Gabe Klein on Kojo, stylized bike racks

My notes from Gabe Klein's appearance on the Kojo Nnamdi Show with approximate times for subjects below:

The only real "news" was the announcement that DDOT will be rolling out a new program in August that will allow businesses to pick out a designer bike rack that matches their business such as a martini glass, a book or a pizza slice. The business will have to pay for part of the cost (as opposed to a free inverted U).

Klein stated early that he rides to work two times a week.

Capital Bikeshare is the "most exciting program" (04:00). It will make biking a primary mode of transportation. Talked about how Montreal's program has resulted in people biking everywhere. Website starts next week. Program launches in early September. Glad to partner with Arlington and hopes to partner with other jurisdictions. [Capital Bikeshare is coming to Near SE and a station at Nationals Park may be on deck for spring 2011, which leads me to wonder if DDOT already has plans for another expansion with or without TIGER].

Still tweaking where the stations will go. Chris Zimmerman and Klein have talked about expanding the program and the region is planning a TIGER grant for up to another 1000 stations bikes. The system gets easier to run as more bikes and stations are added.

People need bike facilities (17:23) ranging from bike parking to showers. DDOT's installed 1000 bike racks this year.

Callers were concerned about scofflaws at (19:00) and again at (45:50). Klein believes that in addition to enforcement, we need bike boxes and "lead pedestrian intervals" that allow cyclists to get a head start at intersections to make them more visible and safer. And we need to give cyclists separated cycletracks. TCO's do write tickets to cyclists and DDOT will continue to work on education and has plans for a marketing campaign called The Share Campaign that will be rolling out later this year.

Caller was happy about all the Bike lanes in DC(27:00). DDOT has a great bike team that has put in 40-50 bike lanes, and they want to get to 80 with 5 miles of cycletracks. Klein wants them to go faster and works to remove obstructions to that.

Shared bike and walkways are something DC should look at and DDOT just opened the Met Branch Trail (36:00)

Email: When parking meters disappear, so does bike parking because the poles serve as both (42:00). DDOT is now looking at replacing single space meters with better single space meters - so that will retain parking, but they are sensitive to the issue when they install multi-space meters.

Caller thinks we need Protected Bike lanes and laws that don't require cyclists to act like a car (47:25). Klein thinks the two issues are tied together. They hope to have the 15th Street protected bike lane done by the end of August/early September. Other cycletracks are planned for L and M.

Caller: How do we convince people to ride bikes year round? (49:00). Klein thinks bike sharing will change the way people will think about bikes - especially when another 1000 bikes are dropped in.

Email: Bicyclists can make the roads and sidewalks just as dangerous as motorists. What about limiting cycling to only those who are fit enough and smart enough to ride. Should we have a bicycle license? (50:00). Klein replies that DDOT has talked about plates to counter bike theft but they probably don't want to handle bike licenses. They plan to educate drivers about how to drive around cyclists. Will continue to study how other cities handle bicyclist education.

Comments

[Steven]

"the region is planning a TIGER grant for up to another 1000 stations"

Is that a 1000 additional stations or 1000 additional bikes/docking points?

[Washcycle]

Bikes, not stations. Sorry.

[dynaryder]

In Arlington,they've been converting the old meter poles into bike racks by adding a piece on top. DC should do that as well.

[washcycle]

I've been over this with Jim Sebastian and I've come around to his way of thinking. Converting the old poles is not much cheaper than putting in inverted U's and it means they're placed somewhat at random. Not every parking meter is where you'd want a bike space - and it defeats part of the purpose which is to unclutter the sidewalk for pedestrians. So you'd need Mike Goodno to go out there and decide which ones to convert and which ones to remove. Which means you're now spending manpower.

Furthermore, the contract for removal was already signed before Jim got involved and it was too late to change. Future contracts will include bike rack installation with parking meter removal.

So Jim would rather spend a little bit more money and the same amount of time installing inverted U's where we need them instead of converting parking meters close to where we need them.

I agree.

[SJE]

Washcycle: bike racks are not always visible, unlike parking meters. Is there also some plan as to the placement so that a person new to an area would know where to look? Signs? colors?

[washcycle]

If a bike rack is not visible, there's suppose to be a sign directing users to it. I think it's in the zoning laws.

[SJE]

Thanks, I didn't know that. Of course, these are the same zoning laws that mandate racks a certain distance from the walls, and a certain number of bike racks? :)