Saturday, March 24, 2012
 

FABB ride to Udvar-Hazy Center

Entering the Udvar-Hazy Center
FABB plans to hold some social rides this year. Tom Wyland is our ride coordinator and today he led a "dry" run of the planned Udvar-Hazy Center ride. As you can imagine, the ride was not so dry but it wasn't that wet either despite the forecast.

The group met at the Reston Town Center then we headed out on the W&OD and Fairfax County Parkway trails to Franklin Farm Rd, a busy cut-through route. Even though traffic was light, it wasn't a pleasant ride given the impatient motorists. At Centreville Rd we turned right on the paved side path to Wall Rd. Here we discovered there are no crosswalks across Centreville Rd and the traffic signal only works on the other 3 legs of the intersection, which required us to dash across when traffic cleared.

We then took a left onto Air and Space Museum Parkway, a wide, multi-lane road with almost no traffic. There are also no bike or ped facilities. It's an incredibly expensive, wide road and bridge across Route 28 that probably handles a couple of thousand cars a day; imagine what bike facilities could have been built for the cost of just that stretch of road.

Bike parking a long walk from the entrance
It was a short ride to the Udvar-Hazy entrance where we rode past the booths where parking attendants were collecting $15 from motorists. In front of the center is good bike parking in a not so good location. The U racks are well spaced but are not covered and are a long walk from the entrance. Closer to the building entrance there is an overhang with plenty of space for the racks.

We spent about an hour going through the museum and then we headed back to Reston. On the return trip we decided to check out another route using mostly neighborhood streets. We headed north on Centreville Rd to Kinross Circle to L on Cobra Dr. Near the end is a paved trail in Horsepen Run Stream Valley Park that leads under McLearen Rd using a viaduct, one of the only examples of this type of crossing in the county.

The trail continues along a utility right of way to West Ox Rd where we got onto New Parkland Dr to Farthingdale Dr to Pinecrest Dr across Fairfax Co Parkway and where we crossed our outbound route. We continued on Pinecrest to L on Magna Carta, L on Keele Dr to L on Fox Mill Rd where there's a paved shoulder to R on Bedfordshire Circle. We turned R on Rosedown to L on Glade to L on Sunrise Valley Dr back to the FFX Co Parkway trail and then back toward the Town Center.

We learned a lot about the logistics of doing this type of ride. We hope to hold the first ride this Spring and several others over the Summer and Fall. The rides will be open to WABA members.

Update: Here's a google map of our route to Udvar-Hazy.

Labels: ,

Comments:
Very nice report. A bike network isn't worth much if you can't use it to get places.
 
thanks for the report. i have been wanting to ride to uh but was unsure of the route and bike parking. looking forward to the upcoming ride.
 
The overhang is typically used by passengers waiting for the shuttle bus from Dulles -- which was how I got there the one time I went. I have to wonder whether they've made it intentionally difficult to get to just to pump up their parking revenues.
 
Funny that a group of cyclist would think it a long walk from the bike racks to the entrance after riding across the county to get there.
 
Thanks for this update! Found it via google. I plan to use your info to ride out on this Thursday to attend the Shuttle welcome ceremony. You're a lifesaver in time!
 

Post a Comment

Contact FABB via email: info@fabb-bikes.org

Subscribe to the
FABB e-newsletter


Subscribe to posts:
[Atom 1.0] or [RSS 2.0]





  Bike to Work Day 2015 at Wiehle Station

  Transportation choices

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Archives

  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007