My Other Bike Is A….

[rcannon100]

WMATA had a terrible night tonite. And it got me thinking….

Assuming that cycling is your primary way to commute, what is your secondary means of commuting. If you did not cycle to work – how would you get to work?

goDCgo recently tweeted that the number one reason people dont use public transportation is reliability. That pretty much nails it for me. I have to do a rail to bus transfer in Rosslyn, and that transfer is HORRIBLE. The bus service is entirely unreliable. And – it pretty much takes twice as long to get home by public transportation than by driving home. Forget about it if it is raining in the slightest.

I am “car free” because of my bike. But if it werent for my bike, I would be in a car (the dark side).

What would you “other” way home be?

[TwoWheelsDC]

Bus>Metro>work>Metro>bus

It actually takes only about 40 minutes, since the bus stop is 100 feet from my house and I can use the real-time tracker to avoid a long wait. I don’t really mind the bus, but sweet jeebus I hate Metro. Reliability and crowding aside, it gives me motion sickness like whoa, so I always feel nauseous when I get off. Maybe when they switch back to auto control (yeah right) it’ll get better, but until then I’ll stick to the bike.

[Greenbelt]

At this point, my other bike is my other bike! (Roughly 21 months car- and Metro-free commuting, since April 2011.)

However, I was sweating that ice the other morning — thought I was going to have to ride to Metro. Couldn’t have done my commute on ice-covered trails (no studded tires) and unwilling to bike on high-traffic streets to avoid the ice. However, got a last-minute reprieve when the Feds delaying opening until noon — by then the ice was pretty much melted off the trails and I had smooth sailing.

[jrenaut]

I’m lucky enough to have a 3.5 mile commute by bike that is also an easy Metro commute AND a not-so-great-but-still-doable bus commute. Not to mention the option to telework or even to walk if things really go pear-shaped.

[DismalScientist]

My other bike is a bike, except if it is raining and don’t want to deal with it. Then I’ll use a bus to move my bike and me.

[vvill]

1. Bike
2. Car
3. Metro

I have used the bus too (actually after I broke my arm). It’s quite pleasant but takes ages, as I have to change buses.

I spent around 2 years taking Metro almost every day. Never again. I switched to car after that, then car/bike. Now it’s bike/bike/bike/bike/bike.

[Steve]

1. Bike
2. Metro

And until recently….

1. Metro
2. Bike

It actually really bothers me, all the Metro hating that happens on the forum. I think Metro is great, and is an invaluable asset to cycling in DC. I don’t think it’s the best run organization ever, don’t get me wrong. And I don’t think the bus system is nearly as good as the train system, though local ones like ART and Circulator seem much better (I know there aren’t wmata, at least I don’t think they are). But I think a lot of the bus problems are heavily attributable to the terrible traffic conditions, and the fact that locally we make no provisions to benefit the bus, like bus lanes. Thos who use metro on the weekend probably hate it, because of the service interruptions. Those who use it occasionally probably find it inconvenient. But everyday commuters probably find it to be more on time, more reliable, and easier than driving. I’ve been a full-time metro’er for probably 3 of the years that I’ve lived here, and honestly can’t think of a time that I was very late for work or school during that time.

If we use a Dr. Gridlock piece about people being “trapped” underground, then I think we should post his cycling articles too, to find out how awful cycling is. Maybe we can share his outrage that cabs aren’t allowed to u-turn on Penn, “even without bicycle riders around.” To call that a massive failure of metro last night…I mean take a picture of the beltway every day this week. My guess is it will look similar, the difference being that metro doesn’t look like that every day.

The VAST majority of car-free folks in DC (or at least non-car-dependent) are those that use public transit. I believe that our transit system creates a culture that alternative methods of commuting are acceptable and supported. Without the metro, my guess is 66 would have two extra lanes, Wilson/Clarendon Blvds would look like 50, etc. The ways in which this benefits cycling are numerous. It takes cars off the road, makes it easier for governments to promote “road diets,” and helps provide a safety net for those that say, “I need a car in case of rain/sleet/snow.” Who knows, without metro maybe #bikedc would look more like #bikeloudon.

Rant over….

[Arlingtonrider]

Some good points there. Everything is relative and we definitely need metro in the mix, in spite of its shortcomings.

[americancyclo]

bike first, metro second.

I don’t really mind metro at all. It’s close to home and work, I don’t have to transfer, get time to read the paper and blogs in the morning, and on the way home, I always get a place to sit and squeeze in a 30 min nap, waking up two minutes before my stop. It’s also about five minutes faster than biking (as long as I bike from home to the station)

It’s a great way to avoid driving rain, extra maintenance on my bike, temps below 20, icy conditions, or on the days I want to spend an extra 15 min sleeping.

what i need to do is find an alt bus route if metro ever has catastrophic problems.

[mstone]

I used to take metro daily. I liked it because I could get on early in the morning in Vienna, get a seat, and read a book for 30-45 minutes. It was still sometimes hellish, particularly on a “hot train”. I really really liked the system 25 years ago, when it was kind of like a space age wonder. Then it started going downhill. More hot cars, more broken escalators, more delays, more broken everything. I think the level of hate started increasing when it was clear that by and large, WMATA does not seem to notice or care how bad things are, compared to how they used to be (note: if things used to be nice, there’s no clear reason why they can’t be better now). My job changed, and it’s now faster, cheaper, more reliable, and more comfortable to drive. (And it’s bikeable!) I will probably try to make sure I never get another job predicated on metro. I used to take metro into the city on a regular basis on the weekend. I stopped almost a year ago, due to the constant track work. As a side effect, the trip into the city takes half the time and less than half the money. I will probably never go back to taking metro, even if they finally finish the track work (which currently has no ETA). And if I’m taking the family, metro is a non-starter: even paying downtown parking rates, I’m going to come out way ahead in the car.

And then, sometimes, they kill or maim people and fail to make changes to rectify the root causes. That kinda takes any remaining bloom off the rose.

[GuyContinental]

I love Metro and am incredibly sad that it is a non-option for me now that I work in the public-transport desert that is Sterling.

So after years of happy inside the beltway metro and living literally 5 minutes from TWO stations, my other bike is a car. Which sucks sooo much more and is sooo much less reliable than hot crowded trains or occasional delays. I’d love to ride 5 days a week but at 3+ hours a day it’s a little much for family and work pressures to accommodate. C’est la vie.

The metro haters should spend some quality time on the soul-sucking awfulness that 495, 270, 395 or 295 can be at rush hour.

[Dickie]

Bike
Car
metro.

I commute most days by bike between Rosslyn and Merrifield. However, since I am a furniture and cabinet maker I own a truck (ugh!). This is mostly parked in the shop all week long, but after very physical days or when I am stuck in the shop until the wee hours of the night, I’ll drive home. This normally happens once a week and allows me to bring home laundry, buy groceries and supplies for the shop, and gives my legs a break. Sometimes I’ll walk to Dunn Loring instead and take the metro as I do enjoy the walk and being in the truck is just not therapeutic at all. For all other trips into the city for events and such I take the metro which is part of the reason I pay to live in Rosslyn.

[creadinger]

I primarily drive… then bike, then metro for winter weather.

My drive is half the time of bike or metro and parking is free so the incentives aren’t really there to bike all the time. Not to mention the dread of riding up Mass Ave SE, or Good Hope Road hills every day. I’d guesstimate that about 15% of my drive is on roads that are bikeable so I don’t really feel like I’m impeding cyclists or a pro cycling agenda by driving as much as I do.

Metro reliability is a serious problem but my wife takes it almost daily, (sometimes we drive together) and she still prefers to take it on days when I leave the car at home. The only positive I can say about metro is that 2 years ago during commutageddon when it took some of my coworkers 7-10 hours to get home in cars, metro took me 1 hour, which is the same amount of time it always takes. Walking home would have been faster than driving in that instance though.

[mstone]

@GuyContinental 42675 wrote:

The metro haters should spend some quality time on the soul-sucking awfulness that 495, 270, 395 or 295 can be at rush hour.

The fact that one thing sucks doesn’t make something else suck less. Unless it’s the difference between my family starving and not, I won’t commute by car at rush hour. And I also won’t take metro. I’ve done both. Both suck. But for longer distance commuters at this point it’s routine that you’ll be a 50-100% late by car, but the odds are extremely low that you’ll be 100+% late by car and non-negligable if you’re on metro. Cars have alternate routes, metro has you trapped. In the city you can get out and walk (if you’re lucky), further out you’re just screwed (for hours).

[Subby]

1. Bike
2. Car
3. Call in sick

I have free parking, so driving has been a crackpipe that I have been trying to put down for a long time. I have biked in to work every day but one this year, so hopefully I am on my way to recovery.

I am not as anti-car as a lot of folks seem to be – it is still indispensable to me for hauling my four kids around town with all of their sports gear – but I do wonder how much I will need one when they are all out of the house.

Metro is no good for me. I love it in theory but during rush hour with the crush of humans and the terrible oil/grease smells…not for me.

[Author]

Posts