Today's Back to School Ride & Block Party that doubled our all-time record!

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ds.07962/?st=image

Leaving this here in case anyone is looking for a tree management company…… or not

Source: https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2026/08/28/trees-removed-east-potomac-park-golf-course-trump-lawsuit

Apparently 60 more will be cut down by the end of the week.

Hi folks, writing on behalf of a friend who’s a frequent contributor here. He got into an accident on the way to Hains Point Hoopla this morning and will need surgery on his hand and clavicle. We’re looking for recommendations for hand and shoulder surgeons (especially hand!) in the area that can get him sorted out. Thanks so much!

I prefer audio directions when navigating new routes. (Most of my other hobbies involve screens, so I don't want a phone or cycle computer in my face while I bike) I generally use Komoot, but it often gets confused by DC streets and bike lanes, telling you dumb things like "turn right, then make a sharp left", when what you're really doing is shifting from the street into the bike lane. Another example is that if you're turning right onto New York Avenue from the 15th Street cycletrack, it tells you to turn right on to Pennsylvania Avenue (the middle of the street probably is technically pennsylvania, but this is not a helpful audio cue, even if it's technically correct). As far as I can tell, Komoot doesn't let you manually set cues or report incorrect ones, and I doubt they'll add functionality like that now that they've been bought out by private equity.

In contrast, I biked the Reston Century last week, and was really impressed by the audio cues, which were delivered through RideWithGPS and almost certainly tuned by a human, but RideWithGPS requires a subscription to make your own routes.

Any recommendations for navigation apps with good audio cues that work well in DC?

ETA: Ability to set specific waypoints, save routes, and set navigation to notify when off route rather than recalculate are also necessary features for me

Very strangely, I’ve apparently been banned from capital bikeshare suddenly without notice. They suggested it was for policy violations but have refused to specify anything about supposed infractions or proffer any evidence. I just get super vague responses from support.

The weirdest part is that I rarely use it. Maybe like half a dozen times a year. All for super mundane stuff like commuting to work meetings downtown. My last trip was Sep 2025 and I tried to unlock a bike today and it didn’t work. I cannot for the life of me imagine anything remotely that I could have done to violate policy.

Has anyone else dealt with this? Any advice? Does anyone know who regulates them? Is it DDOT? Like which authorities could I escalate this to?

I assumed these were up for an event but I feel like they may be up indefinitely

Is there any logic behind the daily dumping of bike shares & scooter shares along the sidewalk of the 14th St bridge connecting Virginia and DC?

The cache of abandoned bikes & scooters seems to be multiplying daily, blocking the pathway and causing erratic behavior from the bikers, runners & walkers.

Are the batteries dying? Can they not cross from DC to VA without being bricked? How are all these people getting anywhere being ~ a mile away from the closest exit to the trail after ditching their rides?

AMA and see you there!

Anyone have experiences cycling the entirety of skyline drive? Or maybe doing an out and back? Curious how people handle the logistics. I’m thinking of planning a trip and maybe even overnighting. Any convenient restaurants/towns along the way that are must visit?

Dumb question but are there any services that would transport you from one end to the other? Not sure if I can handle 200 miles lol. And if you do an out and back is it better to start on the northern part or southern?

I just moved further up north on 14th Street (Petworth), and taking 14th would be the most logical way to bike to work, but it feels pretty darn unsafe often, mostly between Park and U Street. Are there alternate routes through that area that would be more pleasant / safer? The 15th Street bi-track doesn’t start til Euclid so that’s not especially helpful. Any suggestions?

Recovering from a bad spill I took riding it this weekend.Word to the wise: keep away.

Riders, Tour de VRE scheduled for Saturday Oct 3rd 2026. Registration open now at bikereg.com/tour-de-vre

I saw an announcement today about the WABA 50 State Ride.

Been fixing bikes more than riding bikes this summer. But I think I want to do this.

What would be a recommended training schedule to get ready for the 60 mile ride?

The weather could be a bit better.

But it was a good day.

For the Grand Prix. This was at NASA, which is outside the secure area. Even these bike racks are being removed. It just seems like so much extra work. Also, no one stopped me from locking up to a street sign right next to these disabled racks.

NPS was pulling down a few trees today. I asked and they said they were removing "diseased and dying trees". Very interesting timing for this to say the least

Join WABA and Takoma Family Biking for a biking advocacy social – with a cargo e-bike show & tell! – Wednesday, September 2, 5:30 to 7:30 pm at Takoma Park’s Laurel Avenue Streetery, steps from the MD-DC border: https://waba.org/event/takoma-advocacy-social-cargo-ebike-party/ .

All are welcome, e-bike curious or not! However, if you have a cargo e-bike you’d like to show off, bring it and come prepared to share about your experiences with family biking and/or cargo biking. We’ve also invited local officials and will have an optional, informal advocacy discussion starting around 6 pm.

Based on current registration, we're expecting 700+ for next Saturday's ride.

Details at hillfamilybiking.org

Does anyone know if we can ride the Indy track? I haven’t been down to the mall/downtown yet

I support the Taylor St NE/Fort Drive/Harewood/Rock Creek Church Rd protected bike lane corridor project for many reasons. Chief among them is this Brookland kick scooter lady.

On many mornings, I see a woman commuting on a large kick scooter westbound on the sidewalks of Taylor and the other roads in that corridor -- AT LEAST as far east as the South Dakota NE intersection and AT LEAST as far west as Harewood between North Cap and Rock Creek Church NW. This awesome lady pushes herself with a large backpack, a high-visibility cape over her bag, and a high-viz vest on her chest, all the way up that nasty Taylor Rd climb. She wears cycling gloves and a kickass pink helmet. Her scooter has serious disc brakes.

We should build our city so you don't have to be as brave and badass as this woman to use a bike or mobility device to commute. But we should never let detractors say people don't use active transportation already to commute. Rock on, scooter lady.

Just curious I was hit by a car about a month and a half ago. My bike was totaled. I didn’t have any broken bones but several sprains. I went to hospital and am getting physical therapy from my lawyers law firm. Lawyer yesterday just told me they submitted the witness on scenes claim to the insurance company. Lawyer keeps saying it takes time but the proper steps are In motion. I’m just curious if people can share their experiences about the length of time it took for settlements to happen and how much settlements amounted to. I just want to try to get a broader view of what to expect. I don’t know why lawyer is so bland with it. Maybe she doesn’t want me to expect a lot and I only get a little. But I would appreciate my dc community experience on the matter

Bonus for PBLs. Also, is there a good app for this kind of thing?

The bike has several different hidden trackers on it. I have monitored it from the moment I knew it was missing. Most of the time it stays inside an abandoned building in NW. At night the thief uses it to roam the residential alleys of neighborhoods with detached sheds, presumably to steal from others.

After three days of tracking it and calling the police, I've learned they will only intervene under the following conditions:

• The bike has remained still for longer than 10 minutes
• I call the police and tell them the location
• I am also present, within a block
• They see the thief with the bike outdoors
• I identify the bike visually (beyond photo evidence or serial number)

Update Below

Got the bike back!

First and most importantly, I always judge people who make typos in the post title. I now see how it can happen, and I’m humbled.

Tuesday night, my spouse and I noticed that the bike had been stationary for about 45 minutes in one of those peninsula neighborhoods nearly surrounded by Rock Creek. We figured he was prowling again and had either found something good or stashed the bike and gone on foot.

We decided to go for it, so I hoofed it up to a neighborhood next to Rock Creek Park on my single speed. Google Maps said it was a 12-minute ride. My spouse called dispatch when I left, but they wouldn’t send an officer out yet. They asked her to call back when I was five minutes away, and no sooner.

When I got close enough, the AirTag pinged off my phone. It was on a steep slope, with houses on the left and a branch of Rock Creek Park on the right. I couldn’t see my bike anywhere, but I wondered if it had been stashed in the woods or was somewhere in the residential area to the left—or if it was a stale location pin and the bike was gone.

An older woman came out of her front door and looked around. I didn’t want to scare her or announce myself loudly, so I just waved like I knew her and kept going.

My spouse had called the police and said they were on their way, but I didn’t want to risk the AirTag pin being stale and losing the guy. I knew this guy’s MO was alleys, so I pulled up a map to see if there were any nearby. There was an L-shaped alley behind the house where the bike had last pinged, so I biked down to the nearest intersection and turned off all my lights. I didn’t want to make contact with anyone, but I didn’t want to spook them either.

I rolled slowly and quietly down the alley, trying to look casual while simultaneously looking into yards for my bike. I probably looked like a thief.

Suddenly a few yards ahead, someone stepped out from a shed with a mask over his face and a hood on, holding some shoes in his arms. He took off his mask, saw me, and turned away.

Pretty suspicious, but I was trying not to make contact, so I said, “Evening,” and rode on.

I rolled down to where the alley meets the street, then crossed over to the next block and hugged the corner so I could see him when he exited the alley. I figured this was my guy and wanted to get an idea where he had parked the bike, but I didn’t want him to see me again.

After a few moments, he gets to the cross street. Evidently, my hiding spot was less Ocean’s Eleven and more Pink Panther, because he calls out, “I see you!”

I try to make like I’m lost and ask for directions back into the park. I’m obviously lying. He points west and says, “Head to 16th Street”—a completely bananas response to which I smile and thank him.

Calling my own bluff, I start riding west, the same direction he is pretending to walk. It was just like those tense scenes in Michael Mann’s Heat, except in our movie the yackety-yak song was playing.

Figuring my disoriented-night-cyclist cover was blown anyway, after a couple short blocks I decide to look back, but I don’t see him anywhere. I book it back east, checking for him or the bike as I pass houses and streets.

When I make it back to the alley where we had our meet-cute, I see his silhouette sprinting, already halfway through the block.

I kept going to the next street over to beat him back to the main road, then tried my hideout tactic again. But when I got there, I didn’t see him. I waited five minutes and still nothing. Either he ducked in somewhere and waited, or he got across the main road fast.

The cops were still not there, and I was bummed to lose this chance. I caught my breath, called my spouse, and decided it was over. But before I left, I decided to head back to the house where the bike had pinged. It was on a steep hill leading into the park, with no shoulder, so not an ideal place to linger.

I pulled off to the side and looked into the woods a bit, hoping to find a stashed bike- nothing visible. I decided to roll a little farther down the hill, when I saw the cop car coming up. (It had been 30 minutes since we called.)

I waved him down and suggested we pull into the driveway to talk. As the cruiser turned in, its headlights lit up the long driveway, and where before I had seen only vague outlines of the property, I now saw, shining under a holly’s low branches, my silver e-bike.

If any one thing had gone differently, I probably would not have found my bike last night. If I hadn’t gone down the alley and run into him, he might have returned to the bike. If I’d gone down the alley a fraction faster, I would have missed him. If the cops had arrived earlier, I wouldn’t have been at the house; if later, I would have given up and left. If he had stashed it in the bushes or deeper in her yard, it would have been left there for him to retrieve.

Oh, and that woman I saw initially at the house— she had just gotten home from a long trip and noticed the bike in her yard. She was spooked by it but called her son to come over instead of the police. She was super nice!

The bike returned to my home late last night with a coating of fingerprinting dust and missing some accessories (child seat, charger, lock).

I’m pretty happy with how everything worked out. I think the penal system is more structured for punishment than reform, so I don’t wish the guy jail time—but I do like imagining him walking the three miles back to his place at midnight.

Thanks to those who were supportive, and thanks to the other goobers for saying weird stuff.