TheWashCycle

Friday Afternoon Commute - Vacation

I'm going on vacation all week, and there will be no blogging (I know, I blogged on my honeymoon, but this time I mean it). Instead you will get a chance to enjoy Oscar nominated and winning shorts. Why? Because for once, people should enjoy the blog.

• Bike to Work Day had a 15% increase in registration region wide over last year--more than 14,600 cyclists total!
• WAMU story on DC cycle-tracks "Funding is not as much as an issue as dealing with some of the trade-offs on any given street, especially in downtown where we've done a lot of the easy bike lanes where there was unused space," he said. "When we talk about protection - separation and buffers from cars - and more permanent improvements, it's more a question of planning and consensus building than resources."
• Fairfax County has applied for money to do a Bikeshare Feasibility Study.
• "The last segment of the Great Allegheny Passage opened this morning"
• "An Oregon funeral home in Eugene offers natural burials where the ride to the person's final resting place is on the back of a three-wheeled bicycle."

Muriel Bowser at BTWD

Tommy Wells at BTWD

Mayor Gray at BTWD

Lots o' bikes

Lots o bikes at Freedom Plaza #btwd13 by Joe in DC

Friday Morning Commute - Bagel me

Happy Bike to Work Day. Over 14,000 cyclists are registered, 2000 more than last year. 

• Yesterday I reported that a cyclist was hit and killed at 11th and U, NW, but as of last night, only one outlet was reporting that, so let's all hope that WJLA is wrong (I'm sure they'd be happy to retract). 
• City Paper has an article on a bike theft vigilante encouter gone wrong. This follows the two-part series that the Hill Rag had earlier this year. [I don't think I ever highlighted the second one - it's here] The two articles do not make the police look good. 
  • The FBI reported that 4.4 percent of all larceny-thefts in the northeast U.S. were bicycle thefts, much higher than pick-pocketing. 
  • "I gave a full report to a disgruntled police officer when he showed up an hour later. He chided me for not using a U-Lock"
  • "After a futile phone call to the police to hatch a plan..."
  • " I called the police immediately, but they were only concerned that I wasn’t chasing my bike thief."
  • "The police never showed up."
  • "I contacted the police. They said they were going to try to send someone to the shop to put a hold on the bike, but they had to talk to their lawyers,” remembered Schafer. “But that took more than a month.”
  • It turned out that the shop’s owner had bought the bike for $100 at Brumwell’s Flea Market in Pasadena, Maryland, not far from Severna Park. Brumwell’s is a massive market covered by few regulations; vendors set up on a first come, first served basis, no paperwork required. In this case the bicycle sellers apparently showed up for two consecutive weekends with a big rented truck packed with cycles. “There were hundreds of bikes under a huge tent, ten guys [working], selling for cash,” Schafer said the store owner told him. Then they disappeared.
• More on the M Street Meeting from Wednesday from borderstan and DCBAC.
  • On Wednesday morning, Metropolitan AME Church issued a “call to action” on its Facebook page. It read, in part: “The city is proposing to install bike lanes on M Street from 14th Street to 28th Street. This action will affect parking for church services, especially funerals and Sunday angle parking. We (as a church body) need to submit testimony during the public response period.”
  • It appeared that most people believed that the bike lanes would pass directly in front of the church, creating a danger for the elderly, according to some speakers

Thursday Afternoon Commute - You'll be hated for 6 months, then they'll love you

Good afternoon

• The New Belgium Tour de Fat comes to DC on June 1
• Cyclists helping each other on the W&OD Trail
• MWCOG considering a Green Streets Policy which has as a goal making biking easier. 
• "Sharing is for commies, and so is cycling." CaBi should sell a T-shirt that says that. I'd buy one. 
• Urban Delivery seeks to revive messenger culture. Needs more Bacon (Kevin). 
• More on NYC, Citibike kiosks and controversy."Jane Browne, 42, who initially supported the program, said she had recently seen mice scurrying in the “corridors of trash and water” that formed between a nearby bike station and the curb." And to tie it in to DC: “Washington had at least one fistfight at a community meeting,” he said. “We haven’t had that.” (An official with Washington’s Transportation Department said she did not recall any contentious community meetings or significant opposition to the program.)" I think they're referring to this - which seems so bizarre now - and is so eloquently reduced to “Why is everybody so mad about this? Why is everybody so crazy?”
• The Boston Cyclist Safety Report. That's no typo, cyclist were cited for speeding more than twice as often as drivers. And on the helmet issues, between 44-53% of cyclists in EMS response crashes wore a helmet. "It is unknown how the relatively low rates of helmet use among cyclists involved in Boston EMS incidents relates to the overall rate of helmet use in Boston. Convenience sampling of Boston cyclists observed at selected sites throughout the city by Boston Bikes and other researchers has yielded average helmet use rates ranging from 48-72%, although observed rates were significantly lower in some neighborhoods." Earlier in the study they cite the 72% rate as coming from a peak-hour study. This means primarily bike commuters. I suspect commuters are more likely to wear helmets, but I could be wrong.

M Street: Directional Signage

They have a lot of proposed directional signage - to the Key Bridge, CCT, Adams Morgan, Georgetown, George Washington University, Dupont Circle, etc... but this is just an example. 

M Street: Handicapped Parking

M Street: Church Parking 4