#BikeDC
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First Week of September in D.C.
Like that, everyone is back in the city. Congress gears up and the tourists recede. I forgot so many people work here. Spectacular weather means an explosion in fair weather commuters. They’re everywhere. Part of me is glad to see more people on bikes, and part of me feels annoyed by the overall congestion. Continue reading
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Friday Coffee Club: Big Bicycling Edition
One of the reasons I love living in Washington, D.C., is because it is a destination city. Every day my path intersects with tourists who are out and about, taking in the sights, and most often blissfully oblivious to my bike bell. Today, as Felkerino and I enjoyed our pre-work morning at Friday Coffee Club… Continue reading
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Anticipation: a Bike Commuter’s Friend
Do you ever have commutes where you feel like you are in the middle of an urban obstacle course? Dodge this! Veer around that! Watch out for the crazy driver! No one is following the rules! As I rode through the post-work milieu today, a particularly gorgeous early summer day in the city, I realized… Continue reading
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Friday Coffee Club: On Firsts and Farewells
Friday Coffee Club started when a tweet went out from Felkerino to #BikeDC suggesting a Friday morning rendezvous at Swings Coffee, a local coffeehouse near the White House Plaza. The original edition of Friday Coffee Club looked like this: Continue reading
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The Pennsylvania Avenue Bike Lane Dilemma
Washington, D.C., welcomed the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes to the city in the middle of June 2010. These lanes, as all #BikeDC riders well know, are situated in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue and run from 3rd to 15th Street Northwest. Pennsylvania Avenue is one of the main thoroughfares of the District, particularly during the… Continue reading
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What Word Sums Up Your Cycling Experience?
With the D.C. area’s celebration of riding your bike to work known as Bike to Work Day happening this Friday, I’m revisiting some inspiring words from the #BikeDC cyclists I interviewed several months ago. One of several questions I asked of this group was: What word or phrase describes your D.C. bicycling experience? I love… Continue reading
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What’s Your Advice on City Cycling?
With the influx of riders taking to the streets this spring (oh how I’ve dreamed of using the word influx in a post), I thought I’d feature the advice BikeDC peeps have shared about cycling in the city. The BikeDC Speaks interview series featured eight D.C.-area cyclists– six women and two men– and their perspectives… Continue reading
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How to Make the City a Better Place for Cyclists
As I wrote last week, I’m bringing back the BikeDC Speaks series to highlight some of the questions and issues it raised. This time, I’m also asking you to share your ideas and suggestions. Last week’s post asked about the best advice anyone ever gave you about cycling. This week’s question is: What could the… Continue reading
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What’s the Best Advice Anyone Gave You about Cycling?
Back in the fall, I put together a series that explored D.C.-area cyclists’ views and experiences about riding in the city. #BikeDC Speaks featured 8 local cyclists– six women and two men. Some contributors began commuting regularly within the last year or two while others have commuted for several years. Thanks again to all the people… Continue reading
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WABA’s 2013 Vasa Ride: It’s All About the Blueberry Soup
This Sunday, Felkerino and I participated in WABA’s annual Vasa Ride, a bicycling event conceptualized loosely around Sweden’s Vasaloppet cross-country ski race. The ride begins and ends at the House of Sweden and all participants receive a cup of blueberry soup (or Blåbärssoppa, if you’re fancy) at the finish. Our early spring schedule left a hole for… Continue reading
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Inauguration Weekend & Pennsylvania Avenue Bike Lanes
The city is almost ready for Inauguration Day. Yesterday I tried to capture the final preparations from a perspective slightly higher than ground level. On my commute home I took the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes in order to see the Art of Weiwei projection on the exterior of the Newseum. This is only on display from… Continue reading
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D.C. Commute Scenes: Getting Ready
It’s been a while since my last “D.C. Commute Scenes” post. Guess everything became routine landscape the past few months. Not lately, though. Right now, big things are happening right here in Washington, D.C. (Insert snide comment here if you feel like doing so.) The city is rapidly preparing for the presidential inauguration. People are out… Continue reading
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The Cold & Blustery BikeDC Hot Chocolate Ride (aka, the Chocoride)
Having spent the bulk of the last four days in self-imposed isolation, I busted out of my hibernation state today and joined the Hot Chocolate Ride for a few miles in the saddle and hot beverages with BikeDC buddies old and new. Continue reading
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Bicycles are Not Cars: Girl on a Bike on #BikeDC Speaks
We’re back for the final installment of the #BikeDC Speaks series. If you ride in the D.C. area and do any blog reading or tweeting, you have probably heard of Girl on a Bike, aka Kate. A regular commuter and excellent blogger, Kate regularly participates in a lot of local #BikeDC events. I’m thrilled that… Continue reading
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WABA 50 States Ride 2012: All About the People
This past Saturday Felkerino and I participated in another edition of the Washington Area Bicycling Association (WABA) 50 States Ride. Yeah, that ride with 500 participants that crosses over all 50 of the state streets within the District of Columbia and covers about 65 miles in the process. True to our plan, we shortcut as… Continue reading
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WABA 50 States Ride: Pre-Ride Prep for the Ultimate Urban Excursion
This coming Saturday marks the arrival of another edition of the 50 States Ride. While this ride sort of freaked me out the first time I did it, it’s since grown on me and now it’s a much-anticipated fall event. Washington Area Bicycling Association (WABA), our local cycling advocacy group, organizes the ride. My entry fee supports… Continue reading
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The National Bike Challenge and Teams Friday Coffee Club
You may or may not know this, but the National Bike Challenge happened. The goal of the challenge was to get more people out riding their bikes and logging their miles. The League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, and Endomondo sponsored the three-month event, which took place from June 1-August 31. Specifically, the… Continue reading
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Using Shared Infrastructure Sharingly: Chris on #BikeDC Speaks
After several weeks of #BikeDC Speaks posts from the women of the #BikeDC community, we are back this week with a guy’s point of view on riding in the D.C. area. Chris is another familiar face from #FridayCoffeeClub and, if you ride along MacArthur Avenue, you may spot him there as well. During his years of commuting… Continue reading
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BicycleSPACE and the D.C. Murals Ride
After all the heat and humidity we’ve endured over the summer, this past weekend we received a welcome reprieve. Especially Saturday. Warm sun, light breezes, pleasant temperatures. Far too gorgeous of a day to stay inside, Felkerino, his daughter, and I joined BicycleSPACE’s mural ride to see where it would take us and to simply… Continue reading
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Getting Better All the Time: Leslie T. on #BikeDC Speaks
Leslie T., superhero transportation cyclist, and I go way back to the days I first began riding with the D.C. Randonneurs. If there is a way to get there by bike, Leslie will figure out it. When work requires her to travel, she takes a bike along. Vacation? It usually involves a bike. Getting around… Continue reading
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Making Yourself Part of the City: Laura M. on #BikeDC Speaks
Time for another edition of #BikeDC Speaks. This week’s post is brought to us by D.C. bike commuter and transportation cyclist Laura M., also known as @grafxnerd on the Twitterverse. Twitter and the magical #BikeDC hashtag is how I first “met” her! Laura has a keen eye for detail which is not only apparent in… Continue reading
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Cupcake Ramblin’ with Sol and BicycleSPACE
BicycleSPACE, one of D.C.’s local bike shops, has done an excellent job of building community through their group rides. Felkerino and I have attended a few of their evening social rides in the past and, while they were literally not my speed in terms of the pace with which they meandered through town, they were… Continue reading
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Freedom!: Ultrarunnergirl on #BikeDC Speaks
Kirstin, aka Ultrarunnergirl, is one of the many great people I’ve met through #FridayCoffeeClub (which you should think about attending, if you do not already). As her blog suggests, Kirstin is an ultrarunner as well as a cyclist, and is one of few people I know who also run commutes when she’s not out bike… Continue reading
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Don’t Overthink It: #BikeDC Speaks to Joan O.
Now that the big vacation has ended, #BikeDC Speaks has returned to the front page! This week features a guest post from Joan O., a transportation and recreational cyclist who calls Arlington, Virginia, home. I’ve gotten to know Joan from seeing her out and about on some of the same roads I regularly travel. She’s… Continue reading
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#BikeDC Speaks to Lisa S.: Growing Up as a Cyclist
What better way to send us into the 4th of July holiday than with another edition of BikeDC Speaks? This week features Lisa S., who I know through randonneuring and Friday Coffee Club, our weekly bike commuter gathering at Swings. Lisa also writes an engaging blog, Rambling Rider, about her rides as well as the… Continue reading
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It’s Life Changing: Marc M. on #BikeDC Speaks
This week I’m launching a series of guest posts called “BikeDC Speaks.” And I don’t mean “Passing on your left.” We’re going beyond that. This series explores local cyclists’ thoughts and views about their bicycling experiences in the D.C. area. My first post features Marc M., a fellow Tweep and FridayCoffeeClub regular. Thanks so much,… Continue reading
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That Sign on Ohio Drive. BIG SIGH
For the past month or so, the National Park Service has kindly placed a brightly lit sign on the northeast side of Potomac Park (by Hains Point) that “encourages” cyclists to stop at intersections. Specifically it says this: “Bicyclists must obey traffic LAWS.” For a while, the Park Police were stopping cyclists who rode through… Continue reading
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Guest Blog Post by Me
I’m totally copying this post title from Bicycle Bug. Earlier this week, the man behind the D.C. bicycling blog Tales from the Sharrows put out the call for a guest post. Both Bicycle Bug and I drafted up the happenings from one of our commutes as potential posts. However, another local commuter rose to the… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 