Wet leaves. They happen. Avoid them if you can, but don't get too far out of your way.
I rode next to a Maserati today. What's the difference between a Maserati driver and a BMW driver? About a half an inch, maybe. (What? I'm talking about how closely they pass you. Get your mind out of the gutter.)
I deliberately rode slowly down Massachusetts. Not slowly enough because a considerable line of car traffic awaited me at the bottom. I rode in the "no curb lane" lane, which is closed to cars in the afternoon because it's the entrance to the Park That Turns Into A Highway for Whatever Reason Road an that runs only outbound in the afternoon. I recommend riding in that lane and then merging after the light at Waterside Drive. Typically there's some space there, but you can always bail to the sidewalk. Perhaps that would have been better, since I was almost struck by a gray Mercedes (which I believe is what you get when a black one mates with a white one) pulling out from a parking spot. Close, but no cigar.
I wonder where everyone is in the afternoon. R street is always crowded in the morning, but there's rarely any traffic on Q.
11th street is great, especially from Rhode Island to Massachusetts, where there's a bike lane. Only problem is the buses and their drivers, who make you work. They'll block the bike lane at a stop and when you try to ride around them, they'll pull back out and it takes some real effort to get around them because they're moving pretty quickly to get through the route. #everyrideisahustle
Sometimes I wonder if downtown drivers all have some kind of amnesia. "What? Congestion? Again? Today? I can't believe it! Let me honk it away! HONK! Why is it still here? Why? WHYYYYYY?" What if the anti-honking ordinance (not ordnance) was enforced? Noise pollution is lame. It's rather lame between Massachusetts and H Street.
G to 10th to Pennsylvania to up the hill to home. At this point it was proper raining and I wasn't terribly happy about it. Sometimes you just have to get home. It wasn't cold, so I'm grateful. If you convince yourself that it could always be worse, it helps and you'll have no problem bike commuting year round.
You're absolutely right - it could always be worse! Imagine "proper raining" in December with some sleet thrown in. I'd rather have snow anytime than freezing rain.
ReplyDeleteGood for you. I gave up at all the traffic around McPherson and threw my bike on the bus. Which just made it even worse, because I was huffy, not cycling, and got home late.
ReplyDelete@Rachel: it's almost always better to just keep biking. No matter how bad it is, the bus will almost always be worse.
ReplyDeleteSo true. I know there are some people whose best option is to drive into the city, but for the rest of them, how can it be worth the headache? Traffic is always maddening.
ReplyDelete@ultrarunnergirl: This is something I think about a lot. I think that they've convinced themselves (or made it such) that traffic is an unavoidable fact of life and there's nothing they can do about it. People make their mode choices for a lot of reasons and I think once they make the decision (bike commuters included), they rarely reconsider them and their hassles just fade into the background, even though they remain glaring everyone who goes a different way.
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