Strange morning. I was weirdly distracted for the first 10 minutes of my ride (maybe it was the fog?) and ended up heading down Massachusetts to 2nd NE, where I decided to turn and head north with the intention of picking up the Metropolitan Branch Trail. Only one other bicyclist on Massachusetts (dude on a single-speed that shone in an odd hue of metallic blue), but all sorts of bike types riding down 2nd. Most them with bright yellow jackets. It'd be better if there were a bike lane on this street, but there isn't. It would also be better if the street didn't abruptly end at M, but that's where the train tracks go and there's not very much I can do about that. Is this part of town Swampoodle?
I don't know what possessed me to take the MBT, but I'm happy I made the choice. Apparently, someone decided to put a stage across the 15th street cycletrack. I'm sure there was no way to avoid that. Shakespeare once wrote that the whole world is a stage, but I think he really meant that only the integral bicycle facilities than thousands of bicycle commuters use each day is a stage. Ran out of iambs, I suppose.
Civilly disobediently salmoned on R, but someday they'll built a contraflow bike lane there and all my crimes will be expunged. One block of bike lane, though, won't make R street that much more useable anywhere east of Florida. At the Florida intersection, a FedEx driver might have been honking at me with the intended goal of my doing I'm not sure what exactly. Ride into traffic? Explode?
Some other regional bike news: new Bikeshare station open in Arlington. Now you take bikeshare up the hill from Rosslyn (have fun with that). More stations should be forthcoming in the next weeks. Here's the Arlington expansion map. I have some thoughts on station placement, but rather than share them, I'll let you guess them Kreskin-style. And also, but where did the lighter fluid come from?
I don't think it's advisable to make a left turn from a far-right bike lane. It's a considerably better idea to merge into the travel lane. Just a suggestion.
Still a good amount of bicycle traffic. We'll see what happens after the first frost. I can't remember if the Farmer's Almanack (old-timey spelling) has a chapter on bike commuters.
On the multi-use path alongside Massachusetts (I've renamed the sidewalk a multi-use path to make myself feel better), I was riding towards a woman who was looking down at her phone and I didn't think that she saw me so I dinged once. She looked up, made eye contact with me and then proceeded to turn around and look behind her as if to look for the target of my bell ringing. Um, it was you.
Did you know (or do you care to know) that the Finnish Embassy is hosting an award-winning photo exhibition of Miina Savoleinan's called "The Loveliest Girl in the World"? There's a banner out front, so that's how I know. Miina Savolainen will guide visitors in person November 11-12, so if you've been waiting for a reason to go, now you have one. Prospective cultural tourism is yet another advantage of bicycling to work. I cannot attest to the veracity of the actual comparative loveliness of the girl.
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