Quote Originally Posted by blue_angel View Post
I'm in suburban MD right now, visiting the family, and this morning I took my bike out for a ride to MacArthur Blvd. My mom suggested the route, as there's a wide multi-use path that runs next to the road. Of course I asked her "do real roadie cyclists ride on the path, or on the road?" She said they do both.

I did some googling and found this completely disturbing comment war about cycling on MacArthur Blvd. Frankly, I can't believe these people are raising children, and I seriously hope I never meet any of them. But that's beside the point.

Anyway, because it was a Wednesday morning, there was nobody else on the path (e.g. no walkers, strollers, dogs, etc), so that's where I rode. It was perfectly pleasant, and far more comfortable than riding on the extremely narrow (often non-existent) shoulder of a windy street. It wasn't as long of a route as I would have liked, but I suppose I could have doubled back and done the part heading into DC as well.

The whole while I wondered to myself whether or not cyclists were actually supposed to be on that path or not? I passed a few others, so clearly they do use it. But there are signs all over the street about sharing the road, which makes me think that bikes can/should/do ride with traffic. It was kind of confusing. Tomorrow I'm going to head over to Rock Creek Park and ride the paved trail in there. Hopefully I'll be able to log a bit more distance that way. The way traffic is around here, I'm just as happy to avoid interacting with cars as much as possible. Ann Arbor really spoiled me in this regard.

I'm headed to Rehoboth beach for a week (with my bike) for vacation. If anybody knows of nice places to cycle around there, please let me know!
The D.C. area is littered with many Type A personalities who think the world belongs to them and all most bow down before their awesomeness. Unfortunately, they often like to drive their BMWs and Lexi (?) down MacArthur Blvd., where they invariably interact with Type A's on Cervelos and BMCs and whatnots. Lots of chest beating must occur. It's a law of nature.

Much of what you read in that forum is absolute garbage and 99% of those posting would back down if they were forced to actually speak in a less anonymous forum or if they actually bothered to check their facts. (Really? A cyclist endangers a motorist by virtue of being on the road?? Really?? I may be big, but I'm not that big, and your car isn't that flimsy.)

Cyclists in Maryland are NOT required to ride in a bike path or lane, even if one is present. I believe the requirement to ride "as far to the right as practicable" has been repealed as well - good since that never made any sense. Who decides what is "practicable" for a cyclist? Well, likely the rider, but if she's dead from a rear end collision, who's going to argue her point?