Tour De DMV (Part 1/2)
A journey on Bikeshare across the Beltway
Two months ago, in a 7/11 somewhere in Northern Virginia, I squeezed rain and sweat out of my socks into a garbage bin, standing next to the heater so I could feel my limbs again. The store owner, fresh from an argument with a combative customer, turned her attention to me and my exposed feet with understandable concern. “Put your shoes on or get out.” I quickly put myself back together and left to face the rainstorm again, not before buying a chocolate chip cookie for her troubles. Just 8 more to go.
I’ve been a Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) superfan since my first years of college – it’s arguably the cheapest and quickest way to get around the Beltway that encompasses D.C. and parts of Maryland and Virginia (the DMV). During my training week at work, I met Bobo, a newer but equally enthusiastic biker. Our first year as working adults in D.C. had its own series of adventures, including a short-lived (but revivable) stint on the standup comedy circuit. But in August 2022, Bobo proposed a new challenge. To date, only one person had ever hit every CaBi dock, back when there were fewer. And now, we would go for the title.
The ~720 CaBi docks are spread across the DMV – everywhere the Metro goes and further. Achieving this goal requires visiting each dock, which means either putting in and/or taking out a bike. The CaBi app, with its surprisingly good user interface, has a dynamic map to show every stop you have visited. With the map and its statistics as our guide, we dove in.
Living in D.C. for four years before meant I had already visited ~120 bike stops, but as I spent weekends writing or out of town, Bobo quickly surged in the lead. Around October, I started to get more serious, carving out a few hours every weekend (ideally with sunshine) to explore parts of the DMV I had never visited, going to some alone and others together. Bobo would use Google Maps to chart the path from each stop to the next, but I usually winged it. I hit the easier stops first to build momentum, and as my count went from the 200s to 3 and 400s, I became more efficient with each ride, learning how to group stops together and end up somewhere near a Metro or bus station to find my way home.
As my radius of visits grew, I found myself biking past opulent mansions and houses with broken windows, lively strip malls and run-down complexes, golf courses and nondescript but highly fenced government buildings. I biked on sidewalks, dirt paths, crosswalks, pot-holed roads, on the D.C.-Maryland border, and occasionally between a school bus and a Chevy Malibu on an interstate highway. I found the edges of D.C.’s letters and numbers, from A Street to W and from First Street to 63rd.
In the suburbs, we got a glimpse into family life and community traditions. We biked past kids’ soccer games, farmers' markets, churchgoers, and memorably a kickass block party. We saw a grandfather and grandson cleaning a car together, kids playing hopscotch, and elderly couples enjoying the afternoon heat. These moments always put a smile on my face, though I did cause others a few bouts of outrage when I barely escaped some sidewalk collisions.
There were also neighborhoods we were told not to go to alone, or at night, or at all. I would feel my body language change – I looked down more, crunched in, and pedaled faster. I might turn my podcast volume down so I could better hear my surroundings. But when I saw those same moments of family and community, I usually snapped out of letting my biases guide me.
Exploring the nooks and crannies of the DMV started out as a challenge and has slowly become a privilege. As of publication, I’m at 88% completion with 629 stops, and Bobo’s not too far behind. The most recent hurdles are bike stops popping up in neighborhoods we already visited (I love public infrastructure, but could you wait a month or two?!), and some version of runner’s knee. If we do achieve our goal, which I pray to god we do, I hope to share more of what I learned – and to throw our own kickass block party. But in the meantime, we ride.
Great (and healthy) way to explore different neighborhoods