A new name, a new place

My long-awaited move to Norfolk has finally come and gone. I packed up what was left of my stuff in the car last week and bid adieu to Huntington and the DC area.


Bye-bye Beltway.

And so "Just Down The Parkway" has become "Just Down The Bay", where I'll continue to chronicle transportation and my bicycling adventures from Norfolk. Speaking of Norfolk, I found a place where The Tide LRT is literally right outside my window:

Froggie's #FridayCoffeeClub Finale

As most of you may know, I'm transferring from DC this upcoming week. Wasn't expecting to get a 4-day weekend at first, but my CO granted us today off. So I took advantage of it to hit up my last #FridayCoffeeClub. And yes, this was really my last #FridayCoffeeClub.

For those who don't know, #FridayCoffeeClub is an informal gathering of many of the bike DC crowd at M.E. Swing (a coffee roaster) at 17th and G NW. They meet up for morning coffee every Friday morning. It was initially (and still largely is) organized over Twitter...that's how I heard about it. The main "organizers" are Ed (@dailyrandonneur) and Mary (@gypsybug). Other notable DC bicyclists who regularly stop off are Brian (@SharrowsDC), John (@rootchopper) and Kate (@girlonabikedc). Of course, there are numerous others on Twitter who show up...too many to include here.

A little misty on the ride up, but it was relatively quiet, even on Washington St in Old Town. Noticed bollards at the bottom of the Wilson Bridge for the MVT (more on those later), and of course there are those bicyclists who don't bother stopping for red lights (a particular pet peeve of mine...gives the rest of us a bad name), but all in all a quiet ride up.

Today was perhaps the largest gathering thus far...well over 20 folks stopped by (I lost count). It got to the point where bikes were "double-parked" along the side of the building and even parking across G Street, which led to various comments about adding bike racks or a "bike performance parking district".

Afterwards, after breakfast with a friend, and realizing I forgot my water bottle at Swing (to which I'm grateful to Brian for handing it to the barista for me to retrieve), I rode down to Pentagon via Memorial Bridge and the "path" along Route 27. Though drivers stopped for me at the ramps from GW Pkwy so I could cross, this whole area would still be a lot easier for bikes and drivers if the crossings were grade separated.

The whoe morning was a little bittersweet for me. This is a great group of DC area cyclists, some coming from as far as the Mt. Vernon area, and the coffee's pretty good too. It's definitely something I'm going to miss. Going to an area where bicylcing is *A LOT* less prevalent is going to be a challenge.

Old Town Bike Parking

Dear Alexandria,

Since you took out the parking meters in Old Town several months ago for the new multispace meters, there are a lot fewer places to lock one's bike up to along King Street. Can you fix this?

Sincerely,

Bike commuting while I still can

It's been a busy month. Between college classes, my temporary duty at the Pentagon, and my impending transfer to Norfolk, I haven't had much time for blogging.

But one thing I have been able to do is bike commute, especially over the last two weeks. 7 out of 10 commutes during those two weeks were bike commutes. I was also able to get a few bike commutes in during the previous weeks. And my schedule enabled me to make a few Friday Coffee Club gatherings with the BikeDC crowd.

This week, however, is my last week at the Pentagon. Which means it's my last week for easy bike commuting.

There have definitely been some advantages to the bike commute. First and foremost, it's exercise (all important to the active duty military member). Second, the cost is practically zero...always a plus with gas prices near $4/gallon and a peak-of-the-peak Metrorail fare of $3.05. Commuting time is comparable to the 9A bus (without having to deal with a 30-minute headway) or the off-peak Metrorail commute (my apartment's Metro shuutle doesn't run off-peak). And I was also able to park the bike closer to the office than both the Metro station and car parking.

Between roadtrips and the Suitland commute, I normally average about 2,000 miles a month on my car. Over this past month, though, I've barely put 300 miles on. While the lack of roadtrips accounts for some of that, at least 500 miles of the difference can be attributed to not using the car for commuting.

One thing I've noticed with my bike commuting is an increase in appetite. Unfortunately, instead of holding my food intake steady, I started eating more. So I haven't really lost any weight.

The overall experience is such that, when I transfer to Norfolk in 2 months, I'm going to look for a place to live that gives me the opportunity to bike into the Navy base. Until then, I have 2 more bike commutes to look forward to this week.

No bike commute this week

But what I didn't mention before is I snuck one in last week on Wednesday (bike commute #3). At least a partial one...it involved biking to Braddock Rd Metro on the way in and to Crystal City Metro on the way home. So I guess you could say it was a multi-modal commute.

This week is the one that'll lack a bike commute. In part because I have to stage the car in Suitland tomorrow for a medical appointment, and then I'm part of a retirement ceremony for a fellow sailor on Thursday. So that takes out the two days I'd normally bike commute.

Good news is that next week presents several "late night commute" opportunities. And I might even make #fridaycoffeeclub next week.

Bike Commute #2

Yesterday was nice enough (sans fog in the morning), plus it was a short day for us (4 hour shifts instead of the usual 8), so I tried bike commute #2. Route wasn't much different than before, except that I used Crystal Dr to 12th St to Old Jeff Davis Hwy to Boundary Channel Dr.

Given my experience yesterday, it's looking like 40-45 minutes will be the standard for the bike commute time. I'm thinking the 38-minute inbound trip for bike commute #1 was a fluke...likely due to the moderate tailwind I had that morning.

Crystal Drive could stand to see a new layer of pavement, especially north of 26th St. Old Jeff Davis Hwy had REALLY bad pavement, though I imagine this street is a low priority for Arlington. In additon, there's some construction near the south end of the new Long Bridge Park that has the road all tore up.

I've learned that going north through Crystal City is fairly easy. The problem is heading back south...there's no good way to do it. Clark St is the nominal way, but has poor pavement, a hill to climb the overpass at 18th St, and interconnected signals with adjacent Route 1 that are all a mess. The best I've come up with requires sidewalk riding in two spots on Crystal Drive: at 15th St, then again from 23rd down to Potomac Ave.

No bike commutes next week. I have company in town. Anticipating my next one on the 28th.

Bike Commute Follow-up

Wind makes a difference. A big difference. While they were light on my bike commute into the Pentagon yesterday morning, they increased noticeably by afternoon. Based on observations from National Airport, they were gusting above 20 by the time I left to head home. And it had an effect...it took me over 45 minutes to get home, fighting that headwind the entire way home.

Froggie's First Bike Commute

Last week, I had a bit of a change in workplace...I'm now working at the Pentagon on a temporary duty assignment (Navy calls it TAD, Army/Air Force calls it TDY). By far the biggest change that's occurred with the office shift is the commute. Instead of my old Suitland commute where my choices were a 25min drive or a 1h10m Metrorail ride, I have many more options for commuting to the Pentagon. It's a simpler Metrorail commute (7 stops on the Yellow Line). Or I could take the 9A Metrobus, which stops right in front of my apartment. Or I could continue driving...albeit with the peak-flow and with parking a dicey and/or expensive proposition. Or I could bike.

Now that I have my permanent badge, I thought I'd try my inaugural bicycle commute this morning. It's the first bike commute I've had since high school...about 18 years! Between it being my first bike commute in forever plus the nature of my new office location, some pre-planning/preparation was in order.

First up was a trip to BicycleSPACE so I could pick up a couple more lights and a reflective vest...this being because some of my commutes (for the next couple months) will be in the dark. I also needed to know where available bicycle racks are at the Pentagon, since bikes are not allowed inside the building. According to this interesting Army Pentagon guide (which appears to have been partially written by a bicyclist), there are about 30 bicycle racks near the northeast corner, another 30 near the southwest corner, and about a half-dozen along the side of the mall on the north side. I selected the parking area near the northeast corner as my target.

This morning was cool, but not horrible, so I dressed accordingly (1 layer on the legs, 2 on the torso...I overheat easily), grabbed the bike lights and vest, and headed out around 5:50am. My route north began by crossing over to Washington St then up through Old Town. I've gone through Old Town countless times, but almost always on Washington St. Today's the first time I headed north with the intention being to cross the Monroe Ave Bridge, which I did by mostly taking Columbus St and Alfred St. Aside from one driver who didn't realize I had right-of-way at an all-way stop, the ride up to and through Old Town was uneventful.

Across the Monroe Ave Bridge, I opted for Potomac Avenue. Potomac Ave is a new 4-lane divided street built to service upcoming development at Potomac Yard, and it also has a parallel bike/ped path. Though I wouldn't quite say that it's "pool table flat", the small hills are very manageable and it's definitely flatter than the nearby Mount Vernon Trail. It's nice, smooth, and above-all quiet. While dozens of cars were plying the northbound lanes of the parallel Route 1, I only had 5 cars pass me on Potomac Ave.

To get through Crystal City, I opted for Crystal Drive to 18th St to Eads St. Crystal Drive isn't too bad...it has a bike lane except for the section immediately underneath Route 233 (National Airport connector). 18th St has an underpass at Route 1 so one doesn't have to cross Route 1 at-grade. Eads St was a bit rough...it could stand to have a repaving. But the nice thing about Eads St is it brings one right into the south parking lot area at the Pentagon.

Getting to the bike racks from the south parking lot was...interesting. It involves a couple turns, and the gateguard looked like he wasn't sure what to think, but he allowed me through. I found the bike parking easily enough...it looks like there were originally a small number of old-style bike racks with the slots for putting your tire through. These have since been considerably expanded by newer racks of the same type. I got in just before 6:30am.

So my bike commute wound up being about the same as the bus commute and a few minutes longer than the shuttle/Metrorail commute. But there are several advantages to the bike commute: I get exercise, I can park the bike closer to my office than the metro entrance is, I don't have to pay Metrobus or Metrorail fare, and I'm not waiting up to 30 minutes for the 9A bus or up to 15 minutes for my apartment's Metro shuttle. About the only real disadvantage is that the bike parking isn't covered and is exposed to the elements. The earlier Army website suggests that covered parking used to exist, but no longer does.

Future routing tweaks are possible, and there may be days where I want a leisurely ride home anyway. Besides the Mount Vernon Trail, I could also pass by Long Bridge Park, or head down Commonwealth Ave and Mt Vernon Ave through Del Ray. But I'm thinking something close to my current route is going to be my shortest/fastest commuting route.

Weather-permitting, I'm planning on bike-commuting twice a week. I'd do additional days, but we do Physical Training 3 times a week at the office and I don't want to over-do it, at least not at first. Once I get into a groove (plus in better shape), I might revise this and bike more often. And for those days where the weather's bad, I have both a Metrorail and a bus option. All-in-all, it's a commuting win.

Musings from an NPS visit

Tonight's MVCCA Transportation Committee meeting featured visitors from the National Park Service and US Park Police regarding the George Washington Parkway. What followed was a quick Q-and-A, mostly related to the section south of Old Town Alexandria which our committee represents. Here's a quick recap of the comments:

• Numerous complaints about increased traffic in BOTH directions of the Parkway during rush hour with BRAC and the new hospital at Ft Belvoir cited as the cause. Excessive speeding by traffic was also mentioned.
  
• Because of the traffic, it's very difficult for drivers to turn out onto the Parkway during rush hour, especially for those turning left. Nevermind the issues that cyclists and pedestrians face trying to cross the Parkway.
  
• On that note, NPS has no current plans to improve bike/ped access to the MVT, though they had considered intersection improvements at Belle Haven Rd at one point. This is problematic since, between the south end of Old Town and the "Stone Bridge" at Alexandria Ave (a little over 3 miles), there is no way for bikes and peds to access the Mount Vernon Trail that doesn't involve hopping a curb and going through grass.
  
• The current (acting) NPS Superintendent has no intention of lifting the GW Parkway bicycle ban. The NPS reiterated that the current policy ban was put into place "in the name of safety".
  
• When asked about MVT improvements, the rep said that NPS is looking into an "express bike lane" in the Gravelly Point area. This would allow through cyclists to avoid the heavy congregation of pedestrians just east of the parking lot that go there to watch airplanes take off and land at National Airport.
  
• US Park Police apparently have data on accidents/crashes that occur on the Mount Vernon Trail proper. They're looking into making that data available to members of the transportation committee.
  
• NPS has automated traffic counters at several locations along the parkway and posts aggregate monthly stats on them. The committee asked if they also have hourly counts, which they'll look into. The hourly counts would give a better idea on when the low-traffic times are on the Parkway.
  

Also mentioned, but not discussed, is a draft resolution offered by WABA and FABB in support of allowing bicycles on the George Washington Parkway. Even though the current NPS Sup has no interest in revising the current ban policy, the committee is willing to entertain the possibility of supporting a partial lifting of the ban during low-traffic times. We'll be discussing the resolution at next month's meeting.

Volunteers needed for bike/pedestrian counts in Alexandria

It's that time again! The Alexandria BPAC is asking again for volunteers to help with counting bicycle and pedestrian traffic at select locations across the city. The two dates/times involved are next Thursday the 19th from 5-7pm and Saturday the 21st from Noon-2pm. If interested, please contact Elizabeth Wright (BPAC member): ewright953 (at) yahoo.com

These counts are conducted as part of the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project, and also help city staff and planners get an idea on bicycle/pedestrian flow, changes in bike/ped flow, and identify areas for potential facility improvements. First-time volunteers must attend a training session (which can be also done over the phone if necessary) and sign a waiver of liability.

I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of volumes we count next week and compare them to previous counts.