Ride Home 8/17

If you have a limited amount of time to read DC bike stuff on the internet (cause you have a life or something?), stop reading this and read friend of the blog Alex Baca's excellent WCP story on bike lanes. And if you'd like to achieve "friend of the blog" status, all you need to do it link to it, or comment on it, or tweet about it or just continue reading it because, honestly, it's just an honorific and and it's all yours if you want it.
Sometimes there's not enough room for you to drive around me. This is a good indication that you shouldn't try it. Really. Sometimes it's as simple as that. If it seems like it's gonna be too tight, just don't try.
Avoided being rundown by an M3 by dramatically extended my arm and pointing left and down. Looked like an ass, but I guess it worth it. In the future, I'd prefer not to have to ride down the yellow stripE because someone just needed to double park so badly.
Arlington was a mess today. There were lights out on Fairfax Drive and there was a disabled bus on Wilson at Pollard. There's not much more dangerous for a bicyclist than a series of stop lights out. You're pretty low priority in that situation and drivers are definitely not thinking, "oh, I should yield to that kindly cyclist." My advice is to find a car buddy and stick with him as best you can as you go through intersections. Also, make sure that your car buddy is going in the same direction as you are.
Some bikes that I saw:

A purple Peugeot

A Bike Friday with Carradice saddle bag.

Both of my calves somehow got covered in bike grime. I attribute this to the bad bike parking at the Harris Teeter. I choose not to attribute this to my continued lack of coordination and inability to go near my bike without brushing my legs against the oily parts.