tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56559722547567229982024-03-19T00:11:15.293-04:00Tales From The SharrowsIrreverent observations from an urban cyclistUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1340125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-11171849718360754202017-07-10T18:09:00.003-04:002017-07-10T18:09:59.533-04:00New Commute vs. Old CommuteIt's been a little more than a month since I traded my old bike commute for my new bike commute. Last time I did that was about a year earlier, when I moved and shaved off about 5 miles from my previous commute of about 5 years. This time, I changed jobs and my new office is a scant .6 miles away from where I live. It is an implausibly short bike commute and someone with more common sense and reputational (and financial) sunk cost in being a bike commuter would probably have upgraded to a more civilized walk to work, but I am not someone with more common sense. I have just as much common sense as I have. No more, no less.<br />
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Allow me to regale you with details of my route:<br />
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I go outside the building and cross the street to 17th Street, which has a one-way bike lane south. I ride in this bike lane from S Street to Massachusetts. There are a few stop lights and a few stop signs. There are even a few midblock crosswalks. And there are buildings and people and parked cars and all that jazz. You've seen a city before. At Massachusetts, I make a right turn and ride about halfway between 17th and 18th to make a midblock left up a ramp, onto the sidewalk and then into the building's front courtyard area, where there is ample, but poor quality bike parking. My bike stays outside all day and I ride home up 18th to New Hampshire and then for a few blocks before arriving. Both rides together take about 10 minutes and might even be faster.<br />
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Here are some things I miss about my old commute:<br />
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<b>Hills. </b>Yes, this is weird, but climbing uphill to work everyday made me a much better cyclist than I would have been otherwise. Seeing as I am a 'not very good cyclist,' hills are the only thing that kept me on the positive side of 'sort of knows how to ride a bike.'<br />
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<b>Exercise.</b> It was never much, but my rides used to be long enough that I could pretend they counted as exercise. It's really hard to do this now and I find myself sometimes feeling pressure to go for bike rides on weekends to, you know, actually bike a little.<br />
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<b>Escaping my bubble. </b>Had I not worked where I worked, which was clear on the opposite side of the city from where I lived, I don't think I would have had nearly as much exposure to the physical and human geography of DC. There was something about having a crosstown bike commute that inspired/allowed me to try to come up with a bunch of different ways to get there and in so doing, exposed me to routes and roads and trails and neighborhoods that I probably wouldn't have seen had I just ridden recreationally. But then again, my idea of a fun weekend is aimlessly biking around the city, so maybe I would have see these things anyway. But I wouldn't have come to know them as well.<br />
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<b>Parking inside. </b>I used to have some nice indoor bike parking options, that I don't really have now. Policy would allow me to bring my bike into my office, but it's narrow and I have to meet with people a lot and I think the bike would be kind of imposition. I'm also new and I haven't seen anyone else do it and I don't really need to be a pathbreaker here.<br />
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Things I don't miss:<br />
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<b>Changing clothes at the office.</b> I get to ride in my work clothes now. Even in the middle of summer. I don't miss having to bring work clothes with me (and spilling coffee on them). I don't miss changing in a locker room or worse, my office, and I don't miss having sweaty/wet bike clothes that I either needed to find a way to dry or leave sweaty/wet and then put back on at the end of the day. I get to ride like this now and it really does make a difference to my overall attitude and readiness to work in the morning.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">what excellent hair says no one</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I bought Vans. #blackonblack #fullyloaded</td></tr>
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<br /><b>Some bad stretches of road. </b>There are definitely parts of the 6 blocks I ride that could be improved upon, but compared to certain stretches of the old commute, I feel pretty good. There are no downhill stretches where drivers would routinely do sketchy things where I wouldn't have been able to stop and the combination of stop lights and stop signs really make it so that I'm never traveling for long periods of time along drivers going any faster than 25mph. I'm not crazy about my left turn across two lanes of traffic on Mass to get into the bike parking area, but in the morning, that's mostly congested anyway.<br />
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<b>The high cost of forgetfulness.</b> With a longer bike commute, you really need to remember everything. Like socks. Or pants or a wallet or your lunch. It sucks to leave these things at home and in spite of knowing this, I would habitually forget these items and then I'd either be stuck at work without them (never pants though) or I'd have to ride all the way home to get them. With a 5 minute ride, there's basically no cost to be as forgetful as I want. I left my badge at home two weeks ago, realized it when I got to the office, went back home, and then came back, all within about 7 minutes. That was swell.<br />
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So that's about it. On balance, I think I wish my bike commute were a little longer, but even if the Goldilocks distance does exist, I'm not terribly torn up by the new routine. I think it'll pay even greater dividends in winter, but I never really minded riding in winter. I never really minded bike commuting ever- even on the bad days when the forces of man and nature conspired to make it harder than it needed to be- and I'm sure I'll continue not to mind this bike commute in its new iteration either. I do miss seeing lots of other bicyclists- I see about 8 a day, split evenly between morning and night, but never the same ones- and I'll miss feeling like I can get a pulse on whether it's a 'good bike day' or a 'bad bike day' (though this is far more art than science) accordingly. But when it all comes down to it, I still get to ride my bike to work, so how bad can things be really.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com79tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-6734520833898644472017-02-02T21:25:00.001-05:002017-02-02T21:25:11.072-05:00All City Nature Boy DiscThis isn't a bike review. It might be a review, but if it's a review of anything, it's a me review. Yay solipsism.<br />
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I didn't need a fourth bike. I certainly didn't need a singlespeed cross bike, nor did I need to justify the purchase this bike with the SOLEMN OATH that I would in fact, at least once, enter it and me into a cyclocross race in the upcoming fall even though I made that solemn oath anyway much to my future self's detriment, but that's future me's problem which current me continues to ignore and past me never really took into consideration. I can't really tell you why I fell in love with this bike, which happened well in advance of the purchase. I think I was drawn to it because I've long been intrigued by singlespeeds and liked the idea of disc brakes on a singlespeed. I remember liking the Raleigh Furley a few years back, but never got around to liking it enough to buying it. I guess I was drawn to the simplicity of the bike (gearing simplicity being a seeming antidote to a complicated life?) but that seems more like an post-facto excuse than a justification. This isn't my first All City- I purchased the pink Mr. Pink in a fit of Cherry Blossom Madness (check the DSM V)- and I've loved that bike from the very beginning to the point that I love it so much I barely even ride it. It's that beloved. So I was acquainted with the brand and the quality bike parts on this Quality Bike Parts mark, but I don't even think that brand familiarity and allegiance was enough to push me over the top. What did it, I think, was Star Wars.<br />
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This bike is black and shiny. Like Darth Vader's helmet. I can't look about this bike and not think about Darth Vader. This condition is also in the DSM V or at least was until the DSM people sold out to Disney. It's weird to love a bike because it's black, the most boring of bike colors, but that's what I love about it. The paint. What's on the surface. The superficial. I don't know. All I'm saying is that I saw Rogue One in December and bought this bike in January this definitely indicates that there is complete and total causation between these two events.<br />
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I've had it for a few weeks and I've done a few rides already. I rode it home from the shop in the rain with no lights. That was ill-advised. I took it out on the C&O towpath for 30 miles when I only intended to take it 10. And then I took it back to DC on River Road, which is not flat. Not flat and one gear was an unexpected challenge and surpassed my expectations in terms of difficulty. I think I would be more ready for it now, but my lack of preparation (no food or water) and my lack of familiarity with the demands of having only one gear, slowed me but didn't break me. I've taken it the 3 uphill miles to work a few times and have minded it less with each trip.<br />
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I think I love this bike. Maybe not as much as the Pink, but still a lot. It's obvious that I would love this bike. It's steel. It has nice lines. It's shiny and black like Darth Vader's helmet. The shiny black paint holds dirt well, which I appreciate. It pushes me harder than I would generally prefer to be pushed and this is good for me. It makes nice noises. And it's not exactly a reach bike pricewise and not so fancy or precious (I love beautiful bikes, but preciousness rankles me) that if I knock it over once, I'll cry a swimming pool's worth of tears. It's a good solid bike that does exactly what it does and I'm looking forward to spending more time with it in the coming months. I don't have any ambitious plans about long rides (the initial metric has temporarily dissuaded me from such enterprises, plus I don't spend enough time on the Mr. Pink to sacrifice my few non-commute rides to the new bike) and I suppose I'll have to learn a scant minimum about of cyclocross skills so as to not end up in a literal ditch in October, so I guess the bike and I will bond over that. And I think I'll keep riding it to work on the days when it's dry (no fenders and I wouldn't dare, even though you could).<br />
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I didn't need this bike. At least not for any practical purpose. The Pink does all my 'fun' rides and the new-and-improved Ogre (now with Rohloff hub) beastily handles the day to day and the Brompton, I don't know, figures out ways to justify itself like when I have to pick up a rental car on the other side of town twice or year or if I have to ride Metro but still need a bike with me as a safety blanket. But I'm glad that I bought this bike and maybe gladder still because it's for no practical purpose at all (even though the bike is, in many ways, extremely practical). I have no regrets now (talk to me again when I'm in that ditch) and I look forward to continuing to enjoy this bike for years to come.<br />
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Here's a picture:<br />
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A photo posted by @brianmcentee on <time datetime="2017-01-16T22:27:43+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Jan 16, 2017 at 2:27pm PST</time></div>
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<script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-33859159960986460662016-12-31T20:50:00.000-05:002016-12-31T20:50:49.873-05:00Year Prudence 2016Retrospection, which is Latin for 'old-timey glasses,' is a crucial element of any end-of-year blog post and especially for ones that try to sum up what was, in most cases, a rather shit sandwich of a year. [Insert your favorite celebrity here] died and [insert an angry string of expletives here] happened in politics and worst of all, <i>Washington City Paper</i> continued to publish <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence">Gear Prudence</a>, a bike advice column which is neither about bikes nor advice while putatively claiming to be about both. Nevertheless, to celebrate their continued weekly mistake, I've gone back and highlighted the Top 12 GP entries from 2016 and, much like <a href="http://talesfromthesharrows.blogspot.com/2015/12/year-prudence-2015.html">last year</a>, the reasoning that undergirds the selection. So let us look back now that we may never have to look back at 2016 again.<br />
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<u>January</u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: Why don't they make left-handed bar tape?</b><br />
Justification: Super great question and a surprising answer. I had no idea that the Rothschilds, the Bilderbergs and the Trilateral Commission were so involved in this insidious plot to keep southpaw bar tape off the market, but it's amazing how much you can learn with some quick googling. This question far surpassed the one about <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/blog/13070341/gear-prudence-i-cursed-out-a-driver-in-front-of-some-kids">swearing in front of children </a> as a topic of interest.<br />
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<u>February</u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: My bike is stuck in a tree. This is so messed up. Can I borrow a saw?</b><br />
Justification: You should never saw down a tree, even if your bike gets stuck up there. As GP rightly wrote, you have to convince birds to carry your bike down and this is why you should always fill your saddle bag with birdseed. Rookie mistake, bro! Other rookie mistakes include not knowing <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/blog/13070473/gear-prudence-i-biked-on-the-sidewalk-legally-but-a-cyclist-still-scolded-me">bicycle emoji</a> to use when tweeting, but this isn't nearly as egregious as the birdseed thing. Get your shit together people!<br />
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<u>March</u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: What's the best material for a bike: carbon or elven steel, as was used in the forging of Narsil, the sword of Isildur, wielded by Elendil during the war between the last alliance of men and elves against Sauron Lord of Mordor at the end of the Second Age?</b><br />
Justification: Another tech-y question. I always feel out of my depth on these because I don't have a lot of bike shop experience and never know if the tensile strength of carbon is superior to the magical properties of fictitious swords, but I did the best that I could with the answer. Far better than the answer I offered on <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/blog/13070624/gear-prudence-how-do-i-view-the-cherry-blossoms-by-bike">visiting the cherry blossoms</a> by bike.<br />
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<u>April </u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: I want to replace my pedals with different pedals, but I'm worried my feet are shrinking by nearly imperceptible amounts each day. Is this a thing?</b><br />
Justification: It was another close one down between this and the one about <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/blog/13070763/gear-prudence-my-bf-and-i-are-breaking-up-who-gets-the-bike-friends">who keeps the bike friends after a breakup</a>, but what won the day here was the mystery of whether the questioners feet were actually shrinking or whether it was a paranoid delusion. Just so hard to know! Either way the answer is flat pedals, but different sizes on left on right and you have to switch the pedals each day in case the wrong foot was shrinking at the wrong time.<br />
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<u>May </u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: I think the car that honked at me was a Transformer. Can we arrest Michael Bay and try him for war crimes?</b><br />
Justification: I know, right!? We all want to convene the International Criminal Court and prosecute him, but that's just not in the cards. Same as <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/article/20780263/gear-prudence-is-a-bike-first-date-a-bad-idea">biking on a first date</a>- there are just some things you don't do. <br />
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<u>June </u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: My cat allergy keeps me from biking in Petworth. Why can't they rename it Dogworth to clear up the ambiguity and my sinuses?</b><br />
Justification: You can't just rename neighborhoods. Trust me, I've tried. Do you think that anyone wants to keep calling it Foggy Bottom? Nope. It's just inertia, but each time I write a successively angrier letter to Rand McNally about changing it, I'm visited by that same put-upon sheriff with that same dog-eared cease-and-desist letter. It's frustrating, but not quite as frustrating as not know how guilty to feel about <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/article/20826550/gear-prudence-i-ran-a-red-and-a-cyclist-followed-me-into-danger-should-i-feel-guilty">riding another cyclist into danger</a>.<br />
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<u>July </u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: I want to ride a century, but I'm opposed to the idea of riding for 100 years straight. Am I misunderstanding anything?</b><br />
Justification: Nope. "That's definitely what a century means" was the shortest GP answer ever, but it's hard to know how much more to add to that very correct and thorough response. Thankfully WCP doesn't pay by the word. Either way, this was a way better column than the one about <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/article/20828522/gear-prudence-im-moving-in-with-my-boyfriendand-his-eight-bikes">moving in with a boyfriend and his eight bikes</a>, which required a response of more than one sentence. Ugh. Effort sucks.<br />
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<u>August </u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: How do you solve a problem like Maria? No really. How? This nun is fucking annoying as shit and I tried to pawn her off on this Austrian admiral but Austria is fucking landlocked and don't even get me started on this Liesl chick. She's in love with a Nazi! And wears clothes made of drapes like it's no big deal!</b><br />
Justification: I love it when people reach out with real bike problems. Unlike this silly question about <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/article/20829432/gear-prudence-my-wife-makes-me-text-her-during-group-rides">some guy's wife making him text on group rides</a>, this whole Maria situation really made me think and stretched my creative limits as a bike columnist. While the proposed solution (it involved warn woolen mittens) didn't really address the whole Maria problem, I feel like we got at least somewhat closer to having a certain degree of solace about this very real bike concern.<br />
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<u>September</u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: You ever notice how sometimes when you go fast your bike goes whoosh whoosh whoosh? </b><br />
Justification: Yes! I've totally noticed that! And sometimes it's more of one long whooooooosh instead of multiple whooshes. I think it has something to do with science and ear holes. Backup this month was the one about a <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/article/20833990/gear-prudence-my-friend-tried-to-fix-my-bike-but-he-made-it-much-worse">friend fucking up your bike while volunteering to repair it</a>, but that question lacked the really interesting aspect of inquiring about whether one hears whooshing noises sometimes and said nothing of ear holes at all!<br />
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<u>October</u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: Is it better to give an old bike to someone taller than you or shorter than you?</b><br />
Justification: Something that used to shock me about the questions GP receives are the number of ones from people who want to do genuinely good and charitable things. Like, what's the deal with that? It's one thing to ask about being <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/article/20836630/gear-prudence-my-husbands-macabre-bike-jokes-are-getting-under-my-skin">bothered by macabre bike jokes</a>, but it's an entirely different thing to wonder whether you should be charitable to the relatively taller or relatively shorter. What frustrated me the most about answering this question is never knowing how tall the questioner was because I think that really would have impacted the advice offered. I assumed that the questioner was seven feet tall because that seemed obvious at the time.<br />
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<u>November </u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: My bike basket has the faint odor of a different bike basket. Could have someone switched them when I was in Harris Teeter?</b><br />
Justification: You ever see that Angelina Jolie movie about this exact thing except it was about a kid and not a bike basket and it took place in the 1920s and not in front of a Harris Teeter? Great flick and I was glad to draw from it for inspiration on the answer. I just wish Angelina Jolie did a movie about <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/article/20839432/gear-prudence-my-muscles-are-tight-and-i-want-to-try-yoga">cyclists and yoga</a> because I can't help but think it would have improved this column or if not that, at least it would have been cool even if she didn't wear a cloche hat like she did in that other movie.<br />
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<u>December</u><br />
<b>Gear Prudence: Does my family know that I like to ride bikes with different sized tires? </b><br />
Justification: The toughest Gear Prudence columns are about telling families difficult truths, especially when those truths are about bicycles. Most of the time the advice is to lie and/or fake your own death, but sometimes, like in this column, it was to be brutally honest, while also angling the bike in such a way that the bigger tire was farther away so perspective made it seem like there wasn't such a difference in tire sizes. Of the columns about sizes in December, this one was way better than the <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/article/20839432/gear-prudence-my-muscles-are-tight-and-i-want-to-try-yoga">one about pensises</a>, about which we shall never speak again.<br />
<br />
So that's it. That was the year in Prudence. Thank you all so much for you willingness to continue to read the column and thank you even more if you've ever taken a moment to share it with anyone. To the best of my knowledge, GP will continue into 2017 and for that I'm immensely grateful. As always, if a bike question should pop into your mind, please don't hesitate to email gearprudence@washcp.com or hit me up on the twitters, facebook or via semaphore.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-33689188324361248692016-11-16T12:49:00.003-05:002016-11-16T12:49:55.368-05:00Impressions From My Ride to BaltimoreI've lived in DC this go round for 8 years and I've visited Baltimore twice. This is in no way a reflection of that city, but rather my own negligence (and perhaps myopia). It's close enough to pretend that we have a baseball rivalry with the Orioles and close enough that half the would be Washington Football Team fans choose instead to support the Ravens, but it's not DC and it's certainly not what I would consider to be within the constellation of DC things, even though it's geographically closer than a lot of places that are. It's its own place and that's what makes riding there so tantalizing. But for some reason, it seems to be a place that people don't visit by bike from here. Or if they do, they keep it quiet. Or maybe I just don't run in the right circle. Either way, I wanted to ride there and last Saturday and I did and here's how it went.<br />
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I decided before I left that I didn't want to ride there and back. It would've been a century and that's laudable, but I wasn't really up for it. Instead, I'd take the MARC back and that worked splendidly. It's $8 one way, there's a bike car on weekends and bikes ride free, and the trip is under and hour. If you plan to tackle this ride, I really recommend it. One thing you might want to be smarter about it not locking your bike up at the train station. I had a pump nicked, but the bike itself was left one. Still, I miss that pump and maybe should've thought about a less prone place to leave my bike when I wandered around. Oh well. Live and learn.<br />
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The Ogre was the bike of choice and even on the heavy bike, the miles rolled by pretty well. Some of the ride involved riding on shoulders and the wider tires and sturdier frame ate up the road before the road could eat me first. I wasn't going for any kind of blazing pace, which is could since I'm incapable of one anyway, but the miles went by pretty easily. There are scarcely any hills, or at least none that made any big impression,and my relatively chill pace was more abetted by the big bike than hindered by it. Also, I'm doing some upgrades to the Ogre (right now!) so was sort of a last hurrah of sorts. I'm excited about the first hurrah for the upgraded Ogre, but there'll be other blog posts for that maybe.<br />
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The first part of the ride was mostly trails to Greenbelt. Then in Greenbelt, it was suburban-y roads that varied from 'I am ok with this' to 'This is not ok, but this is what it is.' I realized after the fact that I could've avoided some of the worser bits by taking a different route (be careful with the directions you download from the internet- you don't know if the person who made them is crazier than you), but I got through them. At one point, I turned off a highway-esque road into a suburban neighborhood and never had I been so relieved to be riding through a subdivision. The middle section of the ride saw more of what I would call 'country' roads, which is to say that they were two lanes and there was woods some times. Then there were sections through various stages of industrial parks, from destitute to stumbling along. This might have been Laurel. There were train tracks, often to the side, and there were container train cars, often idle. In Jessup, I stopped for Dunkin Donuts. I think this was right around the halfway mark.<br />
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After the industrial parts, it was back to woodsiness. The roads were quiet and the traffic was light. I followed River Road along the Patapsco, but then I started crossing highways and beltways and knew the idyll would soon be over. I approached the city from the south and west and rode through Landsdowne. I suspect there might have been a nicer approach with fewer stop lights and without having to wait 20 minutes for a train to pass. I'm an urban cyclist and have done it for awhile, so I was mostly unbothered by the traffic and the compromises one must make to ride through it, but a nicer and quieter way into the city would have been good. At some point, in the inner outskirts, there were signs for "Bike Route" and then there was the football stadium and the casino and marked paths and at that point, I was virtually there. I don't really know when "Baltimore" becomes "Baltimore" but once I saw a bikesharing station, I figured I was there.<br />
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I had never ridden in downtown Baltimore and from an outsider's perspective, it seems like the kind of urban place where one should be able to bike. There was a two way cycletrack by the Inner Harbor and that seems like a nice investment (and I saw another one on Maryland Avenue later), but I came to learn this about downtown Baltimore: seemingly all of the streets are one-way and multi-laned. And if that means anything, that means speeding cars and if there's anything inimical to good and safe cycling, it's too many too fast cars. So that was an experience. I wended my way up a few blocks and over a few blocks to take myself to Attmans, which is a deli and sanwich place and there I ate a reuben. After that, I again risked life and limb riding on high-speed one-way streets (maybe there was an alternative? I don't know) to get to the train station, where I left my bike.<br />
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In conclusion, yes, you should ride to Baltimore. You should bring a friend. You should probably even ride around Baltimore a little, but maybe do some more research about which streets are less terrible for bicycling. I think next time, I'd take a different approach and take my bike up by train and then ride back. That'll probably be spring.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-72891653764740236282016-10-14T16:07:00.002-04:002016-10-14T16:16:34.001-04:00My Ride in ConnecticutYes, I realize I skipped a few commutes in there. That's my bad. Honestly, with the much shorter ride and seeing so many fewer cyclists, it's kinda hard to keep the 'blog my ride everyday' conceit going. Emphasis on conceit. 3 miles isn't 8 miles, for one thing, and now that I don't go through Federalia or downtown, it's even harder to stretch the plausibility of seeing things or people that are vaguely worth noting. In light of that, writing up my ride just doesn't feel as immediate. Also, I've had some personal life changes (adopted a pet emu) that result in my wanting to spend less time writing than I had previously wanted to and I haven't quite struck the balance yet between the time investment and the payoff that I feel is worthwhile. Anyway, all of this is to say that TFTS will likely muddle on for some, but maybe without as much regularity. So, it's not a goodbye and it's not a ghosting, but maybe more of a recognition that writing this blog isn't as vital to me as it once was and I think that that sometimes shines through. BUT, when the urge to write does grip me, as it so often does, I'll continue to use the blog as an outlet for whatever needs letting out. Like my brief description of my 70 mile ride in Connecticut yesterday.<br />
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Last fall, I thought it'd be fun to ride from my brother's place in Brooklyn to my parents house in Connecticut. It was around 80 miles and I did it and I was relatively pleased with myself for accomplishing this feat. I'd like to do it again some time. Or maybe go in reverse. I don't know. In the course of my visiting my hometown with a bike, I took some time to ride around some of the roads and hills in the north side of town and thought they'd make a fun place for a more extended ride. So that's what this was- a chance to come back to town and get in some hilly riding on some dirt roads in the midst of the changing leaves of a Connecticut fall.<br />
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I have a system for getting my bike here and it's pretty cheap. Not as cheap as riding it the whole way from DC, but still not so bad. I take a Vamoose bus ($40/roundtrip, bike travels at no additional cost) from Rosslyn to Penn Station, then ride from Penn Station to Grand Central. I bought a roundtrip off-peak ticket for Metro North (and for $5 a lifetime bicycle pass, which is now a treasured possession) for $33 ($28 for the tickets) and I got off at Brewster station. I changed into my bike clothes there (which I was wearing underneath my normal people clothes), swapped out my Vans for the bike shoes I had in my Carradice, and then rode the 25 miles from Brewster to my parents house. I did parts of this ride last year, but took a slightly modified route this time to avoid some of the hillier parts. I used the Pocket Earth app offline map for navigation (following a route that I had downloaded previously) and stuck to mostly backroads where I could and made it in about an hour and a half.<br />
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I rode the Mr. Pink with Clement MSO tires. Steel frame plus fast, but traction-y, tires is sort of the super best ideal combo for this, though it did feel a little sluggish on the paved parts. Though, admittedly, that might have just been me. Anyway, I love my Mr. Pink so, so, so, so much and this trip really confirmed that it was an amazing choice for a new bike. If I was to get another bike, I might want it to be an All City.<br />
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The plan for my big ride was to follow someone's previously mapped metric century (downloaded from RideWithGPS and displayed on Pocket Earth). What I wanted in a route was a good of hills (because hills are fun?) and more unpaved surfaces than not. This route provided both and fairly early on. I won't bore you with the exact details of the roads I took, but there was a lot of up and down and a lot of dirt and dust and gravel and very, very few cars. It gets pretty quiet back in the woods around these parts and there are lots of 'scenic roads,' which means they are dirt and they aren't plowed in winter. There are some horse farms and more than a few decrepit barns (which is not to say that they're unused) and then there are big houses that were either built in the 18th, 19th or 20th century by people who thought that living in the middle of nowhere would be better than living somewhere closer to stuff. I rode through just one or two town centers (town center consisting of a Main Street that might or might not be bisected by two other streets named Church and perhaps Maple) and through a state park named Macedonia. I never had to walk up any hills, but I more than once thought about it. I wore gloves and this saved my wrists from jarring effects of hours on gravel. The bike excelled in the varied terrain and I'm quite confident that it saved my life on an extremely perilous descent over which I found out later wasn't actually a road. The problem with relying on routes downloaded from the internet is that you don't really know if the guy who made it was crazy. Moreover, when roads are maintained for winter and when you're in the countryside where no one really lives anyway, there's no real guarantee that a surface that seemed passable two years ago in spring would be tolerable now.<br />
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I went down North Kent Road fast. At first it was fun, but when I realized my momentum was such that my brakes could only hope to slow me by half but not fully, I wondered if I should panic. The problem with the road wasn't so much the grade- it was a 10-13% decline, which is manageable generally- but that the road wasn't a road and whatever it was, it was covered in leaves so I couldn't see what I was about to ride over. In many cases, what I rode over were rocks and what weren't rocks were holes where rocks used to be. It was a craggy, uneven surface on a hill where I couldn't stop and couldn't see what was beneath my tires and had I given myself over to any thought other than 'stay loose and get out of the way of anything you can't get over,' I think the panic would have surely resulted in my crashing and that would have had more than a break-even chance of resulting in potentially serious injury. I only skidded hard on leaves once or twice, but stayed up. I missed a few of the bigger rocks by an inch and as far as the potholes went, the bike managed to see me through them. I'm not the most confident descender in the best of cases and I didn't really have much of a choice here, and while it might generally sound fun to careen down the side of a hill in only the scantest control of your bike and body, I can assure you in this case that it wasn't. It was the scariest thing I've ever done on a bike and I'm grateful that I made it through in one piece.<br />
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Over the course of the ride, I lost a water bottle. It ejected somewhere. I bought it last week, for the purposes of this ride, but now it belongs to the woods. The very kind people at <a href="http://www.wtfkits.com/">WTF Kits</a> are sending me a replacement gratis because they are good people. The water bottle is labeled Whiskey and I have a feeling that someone is going to be pretty pissed at this when he finds it roadside and discovered the liquid therein has been considerably mislabeled.<br />
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I ate beef jerky and gatorade for lunch. I snacked on some gross glucose snack things I got from a tent that REI set up along the Anacostia. I also enjoyed a muffin and iced coffee before the last 15 miles back into town.<br />
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I'm not sure I enjoy riding longish distances by myself. The solitude doesn't really overcome me, but I do get bored and having other people around is a nice distraction from dull pain in your legs or listening to your own breathing. I think if I were to do this again, and I want to, I'd like to go with someone else. It's nice country and the roads really are good if you're into dirt and gravel and hills and deciduous trees doing their thing. Plus, I'm sure my parents would let you sleep on the couch. I haven't asked them, but they're pretty nice so it's probably cool.<br />
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Route here: <a href="https://ridewithgps.com/routes/17145625" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://ridewithgps.com/routes/17145625</a>. Sorry no Strava. For once, I actually really regret not using it because I think I went at least 50mph once and I'm sorry I didn't capture that.<br />
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Pictures:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3nwD4K94XxLSFDS0yKWXjCvcm2JtmIV74pG9C1blFZ9u7Bb5-M69wZKgoebW1xjkaVL1WnK4xk8XV2RKmw05VH8faxCXRLyQhZ8wFlUfuMGc_o8Tygy5NjhPbKyqI_mielsbafhctZYYs/s1600/Photo+Oct+13%252C+9+30+11+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3nwD4K94XxLSFDS0yKWXjCvcm2JtmIV74pG9C1blFZ9u7Bb5-M69wZKgoebW1xjkaVL1WnK4xk8XV2RKmw05VH8faxCXRLyQhZ8wFlUfuMGc_o8Tygy5NjhPbKyqI_mielsbafhctZYYs/s320/Photo+Oct+13%252C+9+30+11+AM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bike, fence, hills, trees</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWkOdBzFjUfJYMwRoPFINv1OIaVcHbjYdXgXwTivcsYNp7dZB1rvHgW9vDKHjX4FRRrafSwQQX7okPwgS3t6sJtFDq09l0Qlc-z7OE7qj5_dBowls-qEPUe8cu5XJzW7empiphJi1eOkND/s1600/Photo+Oct+13%252C+1+01+45+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWkOdBzFjUfJYMwRoPFINv1OIaVcHbjYdXgXwTivcsYNp7dZB1rvHgW9vDKHjX4FRRrafSwQQX7okPwgS3t6sJtFDq09l0Qlc-z7OE7qj5_dBowls-qEPUe8cu5XJzW7empiphJi1eOkND/s320/Photo+Oct+13%252C+1+01+45+PM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">bike at rest. not pictured: me at rest. I made a wrong turn, climbed a hill I didn't need to climb and then stopped because I was knackered. That's when I realized I made a wrong turn. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYQ30l6tV0uSbdqjDzTCpOVENzvDAGjrK_-1Vlf0MoxN1397nQI3orn2Wawnq1kbNHEnoIeezfyht3UODd0hgSe52_dKsDmilbL57iGRY0YpVCJzQrWq2kCeZrRgvxg5ABqvihb6oSO7Kk/s1600/Photo+Oct+13%252C+10+07+47+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYQ30l6tV0uSbdqjDzTCpOVENzvDAGjrK_-1Vlf0MoxN1397nQI3orn2Wawnq1kbNHEnoIeezfyht3UODd0hgSe52_dKsDmilbL57iGRY0YpVCJzQrWq2kCeZrRgvxg5ABqvihb6oSO7Kk/s320/Photo+Oct+13%252C+10+07+47+AM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I regret not taking a picture of the horse farm here, which has a statue of a horse covered in gleaming stainless steel plates. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-bI-VbSL-eNdkYDW6Jbc-Yv0QMnaFSTQcz56P5qIZrSkURCtwvLUyCq_JSAKnHzitiwXdflesVLRA4EbZDleQ4BXzaJk16SAVso-S0hAeYkg1nAY8dvMiMdc-1RaphNX4jfXNGZsv5_EI/s1600/Photo+Oct+13%252C+10+37+43+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-bI-VbSL-eNdkYDW6Jbc-Yv0QMnaFSTQcz56P5qIZrSkURCtwvLUyCq_JSAKnHzitiwXdflesVLRA4EbZDleQ4BXzaJk16SAVso-S0hAeYkg1nAY8dvMiMdc-1RaphNX4jfXNGZsv5_EI/s320/Photo+Oct+13%252C+10+37+43+AM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sample dirt road through woods</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtIi9Up9zkyv3MPeVW2mgRyofsr-j-GDAYaWY9zadiZPDZtmgnPfbH39LDFb2VNqbbpTNkOEHWz3I0wIJGKxA0WlqDwu6losxxKeouTysHR5g-JGjMFYF6l1-Xl7UbjRRsprvgW9I8HPv5/s1600/Photo+Oct+13%252C+12+31+41+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtIi9Up9zkyv3MPeVW2mgRyofsr-j-GDAYaWY9zadiZPDZtmgnPfbH39LDFb2VNqbbpTNkOEHWz3I0wIJGKxA0WlqDwu6losxxKeouTysHR5g-JGjMFYF6l1-Xl7UbjRRsprvgW9I8HPv5/s320/Photo+Oct+13%252C+12+31+41+PM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More dirt road, more woods</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgER0iTjTUIikXullGboX1a4IvXjyKoMOzX0lKIhdT-i4FvRxmiztswalc_WlSZQ9M91HCYdlpKpBrav-Y8MHzLwI49SlSdTFvjp7NjA2hlmQ36GO4ONrg5ymHXtFL5xxHC97QniitSou9O/s1600/Photo+Oct+13%252C+12+47+29+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgER0iTjTUIikXullGboX1a4IvXjyKoMOzX0lKIhdT-i4FvRxmiztswalc_WlSZQ9M91HCYdlpKpBrav-Y8MHzLwI49SlSdTFvjp7NjA2hlmQ36GO4ONrg5ymHXtFL5xxHC97QniitSou9O/s320/Photo+Oct+13%252C+12+47+29+PM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Did I mention the roads weren't paved?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_VKolrF7rxctQZ-iLF8hfqd4si_19Hy4_ifGD87dWmToCHmHjImGL6Pnn4_x3SmmT_JxKpNUgmmXhVjPf14c63aS4acINjaQ2ff04XN2-Uih8IO5ZBrmIEUcfZv9GINfNfU5S6UzsCif/s1600/Photo+Oct+13%252C+12+55+20+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_VKolrF7rxctQZ-iLF8hfqd4si_19Hy4_ifGD87dWmToCHmHjImGL6Pnn4_x3SmmT_JxKpNUgmmXhVjPf14c63aS4acINjaQ2ff04XN2-Uih8IO5ZBrmIEUcfZv9GINfNfU5S6UzsCif/s320/Photo+Oct+13%252C+12+55+20+PM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is pretty emblematic of the whole area. If you ever want to ride up here, I'm game. It'll be fun. </td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-83343312660208383072016-10-05T20:26:00.003-04:002016-10-05T20:26:36.675-04:00Rides 10/5Hey, let's complain about some drivers. I've gotten used to a lot of nonsense, but I've noticed two things recently that have been bothering me more than usual. The first is the phones. Seriously, it's bad. It seems like every other person is holding a phone with driving. It's bad. If I'm ever done in by a driver holding a phone. please burn down a Verizon store in my honor. Or an ATT store. Whichever really. Also, don't do that. But man, it's bad. I've resolved myself to having to deal with people who speed and people who cut me off and people who are generally not as kind around cyclists as they should be, but the distracted drivers scare me the most because they're just not looking at the road and I'm working with small enough margins already. I know that robot cars will save us all someday and because of this we can't take any intermediate steps to improve things right now, but if we decided that it was ok to take some steps to help lessen the chance that a distracted drivers hurts me, you, someone you know or him- or herself, that would sure be appreciated. So much of my thinking about safety is trying to ride in such a way as to mitigate risk. But it's really hard to think about risk when they exists the wildcard that someone might just not be looking.<br />
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Also, right-turn-on-red is a sham and should be banned anywhere people walk. If I'm ever done in by a driver making a right turn on red, burn down a red light district. No, please don't do that. But seriously, it's bad. Even if you were to tell me that it's not dramatically unsafer than other bad driving things, I'll tell you this: it creates a situation that encourages encroachment into crosswalks and this, in effect, is one big fuck you to pedestrians. It's hostile and unpleasant and it's hard to imagine how any civilized place could allow it. It's time to be more honest about that.<br />
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Usual route to and from work. I thought about stopping at the bike shop on the way home, but ended up going down a different street. Solution: put a bike shop on every street.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-44262188663888359632016-10-04T20:25:00.000-04:002016-10-04T20:27:32.813-04:00Rides 9/20, Rides 10/3 and Rides 10/4If it were the same beautiful weather we've had over the past 2 days for 300 days a year, I think it'd have the same effect on the overall number of people biking as only about 3 miles of protected bike lanes. Don't get more wrong- this weather is amazing and there are certainly more people biking than there would be were it totally shitty, but I've been doing this long enough to develop strong opinions without empirical evidence and within that certitude is the belief that what really gets people on the bike isn't whether (hah) or not it's nice, but whether or not they worry about being seriously injured or ending up dead. Bicycling is a truly wonderful thing and the feelings it gives me are for the most part extremely positive. But boy oh boy does the current milieu in which I do it ask me to think about my own mortality more times and in deeper ways than I'd prefer. And I do it everyday! I guess all of what I'm saying is two things: 1) putting people in situations in which they're worried about their safety and *feel* unsafe is very visceral ways isn't likely going to lead to more people wanting to put themselves in those situations and 2) asking for hyper-vigilance from people and asking them to do everything they can (which still might not be enough!) to ensure that other people don't bring them harm seems unlikely to win over additional converts. It's just too much. Nice weather though.<br />
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I've given up on Connecticut and Calvert on the way home. I prefer Woodley now. It's pretty breezy, all things considered. There are two stops signs between Cleveland and Connecticut and they're pretty well-spaced. This opens the door to lots of zooming or as much zooming can be done by a relatively cautious rider on slow bikes on a potholed street. Not much opportunity for zooming afterwards either.<br />
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I see a lot of other bicyclists, but only on 18th. It's a pretty good mix too, encompassing a mix of people in regular clothes and bikey clothes and across the entire spectrum of bike types. But it's just one block. I miss seeing cyclists all over the city. Maybe it's time to get a job on the Hill, get the downtown commute back. It's a weird campaign announcement, but when I'm the junior Senator from Nebraska, at least I'll have a longer bike commute back and get to see more bicyclists.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-21930971591431994742016-09-29T20:31:00.000-04:002016-09-29T20:31:00.436-04:00Rides 9/29Rain again so I was still in the Ogre, but I decided to treat myself to a mildly circuitous route to work that required me to ride down into the park (at the bottom of the Adams Mill hill, I consider everything 'park,' but I think a lot of it is actually Mount Pleasant) and then over the parkway and then up Porter Street. On Harvard and Klingle there are bike facilities (mostly lanes but a few tiny spots of sharrows) and there's a new buffered bike lane on the downhill stretch of Klingle. I thought that the bike lane might have turned into a climbing lane on Porter, but it doesn't. I'm not sure why. There might be some afternoon changes that turn the right parking lane into a driving lane and that's probably the reason.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPtfQm9LNTRsp3YnXcRQZdlggjBrk1TWdMd4FxiiIs5c4tGBtogHcVmgs8Ext3OvhUT3-QFx9tai5kgg4EuLb1iL0sbTT9PQSZ74nRTsqnqJuNy_WwPqVdWh0FuuV_hYCNos8KYh1f958/s1600/Photo+Sep+29%252C+8+55+52+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPtfQm9LNTRsp3YnXcRQZdlggjBrk1TWdMd4FxiiIs5c4tGBtogHcVmgs8Ext3OvhUT3-QFx9tai5kgg4EuLb1iL0sbTT9PQSZ74nRTsqnqJuNy_WwPqVdWh0FuuV_hYCNos8KYh1f958/s400/Photo+Sep+29%252C+8+55+52+AM.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bike lane on Klingle with artisanal leaf decor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Porter is a slog. I ride it so rarely that I forget this. I thought that maybe the part of Porter from the park to Connecticut was the worst, but that wasn't so bad today. I thought that maybe the part of Porter from Connecticut to Wisco (yes, Wisco- it's gonna be a thing. We're making it a thing) wasn't so bad, but it seemed kind of bad today. Funny how the same hill can be so wildly different. I blame plate tectonics and not the fog of memory.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibfjjx05eyEucOLoxzh1BMiEmp0aV39GVdZPjLuLOSQdZLxLtvUZbRM3FabZSCPz0O1lRDdDKILkDJ9j4COpeHmjrcye2IrIFSkcCfFOOGuQkymStLuHwm7jpKLQp7pGaLd_gfhq0PGk4l/s1600/Photo+Sep+29%252C+8+58+19+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibfjjx05eyEucOLoxzh1BMiEmp0aV39GVdZPjLuLOSQdZLxLtvUZbRM3FabZSCPz0O1lRDdDKILkDJ9j4COpeHmjrcye2IrIFSkcCfFOOGuQkymStLuHwm7jpKLQp7pGaLd_gfhq0PGk4l/s400/Photo+Sep+29%252C+8+58+19+AM.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">if cars are fast and bikes are slow, how come I passed so many of these people? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Turns out work installed a fix-it stand recently in the corner of the garage where I park my bike. Thanks, work!<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5_n7BvFpS740-aI58TTlHiZ72_cx9wsoxRHPnxwCn99HcByYr6hpH-dFjrQCxhLI3UhJEUmGVzRZ1vNP4ctFsgOEa2avLalFp6aD8pOZrOZn1ky3-hD2C6v53W-h4RKf1fQfmT7OLX2VA/s1600/Photo+Sep+29%252C+9+13+27+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5_n7BvFpS740-aI58TTlHiZ72_cx9wsoxRHPnxwCn99HcByYr6hpH-dFjrQCxhLI3UhJEUmGVzRZ1vNP4ctFsgOEa2avLalFp6aD8pOZrOZn1ky3-hD2C6v53W-h4RKf1fQfmT7OLX2VA/s400/Photo+Sep+29%252C+9+13+27+AM.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fix it</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I headed to the grocery store at the end of the day and thereafter decided to take Macomb down to Connecticut. I then treated myself to a ride through the zoo. I realize that preceding sentence sounds vaguely Seussian. Or at least whimsical. But it was whimsical or at least as whimsical as a ride through a zoo access road and parking lots can be. Which is to say, pretty freaking whimsical. I might have past the ostriches but I can't say for sure. Guess I had my head in the sand. I don't know why more drivers don't cut through the zoo. There are speed bumps, but it's otherwise empty. Anyway, drivers, if you're reading this, um, please don't cut through the zoo.<br />
<br />
After the zoo, I went up Adams Mill, though it might have been less steep to head up Harvard and then over somehow after that. I really need to spend more time riding in Mount Pleasant. After Adams Mill was 18th and then it was home. A good pair of rides in which I somehow avoided any heavy rain. One more rainless bike commute in the books.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-34683807836630841252016-09-28T21:05:00.000-04:002016-09-28T21:09:58.771-04:00Rides 9/27 and Rides 9/28I go into work later on Tuesdays and this generally reduces the number of drivers I have to interact with on the road and for the most part that's a good thing. Generally at least, but the thing about assholes is that not only does everyone have one, it's also that it only takes one to run you over. Luckily that didn't happen and I remain not run over.<br />
<br />
The Connecticut-Calvert situation remains a mess. A wrong lane driver decided to pull into the crosswalk and wait there instead of block the right-turn-only lane. I get it: don't want to inconvenience anyone. Anyone that matters, at least. There are, thankfully, few pedestrians who cross there, zoo foot traffic at that time of day being relatively light. This would be a remarkably easy intersection at which traffic enforcement professionals could issue tickets for sundry infractions, but I'm not sure I've ever seen them there. They must be elsewhere. [lol]<br />
<br />
Riding a bicycle in the city is an unintermediated experience. This, I think, is what makes it so enjoyable and also what, I think, makes cyclists feel so viscerally close passes or dangerous turns or the whistle and whoosh of speeding cars. The senses are heightened from not just proximity, but the lack of any physical barrier. In an aquarium, you're but a few inches from the sharks, but that those few inches are measured in glass makes all the difference. Same with bicycling and not have windows. I mean, I guess you could have a fairing, but most of us don't and for the most part, that's ok. Anyway, the extra-sensitivity from being so close to the world around you is really, I don't know, addictive and on nice afternoons, I feel like I just <i>feel</i> the nice weather more. Like it sits on my skin in a way that it wouldn't had I not spent the last many years riding everyday. It's an odd feeling, but I think it's true.<br />
<br />
The other thing about the lack of intermediation is that randos will walk up to you and start talking and some of these randos are crazy people. To wit, outside of St. Albans, a man approached. He was white and middle aged and had slicked back hair and wore a yellow t-shirt. He begins:<br />
"You know, I used to work here"<br />
and I thought that I would soon here a story about the school, but then he continues<br />
"and these kids are smart and great and work hard. And they spend their whole lives working hard and trying to get ahead and to get a good job and make money and to think"<br />
Now at this point, I'm worried that there's going to be some helmet-shaming. I wasn't wearing one, but I was wearing a tie and dress shirt and I thought this guy was gonna pivot and be like 'these kids are smart and work hard, like you did or whatever, and to think you'd ride a bike without a helmet and you'll die blah blah blah.' Why did I worry about this? I dunno exactly, but definitely in the past random strangers have commented on my not wearing a helmet and I thought that maybe that was what was happening here. And frankly, I wish it was that, but it wasn't, because he continued<br />
"and you know- and my wife calculated it. 39 cents on the dollar. We make 39 cents on the dollar and the rest goes to taxes and these kids work so hard for all that money-<br />
At this point I was like oh god<br />
"for all that money to be spent by Her"<br />
oh god no. The crosswalk light had changed and I was like 'oh no, must get out of here'<br />
"and all those taxes. She's the-<br />
Honestly here, I was like ok, this is not where I expected this to go. We don't have a lot of angry right-wing types in DC and I can't say that I've ever been dragooned into a one-side conversation (monologue? rant?) with one, but then comes the coda<br />
"Someone should put a bullet in that c*nt's heead"<br />
Yup. That's 1) a pretty offensive thing to say aloud about anyone to anyone and 2) a totally wacko thing to say to A STRANGER ON A BICYCLE WHO JUST HAPPENS TO BE STOPPED WAITING FOR THE LIGHT TO CHANGE<br />
<br />
A few takeaways:<br />
1. don't wait for stoplights<br />
2. when waiting for stop lights, take out your phone<br />
3. I think it's kind of weird how comfortable he was launching into this diatribe and perhaps thinking that because I'm a white dude who was wearing a tie that I'd be a) interested or b) inclined to agree with him. Anyway, don't bike in ties.<br />
4. Buy a car and roll up your windows and never commute by bike<br />
5. I didn't say anything in response. I just left. I'm sure I could've yelled at this guy or dressed him down for saying something so horrific, but I've read far too many things about random interactions in traffic escalating for me to do anything other than ride away when the going gets crazy. This might be a virtue or a moral failure. It's unclear.<br />
<br />
Rainy this morning. Took the Ogre, which was far too beefy a bike for the drizzle. Like bringing a cleaver to a knife fight. It's probably a max pretty right now. Could use some fenders before autumn gets serious though.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLgxndUM7OzN83OMpZKOW9051_BwvoZgBqdKqiLrc7syXAkZQ9ZFv7jmMDc2Uy8A72UFQtACf430EnV4rc1paJAPHGAdL-a7NNrzdgwuyd_66EHcVOj_tuubUFm3xmdeT-mJECUo6FtHXP/s1600/Photo+Sep+28%252C+9+01+54+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLgxndUM7OzN83OMpZKOW9051_BwvoZgBqdKqiLrc7syXAkZQ9ZFv7jmMDc2Uy8A72UFQtACf430EnV4rc1paJAPHGAdL-a7NNrzdgwuyd_66EHcVOj_tuubUFm3xmdeT-mJECUo6FtHXP/s400/Photo+Sep+28%252C+9+01+54+AM.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Coincidentally, I was riding in front of the 96 bus for a little this morning, upon which sat my ANC commissioner. She texted me that she saw me. I turned around and waved. We parted ways at the base of the hill at Cleveland and Woodley.<br />
<br />
I left work slightly earlier than usual today and the ride home was fine. It'll be the last dry ride for awhile. Tomorrow begins the deluge.<br />
<br />
In non-commuting news, I briefly owned a cycling computer. I returned it after maybe an hour's worth of fiddling. It turns out that I wanted it until I had it and once I had it, I realized that I didn't want it. That's the nature of these things sometimes.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-60100673104415927932016-09-26T17:50:00.001-04:002016-09-26T17:50:48.260-04:00Rides 9/26I took the Ogre this morning. It felt like an Ogre kind of morning. It's cooler. There are some strewn leaves. Clouds linger. It's good that there isn't some deep woodsy path I could've taken towards work because it's likely I'd still be on it, heading deeper still into the forest primeval. Fittingly, I had in my bag some trail mix, which I normally stow in the corner of my desk to serve as an afternoon snack when my energy wanes and my ennui rises. All things considered, it would have been a good day to ride headlong into nature to embrace come what may, but instead I went up 18th to Adams Mill to Calvert. Wild, but of a different kind altogether.<br />
<br />
As a result of the closure of the commuter highway that we decided to build through a nature park, the car traffic situation around Connecticut and Calvert has been worse than normal. There are two lanes westbound over the bridge. The left lane, the one where all of the drivers wait for the drivers in front of them to wait for the light to change, is the one that's the route to the parkway entrance. The right lane, the empty one, is a right-turn-only lane that sends people northbound up Connecticut Avenue. Between the two of these lanes is a bike lane. That's where I go. Or at least try because surprisingly absolutely no one, once drivers "suddenly realize" that the right lane is for turns only, they drive into the bike lane in order to merge back into the lane that would facilitate their driving straight. The presence of traffic control officers has only made this problem worse since now drivers can't fake as if they're going to turn right and then just drive through. I have a few thoughts on this:<br />
<br />
1. I would prefer cars to not be in the bike lane. It's unsafe, illegal and annoying.<br />
2. This is yet another very clear example of how the problem with the average driver's commute is other drivers. I wish I had the science to prove it, but I can nearly guarantee you that the average driver is caused more delays by assholes in cars doing this than by the entirely panoply of bicyclists he or she might encounter during the commute. Guaranteed.<br />
<br />
Oh, then a little later, I almost ran over some garden shears that ended up in a bike lane. When will this senseless war between bicyclists and gardeners end?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9PjoCb7EyA_yUibqUoTPEgo-4M_6Qo3ohD87Z5283GoLj9_RvRl6mjy2uc0-Qar7KCN2cG3hLKhL_5WkIXG783qJe0hwAd6XdHdCeK8jHdOhJ2VeRmI02JuQiNjXBjPjsOZoNGfBx7tOG/s1600/Photo+Sep+26%252C+9+07+03+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9PjoCb7EyA_yUibqUoTPEgo-4M_6Qo3ohD87Z5283GoLj9_RvRl6mjy2uc0-Qar7KCN2cG3hLKhL_5WkIXG783qJe0hwAd6XdHdCeK8jHdOhJ2VeRmI02JuQiNjXBjPjsOZoNGfBx7tOG/s400/Photo+Sep+26%252C+9+07+03+AM.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'd rather ride clipless<br /></td></tr>
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Ride home was normal. Ogre didn't mind the potholes on Woodley. Who would've guessed? It's still got fun knobby tires on it, but as fall comes closer, I think it might be time to put the fenders back on, which will necessitate a tire change. I like changing tires.<br />
<br />
And in other bike news, I think I'm going to go to Connecticut to bike around on some gravel roads near my parents' house. I've got bus tickets for October. It should be fun.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-30501872334064108842016-09-22T21:55:00.001-04:002016-09-22T21:55:48.484-04:00Rides 9/21 and Rides 9/22I spent most of my morning commute thinking about robot cars and the nefarious purposes you could put them to. It's a good way to pass the time, though a weird one. I'm obsessed with robot cars and the dystopian future I fear they'll bring. I'm not a technophobe by default and there are many technologies that I think are just peachy. But what I am in a carphobe and when I think about the history of cars in cities, I see a steady progression of space being stolen from people in not-cars and given to be in cars and how we're all pretty much ok with that. I don't see how that changes when the cars are driven by robots and I don't predict a halcyon future where we say 'oh wow, let's use what was a parking lane for a park' and not 'oh wow, let's use what was a parking lane as a place to idle our robot cars so they can pick us up faster when we call them on our smart phones.' I hope I'm wrong, but I fear I won't be.<br />
<br />
I rode home now through what's the regular route on Woodley, potholes be damned. At the stop sign at 29th, a guy tried to wave me around him while he stopped to make a right turn. But he suggested that I pass him on the right, between his car, the curb and the place he planned to turn. Thanks, bud, but I passed on the left instead. There are shockingly few reasons to ride in the two feet between a car and the curb, waved through or otherwise.<br />
<br />
Today was car free day, but I had an appointment that kept me from work right away. In the morning I was running errands and planned to take Bikeshare, but as I approached the first two stations, my arrival was greeted by someone beating me to the last bike, leaving me with bupkis. You can't ride bupkis. At least not comfortably. I did finally snag one and then I caught the last bike at the Tenleytown metro when I finally got to work. My luck, however, ran out in the afternoon. When it was time to ride home, there were no bikes in the station. Now, this is kind of antithetical to the whole mission of Bikeshare, which is all about sharing, but would I pay a dollar to "reserve" a bike for me, for like 5 minutes, when I absolutely knew I needed it? Yeah, maybe. You could even add in dynamic pricing based on demand. I'm kind of surprised that one of the for-profit systems hasn't tried this yet. Seems like it would probably work.<br />
<br />
Instead I took the bus home and I didn't get off the bus at the stop I should have and waited one stop too long, which meant waiting in an extra 15 minutes of traffic to go two blocks. Massachusetts Avenue is barren for Bikeshares between AU and Dupont and that's a shame. You could get off at Observatory Circle and walk over to Glover Park, but that's not exactly right there on Mass, so I don't think that really counts. It'd be nice if they threw in a dock at the Cathedral or by the British or Finnish Embassies. It wouldn't probably be the highest used station, but it would certainly close a pretty expansive gap. When I finally got off the bus, I rode from Dupont to New Hampshire at T. It took 4 minutes.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-84460493392823957342016-09-20T20:33:00.001-04:002016-09-20T20:33:47.163-04:00Rides 9/20It's the twentieth day of September and I don't know where the time has gone. It still feels like summer, but it's not. It's nearly time to start eating exclusively candy corn and pumpkin spice _____, but the weather doesn't really match those vibes at all. The only hint of the changing of the seasons lately has been the slow but inexorable drift of increasing darkness into the evening commute. Buy your lights now. Before you need them.<br />
<br />
Decided to mix things up this morning and went over to S Street and salmoned across the very poorly designed intersection of S, Connecticut and Florida. The whole intersection needs a refresh and hopefully those who refresh intersections shine their light upon it soon. I wouldn't mind a contraflow bike lane, but really, the whole intersection needs much more than some bike appreciation. I continued on S up the hill and past Mitchell Park and then down the hill and past the Woodrow Wilson House and then out to familiar Massachusetts. There was some stoppage on Mass in front of one of the embassies (it was either a fender bender or two people who just sorta felt like not driving anymore, which I totally get) and so I scooted by and then the Brompton and I rode up the sidewalk together and slowly. This don't stop the sweating. The humidity was gross.<br />
<br />
On the way home, I followed Massachusetts to Garfield and took that down the hill where it turned into Woodley. Right around the time it turned to Woodley, a driver decided that he absolutely more than anything else in the world needed to get past me and he was so successful in this that he then needed to hurriedly slam on his brakes to avoid driving right past a stop sign. Please, please, please drivers of the world (i.e. people who don't read this blog) please don't do this. I get that bikes are *the worst* and terribly inconvenience you, but passing a cyclist just to have to come to an immediate stop, one that you almost missed because you were so intent on passing the cyclist, is just remarkably silly. Rarely ever on my bike do I feel like I lack situational awareness. I pretty much know and can process more or less everything that's going on around me and that's even with about 37% daydreaming sapping my focus. But there's something about driving a car, even when not distracted by a phone or radio or passenger, that leads people to just *miss* stuff. It's signs, it's lights, it's other drivers. I'm sure you've seen it too. It's, how do you say, not great. Ok, robot cars, do your stuff.<br />
<br />
After Woodley it was more Woodley and then the bridge and I got stuck on the wrong side, so I rode through Walter Pierce Park and saw Freddie the Firetruck, returned, and then went out Adams Mill on the other side. It's not the most efficient route, but sometimes you don't feel like waiting for a light.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-54554202336151572492016-09-19T20:22:00.003-04:002016-09-19T20:22:37.523-04:00Rides 9/15 and Rides 9/19Let's be honest, no one remembers what I did on Thursday. I rode to work, I rode home. Details are pointless. I assume that everything went well, that the weather was the weather, and the drivers/bicyclists/pedestrians/pogoists all did the things they normally do that make the tableau of life rich and meaningful. Thursday was my last day of work last week. I took off Friday, biked downtown in the morning on the Brompton and then took Mr. Pink down to Mount Vernon in the afternoon via the Mount Vernon Trail. I have only ridden to Mount Vernon once before and that ride felt much longer than this one. That might have been because it was winter (was it?) or because the Cross Check isn't nearly as zippy as the Pink or because I had a few more miles in my legs than the distance required or perhaps because there was no real mystery this time about the land between Old Town and where George Washington once lived. The trail, unlike the W&OD does get more interesting the further it progresses. There's a windiness and a few ups and downs. Trees hug it in places and where trees don't, there's marsh and sometimes a river (or highway). Mount Vernon itself has a sign outside of it that says it costs $20 to enter and that's all I can tell you about Mount Vernon. Riding back, I stopped in Old Town for chili cheese fries, as George Washington definitely probably did.<br />
<br />
I also rode recreationally on Sunday on a unofficial version of the Hills of Rock Creek ride. It was fun and I'd like to do an official version again some time.<br />
<br />
Today I was back on the Brompton. I made it to work right before the rain started plus or minus 2 minutes. Ok, minus 2 minutes. I got 2 minutes of rained on. It was fine.<br />
<br />
I'm sick and tired on drivers ignoring the right-turn-only lane at Calvert and Connecticut. I wouldn't mind it so much if I wasn't nearly run over through the blatant disregard for law, but getting almost run over a couple of times really tends to solidify your opinion about these things. Back to Woodley tomorrow.<br />
<br />
I went home via the grocery store, filling my bag with the nightly supply of tomatoes and limes. Not everyone's a fan of marinara rickeys, but I've developed quite a taste for them. I followed Newark Street home, which has a nice curviness toward the bottom, which makes it moderately fun. Fronting the street are giant houses. I wonder how many more people could afford to live in DC if normal-sized houses lived there instead. But that's the point I guess.<br />
<br />
I stopped in Bicycle Space to talk to a man about some tires. I declined to purchase these tires. This time. After that, it was down the rest of 18th and a left on T, around a stopped FedEx truck, and then one more right turn and home. Last Monday bike commute of the week. Glad to have gotten it over so early.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-64523193759502512472016-09-14T20:11:00.004-04:002016-09-14T20:16:42.073-04:00Rides 9/14Even though I've been riding a new route since July and even though I've been getting lost in trying to get to and from work, I don't think I've really ridden on any new roads. You commute long enough or if you ride around aimlessly on weekends and a few years pass, it's likely you'll ride on most streets at least once and I think it's pretty safe that say that that's the case with my new commute route. There's really only so many ways to cover the three miles between Dupont and AU. However, today I rode a new road and it wasn't even a road I knew I could ride, but I did it and oh yeah, it's also the access road to the zoo parking lots.<br />
<br />
I don't spend a lot of time at the zoo. The last time I was there was Brew at the Zoo and the time before that was...2003? And I'm not sure that I've ever driven to the zoo, or at least parked anywhere near the official zoo parking lots. All of this is to say that I'm not very familiar with the Zoo access road, but it turns out that there is one and it goes from Connecticut Avenue down to Rock Creek Park and it's downhill, at least in that direction. It's two lanes and it bans pedestrians. I guess they spent all the sidewalk money on signs that say 'No Pedestrians" and "Watch for Pedestrians," the latter being placed at the few crosswalks from the zoo side to the parking lots and the former being placed everywhere else. I don't see any reason why there couldn't or shouldn't be sidewalks, but apparently that's something the zoo isn't interested in having. Caged animals indeed.<br />
<br />
There were no signs about bikes.<br />
<br />
The best part about the zoo road (North Road, as it's called on google maps) is that no one else was on it at 5PM on a weekday and so I could ride it leisurely, though the rumble strips were hardly that. The worst part about the zoo road is that it empties you at Harvard Street at its base in the Rock Creek Ravine. That meant riding up Adams Mills Road, which is hilly, but a fun kind of hilly and then it was back up to Calvert on the east side of the Ellington Bridge. The zoo road lets you skip Connecticut and Calvert, but you trade that for a hill. But it's still a new road and you can't put a price on a new road. Is it practical? This is bike commuting- what does that matter?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVjAzvnKMoGAdhqhT-SrW3Xf3cnm6NYWcb9EHLCDgyn_PL4cRrb1T9tWOpmKQ8rbbvNXHrTLq1WfUhLdJQzHAQw8Atrv2FiK1-x3MpCX5ikzIneONnlU4UlAG-lIdbDlbjU-OykF9-WRV5/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-09-14+at+8.12.08+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVjAzvnKMoGAdhqhT-SrW3Xf3cnm6NYWcb9EHLCDgyn_PL4cRrb1T9tWOpmKQ8rbbvNXHrTLq1WfUhLdJQzHAQw8Atrv2FiK1-x3MpCX5ikzIneONnlU4UlAG-lIdbDlbjU-OykF9-WRV5/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-09-14+at+8.12.08+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guys, the zoo road</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwhvwql2NzGcCGNlbWoPlm46Ye08tM-VSBUgHZSgaaAIVAKQIXaMnqTZdR88S7tHMpe-hyDzphYRh4-84KaUwo8tAp1E9YdUqGqy0Lhg_4jJl29Qrh7h2yzq5XdEZXMJPea_Qy4onmbISF/s1600/Photo+Sep+14%252C+5+04+43+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwhvwql2NzGcCGNlbWoPlm46Ye08tM-VSBUgHZSgaaAIVAKQIXaMnqTZdR88S7tHMpe-hyDzphYRh4-84KaUwo8tAp1E9YdUqGqy0Lhg_4jJl29Qrh7h2yzq5XdEZXMJPea_Qy4onmbISF/s400/Photo+Sep+14%252C+5+04+43+PM.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zoo gate. It doesn't so no bikes which means yes bikes obviously</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKABxNeEjzErOJ6V1pHbwn9IkCV9kC92wzDFcPxkmK-2frrucvwrv3bbm0J35QG4-M21PSvTwXH8C3doslK-Pmhe0ciDaLx0DnfjbPMohs-ZIHgwDJnpqwLV2hf-CHZrVEo_ks592ChU59/s1600/Photo+Sep+14%252C+5+06+09+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKABxNeEjzErOJ6V1pHbwn9IkCV9kC92wzDFcPxkmK-2frrucvwrv3bbm0J35QG4-M21PSvTwXH8C3doslK-Pmhe0ciDaLx0DnfjbPMohs-ZIHgwDJnpqwLV2hf-CHZrVEo_ks592ChU59/s640/Photo+Sep+14%252C+5+06+09+PM.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yup, that's a road. But to the right is a zoo. So that's cool. </td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-81884140846642176092016-09-14T20:11:00.003-04:002016-09-14T20:16:16.699-04:00Rides 9/14Even though I've been riding a new route since July and even though I've been getting lost in trying to get to and from work, I don't think I've really ridden on any new roads. You commute long enough or if you ride around aimlessly on weekends and a few years pass, it's likely you'll ride on most streets at least once and I think it's pretty safe that say that that's the case with my new commute route. There's really only so many ways to cover the three miles between Dupont and AU. However, today I rode a new road and it wasn't even a road I knew I could ride, but I did it and oh yeah, it's also the access road to the zoo parking lots.<br />
<br />
I don't spend a lot of time at the zoo. The last time I was there was Brew at the Zoo and the time before that was...2003? And I'm not sure that I've ever driven to the zoo, or at least parked anywhere near the official zoo parking lots. All of this is to say that I'm not very familiar with the Zoo access road, but it turns out that there is one and it goes from Connecticut Avenue down to Rock Creek Park and it's downhill, at least in that direction. It's two lanes and it bans pedestrians. I guess they spent all the sidewalk money on signs that say 'No Pedestrians" and "Watch for Pedestrians," the latter being placed at the few crosswalks from the zoo side to the parking lots and the former being placed everywhere else. I don't see any reason why there couldn't or shouldn't be sidewalks, but apparently that's something the zoo isn't interested in having. Caged animals indeed.<br />
<br />
There were no signs about bikes.<br />
<br />
The best part about the zoo road (North Road, as it's called on google maps) is that no one else was on it at 5PM on a weekday and so I could ride it leisurely, though the rumble strips were hardly that. The worst part about the zoo road is that it empties you at Harvard Street at its base in the Rock Creek Ravine. That meant riding up Adams Mills Road, which is hilly, but a fun kind of hilly and then it was back up to Calvert on the east side of the Ellington Bridge. The zoo road lets you skip Connecticut and Calvert, but you trade that for a hill. But it's still a new road and you can't put a price on a new road. Is it practical? This is bike commuting- what does that matter?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVjAzvnKMoGAdhqhT-SrW3Xf3cnm6NYWcb9EHLCDgyn_PL4cRrb1T9tWOpmKQ8rbbvNXHrTLq1WfUhLdJQzHAQw8Atrv2FiK1-x3MpCX5ikzIneONnlU4UlAG-lIdbDlbjU-OykF9-WRV5/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-09-14+at+8.12.08+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVjAzvnKMoGAdhqhT-SrW3Xf3cnm6NYWcb9EHLCDgyn_PL4cRrb1T9tWOpmKQ8rbbvNXHrTLq1WfUhLdJQzHAQw8Atrv2FiK1-x3MpCX5ikzIneONnlU4UlAG-lIdbDlbjU-OykF9-WRV5/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-09-14+at+8.12.08+PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guys, the zoo road</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwhvwql2NzGcCGNlbWoPlm46Ye08tM-VSBUgHZSgaaAIVAKQIXaMnqTZdR88S7tHMpe-hyDzphYRh4-84KaUwo8tAp1E9YdUqGqy0Lhg_4jJl29Qrh7h2yzq5XdEZXMJPea_Qy4onmbISF/s1600/Photo+Sep+14%252C+5+04+43+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwhvwql2NzGcCGNlbWoPlm46Ye08tM-VSBUgHZSgaaAIVAKQIXaMnqTZdR88S7tHMpe-hyDzphYRh4-84KaUwo8tAp1E9YdUqGqy0Lhg_4jJl29Qrh7h2yzq5XdEZXMJPea_Qy4onmbISF/s400/Photo+Sep+14%252C+5+04+43+PM.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zoo gate. It doesn't so no bikes which means yes bikes obviously</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKABxNeEjzErOJ6V1pHbwn9IkCV9kC92wzDFcPxkmK-2frrucvwrv3bbm0J35QG4-M21PSvTwXH8C3doslK-Pmhe0ciDaLx0DnfjbPMohs-ZIHgwDJnpqwLV2hf-CHZrVEo_ks592ChU59/s1600/Photo+Sep+14%252C+5+06+09+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKABxNeEjzErOJ6V1pHbwn9IkCV9kC92wzDFcPxkmK-2frrucvwrv3bbm0J35QG4-M21PSvTwXH8C3doslK-Pmhe0ciDaLx0DnfjbPMohs-ZIHgwDJnpqwLV2hf-CHZrVEo_ks592ChU59/s640/Photo+Sep+14%252C+5+06+09+PM.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yup, that's a road. But to the right is a zoo. So that's cool. </td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-18595365698364188582016-09-13T20:14:00.000-04:002016-09-13T20:15:24.446-04:00Rides 9/13I figured out Woodley both ways today. I consider this no small accomplishment, but I have a very low threshold for self-congratulation. I say that as I polish the trophy I ordered myself for Best Bike Guy Who Rode Up Woodley Twice Today Without Getting Lost. On the way up, the hill starts gentle, but there's a little kick after 29th. The way down is easy, but the road is ruddy and the little tires of the Brompton disagree with the potholes, which provides exciting pretense for swerving when riding down the road, which is fun. The only problem with taking Woodley home is that it leaves me on the wrong side of the Ellington Bridge, which is to say the north side sidewalk and so I ride on the sidewalk even though I'd prefer to ride on the road. So it goes.<br />
<br />
I've been thinking a lot about speed bumps lately and how much I dislike them. Like stop signs, they're there to control drivers and in a world without cars, we wouldn't have them and me, a guy on a tiny wheeled bike, would be much happier for it. They might go away in our future of robot cars, when the robots, unlike the humans who currently drive, will know not to speed and then I'll be considerably happier. Other things that might go away in our robot car future include those rumble strips on the highway that make noise when you drift outside of the lane, but those don't really affect my bike commute, so I'm less excited about that. "No turn on red" signs and speed limit signs will also disappear in our robot car future (presumably the car will know based on GPS or something). Overall, I predict we'll live in a world with much less visual clutter, which I'll appreciate. Just think about how many signs there are telling drivers what they can, should and shouldn't do. The robots won't need them. But I wonder why, in the mean time, we don't take advantage of the fact that cars basically are GPS-enabled right now and more or less just computers on wheels and enact some intermediate steps. If you can map the entire world, you could add speed limits to that map and couldn't the car "know" the speed limit on the road and limit itself to that speed? This seems like a pretty good idea to me.<br />
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Yes, there will still be human driver error, but think of how many lives would be saved in the mean time if we just limited top speed. No more speed tickets! No more crazy aggressive drivers weaving in and out trying to get by! Of course we won't do this because freedom means the freedom to kill yourself or others by ignoring the law, but if we ever decide to not be as free, I wouldn't mind if we chose that particular restriction. We have the technology.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-78289682726138559012016-09-12T20:21:00.001-04:002016-09-12T20:24:43.726-04:00Rides 9/9 and Rides 9/12On Friday morning, I avoided the Connecticut-Calvert intersection by riding over to Woodley Road via Woodley Place. Here's a map. It'll be useful if you care to follow along with my premise, which is that Ward 3 is confusing and it's very easy to get lost. This is partially because all of the houses look the same and there are too many trees, blocking the sun by which I would normally navigate and also because the streets are all diagonals and OH YEAH ALSO THEY DON'T CONNECT IN ANY REASONABLE WAY and WHY THE FUCK ARE HALF OF THEM NAMED WOODLEY?!?!<br />
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My normal route is pretty easy and pretty direct and I take it both ways, which is Calvert (horizontal in the map) to Cleveland (diagonal) to Garfield (horizontal) to Massachusetts (diagonal). It's easy and relatively direct, but it's also trafficky and I think sometimes 'oh, this is a quaint quiet leafy neighborhood with slow speed residential streets, why wouldn't I just take those?' So on Friday morning, I did and I rode up Woodley Place from the west side of the Ellington Bridge to Woodley Road and then eventually ended up at the familiar intersection of Cleveland and Garfield and considered the whole thing successful. Little did I know, however, that when I tried to repeat it this afternoon that I wouldn't be nearly as successful, but through machinations not of my own but rather those of the devious street namers and perhaps also the French nuns who founded the Maret School. I came down 34th towards Cleveland and thought I'd be able to make a left turn onto Wooldey, but little did I know, there was no Woodley to be found there. I had passed a Woodley previously, but I dismissed it as a pretender Woodley knowing that the Woodley I knew was the one that intersected Cleveland. But the what-I-thought-was-Woodley that intersects with Cleveland is actually Garfield and not Woodley. It changes name before it gets there. Why, you ask? I don't know! With no Woodley, I ended up making a hard left onto 32nd shouting 'here woodley woodley woodley woodley' as one is wont to do when one's woodley is missing. Keep in mind, that this is Woodley, not Woodland, which is an entirely different kind of wood and perhaps even a land onto itself. I have previously been lost on Woodland, but it's been years since I've ridden between Cleveland and Massachusetts, having been so scarred by this experience. Let's press on.<br />
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I rode north on 32nd even though I didn't think that was necessarily the right way to go and then I saw Cathedral and thought 'well, Cathedral. That's a street that goes somewhere. Maybe even to Connecticut' and then I turned onto Cathedral. And then on Cathedral there's a stop sign and there at this stop sign, snaking in from the left, well, look who's there- it's mother fucking Woodley. "Where've you been, asshole?" I might've mumbled. "I need to get on you now and ride you home." But how? Woodley intersects Cathedral but then it stops at the gates to the Maret School, so there was no riding Woodley home and I had left was to sulk along Cathedral, wondering where it all went wrong. Cathedral passed Connecticut and then I made a right...onto Woodley (Place), but I thought it was Road and I was mad that after all that time, Woodley had the nerve to show up again, when I needed it the least.<br />
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This was a few hours ago and I finally decided to look at a map before writing this post.<br />
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Turns out it's not entirely my fault. There's a Woodley gap. There's a Woodley that stops and a Woodley that starts but these Woodleys don't meet for reasons that escape me. That's why I propose for Serial season 3 the topic of Woodley Street. Also, Ward 3 is confusing. Once you get past the letter streets in DC, forget it.<br />
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****************<br />
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Friday afternoon I rode home via Massachusetts for the first time in a month or so and it was fine. Got hung up a bit by an overly polite traffic in Sheridan Circle (please don't wave me through, sir, just go because the other fourteen drivers in this circle also don't plan to cede the right of way and dear god aaaaaaaaaaaaaah), but made it to 20th where I locked my bike up outside to attend an event inside.<br />
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This morning's ride in was really nice. The weather was charming. It might be autumn someday.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-21990864042234066332016-09-08T19:53:00.001-04:002016-09-08T19:53:34.640-04:00Rides 9/7 and Rides 9/8Two more days on the Ogre. It's still summer. Yesterday evening I had some bonus rides back and forth between home and NoMa and the one at night was in a light drizzle. It's been too long since I've ridden in the rain. I kind of missed it. Sort of. Happily, on the ride over to NoMa, I ran into Nelle and Nick from WABA and we followed all of the traffic laws. All of them. Just like I would have had I not been with WABA people.<br />
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My front brake makes a rather horrific noise of late. It's a primal scream, I think. The bike wants me to keep going. Would that I could. I don't mind a brake that makes a lot of noise. It shows that I'm at least trying to stop. Also, easier than dinging.<br />
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There's one corner on my new route to work that I don't like and it's the intersection of 5 streets at the base of the hill where Calvert meets Woodley meets Cleveland meets a few other streets. There's just a lot of different directions to look for the unexpected and a few too many places to worry you've missed someone coming from. The downhill in the afternoon worries me more than the uphill in the morning, but the morning isn't without its stresses either. Maybe it's time to take more seriously my previously stated desire to avoid that whole area whatsoever.<br />
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They've installed new and better bike parking outside my office and I've started taking advantage of it. One of my students said that she tried to park next to my bike the other day, but couldn't. 1) it's cool that one of my students bikes 2) it's cool that one of them knows that I bike and knows my bike (likely because sometimes I keep my bike in the office, which I really shouldn't because professionalism or something) but 3) I should've inquired why she couldn't park next to me. Did the Ogre take up too much space? Was it just too tight to get the bike in there? Why did I not ask? Oh well. Next time, I guess.<br />
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<a href="http://www.waba.org/blog/2016/09/why-not-park-in-the-bike-lane-you-probably-wont-get-a-ticket/">Read this from WABA</a>. It's important.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-43397319450728285962016-09-06T21:25:00.002-04:002016-09-06T21:25:59.028-04:00Rides 9/6First day back at work after the long weekend and the bike wasn't nearly as sluggish I felt. I rode the Ogre, which is set up with big knobby tires that make a very pleasant whirring noise on the DC pavement. They'd likely make the same whirring noise on non-DC pavements, but that's not the way to work. I don't often think of cycling as a sonic experience, but it is. Especially when you stop for a <a href="https://www.sonicdrivein.com/menu/146-burgers/items/503-bacon-cheeseburger-toaster-r">Bacon Cheeseburger TOASTER</a>. It's a lovely thing to hear lovely noises from your lovely bike.<br />
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18th to Adams Mill to Calvert and slowly up the hill. Rare sightings of another cyclist on the west side of the bridge, but he rode up Woodley to I wonder where. I don't wonder too much- that'd be nosy and everyone has a right to cycle to wherever they're going with some degree of privacy (btw, you won't get this in the robot taxi future that people insist is coming. Your robot taxi- and whoever owns it- will know everywhere you have gone. Cycling- the preferred transport of paranoid nutjobs and technophobes!), but I'm still curious since there's not many businesses up that way and it was the ride-to-work time of morning. Hopefully it was somewhere fun.<br />
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Easy ride home down Mass to a somewhat perilous crossing at Mass and Garfield. I was in the crosswalk and so were turning drivers. There was sun glare. It would've been no excuse, but it also would've been a complete excuse for any "accident" that would've occurred had I not been so cautious. Such is the way it is. Anyway, I don't rush across crosswalks. It seems counterintuitive, but I feel much safer in crosswalks when I go slower (this is true both walking and biking) since it forces (hopefully!) drivers to really acknowledge you and stop rather than just kind of slow. I consider this a small price to pay for my remaining not run over, but I'm admittedly biased in this. Rush across a crosswalk too fast and maybe the driver doesn't slow down as much and maybe he gets it wrong and maybe you suffer that consequences of that. Oh well. That's just my approach. I'm sure others are just as wrong.<br />
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Cleveland, Calvert, Biltmore, 19th, T and home. It was warm, but I rode home in work clothes anyway. I wore novelty socks. They had pictures of poutine on them and they were a gift and I like them very much.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-5218895876368870132016-09-05T17:00:00.002-04:002016-09-05T17:00:35.948-04:00Rides 9/1 and Rides 9/2Welcome to September and perhaps autumn. But not yet. Summer in DC stretches at least until the end of the month and even the nice cooler days are still the nice cooler days of summer and not the nice cooler days of fall, which are even nicer and cooler. Thursday saw rides with the Brompton and and from work and a midday Bikeshare trip home for dog walking purposes. Friday meant a ride to coffee club in the morning (I've never habitually had to ride eastward in the AM and thought nothing of forgetting to wear my sunglasses and this was a mistake) and a ride back to work the long way (up Mass) afterward and then a blissful escape ride home into the three day weekend, which soon lapses, but not before I fit in some holiday cycling, which was for leisure (and coffee).<br />
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I don't have much else to offer than this fairly boring recounting of the facts. If there was tumult, I've long since forgotten it. The one thing you learn to do quickly when you're in the habit of bike commuting (and especially when you're in the habit of writing about your bike commute) is to value the act of forgetting. If you remembered every little thing- every little bad thing especially, as those are the most craw-sticking- getting back on the bike each day would be more struggle than joy. But starting each day eternally sunshiney and spotless-like, you mind it much less and can carry yourself forward happily and let winds carry your cares away. I think it's why I don't like Strava and why I'd never record my commute. Memory, faded and jaded, is a much better substitute than recorded reality.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-84158804000018415572016-08-31T19:32:00.000-04:002016-08-31T19:32:07.838-04:00Rides 8/31Goodbye August. You're a weird month. You know why.<br />
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It's time to ban right turns on red. It's time to ban them because they are bad and it's time to ban them because they encourage infringement into crosswalks and this insults the dignity of the pedestrian at least and imperils their safety at most. It's time to ban them everywhere. And it won't matter given the number of people who think nothing on turning on red when signs tell them not to. 4 drivers in 5 minutes. I don't want to harp on about lawbreaking because I think it's mostly a fruitless discussion that ends in a lot of finger-pointing and a lot of bad comparisons and false equivalence. What I do know about laws and law following is this: there is no one who thinks that the person who drives under the speed limit in the left left of the highway should be exalted as a paragon of virtue and rightness. The 'everyone should follow all the laws all the time' crowd remind me a lot of biblical literalists. It's all true, even the contradictions, until we need to make exceptions.<br />
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This was a long day at work, but the bike commutes on both ends were pleasurable in spite of that or because of that (I don't know which). The morning was sweatier than I wanted it to be, but the evening was kind. Both rides saw a pleasant sensation in my legs when riding uphill. It wasn't a burn exactly, but a kind of physiologic feedback that evoked if not pleasure at least contentedness. I wonder to what extent the experience of bicycling opens me to feelings that I wouldn't otherwise arrive at during the course of my regular day and I suspect it's a few. Some of these are frustration, but most of these feelings are quite good ones and I'm grateful for them.<br />
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I haven't been wearing a helmet most of the summer. I wonder if I'll put one back on in the fall.<br />
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There's a sign painted on someone's garage and it's blue and pink and says "BEST" and "WORST" and there's a bar chart with numbers and I'm sure this has been written about previously and I'm one google search away from knowing more about it, but I pass it everyday on the ride home on 19th Street and I wonder if I should actually finally do that google search and learn more about what I'm looking at or just allow myself to live with the mystery. It's very gnostic, this best and worst sign, and the baby blue and bright pink are the colors of the infant room's of parents of an earlier generation, and the whole thing is quite curious. I don't know what possesses someone to paint blue and pink bar charts on their garage and to label those bar charts best and worst, but I can only assume it's good motives and not craziness.<br />
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The light at Florida and 19th is too long. At least the red light. I don't know if the green light is too long because I'm normally the first to go through the intersection.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-53770316459885104172016-08-30T21:00:00.003-04:002016-08-30T21:00:42.991-04:00Rides 8/29 and 8/30I work in higher education and yesterday was the start of the fall semester. I decided to mix it up by riding up 19th street in the morning rather than 18th and I can tell that 19th is a little steeper and there's less to look at (at least in terms of visual interest) and while I avoid the stoplights at Florida and Columbia and Adams Mill that way, it turns out that 19th ends on a one-way going the wrong way so I had to, um, creatively approach getting to the DE Bridge. From there, it was a normal ride to work and so on.<br />
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One thing I've been thinking about is how non-local drivers seem to be vastly worse at driving around bicyclists than local ones, or at least so it seems. Disproportionately it's North Carolina or New York or Florida license plates on cars being driven too closely to me and I don't think it's just my selective memory telling me that's the case. So I guess maybe there is something to be said for drivers "learning" to be better around bicyclists when they're more used to it. This is as close as I'll get to an apology to MD Driver in DC.<br />
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Hasn't been nearly as much back-to-school traffic as I had expected, but maybe it'll pick up September. Not sure yet if the St. Albans/Cathedral students are back and I'm just fortuitous enough to miss them or whether I haven't yet experienced the madness that will be Garfield Street when they return.<br />
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This is an aside to tell you that I ride past the Belgium Embassy everyday. It's unremarkable. And yet I did a whole aside to remark about it.<br />
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Summer remains hot and it will linger through September. There's a crispiness in fall, but it's still too far off for me to crackle with excitement about wet leaves creating peril beneath my tiny Bromtpon tires. I think the ambient heat is getting to drivers and their frustration bubbles only to be emitted in periodic honks and outgassed in feckless lane changes. I wouldn't mind it so much if it didn't affect me so profoundly. It's one thing to watch the boxing match from the stands, but another entirely to be seated in the middle of the ring. And without gloves no less.<br />
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Left work a little later today and went home the normal way. I wore sunglasses, but it wasn't that sunny. I wore a belt, but I don't think my pants would have fallen down without it. Not much reason to tell you I wore a belt. That belt is the Belgium Embassy of my apparel.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-78695286090066230882016-08-29T10:27:00.002-04:002016-08-29T10:44:42.532-04:00BONUS EXTRA CONTENT: Gear Prudence: What's the Best Type of Cargo Bike for Riding With Kids? <i><a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/gear-prudence/article/20832045/gear-prudence-whats-the-best-type-of-cargo-bike-for-riding-with-kids">This week's GP</a> tackles biking with kids and cargo bikes and since I don't know anything about either of those things, I sought out some help from Loren Copsey, co-owner of <a href="http://thedailyriderdc.com/">The Daily Rider</a>, and Gillian Burgess, leader of <a href="http://kidicalmassarl.blogspot.com/">Kidical Mass Arlington</a>. Needless to say, they're both amazing people and amazingly helpful. So helpful, though, that given the word limits on GP, I could barely include any of the truly wonderful advice that they provided. So, I'm posting their responses to the question in full here because it's really good. </i><br />
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Loren's full response: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Brian, </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I can talk cargo bikes until most people tune out and walk away, so I apologize for you having to edit me down to 450 words. Bottom line on this matter is that I can sing the praises of a front loading Bullitt all day, but 95% of parents are going to hear the price and walk out with a Yuba or get themselves another longtail option. Until we get a viable, mass produced, US based, Chinese made, front loading model from a major manufacturer (Metrofiets is a micro-bike manufacturer so not counting them) it will not be an option for most families. Manufacturing and production numbers have to increase to make them attainable for everyone. Some major companies are looking at this market and wondering if they can enter it. We'll see in the next two years. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Here's what we tell people in the shop:<br />
Like every bike, you're going to want to test ride them. If the shop can attach accessories to let your kids ride as well, even better! </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Front loaders are great for cargo or kids. We use our Bullitt in the shop to shuttle bikes and accessories back and forth to the warehouses. One advantage to a front loader is that your kids are lower, so their weight shifts the center of gravity to stabilize the bike. Another is that conversations carry on like normal since you can see them and interact. The negatives are that small kids need some imaginative accessory to accommodate them, and the bikes take some practice to master. Because the genesis of these bikes (Long Johns) was in the cargo field, kids are often an afterthought. Weight capacity is around 400 pounds, similar to the Yuba Mundo. After kid duties are finished, this is a great bike for picking up drywall or 5 bags of mulch at Fragers or your entire weeks worth of groceries. It can be done on the longtails, but it just takes more doing. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Rear loaders (longtails) are native to the US, starting with Xtracycle. Their ride is similar to your regular bike and many accessories have been created especially for the kid hauling crowd. For a fully equipped bike coming in at $2,200 (Xtracycle or Yuba) versus a similarly equipped front loader at $3,900 this is the deciding factor for most. The second hand market for these bikes is going to really pick up in about two years, and is already hot, so turning one into cash later is an option. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For people that don't want to dive into cargo bikes just yet, adding a rack and child seat can be a good way to test the waters. Yepp has a rack mount with an extension allowing the addition of panniers to a bike with a child seat installed.</blockquote>
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Gillian's full response:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Gear Prudence: I'm thinking about getting a bike so I can ride with preschool-aged kids. I want a cargo bike- but there appear to be two types (the one with they ride up front and the one where they ride in the back) and I don't know which is better. Do you have any advice?<br />
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Perplexed Annoyed Running-on-coffee Exasperated Never-on-time & Tired <b>[Ed. Note: THIS IS AN AMAZING ACRONYM]</b><br />
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Dear P.A.R.E.N.T. - Congrats on having kids and knowing the two main cargo-bike types: the box bike (front carrying) and the long-tail (rear carrying). Each type has pros and cons, but they are all better than “regular bikes” because they allow you to take with you basically everything you want and your kids.<br />
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Box bikes are the easiest to use -- you can load up to 4 kids in the box, and all of the junk that they “need”. Because the kids are in front of you, you can see what they’re fighting over, and when one is trying to escape. The good ones are more stable than a bikeshare bike and surprisingly easy to pilot. You can add a plastic bubble (called “rain cover”) that keeps the kids out of the elements, even warming them up in the winter. Because box bikes are so big, you can use a framelock, making any spot a parking space. However, they are big, heavy, and pricey, so if your storage or budget are limited, the attention you’d get from riding a box bike around town is probably not in your future.<br />
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Long-tails can also carry a load, but you have to think a bit more when you’re loading. You’ll need a seat on the back for when they’re too young to be trusted without straps. Long-tails (and they’re shorter sisters “mid-tails”) look more like normal bikes, and are easier to store at home and to park at racks. Some are even light enough to maneuver up and down a few stairs. Kids are behind you, so you don’t have to see them while you ride, and you can fart on them with reckless abandon. If they’re strapped into seats, it’s harder for them to fight. It’s easier to tow their bikes along with a long-tail, allowing for rides where they sometimes do some work. The best long-tails have smaller rear wheels, so the load (i.e. your kids) are closer to the ground, and those look weird enough to turn heads.<br />
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Either kind of cargo bike can be upgraded with “e-assist” -- a little electric motor that flattens the hills. E-assist can be pricey, but worth it around here.<br />
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You can find out more about the wonderful world of family biking by visiting the Kidical Mass Arlington website (<a href="http://kidicalmassarl.blogspot.com/">kidicalmassarl.blogspot.com</a>) or just talking to families who bike. There are a lot of those on Kidical Mass rides, so come join us!<br />
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Be prepared, because riding with kids is far, far awesomer than riding alone. As you ride through the city and see the usual menagerie of dogs, trucks, cranes, etc., you will be treated to a soundtrack of “DOG!”, “TRUCK!”, “CRANKY!”, and “I WANT A SNACK!”. It’s like your thoughts being shouted in in a squeaky voice for all to hear. Plus, that hill that you thought was a challenge when you started biking -- with kids, it again becomes Everest, but this time with your own personal coaches reminding you that you’re late to preschool and they need to use the potty. The bottom line is that biking with kids is really, super awesome. If you want to practice, I have an extra kid to lend.</blockquote>
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<i>Once again, one billion thanks you to each of them and let this serve as yet another reminder that DC bike people and generous and smart and knowledgeable and funny and I'm so lucky to know so many. </i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-44892552733266765112016-08-27T17:40:00.002-04:002016-08-27T17:40:47.521-04:00Rides 8/25 and Rides 8/26Sort of lost track of the back half of this week and I didn't realize that I didn't blog on Thursday, but it makes sense, since I spent some time Thursday after work buying and drinking cocktails at the new Passenger, which has moved a few blocks north on 7th. I got there via Bikeshare after getting home via Brompton and I got back from there via Bikeshare as well, but both of those were bonus rides that took place after the commute proper and might fall outside of the bounds of TFTS territory. (It's funny to set limits on a personal blog, which no one controls but me, but rules are important. Strictures matter.) The ride home was one where I doubled back before crossing the Ellington Bridge because I learned that my ANC commissioner would also be riding this way, so I headed up 29th Street to Cathedral Avenue to Woodley before linking up with her at the top of the hill and riding back down. This is the route of the 96 bus, the bus that sometimes takes me to work and a route these streets are truly amazing because you probably wouldn't ever ride on them unless you were willing to actually follow those signed bike routes signs, which always seemed a bit too on-the-nose for me to take seriously. 'Yeah, buddy, sure this is the way to Chevy Chase. Sure, but I'm gonna go this way,' I would say before taking a less direct way to not Chevy Chase, for example. Of note along this stretch of road is the Swiss Embassy. About this place, I have negative interest. That's a monetary policy joke. "Joke," I mean. There's also the Maret School. According to it's website, the Maret School was founded in 1911 by Marthe Maret, who was French Swiss from Geneva. It looks like a nice school and it seems to have capacious buildings and ample lawns.<br />
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Must've gotten to work on Thursday morning somehow, so let's assume it was by bike.<br />
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Friday morning saw me skip Coffee Club again (I'm sorry!) and from what I remember it was a quick ride in and there was gobs of cyclists on 18th. Just gobs of 'em. I keep expecting there to be more conflict around the Oyster-Adams School (a school named after our second President and our second favorite bivalve probably) but by the time I ride by, it's after drop-off, so I barely ever get to square off with a road raging parent. And here I am, studying krav maga for nothing. But seriously though, it's nice that there's little conflict there because I would hate that idea that I would come to dread it.<br />
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Friday afternoon was a later ride home because I had a reception at work (I'm halfway decent at receptions in that I can chew, talk, and manage to hold wine and canapes at the same time- this is no small feat and yet no one endorses me for it on LinkedIn, alas), but after that it was a straight shot down Mass to Garfield and then beyond. The Brompton performs well. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I rolled over a marginally large stick or into a somewhat deep pothole with any pace, but I shouldn't wonder. One, it's bad luck to think about bad outcomes (ok, I just made that up, but that sounds plausible) and two, there's no sense wondering since the answer would be that I'd fall down. Small wheels are great, but I think they, in some cases, presuppose non-terrible roads, which is not always the case. Nevertheless, I think I'm going to keep riding it until the snow comes because it's the easiest to get in and out of the apartment and that counts for a lot.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5655972254756722998.post-54457399620110208412016-08-24T21:20:00.002-04:002016-08-24T21:20:39.873-04:00No Rides 8/23 and Rides 8/24Didn't ride a bike yesterday. Took the bus. Oh, and I rode a bike from the bus stop. But that doesn't really count. For some reason. 96 in and the N2 home, if you're the kind of person who wants to know what bus routes I ride. Oh, and come to think of it, I rode a bike when I got off the bus to get from one bikeshare station to a different one that's a few blocks closer to my place. But yeah, I've already written "No Rides" in the title, so as far as your concerned, and as far as I'm concerned, yeah, no rides. Even though there were rides. But they were short.<br />
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Took the Brompton today. Both ways. Didn't even bring it on a bus. Also, I wrote "Rides 8/24" so again, using the title rule, the one that I just made up, even if I took the bike on the bus, it'd still count as rides. But really, I did ride the bike and both ways and uphill and downhill and the whole way in and the whole way home.<br />
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One thing I think about on these rides is the extent to which some people who bike internalize the idea that they're slowing down drivers and how this is bad. One, who cares? Everybody who travels slows down everyone else. That's why you get home faster at 2AM when no one else is on the road and it's slow on the Beltway at 6 not because the road has changed, but because there's just a lot of people on it. And really, if you thought about it, and I do, I'm fairly confident that I'm as slowed down on my bike by drivers than I slow them. But again, this isn't really the point that I'm trying to make. I think the point I'm trying to make is that even if you, person on a bike, was slowing down a driver and you slowed that person down for 5 whole seconds, that's, um, 1/6th as long as the time they'd be stopped at a 30 second red light. If you stopped right in the middle of the street and paused for 10 seconds, which, I assure you, would feel like an eternity and make everyone feel really uncomfortable... that's still 20 fewer seconds than a 30 second red light. So, really, I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that in objective terms, even if you wanted to cop to the fact that you, a bicyclist, slow down drivers, you're rather terrible at it compared to any old red light.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0