TheWashCycle

Best Photos of the Year 2011

Rather than a single photo, here's a link to the results of an app that chooses the best photos from the Washcycle pool for each month. A lot of photos of Capital Bikeshare.

Which is also a reminder that if you'd like to see your photos features on the blog, be sure to add them to the Washcycle flickr pool.

Happy New Year.

2012: Looking Ahead

Before we look back at 2011, here is a look at the facilities and projects that are scheduled to (or may) happen in 2012.

Work will begin to close the gap between the Anacostia Tributary Trail System in Maryland and DC's Anacostia Riverwalk trail. This is the Kenilworth section of the ART. I also expect the two ART bridges over the railroad tracks to be finished in 2012 as well.

Capital Bikeshare expansion in DC, Rockville, Arlington, and Alexandria

Work might begin on a ramp to replace the stairs that connect the Metropolitan Branch Trail to L Street NE and on the Rhode Island Avenue Metro bridge.

The Downtown BID will organize the Freedom Plaza BTWD event.

The Potomac Power Generating Station along the MVT will be closed. 

DC plans to add 4 miles of bike lane that is ready to go (and possibly more) and Arlington will extend bike lanes on Crystal Drive.

Arlington might build the portion of the proposed cycletrack along Army Navy Drive/Joyce Street that is under I-395; start the Washington Boulevard Bridge over Columbia Pike and complete the improved Glebe Road bridge over Arlington Blvd. The trail on the west side of Arlington/Washington Blvd will be extended to Columbia Pike and work could begin on the Route 110 Trail.

More bike parking at the Rosslyn Metro.

The 2012 Rails-to-Trails Sojourn will once again be along the C&O/GAP route from DC to Pittsburgh.

Also, "Premium Rush" on August 24.

Surely there is more that I've missed.

Calm, Calm, Panic

Calm, Calm, Panic by Sanjay Suchak

I may have posted this photo before, but it's good enough to post twice.

Final Commute of 2011

Good afternoon

• If you noticed closures on the Rock Creek Park Trail this week it was to construct a retaining wall to stabilize an area of the stream bank that has eroded between Massachusetts Avenue and P Street.
• Capital Bikeshare is still the country's largest bikeshare system, but probably only until NYC's is installed. 
• 11-year old cyclist hit by car in Halifax, VA. Paper oddly reports that the crash caused $2,500 in damage to the car.  

Survey data from Alexandria and Arlington

Recently both Alexandria and Arlington have gathered some survey data on cyclists (and pedestrians) in their jurisdictions.

Alexandria's BPAC collected data on the number and gender of cyclists and pedestrians in parts of the city. With that they created a report on Non-Motorized Travel in the City of Alexandria. They performed counts at 10 locations for two hours on two separate days in July. Results include

• 26.32% of cyclists were women. And the percentage of riders who were women on the MVT was higher than at most other locations.
• They counted ~2500 cyclists over the four hours.
• The location with the highest count was at the northern most point on the MVT in Alexandria, they extrapolated that 99,060 cyclists use that location in the month of July and 825,502 for the year. Other locations in Alexandria came out as high as 60,000 for the month and as low as 4,000.
• The location with the lowest count was on the sidewalk/trail at the terminus of the Eisenhower Avenue corridor near the Van Dorn MetroRail Station

Extrapolating July counts for the whole year probably isn't reliable, since ridership likely goes down in the winter. And with 2 hours, we're dealing with a very small sample size, but this is an instructive effort nonetheless.

The report also has several recommendation such as greater connectivity to the Mt. Vernon Trail (since use is so high) and implementation of the 2008 Bicycle and Pedestrian Mobility plan.

Furthermore, Arlington recently released the results of the 2011 Arlington County Commuter Services BikeArlington study. This is primarily a nonrandom survey of people who replied to an email on the BikeArlington email list and those on bike trails - so its a survey of cyclists and people interested in cycling in Arlington. Highlights include:

• 83% of survey participants use trails at least twice a week
• Exercise came up as the main motivation for riding
• 68% bike to work at least once a week
• 51% of those who bike commute bike more than 7 miles one way
• 70% have access to showers at work and those who don't have them want them. Those who do have them were heavily influenced to bike to work because of them

Roger Rabbit's bike gets stuck in H Street Trolley Tracks

photo by yospyn

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Amusement Park

Good Afternoon

• DC area commended for committment to cycling. 
• Tresspassing cyclist fails in attempt to sue amusement park after crashing into cable strung across parking lot to keep vehicles out. 

October 2011 Maryland BPAC Meeting Minutes

Available here. Local highlights:

• The Department of Natural Resources plans to have a series of regional roundtables on trail issues instead of having one, central trail summit like the one previously held. The Governor’s Office has made the development of a uniform GIS base map for trail maps that various State agencies could use a priority.
• There was discussion on the status of the Patuxent River crossing planned for the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis (WB&A) Trail. Due to political opposition to the trail’s original planned alignment following the old WB&A Railroad right-of-way in Anne Arundel County an alternative river crossing is being proposed. But because of concerns regarding the alternative river crossing design, Prince George’s County wants to pursue the originally planned crossing alignment. It was noted that the trail connection would help ameliorate the traffic impacts of the BRAC development at Fort Meade. The committee decided to try and determine by next meeting what commitments and encouragement the State has provided for this detour alignment and the information on which it is based.
• The State Highway Administration is considering asking the National Park Service to provide a shared use path as part of a segment of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway slated for widening.

Thursday Morning Commute - Holiday

21-10

• The Alexandria City Council approved the Mt. Vernon Village Center development which is between the Four Mile Run Trail and Mt. Vernon Ave. The site will include two "green fingers" that will connect the avenue to the trail. 
• Look, Montgomery County citizens are getting in on the "Capital Bikeshare bikes are $6,000 each" histrionics. Even if you accept the reasoning (and it's somewhat flawed), its irrelevant without considering benefits. According to numbers I crunched in September, CaBi had benefits of about $1800 per bike in it's first year. Criticizing CaBi now is like saying the Normandy invasion was a mistake. Look at the results.
• MSM on Metro's bike and pedestrian access plans "Bike and pedestrian access is a very cost-effective and convenient way for customers to connect to Metro stations," Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said in an email. "Particularly as parking is limited at certain locations, it's a viable alternative for some riders."

Wider sidewalk for ART along Maine Avenue Updated

You can see the sidewalk now is functionally complete (there appears to be some punch items left, but for sidewalk users it is all complete. The sidewalk, of course, serves as a section of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail and is a signed bike route.  Here's the sidewalk from a few weeks ago, and here it is before the rebuild.