The way points of this bicycle route:
Starting from the church on the corner here. There's a lot of residential neighbourhoods around here (including mine), and this is also the Bike to Work Day McLean starting point.
Take a right at the three-way stop sign. This area gets a bit congested during busy hours so you may use the sidewalk on the right if you prefer (it's a bit narrow but paved - fine for skinny tires).
The nice downhill flattens out, but you'll still have a decent shoulder to ride on.
Take a right onto N Albemarle, where that nice downhill cruising will turn into a decent climb.
Halfway up the climb... go further!
Take a right onto N Glebe Rd. Watch out for fast moving traffic - although generally this road isn't as busy as it might seem.
Stay on Rt. 120 (there's a right turn lane to avoid). If you're really traffic averse, the sidewalk is very rideable.
At this point you'll need to get into the left lane. The road is fairly level here so it's easy to signal to traffic behind you. Or you can use the pedestrian crossings if you prefer.
Coming up is the only real trafficky part of the ride - but only because there's no shoulder and only one lane. It's flat though and not too hard to get up to 25mph so just make sure traffic sees you and zoom on through. The road surface is a little bumpy.
Stay in the right lane to make your left turn at the traffic light, and once you do - immediately take a slight right so you're not on Rt. 309 for any longer than you need to be! Lee Hwy is much quieter. If you prefer, you could detour here and on ride on the left-hand sidewalk of 309 until you hit Lorcom Ln.
Get into the left hand turn lane. Not much traffic here, and there's some shops on the right if you want to break.
Another traffic light stop...
There's a good sized shoulder all the way through Lorcom Ln and after this point you're on a bike lane for a while.
A fun curvy descent with speed bumps - but they've cut out good sized channels for cyclists. Yay! Beware of school buses around certain hours.
Make sure you do stop at this particular stop sign...
Back onto Lorcom after that pleasant neighbourhood cruise, and there will be some traffic, but there's a good sized shoulder/bike lane on the road. Just be ready to climb...
Steep climb here.
Slow down enough so that you can make the jump onto the trail.
Make a slight right to hit the trail.
Take a right.
Follow the sign and climb the path to the right.
Stop sign here. Watch for trail users and then make the sharp right. You'll be on the comfy (but slightly narrow in parts) Martha Custis trail now.
Keep on following the trail towards DC.
Easy left to be alongside Rt. 29 for a while. You have right-of-way over trail users coming from the right.
There's a few road crossings here but not much traffic on these side streets. Please use your common sense if you do cross on a red signal.
Boo... stopping as a pedestrian for traffic. Once this crossing light goes green, gun it so you can make the next one too - they're closely sync'd.
Most of the traffic turning onto N Lynn St here from I-66 will be quite impatient even though you're crossing on a green. You can take a little bit of liberty here - tail off to the left and use the smooth curb to turn faster.
Zebra crossing here. Traffic here is usually polite since there are a lot of bridge walkers, runners, etc.
Now just stay on the bike/ped lane on the right. There are a lot of shared users and it's not very wide so be careful.
Some daring cyclists take a right to ride on the Whitehurst Fwy to get a quick route into K St. I don't. Watch for traffic turning in front of you here, although again, they're usually polite here.
Somewhere around here, traffic will probably be stopped at a red light and you can cruise on over to the pavement and off the sidewalk which will be unrideable except in the early mornings. There's a transit lane (buses/taxis) in the right you can stay in, but often the middle and right lanes will open up as well since there's so many red lights. If you don't might skipping through red lights you'll easily beat the traffic along M St. Watch out for cabs...
This bridge is wide but it has some open joints. I usually make sure I do a quick hop to avoid clanging my tires/wheels against the metal.
At this point you have a few options on how you want to get through the circle. I just ride on in as if I'm part of the traffic, as it takes too long as a pedestrian, and shortcutting down to the service lanes of K St via 24/5/6th doesn't help. L St's not a bad option if you don't mind making the left turn.
Ta-da! Enjoy DC.
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Commuting from McLean (Chesterbrook United Methodist Church) to Farragut / K St NW. A mix of mostly on-road riding, with a short trail mixed in and some urban riding at the end. Some short climbs.
Tagged with: Commute, Onroad, Intermediate, Urban
