Ride In 7/16: The UN Cola

As you're hopefully well aware, WashCycle is an indispensable resource for all matters cycling in the Washington DC Regional Area (WaDCRA is the hipper real estate agents refuse to call it). He also posts pictures which inspire me to take different routes to work. Like this, by Union Station. Is the newest section of the Metropolitan Branch Trail. But it sort of just looks like a sidewalk, so I never would have known. Other things I don't know about, exactly, is how best to get to  Met Branch Trail from its M Street termination point to Union Station. Right now, there's are bike lanes on 1st Street NE from G Steet, but there's a one block gap that looks like this:



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So, you're given the opportunity to ride down a sidewalk past some loading docks or salmon on the street into the trucks that have just left the loading docks. Within the next two-ish years, we're getting a cycle track on First Street, which should really help this connection, assuming that the cycle track won't be constantly blocked by trucks entering and exiting the loading docks. And then some day, the construction around Columbus Circle will be finished and there will be bike lanes and it will almost be as if the powers that be didn't want it to be terrible to bike near Union Station.

Riding near Union Station was a tale of fast and slow. I got stuck behind a guy on a red Canondale hybrid with yellow lettering and it looked like he was on a CaBi but he wasn't. I didn't want to pass him because I didn't want to end up stopped in front of him at a red light. On First NE, I was passed by a sporty looking bike commuter who felt the need to tailgate the sports car in front of us prior to turning into a parking garage a few blocks later. There was basically no other bike commuters on the Met Branch Trail, which is a shame because it's a rather good trail and getting better all of the time.

Eckington might be the neighborhood most bike lanes per street in all of DC, but my assessment of this might be based on my not knowing exactly where Eckington is.

I rode R across town and I have the following to say: ladies be cycling.

The aforementioned ladies.

This is at 7th, when there were only 5 women cyclists in front of me. Thereafter, the two women behind me passed (probably because I was a creepy dude taking a picture so sorry about that) and then another woman rode by and I was the ninth in a convoy of bike commuters and the only guy. I point this out to counter the myth that women don't bike and also because I'm a big fan of the "ladies be ______" construction that you sometimes see on Jezebel. I don't want to say that the statistics are wrong, because generally speaking I try to trust statistics over anecdota, but I'm pretty sure the statistics are wrong. 

And now for a brusque transition. There are many murals in Washington DC, but did you know about the Tiger Woods mural?

"Golf Wang"

I'll be here all week, folks. 

R Street was pretty quick and Massachusetts Avenue was its usual pace and there wasn't much in the way of drama during this ride at all and I was rather quite pleased with the whole thing. I had a lot of weird songs stuck in my head, which I chose to whistle as a means of exorcism, and while I'm pretty sure it's not actually beginning to look at a lot like Christmas, anyone listening carefully to my tunes might think that I think so. 

Rode in a cotton t shirt today. That's almost never a good decision. Synthetics and wool are preferable. 

I'm in a good mood and I'd keep writing, but I've run out of things to say and even worse, run out of time to say it. Off to a two hour meeting, so I'm very much looking forward to regaining my sanity with the ride home. One rode over the cuckoo's nest.