Saturday Morning Ride - Goldilocks

Its another beautiful day for riding.

• A teenaged cyclist was killed after a crash with a car in Virginia Beach. Reportedly he was wearing no helmet and ran a red light. The next day a cyclist was hit and injured in Richmond, the driver drove away and police are looking for him.
• Volunteers create a teaching garden along the MBT. Speaking of the MBT, does anyone use the trail elevator to the NYA Metro station regularly? One commenter reported that it is often not working.
• Steve Offutt writes about his first CaBi experience at CPB. He had some problems, but found it to be mostly positive. I too finally had my first experience. I had more trouble figuring out how to get my bike then I expected and the seat kept sliding down, but otherwise I found it to be a great ride. It's how I plan to get to jury duty next week. Yesterday I saw six people riding CaBis. I think that's the same number of non-DDOT employees I saw riding SmartBike over the length of the program.
• GGW suggests using CaBi to fill the gap in Metro due to this weekend's closure. This is part of what I meant by "it will change everything".
• TheCitFix has an informative post on the effort to keep CaBi stations "Goldilocked" neither too full nor too empty*. "The company’s contract states explicitly that a station cannot be full or empty for more than three hours at a time between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and midnight. Obviously, the company’s goal is to try to beat that. They have laptops in their trucks that map the bike distribution in real-time." And I love that Velib used market economics to solve the hill problem "Return your bike to one of 100 stations perched over 60 meters above the rest of the city, and 15 minutes of free riding is added to your account.” So far it’s been successful."
• WMATA has been reportedly evicting cyclists from their lockers without giving any warning or notice. They won't get help from foreclosure freeze, but WABA wants to help.
• Alexandria's Beauregard corridor plan includes some bike projects in it's second tier. "Included are some Complete Streets projects and three bike-related projects: improvements to Holmes Run between Beauregard and Ripley St, a trail extension along Backlick Run continuing to the Fairfax County line, and a new trail between Eisenhower Ave/Mill Rd and South Payne St running along the old Cameron Run channel." Unfortunately, there is no funding at this time. 
• A letter writer to the Post says that changes in laws are not enough, we need to redesign cities as well. And another wishes they would cover pro cycling more.
• The final plan for the Southwest Waterfront was released. "Maine Avenue SW will be turned into a 60-foot expansive boulevard with 10-foot, two-way bike lanes and a center-lane streetcar system." It will also include the western leg of the ART, but I'm not sure if cyclists will be allowed on it or will use Maine - similar to Yards Park.
• Rep. Jim Moran is "pressing for a transit system to connect parts of Northern Virginia not served by Metrorail; a bicycle path along the ridges overlooking the Potomac River; and a boathouse near Theodore Roosevelt Island, where high school crew teams could practice." Wow, we really need a lot of boathouses in this town.
• Ralph Buehler, a bicycle transportation researcher, will be speaking at Catholic U next week. Richard Layman and WABA's Casey Anderson will be doing a presentation on best practice planning and implementation to increase bicycling take up in the suburbs in Rockville on Monday.
• DC Streetsblog has a new reporter. Naturally, she's a bike commuter.
• Kate Ryan interviews Maryland State Highway Administration's Bicycle Safety Coordinator Peter Moe about the new Maryland bike laws. "You can and should expect to see bicyclists on any roadway, apart from our interstates. Bikes are considered a legal vehicle, and they have a right to the roadway."
• Baltimore's mayor signs the new bike safety laws. "One of the measures, which recently cleared the City Council, would require the use of bicycle-safe storm grates on any new roads in the city. The other would increase the fine [to $75] for motorists who park in bicycle lanes." Relateldly, I was driving with Trike and I saw a motorcyclist use the bike lane to pass all the stopped cars and get in front of them - just as a cyclist would. Technically that's illegal, but he did it slowly. I have mixed feelings.  The interesting thing is that the car in front of me pulled up to get even with the motorcycle. A photo of the motorcyclist after he passed me is below (when I took this photo I was safely stopped at the light, fyi).

;

* I know, something is either full or it isn't, there is no "too full", but it works better with the Goldilocks reference.

Maryland State Highway Administration's Bicycle Safety Coordinator

Comments

[ontarioroader]

The driver of the SUV pictured is likely a DC Police officer. That vehicle has FOP [police union] license plates that many officers get for their personal vehicles. He may have been trying to lecture the motorcyclist on his bad behavior, but who knows. He was more likely just pissed that the motorcyclist 'cut in line'.

Regarding the motorcyclists tactic of passing stopped cars at the light, this is called 'filtering' and is legal in California and many European countries. I split my commute about 50/50 between motorcycle and bicycle and have been doing this for years here, however I filter between the stopped cars, not in bike lanes or shoulders. I know it's illegal here, but lots of motorcyclists [including police bikers] do it.

[washcycle]

My impression was that the SUV driver did not want to be cut in front of. There was a mini-race when the light turned greed, which of course the motorcyclist won.

I'm not bothered by the filtering - it's what cyclists do. I'm not even bothered by doing it in a bike lane as long as it's done safely, when there are no cyclists there and only to filter up to the light. I just worry about people who don't expect to see a motorcyclist there and the possibility of someone getting hurt (though I've never heard of that). So it's worry right now, based strongly on wholesale ignorance.

[asuka]

As a bicyclist and a motorcyclist, its my feeling that bike lanes are just that - for bikes only. Motorcycles like that Harley in the picture can weigh 600 pounds or more, and a collision between one of them and a bike would be catastrophic for the cyclist.

[Jim]

Unless local law says otherwise, in Maryland anyone can drive in a bike lane.

[Michael H.]

I've seen some bike lanes that are completed block off because of parked cars. That is, cars are parked in the bike lane, the entire length of the lane. And it's not because of a special event where there is overflow parking.

I've ridden the CaBi bikes a few times now. The first time, I wasn't sure if the dock registered that I had returned the bike so I took the bike out again and put it back in the dock until the light indicator flashed from yellow to green. And I pulled on the bike to make sure it was secure.

CaBi is very convenient for short trips. They just need to fine-tune the placement of the bikes. Some stations are always out of bikes.