TheWashCycle

Tuesday Morning Commute - King James

Yes, this is again late...

Is "Lockdown" a remake of "Escape from New York" or just a ripoff? Either way, it's nice to see Maggie Grace working again.

• WTOP covers WABA's Resolve to Ride Responsibly.
• River Road bike path hearing this Wednesday. "The path would only be 5′ wide. That’s not a bike path. That’s a sidewalk."
• Arlington is studying redesign concepts for the interesection of Washington Blvd, Wilson Blvd and Clarendon (aka Clarendon Circle), with a target for work to start in 2014. It looks like it has painted bike lanes and a bike box, but the bike lanes look to be in weird places.
• Howard County and Columbia, MD are exploring bike sharing. They've applied for a grant to fund a feasibility study on a system. “We have 94 miles of pathways that are separated from our roadways. Major cities don’t have that many,” Dembner says. “Washington [D.C.] doesn’t have that many pathways.”...Howard County Council Chair Mary Kay Sigaty says the county, which is in charge of road improvements in Columbia, will have to invest in better on-road bike lanes to make bike sharing work.
• The Virginia legislature considers bills on following a cyclist too closely, statewide helmet law for riders under 14, and allowing Sunday hunting on private land (which matters to mountain bikers).
• Criminals really do ride on the sidewalk.  
• If LeBron James is capable of biking 3 miles to work, so can you. Of course, he has someone to wash his clothes while he works. 

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Mulch

Good afternoon. I once again left the morning linkdump finished on my computer at home. I can assure you it is awesome. Sorry.

• According to the East Coast Greenway "DDOT will be signing the East Coast Greenway throughout the District this year."
• DDOT has selected a new head of the Progressive Transportation Services Administration which administers Capital Bikeshare, among other things. "District Department of Transportation announced today that it had passed over interim PTSA director Aaron Overman for a total outsider: Carl Jackson, who most recently served as head of the city of Greenville, South Carolina's transportation agency."
• The state of Baltimore's trails is strong. "Extending the Jones Falls Trail 2.5 miles from the Inner Harbor to Pennsylvania Station continues on time, as does planning for the $5.9 million segment that will connect Cylburn Arboretum to Mount Washington. Within two years, the trail is expected to be 10 miles long. Also in the design pipeline is the $4.1 million Herring Run Greenway Trail that will connect Morgan State University and nine neighborhoods. Construction is expected to begin in early 2013 and conclude before the year is out." Bike commuting has also doubled over last year. 
• "The report, “Active Transportation Beyond Urban Centers,” shows that in large and small “rural cores” of 2,500 to 50,000 residents, the share of total trips made on foot or by bike is only 20 percent below the rate for larger urban cores. Furthermore, when it comes to work trips, rural areas fall right in line with the national rates of biking and walking to work." The report was written by occasional Washcycle contributer Tracy Hadden Loh.
• Stealing someon's bike from a mulch bed is not burglary. It is still douchy. 

Proposed transportation bill ends funding for Safe Routes to School and Railbanking

From American trails

At 3:00 PM, Tuesday, January 31, House Transportation Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-FL) and Committee Members will release the "American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act" (H.R. 7). According to the Rails to Trails Conservancy, who obtained a copy of the bill, the Recreational Trails Program would be authorized at $85 million for FY 2013-16, but the Safe Routes to School program would be eliminated along with dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements. Eligibility for preserving abandoned railway corridors, including trail conversion, is specifically eliminated.

Advocates are working with a House member to propose an amendment that would protect funding for TE and other bike/ped programs. We'll let you know more as soon as we hear details.

See more information on the process and background at:
http://www.americantrails.org/reauth.html

American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012
(Summary from Rails to Trails Conservancy, Jan. 30, 2012)

The bill contains changes to two of the three core programs for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure; one program remains intact:
1)    The Recreational Trails program is consistent with the structure under SAFETEA-LU. Funding is established at $85 million for each of fiscal years 2013 – 2016.

2)    The Safe Routes to School Program is eliminated in its entirety.
Eliminating the SRtS program means the loss of $180 million per fiscal year for infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects to support walking and bicycling as modes of transportation for children to school, as well as the established institutional support of the SRtS coordinators at each state DOT.

3)    The Transportation Enhancement activities remain eligible under the Surface Transportation Program, but the 10 percent set-aside of apportioned funds is stricken.

Eliminating dedicated funding for transportation enhancement activities means these projects will have to “compete” for prioritization with all other surface transportation projects in regional and state planning processes. In addition, the following activities which were eligible under SAFETEA-LU are eliminated:
a.    Acquisition of scenic or historic easements, including battlefields
b.    Historic preservation
c.    Rehabilitation and operation of historic transportation facilities
d.    Preservation of abandoned railway corridors
e.    Establishment of transportation museums
These five categories combined comprise 24% of all state DOT project programming of TE activities since 1992. Eliminating these activities will significantly restrict the flexibility state DOTs have relied upon in the past to enhance the nation’s surface transportation system. This is especially true for the two most popular activities of these five singled out for elimination, rehabilitation and operation of historic transportation facilities (9.4% of all TE activity) and preservation of abandoned railway corridors (7.2%).

Outside of the three core programs, there are two other noticeable provisions of this bill for pedestrian, bicycle and trail interests:
1)    Funding for the CMAQ program is moved to the new “Alternative Transportation Account,” which was previously the Mass Transit Account.
2)    The ability of state DOTs to use CMAQ or STP apportionments to fund bicycle and pedestrian coordinator positions is stricken.
Eliminating the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator positions represents a huge step backward for state DOTs. It passes more of the burden of administering federal-aid highway programs directly to them.

I believe DC's coordinator is paid for with CMAQ money, but I may be mistaken.

CITATIONS p. 10 line (17): Authorizes $85 million for each of 4 fiscal years for Recreational Trails.
p. 64 line (11) Renames the Mass Transit account the Alternative Transportation Account of the Highway Trust Fund, and puts CMAQ (@ $2 billion per year) under it (p. 11 line (5)).
p. 33 line (1), stricken from the STP:

(1) Construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, resurfacing, restoration, and operational improvements for highways (including Interstate highways) and bridges (including bridges on public roads of all functional classifications), including any such construction or reconstruction necessary to accommodate
other transportation modes, and including the seismic retrofit and painting of
and application of calcium magnesium acetate, sodium acetate/formate, or other environmentally acceptable, minimally corrosive anti-icing and de-icing compositions on bridges and approaches thereto and other elevated structures, mitigation of damage to wildlife, habitat, and ecosystems caused by a transportation project funded under this title.
p. 34, line (17): TE remains eligible under the STP. But set-aside is repealed...

(2) For transportation enhancement activities. - In a fiscal year, the greater of 10 percent of the funds apportioned to a State under section 104(b)(3) for such fiscal year, or the amount set aside under this paragraph with respect to the State for fiscal year 2005, shall only be available for transportation enhancement activities.
p. 174 line (10): Stricken from Sec. 217, Bicycle transportation and pedestrian walkways:
(d) State Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinators. - Each State receiving an apportionment under sections 104(b)(2) and 104(b)(3) of this title shall use such amount of the apportionment as may be necessary to fund in the State department of transportation a position of bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for promoting and facilitating the increased use of nonmotorized modes of transportation, including developing facilities for the use of pedestrians and bicyclists and public education, promotional, and safety programs for using such facilities.
P. 177: Safe Routes to School Program is repealed in its entirety
The following TE activities are stricken on p. 179 line (10) beginning:
(C) Acquisition of scenic easements and scenic or historic sites (including historic battlefields). (F) Historic preservation. (G) Rehabilitation and operation of historic transportation buildings, structures, or facilities (including historic railroad facilities and canals). (H) Preservation of abandoned railway corridors (including the conversion and use of the corridors for pedestrian or bicycle trails).
(L) Establishment of transportation museums.

 

This tunnel is a zoo

Photo by jaymallinphotos

Monday Morning Commute - cash, sex, drugs and bicycles

Good morning. Riding the Met Branch Trail yesterday I noticed they've removed most of one half of the New York Avenue Bridge and it makes the underpass there so much more open and sunny. But I suppose it won't last.

• State Deptartmen CaBi station has been moved a little and expanded by four docks.
• Capitol Heights, MD got a grant to study turning a street into a green street, which could include bike lanes. They're considering three streets: Old Central Avenue; Chamber Avenue, which becomes Capitol Heights Boulevard; and Suffolk Avenue, which becomes Brooke Road. All three of these are just across the District boundary. "A community input meeting to ask residents where they want to see a green street and what it should include is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 25 at the First Baptist Church of Capitol Heights at 6 Capitol Heights Blvd." If they went with Central or Chamber, perhaps they could team up with the District.
• Stafford County cyclist riding at night on US 17 was struck from behind and killed. No charges for the driver and no mention of lights.
• NPR's Marketplace on stolen bikes. "The San Francisco police officers will routinely bust bike thieves, but there's a shameless open-air market. Within a minute of arriving, I was being offered bicycles. I found a kid with a bike that was about the right size for me, a track bike, pretty fancy machine. I tried to bargain with him a little bit, and he said, 'I looked it up, this is a $700 bicycle.' So he wasn't even pretending to own the bike."

Cedar Lane Bridge at Night

Photo by antibozo

This bridge was recently redesigned to give cyclists more space.

Sunday Video - Tweed Ride

TWEED RIDE // 2011 from Tim Sessler on Vimeo.

Saturday Morning Ride - Responsibility

Good morning

• Check out the sweet, new 39-dock CaBi station at Maryland and Independence Ave SW
• According to the Alexandria Transportation Commission (meeting Feb 1) material, one of the three old rail bridges over the Four Mile Run Trail is to be demolished and a new connection made to the trail.  There will also be a multi-use trail as part of Potomac Yard Park which runs along the railroad tracks. 
• Work on the Capital Crescent Trail adjacent property Lot 31 has been delayed into February.
• The Burke-Springfield-Kingstowne-Lorton Open House for the Farifax County Bicycle Transportation Plan was a success.

Base for Capital Bikeshare kiosk at Wilson and George Mason

Photo by Ken

WABA hiring new Events Assistant

Events Assistant

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) is seeking an Events Assistant to help develop, coordinate and implement our annual fundraiser, BikeFest. The Events Assistant will be working closely with WABA’s Events Coordinator to grow the event from last year’s success. Additionally, the Events Assistant will contribute to other WABA events that occur during the spring biking season.

Position Details

This position requires a minimum commitment of 24 hrs/week. Evening & weekend hours will be necessary periodically. Weekday scheduling is flexible. The position has a firm end date of May 15, 2012, and will remain open until filled.

Compensation

$10-$13/hr., dependent on experience.

 

The Events Assistant Will:

• Assist in all aspects of BikeFest, WABA’s annual fundraiser, including logistics, planning, promotion, coordination of volunteers, and on-site implementation.
• Recruit and coordinate volunteers
• Develop promotional and marketing materials and assist in the implementation of a marketing plan.
• Assist in other WABA events in a variety of capacities/roles as needed.
• Report directly to WABA’s Events Coordinator.

The ideal candidate will have:

• A commitment to WABA’s mission and goals.
• The ability to organize time wisely and multi-task in a relaxed, fun environment.
• Strong attention to detail.
• The ability to work independently when needed.
• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite and online social media tools (Facebook, twitter, etc.)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• A bicycle (or access to one) and a passion for bicycling

How to apply

Please send a resume and cover letter to jobs@waba.org with “Events Assistant” in the subject line. No calls please.