Ride in 4/26

Just a beautiful morning. I feel lucky that I live and work in a place that's generally conducive to commuting by bike because not every place is. Like on a submarine. Or in sprawly exurbs besotted with super-highways and no infrastructure for the movement of people by any other means than car.
I think that there should be a punch buggy style game for when you see an Xtracycle. This game should be widely disseminated so it's not as if I'm just punching random people in the arm while I yell "long tail!"
I decided that I would ride down Wilson, down 15th and 14th and then over Queen to shadow Arlington Boulevard (the two-lane road that parallels Route 50 from roughly Rolfe Street to N Meade Street), mostly just to see what riding on that road would be like. Because you know, in 2013 when the whole Arlington Boulevard construction might be finished, it could become a very popular route for those riding on the bike path (that will also be finished, maybe, by 2013). Just trying to give future bike commuters an early heads up. The road was fine, pretty wide and pretty flat. It could use some sharrows, but I guess they have two years to sort that out. It serves as a pretty efficient cut through for anyone looking to get over to the Courthouse area from the cemetery. Don't tell zombies.
I rode down and over the Memorial Bridge and then took the pretty sharp left to go over "fake" Memorial Bridge, which isn't a bridge at all, but has fooled me more times than I'd like to admit.

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Doesn't that look a lot like this?

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On the Rock Creek trail, I noticed this in front of the Watergate.

I didn't really see the construction. Neither I, nor than 6 or 7 people riding in the other direction bothered to dismount. I mean, I dismounted to turn around and take the picture. Anyone seen this before or is this new?
Instead of heading up the Capital Crescent, I decided that I would ride into downtown for no apparent reason. I guess I just wanted to see what biking downtown during a morning rush hour would be like. I went from Washington Circle up New Hampshire and then down L to the 15th Street cycletrack, aka the Kleinway. I was overall impressed with the number of people riding downtown. All sorts, too. CaBis, racing bikes, front baskets on old three-speeds, the ubiquitous Trek hybrid. And all kinds of weird riding pattens. I saw sidewalk riders (illegal), people riding on the left side of traffic, people riding on the far right and the weave down the center stripe. I think that the hopefully-someday-soon cycle tracks on L and M will help things. I wouldn't say that the cyclists self-organized in any real way and there didn't seem to be any attempt to ride together as a bunch. I was pretty impressed by the motorists as well. I didn't notice any bike-related honking, too close passing or any of the other things I would have expected from a downtown ride. I don't want to jinx it and I know that we still have a long way to go, but I think DC is a real bike town.
Going up 15th was a little slower than I expected. Not because of heavy bike traffic (most people were heading in the other direction anyway), but mainly because of the light patten. There was only so far I could ride before hitting a red and waiting for either cross traffic or cars turning left from 15th. Again, no acrimony. Maybe it's something in the water. A few places where pedestrians stepped out into the lane, but what can you do? Front-mounted cow catcher? If Rivendell doesn't make this yet, then there's a gap in the market.
The Kleinway ends at V street and then it was uphill for a nasty little stretch and a right-side bike lane all of the way to Irving Street. I didn't realize that I had gone too far until 15th merged into 16th street. I turned around in front of Lincoln Multicultural Middle School, where there was polling. A representative from the Biddle Campaign asked if I was voted today. I said I was from Arlington. I'm not really "from" Arlington, but I live there. I didn't further clarify, but instead went down 16th to Columbia Road which was really heavily trafficked. Some sketchy bike behavior from my fellow cyclists over there. I try not to squeeze between buses and the curb, but maybe that's just my aversion to getting crushed or knocked over by someone trying to get on or off a bus. I'm surprised there's not a bike lane on Columbia Road between 16th and 18th. At least I didn't see one.
From there on it was westward on Calvert, up Cleveland, which has a parking arrangement that makes creates a de facto climbing lane and then via Garfield eventually to Massachusetts. Based on 37 campaign signs I saw outside of the St. Sophia Cathedral, I think Biddle is over-relying on the Orthodox vote. This might not be a winning strategy.
Just a pleasant ride the whole way through. Taking a circuitous route breaks up the monotony of the normal ride and I highly encourage it.

Ride Home 4/25

Contents of bag on ride home: 2 tax returns (I forgot stamps), a baby shower invitation for my wife, a ticket to this Friday's baseball game-cum-Dean-retirement- party, and a more-wrinkled suit.
I Strava-ed my way home. That's the last time I'll mention that. Endorsement accomplished.
I know that many of you read this blog for its trenchant local political analysis. So, on my rides today: I saw one Biddle sign, one VO sign, 2 Weavers and a Mara. Verdict: The Great Citrus will win. (btw- anyone got the origin on that nickname? Google isn't helping me.) Analysis over. I'm basically Martin Austermuhle.
There are a lot of things that can discourage someone from bike commuting. One of them is having to hear the conversations of Georgetown pedestrians. Banalhaughty isn't a word yet, but maybe it could be.
Not too many cars out on the road today. I think it's a holdover from the holiday. Good amount of foot traffic though. Especially on the bridge. Heavy stroller traffic, too.
Also, a ton of bikes. That means unsolicited advice time. These are some tips for new bike commuters. That's not to say new bicyclists, but those who are now newly (or once again) engaged in the activity of riding a bike to and from work. Please take these suggestions with as much seriousness as you take the rest of this blog, which is to say not very much.

• Look up. Staring at your front wheel isn't going to help you. Don't be Beautiful Mind crazy, but you've gotta keep an eye on the world around you. Ride with healthy skepticism. One of the differences I've noticed between the daily commuter types and the rare commuter types is that the daily commuters not only know to look up, but know where to look. This isn't on account of some preternatural ability to sense danger (Spiderman on a bike? [Slide 7]) but from the accumulated knowledge that comes from riding every day and seeing the multifarious ways that harm might befall you. You don't develop this ability if you're just making sure your front wheel doesn't come off. 
• Use hand signals. They don't need to be official or anything, but they should do enough to indicate to the world around you that you'll be doing something more than continue to ride straight. Hand signals help fellow cyclists, too. Make the signals your own. Maybe you like to pistol fingers. Maybe you're a fan of popping and locking. Maybe you just like making an ass of yourself in public (guilty). Just do something to help other people get along better. 
• Please for the love of God don't ride the wrong way in a bike lane (or on a street)*. This is annoying. It also shows that you're a rube. Rube, they'll all say as they point (with pistol fingers) and laugh. Perhaps they will hoot. It's also unsafe. 
• Don't take the easy way out. Like riding the wrong way down a bike lane. Just wait for the light to change and cross the street. I was stuck at light after light after light today. The difference between my ride in and my ride home? 3 minutes. It's not a big deal. 
• Don't eat cat food. This is self-explanatory and not related to bike commuting. 
• You're not going as fast as you think you are. This means that when the light is yellow and you're not yet there by about 30 feet, you're not going to make it through. It's annoying when drivers do it and it's annoying when bicyclists do it. Learn to judge your own speed and make decisions based on how fast you're really going, not how fast you think you're going. Epistemology fail...?
• If you want people to know that you're fully stopped, put a foot down. That's really the only way to show that you've come to a complete and total stop. For some reasons, drivers and pedestrians have a hard time telling that a bike isn't moving forward. It might have something to do with the Doppler effect (it doesn't). Anyway, a foot on the ground is an unambiguous sign that you have no intention of moving forward. 

So, there's my "tips" and "tricks" for "riding" your "bike" around "town" and abusing "scare quotes." 

* I do this every day for about 100 feet. I apologize to myself.

Ride In 4/25

Contents of my bag today: 2 tax returns, a can of WD-40, breath mints, and a wrinkled suit. No lunch because I forgot it. I even went back inside to put on sunscreen and still managed not to grab anything from the fridge. 3 squares fail. 
I was browsing through the iPhone app store as I am sometimes wont to do and I came across a free ($0) app called Strava. It's basically a GPS route tracker + counter that hooks into a website that allows you to share your most rockingest rides with your hardcore cycling friends and family (they won't care). It's very similar to MapMyRide, which I've used in the past. Unlike MapMyRide, the interface is a little cleaner- it doesn't have as many random options that all seem to do the same thing, nor does it show an actual map while you're riding- I know where I'm going (for the most part), so I don't really need a map. It's also probably not safe to look down at a map on your phone anyway. Strava only shows your elapsed time, distance and average speed. Since the phone is in my back pocket (unless I'm taking a picture of a shark attacking a pterodactyl), this works just fine for me. So I pressed to big blue (what looks like the Play button from Youtube) button and went.
Do the police cars parked outside of DARPA ever leave their post? Not because I want to sometimes roll through that red light on Fairfax or anything. Like most drivers, the sight of a police car does make me a bit more attentive to following traffic laws. Plus, I'm extra paranoid from reading all that crazy New York bike crackdown stuff.
Nice riding along the calm streets of Arlington and also down the brief stretch of the Custis until the Key Bridge. A good number of people out, but somehow not as many as I expected. I got lucky with the light sequencing, so that was a nice surprise for a Monday morning.
In Georgetown, I thought that a girl was waiting to cross the street. She was looking down at her phone, but wasn't wearing headphones. I stopped and waited. I asked "Would you like to cross?" Nothing. I said, after 10 seconds- I'm very patient!- "Ok, I'm just gonna go." Then she looked up and was all like "Oh, yeah, no, thanks though. Sorry." I think she was waiting at the bus stop, which I'm pretty sure is a good 15 feet before the corner. Oh, urban life.
My crossing guard acknowledged me again today. I guess we're friends again.
Swiveled my head and yelled "HEY!" at the driver of a minivan today as she attempted to turn from a perpendicular street at the same time as I was occupying the space she was about to move her car into. It might have come off meaner than I wanted. She might have been trying to turn her car into a postion that was not exactly where I was but slightly to the left of me, but it still seemed prudent to indicate to her (through yelling) my feeling that her driving maneuver might have endangered me. Unfortunately, there's no way to succinctly convey "Excuse me. I'm not totally sure of your intention or if you ever see me, but I'd like to call to your attention that I am bicycling here and I believe that if you are to proceed with your automobile the way I anticipate, then it is likely that it will lead to an unsafe situation, mostly for me on account of my relative exposure to your vehicle," so "hey" will just have to do.
So, according to Strava, I made my trip today in 28:14. This is one second slower than my fastest recorded time ever (I don't usually time my ride in because I'm not one of those people normally). I checked Strava once when I was stopped at a light and I was pretty sure it wasn't working. I was by Duke Ellington School and it said that I had gone 1.7 miles. That is not correct. I thought that its GPS was busted. No big deal.  I guess it righted itself eventually and did appear to record my route correctly. I like the web interface better than MapMyRide as well, because along with the route and elevation, it records my "performance." I guess I hit 28 mph going down the hill by the Russian embassy. That doesn't quite seem right, but I'm not going to argue with a computer. Or a robot. Because of Short Circuit. Anyway, end verdict on Strava is that if you like recording your bike rides and tracking your "performance" and you have an iPhone, go for it. If, instead, you like to eat pie, then maybe you should get a pie made with fresh fruit from a local farmers market. These things, I suppose, are not mutually exclusive.

Ride Home 4/22

I left work a little early today and my boss said "oh, you trying to get out between the rain?" and I was like, "um, not really," but then I took him at his word that it wasn't raining. It was raining and I didn't wear my cap, so my head got wetter than I wanted it to be. I don't think he was trying to pull one over on me. The wet wasn't nearly as bad as the cold. Love when the inside of your exposed leg touches the top tube of your bike. I felt like I had been stabbed by a Ringwraith.
I think it's finally time to swap out my brake pads. I don't think I'll easily be able to forget the noises they made today. It sounded like someone was scratching a chalkboard with a dying robot squirrel. These pads came stock with the bike and have been through some nasty weather, so I have no problem swapping them out. I'll even try to do it myself. Only question about that is what bike shop I'll have to bring my bike to after I totally screw that up.
Few very people on the roads today, but cars and bikes. A confluence of joggers on M street decided to stop and discuss the need for gloves on account of the crummy weather. Whatever, joggers.
I decided to take the Custis the whole way home rather than ride on the streets. In weather like this, I figured that it was better to trade being exposed to the weather longer for the safety of the off-street trail. Something about rain just makes people act crazy and I'd rather not be on roads when I have a perfectly nice dedicated bike route that basically mirrors my road home. I'm grateful for this- if only every bicyclist had both an on-street and off-street option to get home. Man, that'd be something. Very few people on the trail coming in the opposite direction. A few hardcore super-biker types going out for training rides or whatever. Some joggers (ugh. This ugh is equally applied to the super-bikers). A few people who looked like they were just trying to get home.
I'm going to have to clean my bike this weekend. It's pretty dirty. About time anyway, but it's something of an onerous process. I'll clean the other one too and put it on craigslist. If you read this blog and want or know anyone who wants this kind of bike, email me. I'm not going to give it away, but I also want to make sure the price is fair. It's a good bike, but I just don't need it any more. Of course, if you read this blog, you're probably flush in bikes (but lack real entertainment options). Or you totally misunderstand what a sharrow is.
I don't think I'm going to, but maybe you'd like to participate in the Spice Ride. It sounds pretty fun.

Ride In 4/22

It's Earth Day and Earth wants us to celebrate its more frigid parts like Antarctica and meat lockers, so it provided us with a bounty of coldness this morning. I dressed in layers and told everyone, mom style, to bring a jacket if they're riding their bikes today. It's almost May and that I still had to wear thin gloves is a bit sad.
I decided that the way I would approach the morning would be to take a route that would keep me pedaling rather than getting stuck at light after light are turning into a bike-cicle. To the end, I decided to take what I call the "back way" down Pershing to Arlington Boulevard and then across Lynn to the Key Bridge. We had a "back way" for getting into "town"- with the library and the green and the gazebo and whatnot- where I grew up in Connecticut (in the 1850s apparently) and it was a less trafficked route that paralleled the main commercial road, so it has a pretty similar vibe to Pershing in relation to Wilson and Clarendon.
The trip up to the Key Bridge was pretty blurry, maybe on account of only one cup of coffee this morning. I remember being struck by something in the window of the European Foods Import Export Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish Foods store at the corner of Pershing and Washington Boulevard, but I can't recall what it was. Quotidian observation blogging fail.
No CaBis on the bridge, but a ton of bikes all through Georgetown. I think at one point there were 5 or 6 of us bunched together at a light. It was like Utrecht out there (Amsterdam gets too much bike love, same with Copenhagen. Plus who doesn't love the city who brought us the end of the War of Spanish Succession?)
I don't get why Georgetown's various eateries don't serve coffee in the morning. There seems to be enough foot traffic to not have to cede this market entirely to Starbucks. I'm sure there would be a lot of people who would stop in for a quick espresso maybe while standing up at a bar or sitting at a high top. Maybe one of the already established restaurants could rent out the space to someone enterprising enough to try it. I guess Dean & Deluca might do it, but meh to them. This was first pointed out to me by the official wife when we were on the bus the other morning, but it's even more glaring when you go by bike. Maybe I was dwelling on this because I was cold.
Up Wisconsin and I kept even with a 31 bus. I like biking up Wisconsin because I like biking uphill, due to my Tyrolean predilection for alpine terrain and needless self-martyrdom. Tyroleans, so I've been told my entire life, will go out of their way to inconvenience themselves and the quote "No, no. I'll just take the bus" has served as a stand-in for this sentiment for as long as I can remember. You can take my word for it or you can ask famed American actor Peter Facinelli, fellow descendent of those from the Val di Non.
I was stopped behind the 31 outside of the National Cathedral. What up, Jesus, I thought tritely on Good Friday. So that takes care of church. I later biked down Macomb and was briefly stopped outside of the synagogue of the Washington Hebrew Congregation. What up, Moses, I thought extra-tritely. Anyway, I'm now square with Episcopalianism and Juadaism and that's what I consider ecumenical.