Transit Diary: Family life by bike with the McEntees

Transit Diaries is a series in which residents of Greater Washington track how they get around the region for a week, shedding light on what’s working well and not so well with our transportation system. See all of the Transit Diaries. We’re looking for more people who are interested in writing their own transit diary. If that sounds interesting to you, please email editor@ggwash.org!

We’re the McEntees – a family of three people and 9 bikes for some reason. Brian and I are raising our three-year-old son Jack without a car. By now he’s used to walking, biking, and waiting for long Metro headways – it teaches him patience!

We’re fortunate enough to (and made deliberate choices such that we) live in Truxton Circle, close to where we work and go to school. So despite the fact that we ride our e-cargo bike constantly, most trips are very short, less than three miles.

We picked a week in late August 2022 to diary which was a bit out of the ordinary for us – it involved trips to a short-term summer camp (which is much further away than our usual school drop-off) and trips to a wedding reception in Arlington – so the miles covered this week don’t reflect our usual totals, but do demonstrate the ability to take special trips to formal events without a car.

Here’s a look at how we got around the region on this week.

Days 1-4 Monday-Thursday (written by Brian)

7:50 am-ish: This was the fourth and final week of DPR summer camp at Hardy Recreation in Ward 3. While we wouldn’t normally commute across town, DPR summer camp spaces can be hard to come by and since Hardy was open when we tried to sign up, that’s where we went. After three weeks of following the same bike route (R Street from 1st NW through Dupont, Q Street through Georgetown, and a more-dicey-than-I’d-generally-prefer Reservoir Road NW for the last stretch to cross Foxhall Road NW), in the interest of mixing things up, this week featured the new ‘secret tunnel’ route, which involved winding our way down to Georgetown, riding in the protected bike lane under the Whitehurst, and then following the Capital Crescent Trail to the aforementioned ‘secret tunnel’ under Canal Road. The last stretch was, of course, on the sidewalk there and on Foxhall.

Distance, time: 4.5 miles, 35 minutes

8:30 am-ish: Dropoff done, I rode to work in Dupont via Reservoir Road and Q Street NW, and parked the bike in a garage across the street from my office. I’ll take walking up the ramp and scuttling across the street every day over leaving the bike outside all day, even with an elaborate and fairly secure locking routine.

Distance, Time: 3 miles, 20 minutes

4:45 pm-ish: Summer Camp Pick Up. I didn’t get very creative on these routes (pretty much the same route as the way there but in reverse), but pushed the e-cargo bike a little harder than I do when it’s laden and was rewarded with an arrival time dramatically reduced by…3 minutes. Even without huge savings in time, it was nice to have the e-bike assist on the hill on 28th street in Georgetown from Q to R and again on the final little on Reservoir up to Foxhall. Just a little affirming boost, but it’s the difference between feeling like you’re putting in some effort and feeling completely over-exerted.

Distance, Time: 3 miles, 17 minutes

• Highlights: Prior to Summer Camp, we used to walk to a daycare in Shaw, so this stretch of weeks was the first time that Jack was a real bike commuter. Welcome to the club!
• Hitches: There’s a limited number of options to get to Hardy Recreation Center by bike from the east and all of the choices kinda stink. I spent an inordinate amount of time wishing for a better Reservoir Road, maybe one that switches out one of the lanes of parking for a bidirectional protected bike lane. Please DDOT?

5:15 pm-ish: We leave for home. I ask the child on the back of the bike what he did at camp: “Played.” I suppose it’s good he’s not too talkative because with him behind me, what he says is often drowned out by traffic sounds and there’s only so much turning around one should do when trying to pilot a bike through the city. He does pipe up later in the ride and always at red lights. Sometimes we sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ It is neither of our birthdays. When we get home, we lock up the bike in the back of the house and bring in the battery to charge.

Distance, Time: 4.5 miles, 40 minutes

Day 5 - Friday (written by Nicole)

Today was Jack’s last day of summer camp and also the day of a rehearsal dinner before my sister’s wedding. The commute to camp was the same as usual, and then Brian took the GSD bike to work with him.

The rehearsal dinner was in Arlington, and I lose any sense of direction as soon as I cross the river, so our plan was to meet up somewhere in Georgetown - me on the Brompton and Brian on the GSD, and then travel together from there. Brian orchestrated a route that took us from Foxhall across Key Bridge and to Columbia Pike. However, for toddler-at-summer-camp reasons, Jack needed to be picked up early, so Brian came home first with Jack then we all left together from Truxton. We took the 15th street PBL down to the Mall toward the Washington Monument because we were about to meet a bunch of people who traveled into DC from out of town and this route gave us extra bragging rights. We kept up the tourist shtick by taking the long way: past the Lincoln Memorial, over the Memorial Bridge, up the hill past Iwo Jima, and then along the Arlington Boulevard trail. We got back to Columbia Pike…somehow (like I said, I’m not good at Arlington).

All of the in-laws and visitors to DC at the reception had comments about our having biked there – I thought they were impressed, but Brian knew they thought we were unhinged – and at the end of the dinner we biked back in the dark through the Pentagon parking lot- weird but legal!- thinking we were getting away with something. Also, do you know that there’s a wooden bridge that brings you from the Pentagon parking lots over to the Mount Vernon Trail eventually and that it’s very, very dark at night? I learned that.

• Highlights: It’s corny, but it’s hard to beat biking along the Mall. Especially now that the 15th Street cycletrack has been extended past the Washington Monument to the Jefferson Memorial.
• Hitches: The Arlington Boulevard bike trail looks great on Google Maps but it crosses like 50 slip lanes, all of which leave cyclists and pedestrians feeling very vulnerable to drivers who might or might slow down from highway speeds.

Time/Distance: 8 miles, 50 minutes (each way)

Day 6 - Saturday (written by Nicole)

We had time to kill in the morning before the wedding, so we biked to get donuts up in Takoma and played at the splash park nearby for a bit, then headed home to get dressed for the wedding. The new extension of the Metropolitan Branch Trail to Fort Totten helps, but our donut consumption will definitely increase when the next phase is completed and the trail goes the whole way.

Distance/time: 6 miles, 30 minutes (each way)

We debated whether we could bike to the wedding venue (also in Arlington) without showing up as sweaty messes (remember, this was August). Ultimately we decided we didn’t want to have to change clothes upon arrival, so we decided to take Metro. Originally we were going to catch the 90 bus right outside our door to take us to the NoMa station and take our chances on a quick transfer at MetroCenter.

But there wasn’t a bus coming for another 30 minutes, and that would have made us late, so we grabbed the 80 bus (also practically outside our door) and took it downtown to McPherson (saving us the transfer, at least). From there we caught a quick Silver line train to Rosslyn, and then walked up a hill to the venue. (Guests were disappointed [“relieved” says Brian] when they found out we didn’t bike this time).

The wedding was great: dancing, cake, love, etc. We took Metro back home, but transferred to the red line at Metro Center this time. Luckily, we were so exhausted at this point, and so past Jack’s usual bedtime, that he sat mostly silently for the 16-minute wait for a Red Line train to NoMA. We walked home from there and crossed Dave Thomas Circle on the way.

• Highlights: Living somewhere close to multiple bus routes with different destinations creates some really useful redundancy when one route isn’t running well for some reason.
• Hitches: A 16-minute transfer! We could’ve walked home faster. I mean, maybe not with an exhausted toddler and in wedding shoes, but it wouldn’t have been that much more painful.

Time/distance to Wedding: Bus- 1.6 miles, 25 minutes, Metro 3 stops 15 minutes

Time/distance to home: Metro: 8 stops, 50 minutes

Day 7 - Sunday (written by Nicole)

We had brunch plans with some of the cousins from the wedding this morning, and we were exhausted, so we decided to pick a restaurant close to home and walked there. It’s only a few blocks, but crossing Dave Thomas Circle on foot with a toddler is way more harrowing than any city walk deserves to be.

Time/Distance: .5 miles, 10 minutes

After brunch, we came back home to grab our bikes and biked to DC Public Library’s 50th-anniversary event at the MLK library. Neighborhood branch libraries are great, but the newly renovated MLK branch is such a welcoming place for kids and still only 2 miles away. We had a great time, and as we were leaving, a stranger saw us unlocking the bikes and recognized us not for our bikes, but for the custom bike lock I was using, so that was a new one. After biking home, we were in for the day.

Time/Distance: 2 miles, 15 minutes (each way)

• Hitches: The less I say about being a pedestrian in the general vicinity of Dave Thomas Circle, the better. It’s just so inhospitable. Too many lanes, and too many impatient drivers. Honking at all times of day and night. It’s such a bummer to be so close to the NoMa/Union Market area and to second-guess going there because that one intersection feels so unpleasant.
• Highlights: The number of kid-carrying cargo bikes parked outside of the library. It’s so heartening to see other parents doing the same thing as us and it feels like we’re part of a larger family biking community sometimes.

Final Tally:

Overall: We bike a lot. We bike because we can and because we feel comfortable doing it and we love it, but we also bike sometimes because we have to. There was no alternative to get to summer camp in ward 3 via any other non-car means that would’ve consistently guaranteed our arrival in under an hour and that’s simply not a realistic demand to make on people for traveling less than 5 miles. While biking does ‘unlock’ the city in this way, the conditions of our streets create barriers that many people (rightfully) feel they cannot overcome. Addressing this would go a long way in convincing people that mode switch is both possible and desirable.

We’re immensely lucky to have access to transit (buses and Metro) and we take advantage of it whenever we need to. And kids love it! But access alone isn’t enough:-: consistent and frequent service is needed to make transit the preferred option. But when it works, it works great and we’d encourage everyone to give it a try (especially if it’s been awhile).

Final Tally: 30 total trips, 87% of them by bike.