Biking out to the Ballgame

I went out to the exhibition game last night (the stadium is really nice) and I have some info to report on biking and parking your bike.

Most importantly the bike valet is just off 1st Street SE not N Street SE as the Nationals say it is. This was confusing. Still, you zip right in and there is a fenced off area filled with bike racks to the left (covered and everything). This being a dry run, there was no valet when I got there after the National Anthem. Another cyclist had already cornered a Nationals employee who was on the walkie-talkie trying to figure out where the valet was. After the game there was a valet there and he (pictured below with the receipts) explained that there was a miscommunication but showed me the printed out valet receipts that they'll use. One reason for the exhibition was to work out the kinks for opening night and it appears they have.

There are also oodles of bike racks outside the stadium, some were packed and some were empty so keep looking if you don't find one you like.

I have updated the map somewhat.

WABA worked really hard with the Nationals and Tommy Wells to get the stadium to a bike friendly point and from what I saw they have. Kudos to them all. (Though, do the police have to park in the bike lane?)

Comments

[Eric Gilliland]

I'm so glad to see that it was being used. I'm going to try to go down tonight to see how it works and may some recommendations. First, I think they need exterior signage. Second, a rope line to separate you from garage traffic.

[Steve]

It was nearly full for the opener last night when I pulled in. I noticed a lot of people still had their bikes locked up inside the area, so I did the same, but it didn't seem to be necessary. The signage is a little poor on where exactly it is, so I was glad I looked before I went. And the pileup of people outside the main gate due to the Secret Service security made it really hard to get through since I came down Half Street SW on the other side of the ballpark.

But it was a good experience. The "W" bike racks placed regularly out front of the parking garages along the main entrance are really nice, and were nearly all full.

If anything, it's even easier to get to the park and store your bike at the new park than it was at RFK. Other than nearly ending up on the 395 tunnel because I went the wrong way, I had a great experience biking to the park.

[Steven Seelig]

I was the fella who got after the Nats walkie-talkie guy for not having the valet up and running on Saturday night, and the Nats rep couldn't have been nicer and more apologetic. They did have the tickets printed and ready to go - they just forgot to have someone staffing the area. All the folks working for the Nats seem really eager to please the customer, something most of us in DC rarely find from service employees in this city. I almost felt transformed to another, folksier part of the country where people actually care about providing friendly service.

Funny story: the young guy working as valet (in the above photo) was summoned from the Build a Bear area inside the stadium on Saturday to run the bike valet. He said after 2 hours of working with cranky kids, he couldn't wait to move down to the valet area where he dealt with mostly self-sufficient adults, few of whom whined about getting free parking. He and another valet get to sit and watch bikes for 5 hours and collect their hourly wage - seemed like a good gig. Just don't ask him about Build a Bears.
Kudos to the Nats and Stan Kasten for making this happen. Let's get the word out to the world so we don't lose this valuable perk!

[Eric]

BTW, WABA had to drag the Nats kicking and screaming to the idea of the bike valet. It took a lot of effort on our part as well as on the part of CM Wells and DDOT to make it happen.