TheWashCycle

Homeless cyclist focus of film at Rehoboth festival

Story here

Nicknamed "the Bicycle Man" by resort merchants and employees, Mr. Harmon became the focus of a student-produced documentary that will be shown at a Rehoboth Beach film festival in Delaware later this year.

Water Street Rendering

Since Bikes will not be allowed on the Waterfront in the Yards area, they'll be redirected to Water Street SE. I love how this new rendering shows the traffic moving as a blur.

DDOT to Host Public Meeting on Reconstruction of 11th Street, NW

DDOT press release

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will host a public meeting on Thursday, November 6, 2008, to update the public on a planned roadway construction project on 11th Street, NW, between L and O Streets.

The planned improvements include roadway reconstruction, sidewalks, street lighting, intersection and signal improvements, as well as enhancements to traffic operations, pedestrian amenities, and safety improvements.  The work is scheduled to begin in November.

This street is supposed to have bike lanes according to the bike plan, though it isn't mentioned here.

At Thursday’s meeting, DDOT engineers will brief residents and businesses on the timetable for construction, the traffic management plan, and DDOT’s plans for coordinating with the utility companies and property managers in the area.

Meeting Information:

What:   Public Meeting on 11th Street, NW Project
When:  Thursday, November 6, 2008, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Where: Asbury United Methodist Church

926 11th Street, NW

The school is located at intersection of 11th and K Streets, NW.  It is 3 blocks from the Metro Center station on the Red, Orange and Blue lines.  It is also accessible by Metrobus and the Circulator bus.

For more information about the project please contact the construction manager, Osman Mohamed, or DDOT’s project engineer, Michael Conley, at (202) 671-4550.

The project’s public outreach coordinator, Martha Kemp can be reached by e-mail at mkemp@volkert.com or by phone at (202) 237-6269.

Taking an unlocked bike is still stealing.

In the Netherlands at least,

Lawyers for the convicted thief _ a repeat offender who was sentenced to 22 days in jail _ had argued that leaving the bike unlocked amounted to entrapment. But the five-judge court has rejected that, saying the man wasn't personally targeted.

This is similar to the bike theft sting run by MPD.

Commuter Cycling up in NYC

As well as here in DC and many other places too, I suspect

Based on figures from an annual count of bicyclists conducted since 1984, the New York City Department of Transportation announced on Thursday that commuter cycling rose a remarkable 35 percent between 2007 and 2008.

The data [pdf] are suggestive, not definitive, but officials said they considered the trend to be genuine.

This year’s count identified  12,583, up from 9,327 in the previous year.

The number of cyclists crossing the Williamsburg Bridge has quadrupled from 2000 to 2008, to 4,000 on a typical day.

Quadrupled? Am I missing something?

“This unprecedented increase shows we are well on the way toward our goal of doubling the number of bike commuters,” Janette Sadik-Khan, the transportation commissioner, said in a statement. “As these numbers rise, cyclists should take all safety precautions, while drivers must be vigilant when sharing our streets with this growing population.”

Maryland to establish a network of paths for cyclists

This summer, Maryland started a plan that would establish a safe, accessible and fully interconnected network of "dual-use" trails across Maryland.

There's no timetable for the project, which will unfold, piece by piece, over as many as 20 years. It will cross scores of jurisdictional boundaries, draw on the ideas of citizens and partner agencies, and mix and match funding sources. But by making its plan public, the state Department of Transportation aims to guide a comprehensive effort to make a seamless system of trails.

"This trail network will literally weave communities together," said Maryland Secretary of Transportation John D. Porcari, a driving force behind the state's long-term Trails Strategic Implementation Plan.

There is certainly room, as the article points out, for improvement

Many [trails], though, have gaps or need upgrading, problems the state's plan aims to address. Nearly all - from the 11-mile BWI Trail that circles the airport, to the popular Baltimore & Annapolis Trail, which connects Glen Burnie to the state capital over a 12-mile route - are isolated from one another and lack connectivity to mass-transit stations.

"We need to have the gaps in the existing network filled in so that more Marylanders can use trails for recreation, getting to work, or just to do weekend shopping," says Richard Chambers, executive director of One Less Car

But the state's top priority, Porcari said, is to link extant trails to each other, easing bike and pedestrian travel between discrete parts of the state. To that end, the transportation department has identified eight key "missing links" around Maryland, trail segments that, when they're filled in, will offer exponentially greater connectivity from region to region.

The TSIP (As a Texas grad, I hate the name) isn't scheduled to be completed until the end of the year, so I'm not sure how official this list is. But of those eight trails, four are in Prince George's county. Which makes one wonder why neither the Post nor the Gazette covered this and left it to the Sun?

Anyway, the four local trail connections mentioned are:

1. Little Paint Branch Trail Connector - It's listed as partially complete. I suspect this is what they're talking about.

The greenways corridor along Little Paint Branch begins north of Calverton at Fairland Regional Park and flows south to connect with Paint Branch. Portions of the stream valley are owned by M-NCPPC. The greenways protects riparian resources and provides recreational opportunities. A segment of multi-use trail exists along the stream valley between Sellman Road and Rt. 212.

But I'm not sure what the connector connects to.

2. Anacostia River Trail - Construction Scheduled. This must be the Anacostia Trail on the east side of the river from Bladensburg Waterfront Park to the District line (some of which was recently built but is uselessly incomplete)

3. Henson Creek Trail - Planning Underway. Not sure what their planning, but it should definitely stretch to the Metro Station.

4. BW&A trail - the alignment planning for the much needed Patuxent River crossing is underway. This would connect the two existing sections.

That they're working on a TSIP  is a pretty good sign. The website is a little sparse though. I hope there is adequate local involvement  - the site doesn't list the stakeholders invloved (MoBike? College Park? Oxon Hill? WABA? Don't know.)

Mapping Getting Better

New York City has a real Google Maps for Bikes (I know. MSN maps are better) called Ride the City. The Post wrote about it a couple of months ago.

The project is run by three bikers, Jordan Anderson, Vaidila Kungys, and Josh Steinbauer who connected Google maps to a few basic heuristic rules and added a cool logo. The GIS data comes from the city itself and is merged with Google Maps for display.

"Sometimes the most daunting thing about riding a bike in New York is figuring out the best route to take. How do you get to the bridge entrances? What?s the best way to Central Park from the Hudson River greenway? We created this website to help beginning bicyclists answer those questions," said founder Jordan Anderson.

It's not without its quirks (I have yet to find a quirkless mapping program).

its zeal in finding the safest routes sometimes brings up incorrect directions. For example, the system routed us through a secure military base during one trip. Had we not known that the road was closed we would have been sent on quite a ride.

Speaking of bike mapping

When Olympic Gold Medal cyclist Kristin Armstrong did her time trials in December, 2007 in China, she took along her husband's GPS unit to capture the elevation along the route. Then she used that data to find the best training route back home.

After returning home to Boise, Idaho, I exported the GPS data to several different formats, one of which I was able to launch with Google Earth. I was then able to trace the entire course from the comfort of my home half a world away and find a similar route to train on back in Boise. This capability along with having the elevation profile proved invaluable in my preparation for my Gold Medal race.

And here's a pitch by a company called RouteYou.

The future is awesome (unless you like polar bears).

WABA Meets with DC Police

From a WABA release

On October 21st, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) finally met with representatives of the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to raise concerns over the perceived lack of protection for cyclists and pedestrians on DC streets.  The meeting, which was highly productive, was also attended by staff from the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) and the DC Council.

In addition to highlighting the growing safety concerns of cyclists WABA also cited several recent examples where MPD either failed to enforce the law or enforced it incorrectly.  During the meeting it was clear that MPD recognized our concerns and appeared willing to work with WABA and DDOT on making changes that would improve the safety of the roadways most vulnerable users and take additional steps to improve the training of MPD officers on bike and pedestrian laws.

As a result of the meeting, WABA, DDOT and MPD agreed to do the following:

• WABA and DDOT will create power point slides to be shown during police roll calls on areas where clarification of District law is needed.  Other slides identifying high bike/ped crash areas will also be shown.    
• MPD will expand distribution of WABA's Pocket Guide to DC Bike Laws to MPD officers;    
• MPD will designate a point person on bike issues that will regularly attend  DC Bicycle Advisory Council meetings;    
• MPD will coordinate better with DDOT on the upcoming Street Smarts enforcement campaign and improve training of officers working the program;    
• MPD will work with WABA on enforcement stings of the bus and bike lanes in Chinatown and will conduct occasional bike lane double parking ticketing waves;        

• WABA, DDOT and MPD will explore creating a police training  video on bike and ped laws;    
• WABA will work with MPD on collecting unreported crash data and other complaints that will be passed along to the Traffic Safety Branch;    
• WABA, DDOT, MPD, and Council staff will coordinate efforts to  identify high traffic safety complaint areas;    
• WABA, DDOT and MPD will examine the DC Driver Training  Manual's questions on bike and peds to see if they can be improved;    

During the meeting WABA also handed out a draft Memorandum of Understanding between WABA, DDOT and MPD that would formally acknowledge each groups' role in traffic safety and outline steps each would take to improve bike and ped safety.  While this MOU certainly could not have been signed at the meeting, MPD agreed to pass it up the chain of command for consideration.  For a copy of the MOU please click here.

Overall it was a very positive and successful meeting and more than we could have hoped for.  This is a very good starting point for greater coordination between WABA, DDOT and MPD and for safer streets for everyone.  Thank you all for your valuable input.

UPDATE: Here's GGW on this. It does sound like, from this and other things I heard, that it was a productive meeting. MPD recognized the concerns WABA was expressing and seems genuinely willing to work with WABA and DDOT on making positive changes. They noted that more people ar biking and they recognize that the city wants to encourage this.

Bike and Roll's annual Autumn Sale

*Bike and Roll Washington DC*

*Annual Bike Sale*

*November 2nd, 10:30am - 4:00pm*

*$100 - $200*

*Adult and Youth Bicycles*

More info here.

Manhattan on Wheels

I still have not ridden the Hudson River Greenway. In fact, I have not ridden a bicycle in New York City. This is an outrage. Must remember to sign up for the Five Boro Ride

I found out that the discount Vamoose bus line to New York not only picks up and discharges passengers in downtown Bethesda, 20 minutes from my home, but also takes bikes free. I began to see a way. The clinchers: the $50 round-trip fare and a midtown drop-off only 10 minutes from the Greenway.

"Keep it simple" was my motto. Get to Manhattan, bike to Battery Park. Turn around and bike north to the George Washington Bridge. Return to West 31st Street in time for the 5:30 p.m. bus. Go back to Bethesda.

Although it appears on maps as one long trail, the Greenway really is a series of connecting trails built at different times. It is most crowded in the downtown area; the number of bikers gradually lessens as you go north. But despite the many bikers, I'm able to maintain a 10- to 12-mph pace.