[SkateDC] Friday Night Skate Route Proposals

Wed Mar 3 08:19:20 PST 2010

Jon,

East of Tidal Basin (1st option)
Has the stretch from the Paddle Boat Rental place to Ohio Drive where you have a choice of skating on Maine Ave. or the sidewalk that is not in great shape.  However, we have the same problem with the current route and most of the time skating in the street there seems to work out satisfactorily.

Mandarin Oriental (2nd option)
Have to agree with you about the stairs.  The flight of stairs on the Washington Channel side of the Maine Ave. overpass are pretty good in the sense that there's a handrail, but I don't remember much about the flight of stairs on the Hotel property.  Last time I went through there they were under reconstruction so not sure what they look like now (and I think the Google Map image may be out of date).

Case Bridge (4th option)
Point taken on the pavement at Banneker Park, the step up and down are a little bit tricky.  And for beginner skaters the descent from Case Bridge might be a little challenging.

West of Tidal Basin (3rd option)
Some ideas to avoid the bad section of sidewalk (NPS rough pebbled surface) you're talking about between Jefferson Memorial and Ohio Drive on Hain's Point.

1.  There's that little path that connects the Jefferson Memorial to the bridge over the Tidal Basin.  It has it's own problems:  dark, narrow, some tree root bumps, big planter in the center of the path, mosquito alley in the warmer weather.  From the Tidal Basin bridge one can connect up with Ohio Drive on Hain's Point.

2.  Omit Hain's Point entirely.  Go to and from the Jefferson Memorial on the nice Ohio Dr. pavement.  Yes, it involves skating twice on the same segment, but it is very nice pavement.

3.  Go to and from the Jefferson Memorial on Ohio Dr. as in 2 but access Hain's Point via Ohio Dr along the Potomac, left on Buckeye Dr. and do the entire Hain's Point loop on Ohio Dr.  Yes, this involves skating twice on an even longer segment, but again the pavement on Ohio Dr. is very nice.

4.  Same as 3 but omit the Jefferson Memorial entirely.

West of the Tidal Basin (option 3) may have the best overall pavement of any of the options but it comes at the cost of skating back and forth on Ohio Drive the most.

Maybe we can get a transportation engineer to do a trade off analysis?  Maybe there's a class project in there somewhere? 

Cheers,
George

--- On Wed, 3/3/10, Jonathan P. Deason <jdeason at gwu.edu> wrote:

From: Jonathan P. Deason <jdeason at gwu.edu>
Subject: RE: [SkateDC] Friday Night Skate Route Proposals
To: "'George Marinkovich'" <skatewash at yahoo.com>
Cc: "'WAR Skate List'" <skatedc at skatedc.org>
Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 10:04 AM

George, 

I vote for the first option.  The stairs in the second option don’t sound
good, and Bill’s suggested modification of going to the Banneker Fountain
and over the Francis Case Bridge into East Potomac Park would invovle some
quite difficult pavement on L’Enfant Plaza and a tough downhill going down
the bridge walkway, especially for those without brakes.

The third option is attractive except that the sidewalk pavement after
leaving the Jefferson Memorial is bumpy and hard to skate on.  We can’t use
the road at that point because we will be skating against traffic along Ohio
Drive SW.  The bumpy sidewalk there, however, is relatively short and easier
to navigate for beginning skaters than L’Enfant Plaza in my opinion.

Jon

************************************************************************
Jonathan P. Deason, Ph.D., P.E.
Lead Professor, Environmental and Energy Management Program
Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
School of Engineering and Applied Science
The George Washington University
Room 131, 1776 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.  20052
202-994-4827 (Voice)
202-994-4606 (Fax)
jdeason at gwu.edu
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~jdeason/
http://www.gwu.edu/~eem/
http://www.gwu.edu/~eemnews/
************************************************************************

-----Original Message-----
From: skatedc-bounces at ligemail.lig.net
[mailto:skatedc-bounces at ligemail.lig.net] On Behalf Of Bill English
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 11:28 PM
To: George Marinkovich; WAR Skate List
Subject: Re: [SkateDC] Friday Night Skate Route Proposals

I kind of like the second option, but how about using 9th street rather than
12th and then going to the Banneker Fountain and over the Francis Case
Bridge into East Potomac Park? A little hillier, but very skater-friendly
and interesting. We could also skip the Ellipse if we need to shorten any of
the the routes by one mile.

Bill

----- Original Message ----
From: George Marinkovich <skatewash at yahoo.com>
To: WAR Skate List <skatedc at skatedc.org>
Sent: Tue, March 2, 2010 10:53:10 PM
Subject: [SkateDC] Friday Night Skate Route Proposals

All,

There was discussion at the annual meeting about the Friday Night Skate
route, specifically the segment on Raoul Wallenberg Place (15th St. between
Independence Ave. and Maine Ave.).  Raoul Wallenberg Place is a downhill
with a traffic light at the bottom of the hill (intersection with Maine
Ave.) and not very nice pavement (wavy and rough).  It was pointed out that
this is not ideal for a skate which is intended to be a beginning skater's
first skate with WAR.

Three alternative route proposals were discussed (to the best of my
recollection) all intended to eliminate Raoul Wallenberg Place from the
route, but keep the rest of the Friday Night Skate route more or less
intact.

It's probably easier to look at the maps then to read the tortured
descriptions.  If you have an opinion about which of the alternative routes
you prefer or a new alternative route to propose let us know.

The first alternative route proposal involves skating past the Washington
Monument on the mall heading in the direction of the WW II Memorial but
turning south toward the Tidal Basin.  This would involve crossing westbound
Independence Ave., westbound Maine Ave., and then eastbound Independence
Ave.  Then we would make use of the Tidal Basin parking lot to make our way
past the Tidal Basin Paddle Boat Rental and onto Ohio Dr heading toward the
Jefferson Memorial (as in the current route).

Pros:
Can easily add circling the Washington Monument to this route.
The three streets mentioned above are easy to cross as they are one-way
where we cross them.

Cons:
Stuck on the Park Service pebble sidewalks along Maine Ave. while heading
toward Hain's Point (much like the current route).

URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3512260

The second alternative route proposal involves turning left on 12th St. from
Jefferson Drive.  Taking 12th St. to a left on Maryland Ave.  Proceeding
toward the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and using the pedestrian bridge crossing
over Maine Ave.

Pros:  
The plaza in front of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Maryland Ave. is pretty
nice (it could replace the Washington Monument stop).
Avoids crossing Maine Ave. at street level and we come out on the desired
side of Ohio Drive so we don't have to cross that road either.

Cons:
Requires going down a couple flights of stairs (maybe not the best thing for
beginning skaters).
No longer visits the Washington Monument.

URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3512279 

The third alternative route proposal involves going past the Washington
Monument on the mall and going past the WW II Memorial as well.  Then
heading south toward the Tidal Basin by crossing westbound Independence Ave.
and eastbound Independence Ave.  Staying to the west (upriver) side of the
Tidal Basin on West Basin Dr. and going past the FDR Memorial and connecting
to Ohio Drive.  Left on Ohio Dr. to the Jefferson Memorial from there around
Hain's Point taking Ohio Drive on to the Lincoln Memorial.

Pros:
Can easily add circling the Washington Monument to this route.
Can add a stop at the WW II Memorial.
Streets mentioned above are easy to cross as they are one-way where we cross
them.
Visits the Jefferson Memorial.

Cons:
This is a 12.2 mile route if you do all of Hain's Point, 9.6 miles if you
take the Buckeye shortcut, and only 8.4 miles if you omit Hain's Point
entirely.
Does a stretch of Ohio drive twice.

URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3512313 

Cheers,
George

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