Thursday Afternoon Commute - a ton of bike facilities

There is a morning commute post, apparantly sitting on my home computer. Hopefully it won't crash and will still be there this evening when I get home. 

• A man was robbed, punched and shot on the Met Branch Trail yesterday evening. The bullet, luckily, just grazed him
• The draft VDOT Safe Routes to School plan.
• Gabe Klein interviewed in The Atlantic "I would have gladly stayed had we won, because we would have done some amazing stuff that we had planned....we were going to launch a ton of bike facilities." What might have been...
• Study determines that bicycling generates $1million a day in Iowa in benefits
• Long Beach and it's goal to be the most Bicycle Friendly City in the United States. "Before the paint was laid down, the street saw about 400 cyclists and 40,000 motorists a day. After the paint dried two and a half years ago, the street sees about 1,000 cyclists per day and the same level of car traffic. And while some had been concerned that intersplicing bikes with cars on this stretch would result in accidents and injuries, Gandy says the post-paint crash figures are the same as before, at just about 5 car-bike crashes per year."

Comments

[MM]

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, cyclist shoots dead a teen attacker...

http://www.cyclelicio.us/2012/bike-path-shooting/

[Michael H.]

DC police really need to improve security on the MBT. Very scary incident there.

***
After some confusion about Arlington's CaBi plans this year (at the Alexandria CaBi open house), CaBi reconfirmed that there will indeed be 70 CaBi stations in Arlington by the end of the year. That's what Arlington County said last fall in an official release. But then an Alta rep said at the Alexandria meeting this month that there would only be about 50 Arlington stations.

CaBi cleared up the confusion on their official Twitter account:

https://twitter.com/#!/bikeshare

No word on where the final 20 or so stations will go. Some might be used to fill in coverage in Rosslyn-Ballston and Pentagon City-Crystal City while other stations might be placed in new (unspecified) neighborhoods. That was the word from the official County statement in the fall.

My guess is that Shirlington and Columbia Pike could get some stations, but I haven't seen any official statements about that. With 20 more stations at hand, I think those two areas could use a few. Both are within biking range of Pentagon City/Crystal City, and Columbia Pike would help to connect Pentagon City and Clarendon.

[charlie]

I though those 20 "extra" stations -- didn't the the news came out around thwn the R-B stations started to get dropped in the fall? -- were going into R-B. Or course that could change. Or perhaps into Buckingham.

Arlington is not doing a great job advertising CABI. I walked by one tonight on the way home, thought about riding it, and decided walking was better. I have enjouyed the Courthouse-Rosslyn run, though (go to post office in Courthouse, then catch the bus in Rosslyn)

[washcycle]

Airport!

[Michael H.]

Arlington has been putting out contradictory messages about its CaBi expansion.

The first wave of stations was placed in Pentagon City/Crystal City. Then the 2nd wave was placed in Rosslyn/Court House. That wave continued into Clarendon and installation stopped for the winter.

The 2nd wave is not complete. From what I can tell, it includes most of the remaining proposed stations in the R-B corridor.

Then the 3rd wave was announced last fall. In that announcement, the County said that the total station count in Arlington would reach 70 by the end of 2012. At the time, they did not specify where these new stations would go. But they did mention a few possibilities. Some of those stations would help complete the expansion into R-B. They also stated that the new group would "complete" the build-out into the existing covered areas of R-B and Pentagon City/Crystal City. And finally, they stated that the stations could go into previously unserved areas.

Clearly not everyone at Alta is aware of all of the different expansion waves. A couple weeks ago, the Alta rep at the Alexandria open house didn't seem to be aware of the 3rd wave of Arlington stations. He only referred to the R-B build-out.

But yesterday's CaBi tweet confirms that Arlington still plans to have 70 stations by the end of the year. I think previous statements mentioned a timeline of summer or early fall for the 3rd wave of stations. But that could get delayed, the same way that the R-B build-out has been delayed from 2011.

Station placement will be partially influenced by the crowdsourcing map. That has been widely publicized. Many people have suggested station locations. I think the map is now a "permanent" feature. People can suggest stations at any point in the D.C. metro area, whether or not that jurisdiction participates in CaBi today. That doesn't mean that stations will be placed at every suggested location. There are far too many suggestions. But the process can help provide insight into where members are riding and where they want to ride to/from.

Yes, many people have suggested or seconded the National Airport location. I have no idea if that will get approved. The MWAA would have a say on that one. There have been proposed stations at Tysons Corner (don't know who did that...), National Harbor and College Park, even though Fairfax and Prince George's aren't part of the system... yet.

I think Arlington has done a decent job advertising CaBi where it's available. The problem so far in R-B is the lack of stations. Until the Clarendon stations were added, the Rosslyn stations weren't that useful other than for trips to Georgetown.

When the initial R-B build-out is finished, those stations will be much more useful. If CaBi adds stations on Pershing and Columbia Pike, there could be a lot more bike traffic between Pentagon City and Clarendon.

Even though Arlington had the first CaBi stations (I think), they have been passed by D.C.'s build-out, in coverage area and total number of stations. CaBi will become more successful and popular in Arlington as the system expands. It's almost still in the pilot stage in Arlington, unlike in D.C.

[charlie]

@MichaelH; thanks. And you're right, I was conflating two issues: bad station placement (which is also about the LACK of stations*) vs. Arlington's plans (which, as you detailed, is confusing to follow)

Just as personal note, I'd rather see R-B be expanded down to Pershing and up to Lee HIghway before we move on to Columbia Pike.

Both my GF and I have noticed when we bikeshare in Arlingotn, we are treated like Martians. In DC, you either get terror (oh, now, another newbie on a bike) or a big smile.

* for example, why put that station near Whole Food halfway down the block, and on a very narrow part of the sidewalk? Or the Pierce st station where you have people turning into traffic to get to the dock?