0 comment Saturday, August 16, 2014 | admin
Not all of my bicycling happens in Denver, and this weekend I got a chance to check out cycling in our nation's capital. I'd say the scene is growing, and there are plenty of wide boulevards and streets closed to car traffic with metal pilings to make a scofflaw cyclist pleased as punch. You can't take your bike on the subway at rush hour, but aside from that, there are plenty of facilities with cyclists in mind.
On February 2nd, Karen and I decided to rent bikes and ride the 18 miles to George Washington's house, Mount Vernon. They didn't have the tandem (aka Divorcycle) available, so we got two "hybrid" Marins to ride on. Pretty squeaky bikes, and I did go over the bars once at a crosswalk on account of the loose front shock (or poor bike handling skills), but it made it nice hitting wood bridges at 15 mph.
I also should add that we saw a real life groundhog scurry across the bike path... on groundhog's day... and he must've seen his shadow. How crazy is that?
Part of the bike path takes you through Alexandria, VA. An old town with narrow roads. The city has addressed bicyclists specifically with Sharrows:
Karen loves sharrows, and you can get a sense of their scale with her in frame.
While I won't say that the cars seemed any less confused about what to do at intersections and the like in downtown Alexandria, I will say that it is a lot more comforting as a cyclist to ride with them. The cars aren't honking at you or trying to zip around to get to the next stop sign, and I felt it added an element of sanity that some of our poor Denver streets could use.
Here's a car doing its thing in a shared lane right on top of a sharrow. Truce brother... for now.
On February 2nd, Karen and I decided to rent bikes and ride the 18 miles to George Washington's house, Mount Vernon. They didn't have the tandem (aka Divorcycle) available, so we got two "hybrid" Marins to ride on. Pretty squeaky bikes, and I did go over the bars once at a crosswalk on account of the loose front shock (or poor bike handling skills), but it made it nice hitting wood bridges at 15 mph.
I also should add that we saw a real life groundhog scurry across the bike path... on groundhog's day... and he must've seen his shadow. How crazy is that?
Part of the bike path takes you through Alexandria, VA. An old town with narrow roads. The city has addressed bicyclists specifically with Sharrows:
Karen loves sharrows, and you can get a sense of their scale with her in frame.
While I won't say that the cars seemed any less confused about what to do at intersections and the like in downtown Alexandria, I will say that it is a lot more comforting as a cyclist to ride with them. The cars aren't honking at you or trying to zip around to get to the next stop sign, and I felt it added an element of sanity that some of our poor Denver streets could use.
Here's a car doing its thing in a shared lane right on top of a sharrow. Truce brother... for now.
Labels: Travels