A Different Washington DC!

The Wheelsucker has never actually lived within Washington DC. He moved to the area in 1986 and lived close to DC (Alexandria VA and Gaithersburg MD) until 2001 when he moved to Annapolis. Before moving to Annapolis he used to spend quite a bit of time in Washington, even working within DC at times. And he did occasionally commute by bicycle. But since moving to Annapolis he has been inside DC quite a bit less, and had not seen any of the recent changes in support of cycling.

Last Sunday the Wheelsucker convinced his girlfriend that they should ride in DC and check out the new bicycle lanes. This took some doing, but she eventually agreed to drive into Washington and see what traffic was like, and if it felt safe to her, ride in the bike lanes.

At this point the Wheelsucker would like to thank the Tea Party Republicans who created the sequester and forced the government shutdown (sorry right wingers, I am not buying any of your stories). With many of the usual Washington sites closed or similar (the exact status of the WWII Memorial is hard to determine) and particularly the Smithsonian Museums closed, the tourist volume was well down. Of course the early morning rain helped, too.

With very limited car traffic, the Wheelsucker's girlfriend was fine with riding in the bike lanes. There were available parking spots just about everywhere due to the low volume of visitors, so the car was parked on one of the numbered avenues crossing the mall, a couple of blocks from the Capitol. From there it was a short ride to Pennsylvania Avenue.

WOW!

While it wasn't clear how they were supposed to transition from riding the lane in the street to turning left into the bike lane, once in bike lane, what to do was clear. And the minimal physical barriers between the bike lanes and car lanes did look like they would at least encourage drivers to stay out of the bike lanes. At most intersections bike lanes (though without any physical barrier separating them from car lanes) could be seen going north on the numbered avenues.

The Wheelsucker and his girlfriend spent a couple of hours riding around using the Pennsylvania bike lanes, bike lanes on numbered avenues, occasionally in traffic lanes on less traveled roads, and on the Rock Creek Park trail and had no issues with cars.

The Wheelsucker's girlfriend is not comfortable riding from Eastport to downtown Annapolis on a bicycle, but had no concerns on this ride. While a "normal" Washington DC (if such a thing actually exists) would have quite a bit more car traffic, the bike lanes in place and being added look excellent to mitigate that for cyclists.

The Wheelsucker wonders what the collision data shows; from his experience he expects that cycling in Washington DC is now safer and more enjoyable than cycling in Annapolis.