I was on the street outside of my house, not having set off yet, when I was flagged down by a passing motorist. Fluent in semaphore (that's a flag joke, for those playing at home), I opted not to ignore her and hear whatever it is that she had to say to me, which in turned out, was an interrogative concerning parking at a nearby high school. All things considered, which is a phrase that's also a radio program, I was a terrible target for this question, since I've never parked at that high school and have little idea about the car parking thereabouts. But I'm a friendly guy and I'm that stranger upon whose kindness one should always rely, so I offered, somewhat authoritatively, my theory that there was a way to access the parking lot via 19th street, which I know runs north and passes the high school. The driver, who told me it was her first time in DC (mazel tov!) said that someone at the school told her over the phone that parking was available behind the school. Knowing where the school is, I felt that taking my prescribed route would get her behind it and perhaps she'd be able to figure it out from there. And then she asked me if it was "safe" and something I didn't say was "Well, I personally haven't been murdered" because that might have unnerved her, so I just opted with "yeah," because that's really the honest answer. Unless of course you're worried about the dangers of having one of your feet run over by one of those really large strollers that parents and nannies push around because that does constitute a significant danger in my neighborhood, at least for the toes of the hapless. I mean that, and the sometimes street robberies and car vandalism, but that's hardly a big deal. She proceeded to make a three point u-turn (if that's possible) at the end of the block and I wonder if she ever made it to the parking lot.
It rained this morning, but before my commute time, so the roads were wet with sky water but the skies weren't. Maybe we should call it road water. The rain seemed to have the effect of dampening both the ground and the enthusiasm of some bike commuters and there were plenty of bikes available at the first Bikeshare station I passed. Prior to passing that Bikeshare station, I passed a man unfolding his Dahon on the sidewalk in front of his house and I saw him again on the other side of the park, after I took the on-street route around it and he passed through it. As I made my turn, he deferred to me, allowing me to ride in the bike lane as he rode in the travel lane and then fell in behind me, saying something like " you can go." I said "thanks" and he said "yeah, you'd smoke me anyway," which I took to mean that he thought that I looked like I was planning to ride fast and/or set hickory planks afire underneath him. For whatever reason, I took his "smoke" comment with a certain degree of seriousness and set upon trying to "smoke" him as best I could. Two red lights later and him still right behind me, I felt like I would never achieve his expectation of smokiness and thereby, through some attenuated logic, completely waste his goodwill toward me under the impression that I was planning to ride my bicycle faster than he his. I made upon one more push, determined to achieve some degree of separation and meet his however misguided impression of me, and I did it, mostly by running (safely) a just-turning-red light.
Sometimes a bus stops in the middle of the street to let off passengers. Pass on the left of those buses, lest you collide with an exiting passenger. I had completely forgotten that tourists start touring early in the morning and leaving the house at 8 isn't really early enough to avoid them completely. Not that I necessarily want to avoid them. They're fun.(You may decide if I'm writing that sarcastically or not. It's "Choose Your Own Emotional Valence," which was a less popular series of kids books.)
Very empty bike lanes in town this morning, though I think that those of us who leave later weren't dramatically impacted or dissuaded by the rain that no longer was falling. The air was cool, but not cold enough to warrant a jacket. Bejacketedness (not even close to a word, but I think you know what I mean) in a post-rain environment isn't really necessary. It probably would've also made you really sweaty. It was sort of muggy this morning.
Another northbound commuter today. And plenty of southbound ones. Not that many westbound ones. And I couldn't even tell you about eastbound ones. And that's proof, if nothing else, that I know the cardinal directions. Other cardinal directions include how to elect a pope and formerly, overcomplicated baseball managing.
A bikequaintance is someone you see on you daily commute, but don't really acknowledge, except with maybe a nod or smile or look. I have a few bikequaintances, one of whom is an older gentleman with a van dyke. I seem him daily on Massachusetts, mostly in morning, but sometimes in the evening. He has something of a stern face and looks rather serious, rebuffing my respectful nods with a complete lack of acknowledgement. I don't think we're ever going to progress past bikequaintanceship to "commuter buddy" status, which aside from being something I just made up, is someone that you see every day and with whom you are actually friendly and perhaps even converse (Chuck Taylor?).
There has been no attempt to clean the Kegasus graffitti. Maybe that's for the best. The question is still apt.
Some final words on fenders: please put fenders on your commuter bike. You will not regret it. I will not regret it, especially if I'm riding behind you. Others may or may not regret it. If you'd like any assistance in selecting the right fender for you, please let me know and I'll gladly assist. Together we can beat this, this being your not having fenders on your bike.
3/19/12
Guest Post: Jon's Wheel of Misfortune
On Monday night's, I work my second job as sommelier at Chuck E. Cheese, so I can't rush home and write up my blog post, even though I would much rather do that than serve overpriced blushes to a parents hoping a little too hard that little Kevin gets lost in the ball pit. Accordingly, I turn to my coterie of dedicated readers and #bikeDC compatriots to fill the gap, which they do wonderfully. Jon, of www.manfredmacx.com, the go-to site for ebook publishing and charity fundraising, was kind enough to supply this guest post weeks ago and I've been keeping it in my back pocket (literally. I printed it out, folded it and put it in my pocket, only to retype it all) until tonight. Enjoy and many thanks to Jon!
As you may have heard, I had a little bike trouble on the way home from work this afternoon. I'm lucky enough to have a flexible schedule at work so I can go home and pick up the kids from daycare/school and hang out with them until my wife gets home, and then I finish my day.
It was this afternoon ride home up the 15th Street cycletracks where I ran into the problem. As I was crossing through the intersection at S Street, there was a horrible noise from behind me, and then I heard the rush of air leaving my rear tire. I pulled over to find that my rear fender had exploded, and there was a nail all the way through tire, tube, and rim.
I had to walk the bike up the hill, carefully raising the back wheel just in case the tire or rim could be saved.
After my wife got home, I strapped the wheel onto my back and headed to 14th and Harvard to pick up a CaBi.
My handy Spotcycle application told me there were three bikes left, which was fine. As I waited to cross 14th, there was some sort of verbal altercation in front of the apartment building to my left. A large group of women were yelling at each other next to a car that was parked in the bus zone. I couldn't really make out what they were yelling about, but they were definitely angry, and they were definitely in a traffic lane.
A man on a CaBi was waiting to cross with me. He wondered aloud to the person next to him if he should call the police. He said he lived four blocks from there (I live less than one, for what that's worth).
"I love my neighborhood!", he announced with some amount of sarcasm. For the record, I DO love our neighborhood. It has some problems here and there, but overall it's a wonderful place to live.
The light turned, and we crossed the street. He docked his bike, and I undocked mine. This is where I tell you how a CaBi membership is a good idea even if you have your own bike. The ride down 14th was uneventful. The lights are timed differently in the evening, I think. Or maybe it's just that I'm slower on CaBi. Or both. Regardless, I missed lights I normally make in the morning. There was a car that I thought was going to buzz me as I took the lane down the hill, as I am legally entitled to do, and as most cyclists do there. But it didn't. Thanks, car.
I docked the bike at 14th and R (trip time: 7:57) and walked to The Bike Rack. I know many readers and bloggers of this blog are big fans of Bicycle Space, but I've never been there, and The Bike Rack is on my way to work. And it's also a really good bike shop. I highly recommend it. The only thing I've bought for my bike that I didn't get there are my tires. I wish they stocked Specialized so I didn't have to ride to Georgetown.
One of the mechanics looked at my wheel and pronounced it dead. I feared as much. The tire and tube were toast, too. I probably could have kept using the tire for a bit with a patch, but I still have the tires the bike came with, and I brought one of them along. I left the old wheel and the tire at the shop. My new wheel will be on their shipment Wednesday, and they'll put the cassette and whatnot from the old wheel on the new wheel, and then soon I'll get around to getting another Armadillo Elite tire to replace the one that died. For the record, that's the first puncture on those tires, and I don't fault the tire for this one. Good tires.
I then continued on to Whole Foods, where I picked up vegetables that my wife is roasting right now [Ed. note: right now means a couple weeks ago] , and milk for my younger daughter. I grabbed another CaBi from the newly moved and slightly expanded station at 15th and P and returned home (trip time: 8:26 (uphill!)). I got passed in the cycletracks by a guy with the quietest "on your left" I've ever heard. On the big huge hill I tried to catch a man on a good commuter with nice panniers, and I gained on him for a while, but then I stopped gaining and remembered why I like my bike better than the big heavy (but still awesome) CaBis.
There were a lot of cyclists out when I came home. A good number of them even had lights. Especially the guy who came up Harvard St as I was walking home. He had a helmet light and two big lights blinking up front, and a blinkie or two in the back. I almost yelled, "Nice lights!" but then I didn't.
And that's it. It remains to be seen whether I will CaBi or Metro to work tomorrow and Wednesday. Since my work clothes for the two days are already in my locker at work, meaning I have to change regardless, I'm currently leaning towards CaBi.
Today reminded me of how great the local cycling community here is. People I know only online or barely in person offered me tubes (which I had). They offered me wheels, and they offered me encouragement. People spread the word on Twitter about the nail danger at the intersection, though I think this was an isolated nail. Maybe we should have a new slogan for the city: DC - Where people you barely know will offer you free bike tubes when you run over a nail. It could catch on.
As you may have heard, I had a little bike trouble on the way home from work this afternoon. I'm lucky enough to have a flexible schedule at work so I can go home and pick up the kids from daycare/school and hang out with them until my wife gets home, and then I finish my day.
It was this afternoon ride home up the 15th Street cycletracks where I ran into the problem. As I was crossing through the intersection at S Street, there was a horrible noise from behind me, and then I heard the rush of air leaving my rear tire. I pulled over to find that my rear fender had exploded, and there was a nail all the way through tire, tube, and rim.
I had to walk the bike up the hill, carefully raising the back wheel just in case the tire or rim could be saved.
After my wife got home, I strapped the wheel onto my back and headed to 14th and Harvard to pick up a CaBi.
My handy Spotcycle application told me there were three bikes left, which was fine. As I waited to cross 14th, there was some sort of verbal altercation in front of the apartment building to my left. A large group of women were yelling at each other next to a car that was parked in the bus zone. I couldn't really make out what they were yelling about, but they were definitely angry, and they were definitely in a traffic lane.
A man on a CaBi was waiting to cross with me. He wondered aloud to the person next to him if he should call the police. He said he lived four blocks from there (I live less than one, for what that's worth).
"I love my neighborhood!", he announced with some amount of sarcasm. For the record, I DO love our neighborhood. It has some problems here and there, but overall it's a wonderful place to live.
The light turned, and we crossed the street. He docked his bike, and I undocked mine. This is where I tell you how a CaBi membership is a good idea even if you have your own bike. The ride down 14th was uneventful. The lights are timed differently in the evening, I think. Or maybe it's just that I'm slower on CaBi. Or both. Regardless, I missed lights I normally make in the morning. There was a car that I thought was going to buzz me as I took the lane down the hill, as I am legally entitled to do, and as most cyclists do there. But it didn't. Thanks, car.
I docked the bike at 14th and R (trip time: 7:57) and walked to The Bike Rack. I know many readers and bloggers of this blog are big fans of Bicycle Space, but I've never been there, and The Bike Rack is on my way to work. And it's also a really good bike shop. I highly recommend it. The only thing I've bought for my bike that I didn't get there are my tires. I wish they stocked Specialized so I didn't have to ride to Georgetown.
One of the mechanics looked at my wheel and pronounced it dead. I feared as much. The tire and tube were toast, too. I probably could have kept using the tire for a bit with a patch, but I still have the tires the bike came with, and I brought one of them along. I left the old wheel and the tire at the shop. My new wheel will be on their shipment Wednesday, and they'll put the cassette and whatnot from the old wheel on the new wheel, and then soon I'll get around to getting another Armadillo Elite tire to replace the one that died. For the record, that's the first puncture on those tires, and I don't fault the tire for this one. Good tires.
I then continued on to Whole Foods, where I picked up vegetables that my wife is roasting right now [Ed. note: right now means a couple weeks ago] , and milk for my younger daughter. I grabbed another CaBi from the newly moved and slightly expanded station at 15th and P and returned home (trip time: 8:26 (uphill!)). I got passed in the cycletracks by a guy with the quietest "on your left" I've ever heard. On the big huge hill I tried to catch a man on a good commuter with nice panniers, and I gained on him for a while, but then I stopped gaining and remembered why I like my bike better than the big heavy (but still awesome) CaBis.
There were a lot of cyclists out when I came home. A good number of them even had lights. Especially the guy who came up Harvard St as I was walking home. He had a helmet light and two big lights blinking up front, and a blinkie or two in the back. I almost yelled, "Nice lights!" but then I didn't.
And that's it. It remains to be seen whether I will CaBi or Metro to work tomorrow and Wednesday. Since my work clothes for the two days are already in my locker at work, meaning I have to change regardless, I'm currently leaning towards CaBi.
Today reminded me of how great the local cycling community here is. People I know only online or barely in person offered me tubes (which I had). They offered me wheels, and they offered me encouragement. People spread the word on Twitter about the nail danger at the intersection, though I think this was an isolated nail. Maybe we should have a new slogan for the city: DC - Where people you barely know will offer you free bike tubes when you run over a nail. It could catch on.
Ride In 3/19: St. Joseph's Day tends to have less green beer
[Insert paean to wonderful weather]
[Insert exhortation to those of you who enjoy nice weather to commute by bicycle, so as to get to spend more time outside in nice weather]
[Insert apology for using brackets in a way that is neither appropriate, descriptive, evocative or appropriately, descriptively evocative.]
(How do you like the post so far? Fill out this survey for your chance to win, um, a couple extra seconds of distraction from whatever you should be doing right now but aren't because you're reading this.)
Some fast commuters out there this morning. A guy on a Salsa zipped by me around the Capitol and prior to that I was passed by a woman with a green windbreaker who seems to be riding rather intently. I first saw her at Lincoln Park, and she got ahead of my on East Capitol, but we came back together at the start of Pennsylvania. Salsa guy eluded us for a while, but the stop light at 13th stopped him first and then stopped us. Every so often, I'll ride as fast as the person in front of me, even if it's faster than I would ride otherwise, just for something to do. Though, I'm not really sure that riding too fast along Penn is such a good idea, considering the willingness with which people will walk into the middle of the bike lanes without looking for bicyclists. Here's my controversial idea about jaywalking: I don't really too much of a problem with it in and of itself. Like, I'm not a "law and order" person (did you just hear this too?) and I don't find jaywalking, as a crime, to be especially irksome. I sort of feel its incumbent upon the operator of a vehicle, car or bicycle or pogo stick, to maintain control of that vehicle and not hit people, no matter what they do. Can it be really annoying when someone walks out in your way? Sure. Will it slow you down? Almost invariably? Are these rhetorical questions? I don't technically know. Sometimes people make dumb choices and do dumb stuff like walk out from curbs without looking (or looking through you), but I'm not really sure what I can do about that. Not crash into them, I guess. Anyway, I'd rather have a city where people jaywalk than one where they don't walk at all. And yes, there are like a million shades of gray on this issue and it's not so simple as jaywalking: always good or always bad? (that'd be a totally different survey and it took me a surprisingly long time to make the last one.)
At 15th, I saw Kyle and I saw a lot of other bicyclists. Some rode CaBis, others were fully kitted out on road bikes. There is a surprising variety in the attire and disposition of the bicycle commuter. Maybe it's not surprising, but just noticeable. I'd suspect that much of differentiation is determined by distance, with those traveling from farther more likely to dress bikerly and those taking shorter trips more inclined to wear normal people clothes. Maybe people are changing clothes to ride two miles, but I doubt it. The extent to which bikerly attire is wholly necessary isn't really for me to judge. As always, wear what you want.
I had the strange experience of being followed while riding north up 15th, something that has happened to me maybe only a few times before. I also had the equally strange experience of passing a bicyclist riding in the same direction. That both of these occurred on the same day means that either I've really lowered the bar for describing things as strange experience or that the number of bicyclists in town is increasing to the point where "reverse commutes" by bike are becoming more common.
For the second time in the past week, I've seen a fixie on the front of a bus that was heading uphill. Bus fare is a kind of "hill tax" that some riders are willing to pay for choosing an impractical bike. For those of you on singlespeeds who would never deign to put your bike on the front of a bus, I salute you.
Didn't get shoaled today. So, that's something. Maybe I looked extra fast or something. I didn't feel extra fast and I'm pretty sure I didn't resemble fast in any way, but I felt pretty good on the bike this morning and much better than I would've expected considering that we had friends over for an evening of Taco Bell and wine pairing. (This is an actual thing we did. Conclusion: wines do not have much impact on the taste and savoriness of Doritos Locos.) It should also be a nice ride home, albeit later in the evening.
[Insert exhortation to those of you who enjoy nice weather to commute by bicycle, so as to get to spend more time outside in nice weather]
[Insert apology for using brackets in a way that is neither appropriate, descriptive, evocative or appropriately, descriptively evocative.]
(How do you like the post so far? Fill out this survey for your chance to win, um, a couple extra seconds of distraction from whatever you should be doing right now but aren't because you're reading this.)
Some fast commuters out there this morning. A guy on a Salsa zipped by me around the Capitol and prior to that I was passed by a woman with a green windbreaker who seems to be riding rather intently. I first saw her at Lincoln Park, and she got ahead of my on East Capitol, but we came back together at the start of Pennsylvania. Salsa guy eluded us for a while, but the stop light at 13th stopped him first and then stopped us. Every so often, I'll ride as fast as the person in front of me, even if it's faster than I would ride otherwise, just for something to do. Though, I'm not really sure that riding too fast along Penn is such a good idea, considering the willingness with which people will walk into the middle of the bike lanes without looking for bicyclists. Here's my controversial idea about jaywalking: I don't really too much of a problem with it in and of itself. Like, I'm not a "law and order" person (did you just hear this too?) and I don't find jaywalking, as a crime, to be especially irksome. I sort of feel its incumbent upon the operator of a vehicle, car or bicycle or pogo stick, to maintain control of that vehicle and not hit people, no matter what they do. Can it be really annoying when someone walks out in your way? Sure. Will it slow you down? Almost invariably? Are these rhetorical questions? I don't technically know. Sometimes people make dumb choices and do dumb stuff like walk out from curbs without looking (or looking through you), but I'm not really sure what I can do about that. Not crash into them, I guess. Anyway, I'd rather have a city where people jaywalk than one where they don't walk at all. And yes, there are like a million shades of gray on this issue and it's not so simple as jaywalking: always good or always bad? (that'd be a totally different survey and it took me a surprisingly long time to make the last one.)
At 15th, I saw Kyle and I saw a lot of other bicyclists. Some rode CaBis, others were fully kitted out on road bikes. There is a surprising variety in the attire and disposition of the bicycle commuter. Maybe it's not surprising, but just noticeable. I'd suspect that much of differentiation is determined by distance, with those traveling from farther more likely to dress bikerly and those taking shorter trips more inclined to wear normal people clothes. Maybe people are changing clothes to ride two miles, but I doubt it. The extent to which bikerly attire is wholly necessary isn't really for me to judge. As always, wear what you want.
I had the strange experience of being followed while riding north up 15th, something that has happened to me maybe only a few times before. I also had the equally strange experience of passing a bicyclist riding in the same direction. That both of these occurred on the same day means that either I've really lowered the bar for describing things as strange experience or that the number of bicyclists in town is increasing to the point where "reverse commutes" by bike are becoming more common.
For the second time in the past week, I've seen a fixie on the front of a bus that was heading uphill. Bus fare is a kind of "hill tax" that some riders are willing to pay for choosing an impractical bike. For those of you on singlespeeds who would never deign to put your bike on the front of a bus, I salute you.
Didn't get shoaled today. So, that's something. Maybe I looked extra fast or something. I didn't feel extra fast and I'm pretty sure I didn't resemble fast in any way, but I felt pretty good on the bike this morning and much better than I would've expected considering that we had friends over for an evening of Taco Bell and wine pairing. (This is an actual thing we did. Conclusion: wines do not have much impact on the taste and savoriness of Doritos Locos.) It should also be a nice ride home, albeit later in the evening.
3/16/12
Ride Home 3/16: Flannery O'Connors Love Connection
It was lightly raining and I wasn't happy about it. Not because the rain proved much of an inconvenience but mostly because I was upset that I didn't have a jacket with me. It's little things, like being slightly unprepared for a forecasted light rain, that cheese me off. Big things, like being unprepared for an asteroid strike, don't so much bother me. I do wear a helmet, so there's that. I decided to document my feelings during this moderately wet ride through a series of photographs, found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. I didn't use Instragram because I don't think it has a filter for "piqued." Also, there's a reason why this blog is a written, rather than pictorial, representation of my rides. Some people take really excellent #bikeDC pictures. I am not one of them.
Very rare is the close call on Massachusetts, but today I was treated to some totally irresponsible driver making a left turn across my path at about 45 miles per hour. This would have been an utterly stupid way to grievously harm me. I can't say for certain that he was driving a black BMW, but it was definitely some kind of black sports cars. I cursed at him. I don't think he heard. The driver of the station wagon that pulled up next to me turned his head back to look at the driver or maybe me and maybe appreciated the complete stupidity of the entire situation. Not all reckless behavior is created equal. Sometimes I feel like the bicyclists are the mortals and the drivers are the Greek gods and each commute is the Iliad and bicyclists have agency, but really we're at the mercy of feckless, powerful beings with little empathy and many jealousies and strange motivations. This is also why I recommend you commute inside of a giant wooden horse.
The traffic situation at Dupont Circle is abysmal for bicyclists. And the traffic situation on Q street, which is a block north of Dupont Circle, but near the only open Dupont Circle metro entrance isn't much better. There's a bus stop that's on a bike lane. So, when the bus is there, it's not really a bike lane anymore. It's just some white paint that has a bus on it. Until DDOT approves of my patented "bike lanes protected by giant spikes" design, I guess we'll all just have to deal.
Very few bicyclists out. I guess the rain kept them indoors or maybe led many of them to take other means home, which I suppose means that they're not bicyclists any more. Great riddles of bike commuting! (Though this does highlight my longtime contention that bike commuters are just regular people, you know, like other regular people that get to work by other means. Like, if they don't have bikes, voila- they're just like everyone else. So maybe you shouldn't harass them for no reason?
At 11th and Rhode Island, I saw a Bikeshare rebalancing van. Also, a taxi came from I don't know nowhere to cut across some lanes of traffic and its driver sort off tried to shoo me out of the way so he could pull into the Diamond Cab HQ. I shooed.
I've been screwing up my left turn from 11th to Penn lately and end up in the right travel lane on Penn instead of in the bike lane. Then, when all of the cars are stopped at the red light, I walk in front of them to get back into the bike lane. There's nothing unsafe about it, but it just seems to lack grace and suavity and I don't much care for that.
I haven't seen a lot of Obama 2012 bumper stickers. Some, but not a lot. I mean, I'm not worried about his carrying DC, but I wonder if this means anything. As far as local politics is concerned, can someone please tell me whether I should support Shapiro or Biddle against Orange (in the April 3 democratic primary for the at-large DC council seat)? Here's what I know about the race so far: Shapiro has red signs and Biddle has blue signs. Shapiro used to be a council member in Prince George's County. Biddle was, briefly, on the DC Council, but got there is a sort of shady way and then lost to Vincent Orange. Biddle has a bikeshare membership. And that's pretty much all I know. If anyone is particular informed about these matters or feels passionately one way or another or if one of the candidates would desperately like the endorsement of the 37th most popular bike commute blogger in DC, let me know. I can then parlay this endorsement into becoming their representative on the DCBAC and then parlay that into something else and then launch my bid for mayor since I'll have not much else to do with all of my parlays and such. Except maybe go to Gamblers Anonymous. Do casinos take money orders?
Down Penn and up by the Capitol and down the regular streets at the regular pace (slow) and then home. Not a bad ride, but not the greatest either. But good enough! Anyway, have a great weekend, keep it real, and peace out.
Very rare is the close call on Massachusetts, but today I was treated to some totally irresponsible driver making a left turn across my path at about 45 miles per hour. This would have been an utterly stupid way to grievously harm me. I can't say for certain that he was driving a black BMW, but it was definitely some kind of black sports cars. I cursed at him. I don't think he heard. The driver of the station wagon that pulled up next to me turned his head back to look at the driver or maybe me and maybe appreciated the complete stupidity of the entire situation. Not all reckless behavior is created equal. Sometimes I feel like the bicyclists are the mortals and the drivers are the Greek gods and each commute is the Iliad and bicyclists have agency, but really we're at the mercy of feckless, powerful beings with little empathy and many jealousies and strange motivations. This is also why I recommend you commute inside of a giant wooden horse.
The traffic situation at Dupont Circle is abysmal for bicyclists. And the traffic situation on Q street, which is a block north of Dupont Circle, but near the only open Dupont Circle metro entrance isn't much better. There's a bus stop that's on a bike lane. So, when the bus is there, it's not really a bike lane anymore. It's just some white paint that has a bus on it. Until DDOT approves of my patented "bike lanes protected by giant spikes" design, I guess we'll all just have to deal.
Very few bicyclists out. I guess the rain kept them indoors or maybe led many of them to take other means home, which I suppose means that they're not bicyclists any more. Great riddles of bike commuting! (Though this does highlight my longtime contention that bike commuters are just regular people, you know, like other regular people that get to work by other means. Like, if they don't have bikes, voila- they're just like everyone else. So maybe you shouldn't harass them for no reason?
At 11th and Rhode Island, I saw a Bikeshare rebalancing van. Also, a taxi came from I don't know nowhere to cut across some lanes of traffic and its driver sort off tried to shoo me out of the way so he could pull into the Diamond Cab HQ. I shooed.
I've been screwing up my left turn from 11th to Penn lately and end up in the right travel lane on Penn instead of in the bike lane. Then, when all of the cars are stopped at the red light, I walk in front of them to get back into the bike lane. There's nothing unsafe about it, but it just seems to lack grace and suavity and I don't much care for that.
I haven't seen a lot of Obama 2012 bumper stickers. Some, but not a lot. I mean, I'm not worried about his carrying DC, but I wonder if this means anything. As far as local politics is concerned, can someone please tell me whether I should support Shapiro or Biddle against Orange (in the April 3 democratic primary for the at-large DC council seat)? Here's what I know about the race so far: Shapiro has red signs and Biddle has blue signs. Shapiro used to be a council member in Prince George's County. Biddle was, briefly, on the DC Council, but got there is a sort of shady way and then lost to Vincent Orange. Biddle has a bikeshare membership. And that's pretty much all I know. If anyone is particular informed about these matters or feels passionately one way or another or if one of the candidates would desperately like the endorsement of the 37th most popular bike commute blogger in DC, let me know. I can then parlay this endorsement into becoming their representative on the DCBAC and then parlay that into something else and then launch my bid for mayor since I'll have not much else to do with all of my parlays and such. Except maybe go to Gamblers Anonymous. Do casinos take money orders?
Down Penn and up by the Capitol and down the regular streets at the regular pace (slow) and then home. Not a bad ride, but not the greatest either. But good enough! Anyway, have a great weekend, keep it real, and peace out.
Ride In 3/16: Robin Sparkles
You might have seen some hysterical (not in a funny way ) tweets about Bikeshare coming to the Mall and maybe even a picture by longtime friend of the blog (and first-time Friday Coffee Club member as of this morning), Jacques Arsenault, but if you haven't seen either of those things, you can see them now by clicking on the links. You can also read various blog posts about it, including this one, though I don't plan to write too much more about this exciting development. I'm glad that NPS and DDOT have managed to work this out and install these stations so quickly and I think that they will definitely be a boon to the area. For those of you not familiar with the National Mall, it is a barren wasteland, bespeckled with a couple of marble classical architectural forms and intercepted by a bunch of roads unsuited to much more than car traffic. There are also some paths, but they get crowded. My hope is that Bikesharing on the Mall will bring about some much needed discussion about some much needed changes to the way in which transportation issues of the Mall are managed. There are a lot of constituencies to involve and a lot of factors to consider, especially considering the centrality of the Mall to tour groups and their tour buses, a concern that I thought very little about before a freewheeling discussion on twitter a few weeks ago. However, in spite of the complications, I think the future of transportation issues in,on, and around the Mall will be one is which the movement of personal cars will be deprioritized and the movement by every other means will be ameliorated. Or at least I hope so. And not just because I hate cars, which I don't really. I think it's just that an optimally designed Mall, one designed for maximum enjoyment by the most amount of people, wouldn't give such heft the movement of cars through and around it. But I'm not some sort of expert. I'm a guy with a blog and frequently I have spaghetti stains on my shirt, so I can't really be trusted, either with big ideas or red sauces.
I left the house relatively early this morning and didn't bother checking the weather only to find out that it was kind of cold and somewhat foggy. I wasn't wearing a jacket. I warmed up relatively quickly. Everything is now fine.
Lots of zombie joggers in the bike lanes this morning. Not cool, dudes. And worse is that they were running contra-traffic. I have a few issues with this, the least compelling of which is that what they're doing is illegal. More compelling, to my mind at least, is the safety hazard that's created by either my riding into them (which I really don't want to do or even posture like I'm willing to do, because I'm not) or my having the leave the lane to avoid a collision and perhaps hasten a collision with a passing motorist. And then there's, of course, the whole "Marcia Marcia Marcia" aspect of it in that bicyclists can't even use bike lanes, of which there are relatively few and on only a small fraction of roads, because they're being #occupied by someone who could be jogging on the perfectly serviceable and completely empty sidewalk roughly one foot away. Perhaps there's something about running next to a white stripe that's especially soothing. It's only going to get worse and I'm going to need a better coping strategy than blogging about since I'd rather not bore all of you to death.
Speaking of boring, it must be boring to be a member of the state security apparatus and have to stand outside the Capitol all day and night. At least some of them have giant guns to keep them company. Also speaking of boring, this.
I don't recall too many other bicyclists on Penn. Maybe it was ride your invisible bike invisibly to invisible work day. I don't recall seeing that on my invisible calendar though. Something I do recall, but this happened yesterday, was almost crashing, but not really, into another bicyclist who was in the process of riding through a red light. This was at Penn and 3rd and I was riding towards the Capitol and she was heading north on 3rd and making a left onto Penn. I had a green light and she didn't. I sort of scowled and shrugged at the same time. I don't know if I judge other bicyclists harder than I do other road users, because I really try not to do this because it's really unfair. I wouldn't given the same scowl/shrug to a driver or a pedestrian, but somehow it feels much more personal when it's done to a fellow cyclist. Anyway, crisis avoided, because it really wasn't that much of a crisis, but some guy in the waiting to cross the street said something like "whoa, almost had a crash there." He looked like a young Barack Obama and had a radio announcer's voice. It was weird. I said something like "We were cool. Thanks, though," but that's kind of a non sequitur. I guess I just forgot about this until today, since I didn't mention it last night, when I was reminded by the whole affair by another "near miss" (that wasn't really) with a FedEx driver crossing the street. He told me that I didn't have to stop, which I did when he crossed in front of me to get back into his truck. I told him that I didn't want to "get him," which is apparently how I euphemize crashing into someone. I most assuredly had to stop, lest he got gotten.
Every time I ride past Freedom Plaza I think about Tom Petty. The tents are looking increasingly sad. I think the moment is over. It was a good run.
I think this might have been the most popular #fridaycoffeeclub yet. We're definitely in double digits, maybe up to 15 of us now. And then there were these guys. It was a pleasure to meet some new people and to see some familiar faces and I'm weekly glad that Mary and Ed put this together. I think they should franchise the idea and you too can meet people and drink coffee after having ridden your bike there.
After Swing's, it was back across the White House plaza and up 15th. It was after 9, but there were still plenty of bike commuters making their way in. I'd really like it the cyceltrack had bike counters like they do in Arlington on the trails.
About halfway up Mass, I decided that I would remove my helmet and carry it in my left hand. I did this because I thought that it might allow me to avoid sweating. It did not. So, that was my experiment about carrying my helmet. Results: inconclusive.
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