City and State (or Province): Fairfax, VA to Springfield, VA

Country: USA

Best and worst seasons for riding: Best season is the fall. Wonderful weather, and after a summer in the area, all of the drivers have been “trained” to look out for bikes. When the weather drops below 60, most of the RUBs in the area garage their bikes, meaning that most other riders you’ll encounter are the “year-round crowd”, and there’s a nice camaraderie. The worst season is late winter / early spring. By this time of year, the potholes are generally severe and frequent, so night riding becomes a real challenge. If no precipitation, the roads are pretty gunked-up with salt and sand and pieces of cars that dropped off when they bounced over the potholes. The drivers have forgotten that 2-wheeled vehicles even exist, and are pretty clueless.

Best and worst time of day: The best time of day is any time aside from Rush Hour. “Rush Hour” is actually somewhat of a misnomer – it spans 6:30 - 11:00AM, and 3:00 – 7:45 PM. Because the roads are relics of the 1960’s, there is nowhere near the capacity for current traffic loads – as a result, my 10-mile commute can take me up to 1:45… all it takes is one accident, breakdown, or cop ticketing somebody. Thankfully, my job is pretty cool about letting me work from home in the morning, riding to the office at mid-day, and working until 7:30 or so.

Best and worst time of year: If you can put up with the above, and have made it this far, the only other bad time is in winter… and this is kind of specific to the road I use on my AM commute (Braddock Road East – and it’s dark at night when I head home). In the winter, many portions of Braddock head either directly into the sun, or very close to it. On sections of the route, there are trees on either side of the road. Because the sun is so low in winter, and there are no leaves left on those trees, the sun shines through the woods and into your face as you ride, causing an extremely dangerous “strobe” effect that requires a LOT of concentration. I’ve added a “Super Visor” to my winter HJC that ameliorates this effect somewhat, but it’s still dangerous. Toss in a fogged or dirty windshield, and you have all the ingredients for Tragedy.

Best and worst roads to take to work: Alas, there is only one route that makes any sense. It’s Braddock Road or bust. The shortest alternate route is 9 miles longer than the main route, and fraught with the same traffic problems – the problems are really with the roads and their routing, and there’s just no getting around that.

General impressions on your fellow motorists: The motorists are generally about 90% clueless, with the standard mixture of cell phones, soccer moms, SUV’s, Ubiquitous Gray Pickups Full of Illegal Aliens Masquerading as Landscape Workers, dump trucks, cement mixers, White Tradesmen’s Vans Unable to Achieve the Speed Limit Under Any Circumstances, etc. You’d best be fully caffeinated before commencing your ride. (As bad as that sounds, the weekends are always worse, when the “weekend drivers” come out to play!)

Also… it seems to be an unwritten rule here in Northern VA, that when a light turns green, it means “remove your foot from the brake pedal”. Note that no mention of an accelerator is made… it is not uncommon for a driver to take over 2 MINUTES to accelerate from a stop to the speed limit of 45 MPH. I’ve also experienced people taking over 3 MILES of roadway to finally reach the posted speed limit. Don’t expect to get anywhere fast.

In addition, once these folks have reached the speed limit, THAT’S IT. As soon as they start down a hill, and gain a single MPH, they’ll be stomping on their brakes right in front of you. This happens anywhere on the road – when approaching lights that are already green, when on open road with no cars ahead, whenever. There appears to be no valid reason for this silliness, unless the local constabulatory has gotten them so beaten down that they’re terrified of exceeding the posted limit, even by a MPH…but I just don’t buy that (see below). In any event, beware.

How cool or grumpy are the local cops: In my experience, the cops are pretty cool – this applies to Fairfax, Arlington County, and State Troopers. They are strict – make no mistake – but they seem to be pretty cool. I was pulled over once by a County officer, who told me that my rear running light was out on the bike. It was dark at the time. He did NOT issue me a ticket, and when I told him I was going straight home (I had planned to go visit my brother in Germantown, about 50 miles away, but not with a bum running light at night, nossir!), the officer asked how far away “home” was. Upon learning I lived about 4 miles off, he offered to ride tail gunner for me, just in case. I accepted his offer; he saw me home safely. Big Kudos.

On another occasion, I rounded a corner on a back road, a little bit hot (45 in a 40), and came face to face with a State Trooper with his radar gun aimed right at me. Figuring he had me dead to rights, I got off the gas and started slowing to stop, so he wouldn’t need to chase me. Instead, he caught sight of my helmet ears, broke into a big grin, and waved me past.

My only recent negative experience was in the summer of 03, when I was stuck in stand-still traffic on Braddock, on a morning that was about 97 and super-humid. While sitting at a stop for over 10 minutes, I took off my helmet to mop off my head and face. A cop came over and started threatening me with a reckless driving charge, for not having a helmet on. Some politeness and respect on my part avoided a citation, and under those circumstances, I really couldn’t blame him for being grumpy.

Your name: Teejay Riedl

Your bike: 2002 Suzuki Marauder

Years/miles riding: 3 / 17K or so