Ride In 9/23: Ride In 9/23

Hey look, it's TFTS Classic, in which I revert to old habits and write about my bike commute Maybe it should be called TFTS Neoclassical but DC has enough neoclassical stuff and we hardly need one more column in the capital (double column pun!). Something something pilaster. Anyway, let's away.

I took the same old route down East Capitol and through and down the Capitol grounds and up Pennsylvania Avenue. There were many bicyclists out, include at least one woman on a Bikeshare who wore a winter coat, which in my opinion, is a bit too much as it is not yet winter. But #coats, right? It might have just been too much in a comparative sense rather than an objective sense because I was wearing shorts and short sleeves and I have a difficult time believing that both of our attire choices could be weather-appropriate given the temperature. But then I remembered my old maxim of "don't care about what clothes other people on bikes wear" and I was assuaged. It'd amazing what apathy and ambivalence can do for your well-being. It's less amazing what apathy and ambivalence can do for other things, like house plants or other things that need care and attention to remain not dead.

Speaking of care and attention towards things remaining not dead, the District Department of Incessant Weather Tweets Transportation has gone ahead and extended the bike lanes on 11th Street from Massachusetts Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue. This is a huge win for the cyclists of DC and a very important addition to the bike lane network of the downtown core area. Here's a picture of the bike lanes and you'll note that they look like white stripes as they tend to do. DDOT has yet to take my suggestion of painting a faux yellow brick pattern on all bike lanes and in a totally amazing Wizard of Oz homage. Maybe next year.

11th Street from Pennsylvania Avenue

These bike lanes will be especially useful because 1) 11th street itself is a pretty important corridor for cyclists and 2) 7th and 9th Street are complete disasters, so this is a nice alternative.

Speaking of alternatives to complete disasters, it would have been nice had someone removed this from the Pennsylvania Avenue cycle track.

There's a certain level of fuck-you-ness about this that I simply can't condone. It's one thing to close long stretches of Pennsylvania Avenue for long stretches of time (as happens nearly every weekend) and it's another thing to do that and then fail to clean up afterwards. I don't know if these barriers remain still, but I certainly hope not. It's dangerous. And also, fuck-you-y, as I mentioned previously.

I rode up 11th to R and took R, which was replete with cyclists, across town. Near R and New Hampshire, the woman on the bike behind me asked me about some kind of helmet that has a hat built in that folds up and I talked to her for a little and showed that my hat and helmet were, in fact, two separate articles and separable. She then mentioned something about how my hat would be better if it had earflaps for when it's cold and I told her that some cycling caps do have ear flaps.

R to Massachusetts and the hilly slogfest that is the second part of my commute. Before that, I saw Kristen and yelled "Kristen" at her. I followed that with a "woo!" Nothing more I love than yelling people's names at them. I wish I lived in medieval Venice so I could've yelled Marco Polo at Marco Polo and then blindly tried to tag him and he so wouldn't have got it and I'd have to explain and he still wouldn't get it because my medieval Italian is horrible.

There is a new Nelson Mandela statue in front of the South African Embassy, but I didn't stop to take a picture. There were no new statues in front of any other embassies, but of the three statues I can think of along the hillier parts of Mass Avenue (Nelson, Winston Churchill and Queen Margaret of Norway), all of them are sculpted with the one holding one arm aloft. Now, that's a pointless and mundane observation.

Speaking of pointless and mundane observations, this concludes Tales From The Sharrows. Thanks for reading.