Ride Home 1/4: No one is going to read this now

48 hours have passed since this ride and I'm blogging in the midst of watching the second quarter of the Pigskins game. Nonetheless, I won't let my being distracted and my barely recalling the ride itself prevent me from putting out a blog post of the quality you've come to expect (middling).

I've taken to storing my bike in my office on Fridays, the day in which I'm most likely to bike in normal people clothes. This Friday, the Dean (I work at a university) saw my bike and commented that I had ridden in that day. I assented. He pointed out that it was cold. I agreed. He asked where I rode from. Apparently, he's not a fan of the blog. But he was interested. It wasn't much of a conversation, but it also wasn't the conversation "why is this bike in your office and would you like to put your things in this box because you are fired because this is unprofessional." My workplace, and I'm really lucky in this regard, is ludicrously bike friendly and I am so grateful. I think that along with the accouterments (the bike parking, the showers, the bike commuter benefits) and perhaps even more important than them, the overall attitude about bike commuting at the workplace can play a really big role in one decision to keep doing it. I don't know what it's like where you work (unless you work where I work), but I think that everyday having to face "you BIKED HERE?" and "This one time, this biker totally was a jerk" would be really dispiriting and highlight an unwelcome othering that would only make me question my choices to bike. This just serves to highlight the need to develop a culture of bike friendliness (or tolerance or acceptance) alongside developing the physical infrastructures associated with it. Until, of course, bike commuting becomes totally mundane and then we can all go back to not caring, as is appropriate at the workplace.

I left work, rode down Massachusetts and turned right at 23rd on my way to L. I think I'm going to start going to 21st. Maybe it will be better. Remember when I used to take Q Street? That was, like, forever ago. I don't miss it. Q Street does have a bike lane, but L Street has a cycle track and the latter is much better than the former. When I ride on L Street, in spite of its deficiencies (the flex posts should be replace by a curb), I feel so much more relaxed than do I in a standard white-stripe-only bike lane. I exhale. I wish we had more of these. Maybe wemoveDC will do something about this, but I'm worried that it won't. Anything multimodal that supersedes/replaces a Bicycle Master Plan isn't, by definition, likely to put bicycles at the fore. So, we'll see.

On Pennsylvania Avenue.

Wait, he's not gonna do this, right? 

Really?

REALLY?!

You suck.

Now, this is illegal. Both intuitively and because there's a sign. But worse than it being illegal, it's stupidly dangerous and so irresponsible that a string of expletives doesn't even begin to express the invective I wish to hurl upon the driver. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. A bus is just a bigger taxi with a set route. I'm writing a letter to WMATA. I don't think anything with come of it, but I can try. Inexcusable.

Easy ride up the hill after juking a tourist (I was just trying to go to the right, but I was glad to test of the ol' shake-n-bake on you) and then not much longer until home. I think I got passed at a stop light by another guy on a bike, but I don't remember the exact details. I think it had something to do with a minivan parked in a bike lane. Such is the way of the biking world sometimes.