Route Advice: Huntington to Crystal City

[Terpfan]

I should add that I tried something new and went down Rt 1. from Kings Highway (the T-intersection portion, not the weird five-angled one) all the way to Ft. Hunt. My theory was that the timing of the lights would make it work to my advantage. I was largely right except for the red light at Quander. When I saw that red, it would have been wiser to just stand at the top of the hill heading northbound rather than go down it and have to pedal hard to maintain a good speed on the way back up. But the Rt 1 traffic behind me never caught up to me. So just an observation there. I’ve now ridden on Rt 1 at almost every point except over the actual 495 bridge and the stretch in Hybla Valley.

[GovernorSilver]

@Terpfan 117689 wrote:

I should add that I tried something new and went down Rt 1. from Kings Highway (the T-intersection portion, not the weird five-angled one) all the way to Ft. Hunt. My theory was that the timing of the lights would make it work to my advantage. I was largely right except for the red light at Quander. When I saw that red, it would have been wiser to just stand at the top of the hill heading northbound rather than go down it and have to pedal hard to maintain a good speed on the way back up. But the Rt 1 traffic behind me never caught up to me. So just an observation there. I’ve now ridden on Rt 1 at almost every point except over the actual 495 bridge and the stretch in Hybla Valley.

Wow! I’m not quite as brave.

My top speed on the flat so far is only 13.5 mph – not fast enough I think to survive Rt. 1. I don’t think I’d be much better on a real road racer. My climbing in particular still needs a lot of work, although I still climb the hill going up from Huntington to get home.

[Terpfan]

I don’t know if I would say brave. I do it in a manner where I have little interaction with actual traffic. The Kings Highway part is actually a tad more nerve-wracking as the one hill is kind of blind for anyone cresting it and I don’t trust local drivers all that much.

You’ll build up the strength. Then again, I do the Beacon Hill climb on my way home and it never seems to get any easier or maybe it’s just i’m a tad faster at it.

[GovernorSilver]

@Terpfan 117738 wrote:

I don’t know if I would say brave. I do it in a manner where I have little interaction with actual traffic. The Kings Highway part is actually a tad more nerve-wracking as the one hill is kind of blind for anyone cresting it and I don’t trust local drivers all that much.

You’ll build up the strength. Then again, I do the Beacon Hill climb on my way home and it never seems to get any easier or maybe it’s just i’m a tad faster at it.

Oh yeah, you did say that you timed your descent down Rt.1 with the light at the Kings Hwy & Rt. 1 T-intersection, so that you got a head start on the cars. I’ve started thinking I could use the red light at Huntington Ave. & Metroview to similarly give myself a head start on the cars – of course this would only work when the light turns red before I get to the intersection – otherwise just use my relatively slow speed to encourage the cars to pass me, so there aren’t any behind me when I make the cut onto the sidewalk to get the Eisenhower mixed-use overpass.

I’ve developed enough skill to ride on our scenic bike trails with low risk to myself or others (pedestrians, cyclists, dogs, etc.). I guess the next skill to work on is my climbing. I can make it up the hill to my house, but I think I’m using too much quad muscle in my pedal stroke. It’s always the quads that end up sore and this has led to more tightness around the knees than usual. It takes me 2 min. to climb to my house and I’m totally gassed when I arrive. My friend just competed in some kind of mountain bike event in which he was climbing for 45 min. No doubt he’s much better conditioned than me, but I figure his technique is better too.

I didn’t know about the heel-drop mentioned here – I’ll try it and the other suggestions (except the pulling part – my pedals are platform and I don’t wear cycling shoes – yet) next time I climb: http://www.bicycling.com/training/fitness/uphill-ease

[Terpfan]

I took this way home last night. It’s actually a lot longer of time than I thought between the beg button and traffic from Rt 1 southbound actually catching up (about 2 minutes). In fact, I was literally almost up to the Cityside sign by that Urgent Care by the time Rt 1 southbound traffic had caught up. And you’ll see, I was going really slow as I was pretty tired yesterday. I should add, the pavement on Rt 1 there is also nice and smooth. Sorry for the jittery image–I turn a few times to glance left to see when traffic is coming. The very end of the clip shows the start of the Rt 1 traffic catching up with the cab, etc.

[video]https://youtu.be/ILFiUzAbg9M[/video]

[GovernorSilver]

@Terpfan 117835 wrote:

I took this way home last night. It’s actually a lot longer of time than I thought between the beg button and traffic from Rt 1 southbound actually catching up (about 2 minutes). In fact, I was literally almost up to the Cityside sign by that Urgent Care by the time Rt 1 southbound traffic had caught up. And you’ll see, I was going really slow as I was pretty tired yesterday. I should add, the pavement on Rt 1 there is also nice and smooth. Sorry for the jittery image–I turn a few times to glance left to see when traffic is coming. The very end of the clip shows the start of the Rt 1 traffic catching up with the cab, etc.

[video]https://youtu.be/ILFiUzAbg9M[/video]

Enjoyed the video! I’ll try that route sometime, coming from MVT, for a changeup. Whether I climb through the apartment parking lot to Mt. Eagle Park or go the Huntington Ave. route, I got a hill climb to deal with either way.

[GovernorSilver]

Just discovered another route option, which I don’t recall was mentioned before – this might be better coming home than going to work, plus when you get back to Huntington, you’ll be able to make a right turn to go home instead of having to change to the left lane. Well, unless your home is on the north side of Huntington Ave…

MVT (S. Royal St.) <-> Wilkes <-> Jamieson <-> (your choice of road/sidewalk) <-> Eisenhower overpass

Wilkes is great because it’s not a continuous road for motorists. A car cannot be driven all the way from S. Royal St. to Rt. 1 because there’s a park that interrupts the road, yet has a sidewalk you can use to ride straight through the park. Stroke of genius by whoever wanted to give us a bike friendly way to cross Rt. 1 in Old Town. The one thing to be aware of is that the crosswalk on Rt. 1 will be on your left if you are heading west – that is where the button is too.

Pulling onto Jamieson might be a bit tricky because there can be a stream of cars coming from Eisenhower – they’re all headed to either Duke or Prince by way of Jamieson. From what I recall though it’s not as continuous a stream as Duke is during rush hour – because of the traffic light at Jamieson and Holland you’ll get a break in the car traffic sooner or later to jump onto Jamieson.

[Author]

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