It is a full-sized road bike. And getting it onto and off of the bus was no problem at all. I was sort of nervous about this; but it went off perfectly. But realise that I am a member of the site and that I had already bought the ticket, so I was in the "A" group. It is probably for this reason that, on the way back, the driver signalled for me to put my bike in first before anyone else put their luggage, and he even helped me put the bike in.

Also, because I waited on board as the crowd filed off the return bus, I was one of the last to get off. And when I got off, I found that he had taken the bike out of the cargo hold himself. (I thought later that I should have tipped him. But I didn't think quickly enough at the moment.)



Each transit system has its own rules for bikes, some requiring passes, some not; and then, having different sets of hours during which bikes are prohibited. So you'd have to check with the appropriate authorities for each service you are using. But I think that a folding bike should be good anywhere that you could take a briefcase.

Do you ride a lot in Boston? By reputation, those drivers are even worse than the ones here in New York! And the street grid seems pretty incomprehensible. For those reasons, I am not really tempted to go up to Boston. Also, I am eager to continue expanding on my understanding of the streets of Washington; and I'd like to get back to Philadelphia, too.



I am glad that you were heartened by my comments! It's always nice to be reminded of the things that we have stopped appreciating.

I will be getting back down there in a couple of weeks. I'll be curious to see whether my observations hold, or whether my previous experience was just one big sampling error.

I am sure that I will do a bit more exploring on park trails. I see that Rock Creek Park is very big; I explored it only from Calvert Street going south. And I see on the map that the Rock Creek bike trail extends north from the city limits for another 15 miles! I am sure to spend some time in that park, and also out in Anacostia Park.

When I came south on the trail that originates in Rock Creek Park, I eventually got to West Potomac Park. I suppose that it's possible to go to East Potomac Park as well, is it not? (I was disappointed to learn that it is not possible to go to Theodore Roosevelt Island.)

I see also that there is a tow path along the Potomac River that I didn't get to last time. I am a little wary of that surface. It's not paved, is it? I will admit that I am not eager to ride on gravel.

At any rate, all that park stuff is great. But mainly I am there for the streets. I want to improve my mental map, and try to remember what streets connect to what other ones, and which ones go a long way. Also, I want to experience the feels of the various sections and neighbourhoods. I got lucky in finding a hotel in an extremely interesting area, at the confluence of the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, and Adams Morgan sections. Just noodling around in that area was great fun.

Also, I hope to see some of the boundary stones, both the orignal ones and the replacement ones. Last time I got out to the eastern corner, where Eastern Avenue meets Southern Avenue; but I didn't see the stone. I learnt later that it is a short way into the wooded area east of the point where those streets come together. Maybe I'll give that another go.

Have you ridden in New York? I never want to dissuade anyone from riding here, because it really is a great town for riding. But it is great because of the geography and the infrastructure, not because of the driver behaviour. So, if you come here, you'd have to keep in mind that the drivers behave in a terribly aggressive manner. Still, the proliferation of bike lanes has made a difference, in terms of alerting drivers that we bicyclists exist. As bad as driver behaviour is, it was worse several decades ago. So I am very thankful for our bike lanes.



Oh, yes. Every time. The main reason that I do so is so as not to give free ammunition to the anti-bike crazies, and so as not to push more people into their camp. When witnesses see a bicyclist running a red light, many of them think "those crazy bicyclists; they don't deserve special infrastructure". Crucially, they think this even when the bicyclist in question is not doing anything dangerous. The mere act on the bicyclist's part of blithely breaking the law causes tremendous resentment in people who observe it.

This places bicycle infrastructure at great risk. It's important to appreciate the depth of contempt for us that already exists in society, and to avoid making it worse. Many bicyclists act as though bike lanes somehow have to be there. They don't realise that, if we anger the general public sufficiently, we'll get a backlash that will end the current bike-lane boom.

It is possible to enumerate other reasons to ride legally, from safety questions (I have twice been hit and knocked off my bike by wrong-way riders, one of whom was going through a red light as well), to the comfort of pedestrians as the most vulnerable street users, to ethical considerations regarding the social contract.

But I think that the most compelling motivation to ride legally is self-interest. I feel very protective of our bike infrastructure. The sad reality is that cyclists who blow red lights and do other illegal things in full view of witnesses are, in effect, mounting a public campaign for this infrastructure's removal. I urge all my fellow bicyclists not to be part of that problem.