The best time to visit the monuments? At night. The best way to get there? By bike.
The Errandonnee Challenge changed my life. My bike-life, that is. The challenge is to take 12 errands by bike over 12 days. There are a lots of categories and rules but the gist of the contest is to use your bike for everyday errands.
Doing it last year changed my approach to biking in Washington, DC. Before then, I was a weekend cyclist. I didn’t ride during the week because I thought it was too much of a hassle. But the experience of running simple errands by bike taught me that biking was by far the easiest, fastest and most fun way to get around the city. The Errandonnee Challenge turned me in to an everyday cyclist, one who rode in all kinds of weather, even when it was 16 degrees.
A cool bike outside Garden District, a local beer garden.
One of the requirements of Errandonnee is to share what you learned during the challenge.
This year, I learned that there’s nothing I like more than drinking coffee and biking – if only there was a challenge for that! Oh, wait, there is.
Bikes, books and coffee – that’s pretty much my lifestyle.
My bike trips around the city tend to be more rambling than functional. I look for good excuses to bike around town (which is why Errandonee is perfect for me). DC is compact, so the distances are small. But you always see interesting things.
For example, every morning I bike one mile to the Metro. Most of the trip is up the 15th protected bike lane – the best piece of bike infrastructure in the city. It’s a neverending stream of people heading downtown, from women in heels on red Bikeshare bikes to power commuters on road bikes.
This little five-minute trip is the best part of the day. It’s like people-watching but done at ten-miles an hour.
What my morning commute looks like. This is the 15th Street protected bike lane.
A flâneur is a French word meaning “urban explorer.” A term with literary pretensions, it’s defined as a lounger, a stroller or, even better, a boulevardier. As a Gen Xer, I might call this person a slacker.
Wandering around the city is exactly what I do, except that I’m doing it by bike. Tracking miles and setting personal records doesn’t appeal to me. Instead, I want to bike around Washington and look at stuff.
Errandonnee has taught me that I am a biking flâneur. I will embrace it. Here’s to more urban rambles by bike!
Farmhouse Cheese, fries and sauces at Good Stuff Eatery in Crystal City, VA.
It was a long and punishing winter, a season of cold that had me reaching for every layer that I owned. I still biked, but only for short trips, like to the Metro and back. It wasn’t just the subzero temperatures – it was the snow and ice that covered bike paths like the Mount Vernon Trail, owned and operated by the recalcitrant and unresponsive National Parks Service.
But then it all changed. The temperature skyrocketed to the mid-50s. Everything melted. And the end of Daylight Savings Time brought a delightful Wednesday evening with blue skies and the trails clear of snow.
The return of good weather arrived just in time for Errandonnee! It’s a bike challenge where you bike to 12 different errands over 12 days. I wasn’t going to let this weather go to waste so I hit the Mount Vernon Trail after work and headed to Good Stuff Eatery in Crystal City.
After visiting Good Stuff, I checked out Wednesday Night Spins (an underground bike race) and the Lincoln Memorial to check off three errands off my Errandonnee list.
But let me tell you: this burger was delicious. Being able to eat outside again – amazing! I forgot what that this feeling was like. May winter never ever return.
A very icy and dangerous section of the Mount Vernon Trail near National Airport. Photo by Michael Neubert.
I recently attended Social Media: What’s the Right Strategy for Your Agency?, a forum put on by the Federal Communicators Network. The event was a roundtable discussion of best practices from social media experts at the CIA (really), VA and USGS, among others.
It was a very interesting discussion but one point stood out for me as a government communicator: good federal agencies know that social media is customer service. They realize that Twitter and Facebook are more than just broadcast vehicles; they exist to help the public get answers. Social media is a chance to change the perception of Big Government by providing information to the public in a timely manner.
Seems like a no-brainer, right? Smart federal agencies like the VA and USGS have teams in place to respond to public inquiries. They’re setup as customer service centers and pride themselves on letting no question go unanswered.
And then we have the National Parks Service, who never ever ever respond to anyone who asks them a question on Twitter. They’re too busy tweeting about TV shows and Junior Rangers to reply to us taxpayers.
For example, the bike trail (you knew this would come back to bikes, didn’t you?) along the GW Parkway is one of the most heavily traveled bike commuter routes in the region. It’s essential for people coming from Alexandria to get into the city.
Does NPS plow the bike trail like Arlington County does? No, they let the trails turn into ice-covered ruts that endanger walkers, runners and cyclists.
What’s worse is that they never ever respond to anyone (and there’s been a lot of people) who ask them about it on social media. Do you think the phones at NPS go unanswered? No, of course not. They have people to answer the phones. But when it comes to social media they let it ring and ring, the public be damned.
Not responding to the public is one of the cardinal sins of this age. Agencies with budgets much smaller than NPS will reply to your tweets, like the DC Department of Transportation. We in #BikeDC forgive their lapses in snow removal because we know that they’re trying.
How do we know this? Because there’s a real person who answers their Twitter! You can get angry at a big agency but when there’s obviously a human being on the other end of the computer – you feel empathy for them.
The National Parks Service has a budget of $2.6 billion. They have a staff of 21,798. You can’t find a couple folks to answer tweets?
If the National Parks Service cannot maintain their social media accounts, they should shut them down. Their poor customer service is embarrassing the rest of Big Government – and that’s saying something.
Shane Farthing, Executive Director of the Washington Area Bicyclists Association. addresses a packed house at the WABA Awards.
The tension was palpable at the 2015 Bicyclists’ Choice Awards. Washington area bike riders had nominated and voted on their favorite bike stuff in DC, MD and VA – but who would win?
All was revealed on Friday night at the Thurgood Marshall Center in an action-packed evening put on by the Washington Area Bicyclists Association (WABA).
On a night when the temperature was in the teens, I wondered if people were going to show up for this. In fact, it was a packed house.
And people even biked there, despite the weather and the streets slippery with ice and snow.
Bikes parked in the snow outside the Thurgood Marshall Center in Shaw.
The City Paper’s bike advice columnist, Gear Prudence, aka Brian McEntee, was the host for the awards ceremony, which kicked off after everyone had a chance to mingle and get a drink from Port City.
Gear Prudence rolled into the ceremonies on his Brompton.
But who won? These were the winners of the Bicyclists Choice Awards:
Best New Bike Infrastructure in the District of Columbia in 2014: Winner: M Street protected bike lane
This surprised me because I think the M Street bike lane is a poorly-designed death trap. But there wasn’t a lot to choose from – the development of new bike lanes stalled under Mayor Grey.
Best New Bike Infrastructure in Maryland in 2014: Winner: MARC train Bike Cars from DC to Baltimore
Now this is exciting! MARC is a cheap and easy way to get to Charm City and now I can take my bike there. Moreover, the MARC official who accepted the award revealed that they have plans for MARC train Bike Cars going out to West Virginia. That means you could take the train out to Harpers Ferry and bike back on the C&O Canal.
Best New Bike Infrastructure in Virginia in 2014: Winner: King Street bike lanes in Alexandria, VA
The transportation officials who fought to get this done against a tide of wealthy NIMBYs deserve a hundred more awards.
Bike Friendliest Neighborhood or Business Improvement District Winner:DowntownDC BID
Bike Friendliest Bar, Restaurant or Coffee Shop Winner: District Taco, various locations in DC and VA
District Taco is good but I voted for Swings, since it’s home to Friday Coffee Club, where bike people meet every Friday morning.
Bike Friendliest Developer or Property Manager Winner: Nationals Park
Best Bike Shop Winner: BicycleSPACE
Bike Friendliest School
Winners (tie): School Without Walls High School, DC and the Washington & Lee High School, Arlington, VA
Bike Friendliest College or University Winner: University of Maryland at College Park
Best Shop Ride Winner: BicycleSPACE Hills of Anacostia
Best Use of Biking Data Winner: Bike Arlington’s Freezing Saddles
Best Media Coverage of Biking Winner: Martin DiCaro for WAMU
Martin DiCaro covers the people who bike in this city like they’re real people, not a fringe group to be mocked or relentlessly trolled (I’m talking about you Washington Post).
Best Social Ride Winner: BicycleSPACE’s 7th Street Social
Biggest Advocacy Win of 2014 Winner: Snow Removal on Arlington County Trails
Plowing the bike trails for the local citizenry doesn’t seem like a radical notion but the fact that Arlington County does it makes them unique and remarkable among local governments. Arlington County is innovative and amazing. They not only cleared their bike trails of snow they have cool videos and the best scarves.
Bike Arlington believes in looking good while doing good.
Best Overall Trail or Bike Lane (anywhere in the region)
It’s easy to overlook this amazing trail, which stretches some 45 miles across urban, suburban and rural Virginia.
WABA also handed out special WABA Awards to honor bike advocates. See the complete list on their site.
It was a great evening, like the Oscars but without all the awkward patter (okay, there was some of that). They should call them “The Bikeys”next year.
And as someone who works in government myself… trust me, awards matter. If you’re a local official, being honored by the people you serve provides a cachet that you cannot get in the office. It will motivate you in the future. It’s a big deal. The WABA Awards may be in their infancy but they will prompt the development of Washington as a biking city.
How, exactly, am I supposed to get across the street?
I commute to Silver Spring from DC every day and I hate it. As the train pulls into the station, I see the looming specter of the failed Silver Spring Transit Center and I’m filled with low-grade dread. Why do I hate it so?
Bisected by six-lane highways, downtown Silver Spring is a spectacularly pedestrian-unfriendly environment. Trudging the streets as cars whiz by at 50 mph, you immediately feel like an outsider. I have to cross a river of cars just to get a cup of coffee. Every morning, I press the “beg button” and wait for the light to change to ford the river of cars on East-West Highway.
If I’m lucky, the light turns red and everyone stops. More typically, the light turns yellow and drivers rush into intersection blocking the crosswalk. Pedestrians have to weave around cars, trucks and even 60-foot long articulated Metro buses. I get my coffee at Peet’s and repeat the process, keeping an eye out for impatient drivers coming up behind me as they blow through the shopping center stop sign.
The Silver Spring Transit center. Five years late and a $100 million over budget. Built with flawed concrete and now the subject of litigation.
Working in Silver Spring, there are some intersections you learn to avoid, like East-West Highway and Colesville Road. Accidents happen there regularly and sometimes include pedestrians. You also know where drivers make rolling rights on red and which crosswalks they ignore (all of them).
I bike everywhere in DC. I do not bike in Silver Spring. Why? There are no bike lanes of any kind. Traffic is fast and crowded. There’s BikeShare in Silver Spring but I’ve never seen anyone use it. People know that biking in the street is an experts-only activity.
Some friendly signage.
While Silver Spring is pedestrian-unfriendly, it is filled with pedestrians. Huge employers are located downtown like Discovery and NOAA (where I work). They fill the streets at lunch hour and after work.
The neighborhood where everybody jaywalks – that’s what Greater Greater Washington calls it. They do a great job at illustrating the consequences of poor design. Silver Spring has organized the city for cars, not people.
A flat white at Bump N’ Grind.
There are places that I love in Silver Spring – like the cool Bump N’ Grind and the awesome Big Greek Cafe ($5 gyros on Wednesdays!). The city has also tried to sex up their image to sell apartments.
But poor design makes it impossible for new residents and local employees to spend their cash. You’re not going to go to that cool coffee place if crossing the street is a death-defying act. Until Silver Spring becomes truly walkable, it will continue to be regarded as a second-class city.
Normally, I’m too busy biking to take many pictures of #BikeDC in action. But once the snow started following on Tuesday, I put the bike away. No way was I going to risk the slippery streets on my little-wheeled foldy bike or get salt and grime on my “nice” Specialized Sirrus.
Instead, I concentrated on getting photos of the cyclists of Washington, DC, braving the streets of the city, weather be damned.
Snow Cyclists
The snow “overperformed” according to weather forecasters. January 6 was supposed to just bring us a dusting of snow – instead, nearly four inches fell. The morning commute turned into chaos, with drivers stuck in the snowy stuff, schools cancelled and a general sense of panic.
Gridlock was the norm on the streets of DC. Except for people on bikes, who kept on going.
She’s prepared. Looks like she’s riding a cyclocross bike with knobby tires. Also note the light, helmet, high-vis jacket, gloves and snow pants.This woman is looking left at the unplowed cycletrack and thinking, “WTF?” But it’s not stopping her.I worried about this lady, wobbling down Massachusetts Av on a red Capital Bikeshare bike.The snow came at the height of the morning rush hour. It was gorgeous, especially around Scott Circle.What’s missing, you ask? Cars. Traffic was jammed on the roads outside the city, unable to get in. Also, note that 17th St hasn’t been plowed.Later in the week, Metro fell completely apart. But on the day of the storm, things were moving pretty smoothly.Snow-covered commuters trudge toward NOAA in Silver Spring.Cars couldn’t get up snow-covered East-West Highway in Silver Spring.Thank god Peet’s was open! I stop here every morning on my way to work.
Cold Cyclists
After the snow came the brutal cold. Wednesday and Thursday saw high temperatures in the teens – and with the wind, it felt even colder. The streets were icy and only partially cleared – keeping my ice-fearing self off the bike. But the rest of #BikeDC kept riding, weather be damned.
Sunrise at Logan Circle, as a man on a cargo bike goes by. Air temperature: 10 degrees.The couple that bikes together, stays cold together.Looks warm enough until you get to the feet. A bikeshare rider on Q Street.Why I’m not riding: ice on L Street.Capital Bikeshare gets used at all hours of the day, in every kind of weather. Temp was in the teens as this guy sped up 15th St by the Washington Post.This guy is proof of the recent study that biking will keep you young. Or, at least, warm.You don’t need an expensive bike to get around the city, as this woman on T Street demonstrates.
People gonna bike. Maybe they do it because it’s cheap, faster than the Metro or because they enjoy it. Snow is not going to stop them. Cold is not going to stop them. Nothing (short of the end of the world) is going to stop them.
Bike #1: The Real Bike. A Specialized Sirrus, this has really held up well, despite me crashing it on the H Street trolley tracks a couple years ago.
I like biking. I love coffee. I also enjoy writing and photography. I’ve been doing coffeeneuring for years without even realizing it. The Coffeeneuring Challenge (where you bike to seven different coffee shops over seven weeks) adds structure and purpose to my cyclo-wanderings around Washington in search of java.
I had big plans this year. I was going to go on long bike trips to places I’d never been. But, in the end, I just stayed in DC.
Ever since the Errandonnee Challenge (12 errands by bike over 12 days), biking has become more of a routine activity for me than a special adventure. Errandonnee taught me that it was easier, quicker and more fun to get around DC by bike than any other method.
I bike every day. Monday-Friday it’s back and forth to the Metro, the grocery store, and other errands and activities. On the weekends, it’s to social activities, go get lunch or drink coffee (always be coffeeneuring). On Sunday afternoons, I enjoy taking a spin around the monuments.
Bike #2: The Foldy. It’s a Breezer Zig 7, which I got off Craigslist. It’s basically an older Dahon Speed 7.
When it comes to biking, I don’t want to wear funny clothes. I don’t want to prepare. I don’t want a bike that costs thousands of dollars. I want the simple and everyday – which is why I like my foldy bike so much. I got it used off Craigslist for $300 several years ago. Easy to get on and off, and with a tight turning radius (thanks small wheels), it’s perfect for getting around the city.
I also have a real bike – a Specialized Sirrus. A hybrid (road bike frame, upright position), it’s good for longer distances.
Bike people are like cat people – they seldom have only one. Two bikes puts me on the low end of cycling obsession. I want more. I think it’s time for a new foldy and a mountain bike capable of dealing with DC’s potholed streets.
When it comes to city biking, I like the Dutch approach, where cycling is an ordinary activity that everyone can do. Advancements in infrastructure like the 15th Street Cycletrack have brought this idea within reach of Washingtonians. Building protected bike lanes means people will bike – it’s that simple.
Errandonee convinced me that cycling could be done everyday; Coffeeneuring helped hone my biking philosophy.
But you don’t care about that. Here’s where I ate and drank:
My favorite? Compass Coffee. With a couple of great bars nearby, you could spend a whole day on that block. My second favorite? Peet’s at 17th and L. It’s sunny and you can watch people bike by on L Street.
But, in the end, I don’t think it matters which coffee shop you visit. The most important thing is just to go.
Illy at the Renaissance Dupont Hotel in Washington, DC.
Coffeeneuring 7: Illy Date: November 16, 2014 Distance: 6 miles
It was chilly on the last day of coffeeneuring (where you bike to seven different coffee shops over seven weeks).
Coffeeneuring is always a learning experience for me. You learn things about yourself – like how I don’t have the patience for hipster coffee. And about biking in the city, like how much design matters when it comes to safe cycletracks.
For my final coffeeneuring experience, I went to Illy in Washington, DC. I was on my “real bike” too – my Specialized Sirrus. It was a gray-skied day and I planned on going on a long ride.
Me bike, Meiwah.
But a cold wind blew right through my fleece. I was chilled so cut my trip short. Coffeeneuring lesson learned: when it’s cold, you always need one more layer.
I’m a fan of Illy because it’s about as non-hipster as it comes. Located in the lobby of a downtown hotel, Illy is a chain out of Italy. They make a beautiful cappuccino with a minimum of fuss for just $3.15. It’s the best deal in the city. And it’s made quickly, by sweet West African women without a weird beard or nose piercing in sight.
A perfect cappuccino.
There was a line of people who had come in to get out of the chilly day. But, within just a couple of minutes, I had my cappuccino and was ensconced in the early-2000s era lobby of the Renaissance Hotel.
With its mod furniture and piped-in lounge music, the Renaissance is an attempt at cool from another era. There are no distressed menu boards. Nothing is made out of hemp. You don’t have a table salvaged from a demolished building. Instead, the slick surfaces and high-tech feel of the lobby make it look like a set from Sex and the City. Lean back and you can imagine Samantha drinking Cosmos and talking dot-coms.
No fixie-riding hipster with a Civil War-era beard would be caught dead in such an establishment; it would be like going for drinks with your mom’s friends.
Coffeeneuring 6: Pleasant Pops Date: November 9, 2014 Distance: 15 miles
Until the recent return of the polar vortex, Indian Summer was in full effect in Washington, DC. The delightful mild autumn days were ideal for coffeeneuring (where you bike to seven different coffee shops over seven weeks). It was the kind of weather where you never wanted to go inside, especially with winter looming.
But one can only bike so much. After a while, you have to stop for coffee. For my sixth coffeeneuring adventure, I went to Pleasant Pops in Adams Morgan.
A few years ago, someone told me that gourmet popsicles would be the next food trend to overtake the city. Hah! Only in New York, I thought. Washingtonians aren’t foolish enough to pay $5 for a popsicle. I was wrong. Make it quirky, organic and expensive and people in this city will wait in line to buy it. The upper limit for what DC residents will pay for luxury goods has yet to be discovered.
I did not get a Pineapple Basil or Mexican Chocolate popsicle. Instead, I got a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip cookie (which was delicious and home-made).
I sat outside at a picnic table and tried to finish Lone Star, a history of Texas. Next to me, a couple of women engaged in a humble-brag conversation about their careers. On a Sunday afternoon.
I could understand a chat about finding a job – that’s an important concern. Everyone needs to work. But rapid-fire exposition on the fabulosity of one’s white collar work? I’m sure everyone is very impressed that you met the Deputy Undersecretary but I’m sitting here trying to read my Kindle.
Which is why (controversy alert) I welcomed the shellacking the Democrats received. This city and its $5 popsicles has grown too important in the life of the nation. The American dream should not be to come to Washington and work to influence transportation policy. The American dream should be about writing a novel, starting a company or inventing something new. It should be about creating value, not just skimming off some of the taxpayer dollars that slosh into this city.
Washington should be boring. Government work, while important, cannot be the focus of the nation if we are to survive. Government is possible only due to the economic dynamism of the rest of the country. The ambitious should not aspire to come here.
Washington should be where bureaucrats (like me) quietly read books in outdoor cafes. So, go west, young man. Or light out to Texas. But don’t come here.
A Starbucks like every other Starbucks in the world.
Coffeeneuring 5: Starbucks
Date: November 3, 2014
Distance: Ten miles
Why do you go to Starbucks? You go because you know exactly what you’ll get. From the logo on the cups to the layout of the bathroom, a Starbucks in San Diego is just like a Starbucks in New York. You can travel across the breadth of this nation (and around the world) and you can count on Starbucks to deliver the same coffee experience, no matter the location. This ability to deliver uniformity is a uniquely American talent.
Why can’t our genius for standardization be applied to bike lanes?
The thought occurred to me as I was at a Starbucks. Combining coffeeneuring with errandonnee, I was on my way to the Apple store in Georgetown. After taking the 15th St Cycletrack and and the M Street Cycletrack, I stopped at Starbucks for coffee. I went there because I knew what I would get.
The well-designed 15th St Cycletrack, where bikes and cars are kept carefully apart.
But biking around DC, you never know what you’ll get. This city’s bike infrastructure is a wildly chaotic mess that changes by the day.
The DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) started out so well. The first cycletrack, on 15th Street, is perfectly designed. Bikes are protected from traffic by a line of parked cars. Lanes are marked, signage is good and it’s clear to everyone how the protected bike lane works, thanks to the efforts of reforming Mayor Fenty and DDOT Director Gabe Klein.
In contrast, the M Street Cycletrack was compromised from the start, by Mayor Gray, who sold out to the politically-connected Metropolitan AME Church. There would be no bike lane in front of the 1500 block of M Street, so that they could double-park cars all over street.
This is insane. The M Street Cycletrack leads you into a spot to get broadsided by a car.
Heading west, it gets worse, as the cycletrack weaves in and out of bollards and parked cars. It leads you into traffic and cars merge into the track, blindly, as they attempt to turn right. This poor design has made it worse for cyclists and drivers. M Street before the cycletrack was safer.
Later in the week, as I returned to the Apple store, I discovered something even more dangerous than the M Street Cycletrack – the M Street Cycletrack at night. Navigating the serpentine cycletrack in the dark, as cars nip at your wheels is an experience only for the most daring of urban cyclists. Hope you have good health insurance.
Cyclists go left, cars go right, everyone meets in the middle. Bad, dangerous design by DDOT.
Why can’t DC have cycletracks with the consistency of Starbucks? Why are they all chaotically different and hopelessly compromised? Why are they so poorly designed and so obviously unsafe?
This is a country that gave the world Apple and Google – we know and appreciate good design. We can create uniform cycletrack experiences, no matter the environment. And a good design already exists, on 15th Street. Take that template and apply it across the city. Give us safe cycletracks, DDOT.
