge because I had to go down to the Eisenhower connector, wind through Alexandria, and then catch the MVT. But driving, especially home in the afternoon, was far far worse (I work in Foggy Bottom).

Some of the work I do involves studying what goes into housing prices. In this area, proximity to the District and quality of schools have dramatic effects, but there’s not a lot of evidence that elementary schools by themselves make a big difference (relative to the middle and high schools). In other words, if you have two exact houses across the street from each other, but they are assigned to different elementary schools (but the same middle & high schools) you shouldn’t see a dramatic difference.

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@brownnugen 38500 wrote:

I’m not considering living in DC. Some people recommended Montgomery or Anne Arundel County in Maryland. Montgomery County is a possibility (Silver Spring or Takoma), but I am thinking more of the Mount Vernon area because of the closer proximity to other military bases and I heard the taxes are much worse there. I think Anne Arundel would just be too far to bike in, so I would end up having to drive everyday. Plus, at the new work site, unless you are a Flag officer or SES or in a car/vanpool, there is no parking for you.

Let me think through a couple of options. You suggested the Mount Vernon area. You’re right, there’s lots of military installations down that way so I’m sure that’s a nice resource for your family. Plus you can find good schools down there. Commuting by car you’re talking about coming up the GW Parkway and then probably across the Wilson and up. If you’re an early bird that’s great in the morning. I could see some pm commutes being painful. (I used to live in Alexandria.) Another downside to the Mount Vernon area is the lack of Metro rail access. Biking I’m going to suggest something a bit different. You could come up the Mount Vernon trail but rather than cross the Wilson you could go all the up to the 14th and then come back down through the SW Waterfront area, cross the Frederick Douglass, and then head south straight into work. By bypassing the Wilson you miss some difficult street routes and you skip the dodgier parts of Anacostia. I can think of three downsides: 1) the southern part of the MVT is narrow and twisty and prone to unpredictable tourist traffic in the heart of summer; 2) you’re definitely adding some miles. Eyeballing it on a map it looks to be like it’s about 19 miles. Going over the Wilson through Anacostia is probably something like 15; & 3) The Douglass Bridge isn’t great. My memory of that is it has a narrow sidewalk that crosses over. Driving in the lane is not really an option I don’t think. No doubt people can point out where this idea is wacky. (Oh another plus, you can easily detour to Hains Point if you feel like playing hooky. :cool:)

If you buy my biking idea then this also makes Arlington and places like Vienna and Falls Church viable. You can easily bike from those locations and go over the 14th Street bridge and continue on in the way I described. You’ve got terrific schools in Arlington (as well as in V and FC). Plus you’d have great Metro rail access. You don’t have as much in the way of military installations (there’s Fort Myer in Arlington). As some have noted, I-66 has HOV restrictions. So if you’re driving in alone that’s an issue. However, if you were in North Arlington you could easily take GW Parkway to the 14th Street Bridge. If you were in South Arlington you’d be taking 395 so the HOV isn’t an issue.

I know you’re getting lots of opinions. I’m very happy that I chose to rent before buying as it let me access things carefully. But moving around a lot is a pain, especially if it means transferring kids across schools. Good luck.

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@Tim Kelley 38018 wrote:

Great–please let us know if you hear anything in response!

I received a nice note back. Basically they are planning to put up dismount signs. I know this will displease some, and likely many of us will ignore them, but it makes sense under the circumstances. They also plan to monitor the path for icing. I’ll see how it goes and if need be use the Key or Chain Bridge.

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@Tim Kelley 37907 wrote:

Has anyone shared their concerns with the listed contact?

I did. Here’s what I wrote:

Hi:

I wanted to give you some feedback on the planned sidewalk maintenance and resulting detour. I commute through there by bike pretty much daily, even in the dark of winter. First, I understand and appreciate the need to upgrade the path. (Hopefully this time one of my fellow cyclists won’t run his tire through the wet cement!) Also thanks very much for doing this in January and for giving us so much warning. That’s really appreciated by everyone.

I do think the detour is problematic, though I recognize that there’s not really a practical alternative. Coming from the bridge a cyclist must make a 90-degree turn into a narrow gap and then onto a steep downward path that twists away from the entrance. That’s tricky in dry well-lit conditions without oncoming traffic. Change any of those variables and problems occur. Likewise a person heading to the bridge must go up a steep path and then make a sharp turn onto the trail (something that’s virtually impossible to do without heading into the oncoming-traffic side of the trail).

As much as I hate it, I think you may find that you need to designate the asphalt path part of the detour as walking only. Regardless I strongly urge the Kennedy center to make sure that the asphalt path is well treated, even in dry conditions. I went down it once on a frosty morning and it was very slick.

Thanks. Here’s hoping the weather makes the project quick and painless.

garry

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I guarantee you whomever came up with that detour has never actually ridden down that thing and probably doesn’t believe people actually commute on the TR bridge. This is flat dangerous detour on several counts and I betcha they will put up “Walk Your Bike” signs from both ends (which many will ignore, of course). Coming from the bridge that is a 90 degree turn into a narrow gap onto a narrow and steep path. It’s tricky to do on a good day with no one coming from the other direction. Add any slickness or opposing traffic and look out. Some of us (cough) will probably just cut across the grass and ignore the path. Coming to the bridge riders will have to go up the steep path and then turn hard to the right. Most riders will swing wide into the other side of the lane, i.e., into opposing traffic. Gack!

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Getting people to think of bikes as utilitarian tools — rather than merely for recreation or fitness — is one of the biggest obstacles to increasing cycling in the US. It’s virtually a given in many parts of Europe. That said, in many respects I don’t see cycling as lazy. Instead every time I consider taking a utilitarian trip on my bike I have a conversation in my head. Can I get there from here efficiently and one piece? Work, sure. My kids’ schools, sure. My doctors, yep. Harris Teeter? A bit tricky but sure. Target? Hmmm. Home depot? Ugh. Once I get there what can I do with my bike? Work? My office. Harris Teeter? Well, I’ll lock it to this fence dealie. That kind of works. Doctors? Okay, well there’s that post over there. Hey who the hell stole my bike…. In other words, far too often I find the lazy way out to be not biking because of biking unfriendly roads, the ridiculously sparse amount of reasonable bike racks, and theft. Sorry to be so curmudgeonly.

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@rcannon100 36563 wrote:

Rootchopper recommended Ortlieb – and seems pretty good. They seem VERY water proof. And they seem simple to get on and off the bike – altho its hard to see exactly how that works. But it seems like simply one big bag – which is causing me to hesitate a little. Seems like keys or camera or multi tool will just sink to the bottom of my clothes, making it hard to fish things out on the trail. It is nice to have a few separate compartments.

So what does the peanut gallery think? What bags you got? What do you like, what not.

I’ve been quite happy with my Ortlieb bags. They’re big,they’re orange, they are indeed quite waterproof. Plus they are easy to clean. Yesterday I just wiped them down once I got home. They are easy to get on and off (there is a strap that when you pull it releases the rack clamps). Another great thing about them is that they are easy to adjust for different racks. However, as other haves noted, the interior lacks compartments. That’s not been an issue for me. Mine can really hold a lot as I daily bring in clothes, lunch box, thermos, various papers, and often a laptop as well.

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