@Subby 20619 wrote:
McLean is pretty bad for bike commuting. Unless you have direct access to Westmoreland (which has nice bike lanes), you are putting yourself in serious danger every time you bike commute.
I come home on Old Glebe to Kirby and both have sections with about as much shoulder as 123 coming up from the river does. It is very scary.
Old Dominion would be a great commuting option, but it also has little to no shoulder or sidewalk and during rush hour I would get pancaked.
So, luckily, I have access to Westmoreland. But going the same way each way every day gets boring – and it takes me about 2 milles out of the way.
Anyway. its all much better (just not safer) than driving.
Agreed. McLean sucks for cycling. The police don’t care either and they give the old favourite response of “cycling is getting more dangerous around here”, even though I’m pretty sure there are more and more cyclists and more bike lanes/sharrows.
Actually even Westmoreland isn’t the safest, especially south of Haycock towards the W&OD. At that point it has some serious potholes, no sharrows or bike lanes, and even north of Haycock there’s the middle school which means lots of impatient parent drivers, and school buses. I almost got left hooked there about a week ago (I had to brake suddenly). Some mornings I’ll actually take the sidewalk there.
If you’re worried about boredom and don’t mind hills, there are backstreet routes southwest of Old Dominion you can take (e.g. Valley Wood / Williamsburg / George Mason). Although I’ve almost been left hooked getting from there to the Custis as well (going downhill on Yorktown – where there is a bike lane but the paint has almost completely faded, and also going downhill on Lee Hwy where there is a clearly marked bike lane). Both times I had to brake suddenly enough that my rear tire came off the pavement; both times the driver sped past me on the left to turn right into a sidestreet in front of me, forcing me to react or crash.
I’m planning to experiment with a new route in June that takes me through the backstreets east of Westmoreland… Google Street View seems to indicate an option that’ll maybe be safer. I’ve had enough close calls that I’m now willing to take backstreets to the W&OD, even though a more direct commute via Old Dominion/Custis can get me to my office in under 9 miles (which I do on Friday mornings occasionally). Taking the W&OD makes my commute closer to 12 miles.
The McLean BTWD convoy used to go Kirby > Chesterbrook > Albemarle > N Glebe (120) > Old Dominion (309) > Lee Hwy > Quincy and then Custis to Roosevelt Bridge. That’s not too bad but if I was going to deal with Chesterbrook and climb Albemarle I’d rather go left on N Glebe and go up Old Glebe and cross Chain Bridge to go to the CCT.
but neither are all that great for riding more than a few miles on.)