I’ll ride just about anywhere whether it’s a good idea or not. Last summer I decided to try taking Central as an out-and-back so I didn’t have to cross town to connect to the more usual routes. It looked good on the map.
Never again.
1) East Capitol has no shoulder or sidewalk across the Anacostia and through the underpass. At 6 AM on my way out it was more or less okay, but on the way back traffic was fast (>45 mph) and heavy – it was impassible.
2) EOTR town drivers didn’t seem accustomed to seeing bicycles on the roadway. Little room was given when passing, little courtesy was given anywhere. Stops are frequent, and there are some healthy hills to cope with.
3) Into MD drivers and facilities were even worse. Conventional speeds moved up to 50 mph, passing distance shrank even more, and there’s heavy retail and commercial development (strip malls and business parks) making traffic patterns even more chaotic. There were some sidewalks, interrupted by many driveways and obstacles and sometimes just ending in the middle of nowhere. I survived LOTS of right hooks, left hooks, close passes, and many many horns were blown and comments were yelled at me for no particular reason.
I made it past the beltway, but barely, before the tension got the better of me and I looped back. I hate to generalize, but I made it out to about where Natasha Pettigrew was killed, and after seeing the road conditions out there I’m surprised that things like that don’t happen far more often out that way.
On the way back things settled down as I got closer to RFK, but in order to get back across the river I had to find my way up to Bladensburg Road somehow, through another stretch of poor facilities mixed with dead ends and culs-de-sac. I eventually found a nicer route that took me past Deanwood Rec Center and eventually to 202, but I had to spend a lot of time looking at a cue sheet to make it through there too.
.
