Friday Morning Commute - You can't have bike share without infrastructure

Saw a neighbor taking his Christmas Tree to the curb today. He wouldn't make eye contact.

• PG County cities continue to line up commitments for College Park's yet-to-be established bikeshare system. "[College Park and Riverdale Park] will also require the developer [of a proposed office building development in the University of Maryland Research Park] to participate in a bike share program that College Park is planning, in which bikes can be rented on a short-term basis and moved between stations around the city as an alternative to driving."
• A Gazette article this week covers Montgomery County's budget with respect to cycling. "Despite a proposed $23.8 million increase, to $82 million, for bicycle and pedestrian projects in County Executive Isiah Leggett's $4.2 billion fiscal 2013-2018 capital plan, and a commitment by the county to develop a bike-share program, some who commute on two wheels feel relegated to the back seat of transportation priorities."
  • A $10 million, 0.62-mile piece of the Metropolitan Branch Trail, which would connect Washington, D.C., to Silver Spring, was delayed. The approximately $3 million Needwood Road bikepath, a 0.8 mile connection between Equestrian Lane and Muncaster Mill Road that would create a safe and continuous path to the Shady Grove Metro Station and the Intercounty Connector shared use path, will only be in a design phase between now and fiscal 2018.
  • Members of WABA and other bicycle commuters have asked the county council to consider funding construction of the Metropolitan Branch Trail. Others have pushed for progress on the Purple Line, which also would advance the Capital Crescent Trail, Madden said.
  • This line, I have to push back on a bit: "The only thing I see while I am commuting is a lack of concern by motorists," he said. "They figure it's the road; bicyclists aren't supposed to be there." I don't think that's a fair characterization. The vast majority of drivers show at least the requisite amount of concern and treat cyclists with respect. The problem is a minority of drivers. And since I often push back when angry drivers imbue cyclists with some self-righteous or arrogant motive for taking the lane by pointing out that they don't know why that cyclists is doing what they're doing, I feel the need to do the same thing here. Unless the driver says something to you, you don't know why they buzzed you. They might just be a bad driver.
• Mark Blacknell advocates for a both/and approach to bike infrastructure.
• CaBi's January data is out. They had 96939 trips, up 11% since December and up 154% from last year. They also clocked 2.67 tpbpd, which is also up from December and up by about one trip per bike per day from last year. And just to pile on, there were more trips this January than last April.
• More about the River Road 5-foot wide (sigh) bike path in Montgomery County. "The county will need to acquire the land, finalize engineering and begin construction. The target completion date of the $400,000 project is Spring 2013."
  
  • "Some testified that a bikeway could increase the number of bikers and hikers using the area and increase the risk of them being hit." Increasing the number of bikers and hikers is kind of the point.
• Annandale and Falls Church area bike plan meeting.
• Police bias in favor of drivers in fatal bike crashes is soooooo much better in New York. "The blurry video did not show a cyclist failing to stop at a red light. In fact, it did not show much of anything....If, for example, a bicyclist is maimed or paralyzed by a vehicle but not in danger of dying, the investigation squad would probably never investigate the accident."

Comments

[charlie]

Lane discipline. Something both American drivers and American bikers are very bad at. Even compared to drivers in Italy or Spain (insert Southern European sterotype of your choice) we are terrible.

I just don't think it is taught anymore, and after a few generations it has vanished altogether.

[Crickey7]

It's true. Building a highway, for example, dramatically increases the chances of there being an automobile accident on it.

[Will]

RE: Ike Leggett's Budget

He's proposing to spend .57% of the total capital budget on bike (which is really bike/ped) infrastructure. It seems low, though not everything in the budget is transpo related. Anyone care to analyze among just the transpo dollars spent to see if their spending on bike/ped is commensurate with the mode share?

The truth is, MontCo could vastly increase their already high modeshare with a concentrated investment in cycling. The same is true of transit, but when investing in road projects, we're already well into the diminishing returns realm. Bike/Ped & Transit are the areas where you can get the big returns on your investment in the coming years, so that's where we should pump money.

In the 50s - 80s, there really was a big ROI on roads, but that is no longer the case, people who came of age during that era need to update their thinking.