It's a new year...

… so it's time to update my profile picture.  The last one was from the noon hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 2015.

The new one is from July 9th of last year, when I spent an enjoyable afternoon bicycling on the C&O Canal Towpath with a friend.

Here is another view of that day.

And one more.

The C&O

The C&O Canal Towpath is a pretty active place year round, especially in the summer.  They currently have a program at the National Park entrance that offers anyone a free bike loaner for two hours with which to enjoy the trail.

You can step back into yesteryear and ride a canal passenger boat, hauled up canal by mules.

There's camping and fishing.

There's running and of course hiking as well.  It's a well maintained national treasure that runs from the District all the way up into West Virginia.

A Visit to the National Arboretum

A couple of weekends ago, I picked up a SmartBike, threw it in my pickup and drove over to the National Arboretum for a couple of hours biking over there. It was very rewarding. (Columns from the Capitol, removed when they enlarged and refurbished it in the 1950s, are planted out here in the National Arboretum.)

I had never been there before. This 412-acre reserve off New York Avenue is on the northeastern edge of DC, just before you leave the District by way of the Baltimore Washington Parkway. Admission is free and there is plenty of parking.

It is well kept and features lots of little stands of different kinds of both indigenous and exotic trees. Hilly roadways snake through the grounds, and security is ever present. (A quiet spot in the National Arboretum.)

There were lots of picnickers on that Sunday. They were even having an ice-cream social there so I parked my bike among some green-thumb types, muscled ahead of some children on line and partook in a refreshing ice-cream cone.

Check it out someday. It's fun and relaxing.

Green Day

I was green today. Oh yeah. This morning I went to the furthest outlying SmartBike rack, the one at Dupont Circle, to check out its actual location and to simulate a "bike commute" to work.

When I arrived in Dupont Circle, I checked out both entrances to the Metro Station but couldn't locate a SmartBike rack. So I asked a nearby downtown Hospitality Ambassador, standing around in her distinctive black and gold clothing (an "ask me" person), where the SmartBike rack was. She had never heard of the SmartBike program but she got on her radio and in minutes had the answer. As a matter of fact she chased me down with the information because by then I was wandering around asking other clueless persons. (Right: These Golden Triangle Ambassadors will get you answers in downtown DC.)

Mass Avenue on Dupont Circle. Sure enough, there was the bike rack, out of sight of either entranceway but loaded with the distinctive red and white bikes.

Rush hour traffic in DC is nuts. I decided the safest route over to the Union Station area where I work didn't lie in following the hypotenuse down Mass Avenue to Union Station, but rather going along the two legs of the triangle. So I gained Rock Creek Park, where there is a bike path, by going a few blocks down P Street, almost getting run over by a swiftly moving Metro bus in the process. After my traverse down Rock Creek Park, I hung a left and rode up the Mall to near Judiciary Square, whereupon I rode a few blocks on city streets to the drop-off bike rack.

Lo and behold, there was a SmartBike guy there, dressed in red and white clothing, unloading several bikes from that full rack to transport them in his red and white van to less full racks at other locations. I helpfully wheeled a couple of bikes over to his van to help him out.

Twenty-nine minutes on a bike. My legs were on fire. But this is a program that works. I have a stable of 100 bikes being kept downtown for my personal use anytime (between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.), all being serviced by a legion of mechanics and drivers, for $40 a year. Nah-nah, do you?

Dark Pleasures

I feel like I've been untrue. Less than a day after I took my first whirl on a Smart Bike in downtown DC, thoroughly enjoying the ride although wary of the dangers of riding a bicycle in the wild woolly west of downtown DC traffic, I checked the SmartBikeDC website at the end of the workday (it electronically keeps track of the current whereabouts of every returned bike), discovered there was only one bike left at Judiciary Square, the bike rack closest to my work, and hastened out the door and over to Judiciary Square, five minutes away. I fought off the urge to run there.

Wednesday's ride was an experiment, a breaking in period, a getting-to-know-you experience. Yesterday's rendezvous was a guilty pleasure. I didn't need to bike on the surface from Judiciary Square on the Red Line to Metro Center on the Orange Line during rush hour. Trains come every three or five minutes then so the transfer is swift.

The bike was still there at Judiciary Square. Telling myself that I was cross-training a little, I took 'er out for a spin. I didn't have my bulky briefcase hung over my shoulder like the day before so I felt more nimble as I made my way through the busy, broken downtown streets over to Metro Center, using muscles that haven't been worked out in decades (you know, the "bike muscles"). I thought about maybe riding over to the further Foggy Bottom Orange Line stop on the next outing.

I hope this doesn't get out of hand.

A ride on the dark side

I bought a bike. For forty dollars. It came with a lifetime service contract.

I signed up for Smart Bike DC for a forty dollar annual fee. As my brother the economist says, it's grossly underpriced. With my access card, I can go to any of ten bike racks scattered about the core downtown DC area and take out a bike for free for up to three hours. I have to return it to any of the bike racks before its appointed time. And if I lose a bike, or it gets stolen from me, it's $550.

The hours of operation are 6 am to 10 pm. I can go here and check on the availability of bikes at any particular rack or, equally important, whether I can drop one off there. Sure there are lots of rules (the contract was eight pages, mostly liability stuff. I think it said I am gonna die on a bike and it's not the city's fault) but basically it's that simple.

The possibilities are boundless. I can go bike riding on a weekend on the C&O Canal with my girlfriend. She hates it that I don't have a bike. Well, now I do. For three hours anyway.

That 2.5 mile jog to and from my monthly noontime Tidal Basin 3K each way? I can pick up a Smart Bike on the way, bike there, run the race and bike back.

If I leave work at 9 pm and don't want to transfer from the Red Line to the Orange Line on the Metro (if I miss connections it can be a 35 minute wait), I can pick up a Smart Bike by walking to Judiciary Square on the Red Line (a 5 minute walk) and bike over to Metro Center (a 25 minute walk) on the Orange Line where I can drop the bike off.

That is, until I get killed. I had my first adventure yesterday. (The Program is one week old.) I walked to Judiciary Square at 6:30 pm, excited about the prospect of getting a bike to ride over to Metro Center. Hmm, no bikes, the rack was empty. Grumbling, I walked over to Gallery Place, still on the Red Line. There were six bikes there. Feeling like a child stealing a candy bar, I took a bike and rode the 3-speed contraption the eight further blocks to Metro Center.

It's illegal to ride on the sidewalks in the core downtown area. There were at least half a dozen idling double parked cars that I went by along the way, some with drivers on cell phones (they're as dangerous as drunk drivers) and some were taxis (they're deadly in this town). All waiting to do something impetuous as soon as I rode by like get underway suddenly or throw their door open or whip into a U-turn. With the ubiquitous downtown construction, there were little roadway bottlenecks all over the place for li'l ol' me to squeeze through on my bike. And me stop for red lights? Faghedaboudit.

I made it. It's a fabulous program, borrowed from a Paris model, and unique to this country so far. I love it already. But, we need more bikes, Mayor Fenty!

Magnificent Menace

Sunshine was glorying in the return of outdoor running weather in Minnesota after a long hard winter (lots of posts about indoor tracks) and posting a pleasing picture of a bird in the wild (check this one out in Cindy's backyard) when she raised the subject of bicyclists who don't signal. This is reminiscent of the runners wearing headphones debate, endless, subtly acrimonious and without resolution (Safe within my womb, I touch no one, And no one touches me).

She said that in the Twin Cities, most riders call out as they approach although a few do not. Charlie commented that "[m]any is the time my heart has picked up when a bicycle passes me swiftly without warning." Oh yeah. This to me is a more interesting debate than the silly headphone controversy (I've built walls, A fortress deep and mighty, That none may penetrate).


(I am a Rock, I am an Island.)

In the DC area on its many trails, it seems to me that most bicyclists race by without an On Your Left warning, while a few call out or ring a bell. (How hard is it to ring a bell?)

I try to say Thank You to the ones who signal, to encourage the practice and also because I truly appreciate knowing what is going on around me. Being run into by a bicyclist is a danger that I assess as I run, like watching out for potholes, avoiding free-ranging dogs and keeping aware through my senses of traffic around me (cars are noisy, bicycles are quiet and can be silent).

I have had a biker friend earnestly tell me that bicyclists think it is annoying to runners for them to constantly call out so they don't. Bicyclists just don't know, really, what it is like to be startled by a metal kite flashing by suddenly within a foot or two at 28 MPH with 150 pounds atop it providing force. (Bicyclists riding on Haines Point earlier this month. Runners like to watch out very carefully for swift and powerful moving forces like these.)

Being blindsided by a bicycle would be catastrophic. Time off from running could be the best outcome. Would you take a dare, even for a lot of money, and let a catapult sling a 150 pound bag of sand into your back at 28 MPH? It could kill you.

Bicyclists approaching from behind who don't sing out are putting the runner's protection wholly within their own hands. They are taking the runner out of the overall safety equation. They are allowing the possibility of the runner blindly committing some inadvertent mis-step, and leaving only themselves with the ability to exercise any control over the situation. This is arrogance, in my opinion.