I became a bike commuter. Not sure how I got sucked into that spandex vortex, but six months later and I was still riding the DC Metro's Red line and my orange Bike Friday Pocket Crusoe. What's a Pocket Crusoe? It's the model bike from the Bike Friday line of folding bikes produced by Green Gear Cycling in Eugene, Oregon. Hand made there. Hand welded there. I have dubbed my Pocket Crusoe "The DC Flyer", though Safety Orange is probably a closer match to the marketing brainchild you'd find on a Duron paint color swatch.
I changed jobs about a year ago, moving north of the border into Gaithersburg, Maryland. After some hemming and hawing and logistics, I decided to give the bike commute a try. The first commute was riding a half mile to Tenley Metro, then departing at Shady Grove Metro. I went out the wrong exit, and started pedaling toward what I quickly discovered was going to be an on-ramp to I-370! I turned around and rode in the grass, back to 355. Then it was a sidewalk ride up 355, briefly onto 355 itself, and to the office. I only got honked at once, by a minivan driver.
Well, six months later, I'd nailed down my route and rode with confidence for about a mile on 355 before ducking into some mercifully quiet residential streets. The worst part of the commute was on 355, where the I-370 on and off-ramps come in, right by Shady Grove Rd. I have to stay in the third lane, with the I-370 on-ramp to my right and two lanes of straight-through traffic to my left. Cars and heavy vehicles are amped up to get onto the interstate and are whizzing by on my right, as are the fast-moving vehicles in the two lanes to my left. And I pedal along innocently through this column of traffic. Though I was often buzzed (passed closely) when in the right lane, on this stretch of road I haven't been honket at, ridiculed or derided. I pedal smoothly and quickly from a dead stop at the light, gaining momentum as fast as my thighs allow, trying to get past the I-370 on-ramp and get some relief--for just a few seconds. See, now that I-370 has come and gone, I've got to get over two more lanes to my left to get into a left turn bay so I can get off 355 and onto the comparatively bucolic residential side streets.
The saving grace in the commute, both on the roads and on the train, was that it was a reverse commute. The trains are much less crowded, as is 355. There's traffic aplenty, but it isn't mobbed like the southbound side.
Well, now I think I've discovered the real reason Wednesday is called "hump" day--I was riffed from work yesterday. On the bright side, I've got more time for biking now, and it doesn't have to just be the "play in traffic" kind of biking. I can revel in the thrill of dog walkers and joggers on the CCT. Or the wanna-be roadies who think the Mt Vernon Trail is the place for training rides, passing perilously close as they squeeze between me, the baby strollers, and oncoming bike traffic. Leave the Freds like me in peace! Get yer carbon kopy bike on the road and ride like Kevin Bacon! Sing the Star Spandex Banner! Me, I'll tootle along with my neon helmet and legs strong from a winter's worth of commuting.
