Ride In 10/24

Can we stay this lucky with the weather? Can we? For just another couple of weeks? It's keeping people on their bikes well into October and that's pretty fantastic. I think that there were more people out today than there was on Friday and that's saying something since Friday was pretty chock full of bike types. I think that more people beginning to weigh the opportunity costs (and real costs) of their transit choices and, in their own individual cases, realizing that bicycling doesn't stack up badly at all. I hope that DC continues to make strides to improve the infrastructure for "close-in" people (the ones coming from only a couple of miles away), so that even more people feel comfortable riding. No, it won't reduce traffic on the Beltway, but it might make moving within the city (via car or Metro) marginally easier. But then again, I have no idea.
I'm still wearing shorts. For the sporty types who've switched to bike pants, it might be a warm ride home this afternoon.
Virginia license plate HAYEK on a pick-up truck. Friedrich or Salma? Trivia: one of them was a producer for Ugly Betty. (The answer might surprise you). Anyway, there's probably a joke in there somewhere about high gas prices and low fuel efficiency being the real Road to Serfdom, but I'm not going to actually make it. Or did I?
The pants-wearing biker in front of me on East Capitol proceeded through the Capitol grounds, which I've yet to try, sticking with Constitution to Pennsylvania. I think that the grounds might make for an easier transition to Penn Avenue, but it's only bad like every other day. On Penn Ave, some guy really pushing it on a Bianchi hybrid whizzed by and prompted me to ride along behind him as we caught light after light riding an a not insignificant speed. As we approached stop lights or jaywalking pedestrians, he used hand signals to alert me as one might in a group ride. I'm never really sure of the appropriateness of this during a commute, since optimally, we're all our own independent actors and just happen to be riding along the same way at the same time. Or maybe that's just what I tell myself to not feel bad about not alerting riders behind me.Though I think it's probably a good idea to signal in some manner if you're going to coming to a complete stop or turn.
Needs to be some better signage/traffic intervention at the end of the 15th street cycletrack by Pennsylvania and New York Ave. It's sort of just a free-for-all right now, with bicyclists turning on and off the track directly through a pedestrian crosswalk. The solution might be a bike traffic light, since it's mostly the cyclists dodging rightfully crossing pedestrians (unlike on 15th where it's pedestrians jumping out into the bikeway with absolutely no awareness that it's a bikeway). But I'm sure nothing can change because it might be too dangerous for security guards in a checkpoint somewhere.(My bitterness got me in WashCycle!)
The usual bunching on R, including (presumably) a dad and his 12 year old son making their way across town. Parents biking with their children is probably a good thing for the cause of biking in general. Parents biking with other people's children might also be good. Parents biking with chainsaws might be good, but it might also be bad, depending on whether the parents are loggers, devoted amateur fans of logging or just recklessly wielding chainsaws. (This post has officially gone off the rails)
Nice climb up both parts of Massachusetts, including riding behind a guy on a fixie. Fixie guy was pretty fleet and he gained ground on the guy in front him to the point where the in front guy turned around and actually apologized. Never apologize to another bicyclist for not going fast enough. It's a fairly simple reality: someone who wants to go faster than you needs to figure their own way around you and you, minding you own business and riding your own pace and the conditions make it such that they can't pass easily and it temporarily slows them up, well, sucks to their assmar. Be cognizant of other bicyclists and be courteous, but don't say you're sorry for riding slower than they would prefer if you can't immediately accommodate them.