For the first time in ages I bike-commuted

Longago, when working in Washington, D.C. at one of my first journalism jobs, I was a bicycle commuter.

It was a spectacular commute. I lived in Arlington, Va., not far from the Arlington National Cemetery. Every morning Iwould zoom through the cemeteries’ grand entrance, whip by the Marine Corps War Memorial (commonly known as the Iowa Jima memorial), and zoom mostly downhill into the nation’s capital.

It was a thrill to ride by national monuments, such the grand U.S. Capitol dome.

On the...