I had a great weekend visiting our daughter in DC. Instead of driving I decided to be multi-modal. The result was a relaxing, stress free, surprisingly easy, and exercise filled travel experience.
Biked to the train – I biked over to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station and locked my bike up at the very convenient bike racks right out front of the train station. After clipping my helmet to my backpack, I waved to my bike and ducked into the station.
Took Amtrak to DC – I stretched out, had a cup of coffee, read, and stared out the window. It was 
great.
Joined Capitol Bikeshare and rented a bike – DC’s Bikeshare program is easy to use, has convenient bike stations, a great app with maps of the stations and the bikes are clean, well maintained and easy to manage. I was a little hesitant to bike in DC. The traffic there is notoriously bad and I could not find any good biking maps online. I had a coffee date at L and 21st so took the most direct route – Mass Ave to K up to M over to 21st and parked the bike and then walked down to L. The traffic in late morning wasn’t bad and cars were surprisingly 
polite. Plus there were a lot of bikers on the roads.
After coffee it was an easy walk up to retrieve another bike to get to lunch at F and 7th where I left the bike at the Portrait Gallery station.
Took METRO over to Crystal City and then the new Alexandria expressway bus to our daughter’s house. If I had been thinking a little broader I would have gotten another bike and ridden over to meet her – it never occurred to me to look and see if DelRay had a Bikeshare station. Next time.
The return trip: expressway bus to METRO to Union Station, train, bike and home was just as easy.
I have ridden Bikeshare systems in several cities now and love it as a way to see the city while getting some fresh air and exercise. DC and Toronto have very similar bikes, Philly has better baskets and Pittsburgh offers god baskets and more gears but they all offer a fun, flexible, and sustainable way to get around. Next time you travel, download a city bike app, take your helmet and a backpack, and choose an alternate means of travel – the bicycle.
Bikeshare tips:
- Take your helmet and spare lights with you.
- Take a bungee cord to strap stuff to the bike
- Download the bike map app before you go and make a plan of attack
- Before unlocking your bike check the tires, condition of the seat, look at the chain, test the brakes and the bell.
- After unlocking the bike, familiarize yourself with the bike before you go – check the brakes, how to switch gears, where the lights are, adjust the seat height, and where the bell is and how to operate it.
Note: if you use the Indego bikeshare in Philly you can actually carry a lot of stuff. The basket configuration allows you to bungee cord your luggage to the back wheel baskets. I have see people move from apartment to apartment on the bikeshare bikes by creatively piling and bungeeing.
