- They didn't make it from Pittsburgh to coffee. They only rode about 240 miles before a combination of injury, inhospitable conditions, and good sense cut short the ride. But man, what an effort! And what a wonderful venture for those who set off at 3AM to meet the riders somewhere along the C&O. Bike people are crazy. The best kind of crazy.
- The effort of the Metropolitan Police Department to dissuade/punish cyclists from/for rolling through stop signs on K Street under the Whitehurst Expressway continued on Friday. Usual caveats aside (i.e. if you don't want a ticket for running a stop sign, don't run a stop sign), this isn't a long-term solution for anyone. I don't think it's going to convince the cyclists who don't stop to become cyclists who do stop and I don't think it's going to convince the people who see cyclists who don't stop to become people who are sated now that some cyclists sometimes have been punished for their transgressions. IF ONLY, there were some kind of superfluous lane that could be converted into a cycletrack and placed between the parked cars and sidewalk, but there's no such superfluous lane. Just a sparsely used central turn lane. Oh well.
- I took a slightly modified route on the way home (with the aim of checking out a historic viewshed ruined by bicycles) and this route took me down E Street. I have high hopes for E Street (someday) and while it has bike lanes now, they don't go quite far enough and are of an inferior, very easy to block sort. Right now they run from Union Station-ish to 13th Street NW and provide an alternative to Pennsylvania Avenue, which is almost weekendly closed for some event, barbecue, fun run, concert, or whatever. So, they're an important alternative route, even if they have problems. The biggest problem, I think, is that they end too soon. It would be so, so, so nice if thy connected to 15th, but we don't have that now because cars? Because taxis? Because hotels? Because Freedom Plaza? I don't really know exactly, but I can tell you that the area of Penn/E/13th/14th/15th/Freedom Plaza/Pershing Park could just be so, so, so, much more if it was a lot less focused on the movement and stashing of cars. I'm not holding my breath.
A thing about Saturday:
- I judged the Kidical Mass DC Halloween ride costume contest at Capitol Hill Bikes. I had a really great time and totally didn't mean to make all those kids cry, but you gotta bring your Hallowern A-game and when you don't, I'm gonna call you out on it, three year old girl in weakass zombie costume. Not sure I'm going to be invited back next year. But I had a ton of fun, so to Megan, Jeff and all the parents and kids involved, thank you all so much for having me!
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