Friday Evening Ride - Catching up?

Good afternoon

• A future Purple Line station in the Air Rights tunnel would include the Capital Crescent Trail, but that section would not allow running or biking. "A new sidewalk, five to seven feet wide, would connect the Capital Crescent Trail to a station that would be built inside the tunnel that cyclists and runners use today to cross under busy Wisconsin Avenue, state transit officials said Thursday. Trail users would have to walk through the station and across the platform between the two train tracks, planners told the Montgomery County Council’s transportation committee during a briefing....Those who wanted to continue running or riding their bikes could avoid the station by using a new path that would require crossing Wisconsin at a traffic light." But Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail don't care much. "“It’s 20 acres of park inside the Beltway,” Bhatt said of the trail. “You can’t replace that. . . .It will no longer be a park. It will be a bike path.” OK, but isn't that the point of the "trail"? If you're really friends of the trees along the CCT, then perhaps your name should reflect that. Also, it doesn't look like the Purple Line will be built.
• Capital Bikeshare got heavy use for the Nationals' playoff games. 
• Drivers continue to perform illegal U-turns across the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes. "physical changes will probably not happen until after the Inauguration in January."
• In exchange for a parking variance to provide less automobile parking than zoning requires, Douglas Development has agreed to "give each tenant a free Capital Bikeshare membership.
• The SHA is studying the possibility of replacing the northbound right shoulder and the southbound right lane of Kenilworth Avenue from the Bladensburg Waterfront to East-West Highway with a bike lane and sidewalk. Some people are opposed to giving up space for driving "Hyattsville resident Rodney Willard, 53, said he would like to see more space for drivers and said he is wary about having bicycle lanes because of the danger of a cyclist falling off a bike and into traffic." But there is a bike commuter on the town council "Edmonston Councilwoman Margaret J. Pooley (Ward 2), who bikes to her job in Washington, D.C., said she is looking for anything that will get more people out of their vehicles when traffic backs up on northbound Kenilworth Avenue during rush hour and said the absence of marked crosswalks is a problem."
• Montgomery County Councilmember Nancy Floreen "pointed to a bicycle bridge over Veirs Mill Road, funded under the current [public facilities ordinance], as a misuse of funds."
• The Park After Dark Benefit in support of the C&O Canal is tomorrow. 
• Bill Line, NPS spokesman with whom this blog occasionally took issue, took his own life this week. Despite differences, he was an avid cyclist and a dedicated public servant who will be missed. 
• Regional mode share for biking is projected to go up to 13% by 2040, but driving won't go down much. 
• The USADA report on Lance Armstrong's doping came out and it is pretty sweeping and damning. It may impact more than his race results. "according to several marketing experts, Armstrong may well lose his handsome corporate backing from Nike, Anheuser-Busch, Trek and others once existing contracts expire. And given the damning details USADA has compiled — the first-hand accounts that he not only used banned substances but also demanded fellow riders use them, too, in support of his quest for titles — Armstrong likely won’t forge any new corporate deals."

Comments

[Early Man]

The report that "Regional mode share for biking is projected to go up to 13% by 2040, but driving won't go down much" should really end with "but SOME SAY driving won't go down much." The GMU report has enough holes to drive several Hummers through. Just sayin'.

[Greenbelt]

In other PG news, it looks like improvements to the College Park trolley trail section moving ahead: http://www.gazette.net/article/20121011/NEWS/710119795/1029/college-park-closer-to-meeting-walkable-community-goal&template=gazette

I don't know why the state highway administration needs to be involved with local bike trail design?

[SJE]

Are any lawyers out there able to comment on whether Lance violated a Federal Law by cheating while on the US Postal team?

[brybry]

I think they should have the Capital Crescent Trail in a tunnel well below the Bethesda Purple Line Station separated from the air ducts building.

[charlie]

@SJE: I doubt very much any federal laws were violated. They gathered this evidence using the the US Attorney investigation, but they clearly declined to prosecute.

If you think he was doping, he may have perjured himself in a civil suit.

Honestly, I am less than impressed with their evidence. Given it is a circumstantial case and you have to take each piece as a brick, not a wall. However, a hell of a lot of hearsay and very tainted witnesses.

[Michael H.]

The separate legal investigation wrapped up previously without bringing any charges against Lance Armstrong or anyone associated with the U.S. Postal Service team. That issue has already been investigated. The prosecutors decided that there wasn't enough to go on to bring a criminal case.

I don't have any insight into the details of the reasoning. But the fact that they decided not to file charges says a lot.

As for the USADA report, I'd say that it's likely that Armstrong engaged in some sort of doping. But I still find it difficult to believe every specific allegation, given the very serious problems with some of the witnesses. Landis and Hamilton have a lot of motivation to exaggerate and even lie. But I tend to put more faith in Hincapie's testimony.

What I don't sympathize with is the outrage from some sports commentators, saying that this is "the biggest fraud in sports history." Please. Look at the games that are taking place this very weekend in the big sports of baseball and football. Admitted dopers like Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte are featured members of the New York Yankees.

Perhaps the majority of the superstars in baseball over the past 40 years were dopers. There is a lot of evidence, and admisssions, regarding stars like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, and so on. And yet, no championship or individual records have been changed after the fact.

Look at football and the crimes that some of the players have been involved in, from alleged rape by Ben Roethlisberger to the bar brawl and homicide many years ago involving Ray Lewis. (He was not prosecuted for committing the homicide and may not have been directly involved. But he could have been involved somehow.) Kobe Bryant was investigated for rape. In those cases, it seemed like there was a lot more than just a she said-he said case, with Bryant issuing a public statement that seemed to read to me as an admission.

All of these players are still playing and still being cheered on and celebrated as sports heroes.

Lance Armstrong has never been a perfect individual. He is known for his prickly demeanor and for his poor relationship history. But given how much other big-name athletes get away with, I find it hard to say that Armstrong is the worst thing in sports.

Even if he were, his enormous impact on cancer research and fundraising shouldn't be discounted. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research. It's likely that those efforts have saved numerous lives, through improved treatments, promotion of early testing and better education about general health and nutrition practices.

It's a mixed bag, but no, I can't say that Lance Armstrong is 100 percent evil.

[freewheel]

R.I.P. Bill Line, who I will always picture as seen in this classic WashCycle photo.

[GMB]

Re: U-turns in the Penn Ave bike lanes: what if they kept the short line of bollards at the ends of the blocks, but made the last one a sign that said something to the effect of "mid-block U-turns illegal"

[oboe]

a hell of a lot of hearsay and very tainted witnesses.

Just a minor point: "hearsay" doesn't mean direct eyewitness testimony from co-conspirators, which is the case with most of the testimony in the USADA case. The folks giving evidence were people who'd been on Armstrong's various teams for years. And they gave testimony because they were compelled by a grand jury.

"Hearsay" means unverified information heard second-hand. In other words, someone who testifies that they heard a rumor through someone else.

Sorry, but you hear this one a lot, and it's always bugged me.

In any case, to folks who've followed the case, the biggest issue with Armstrong is not the fact that he doped (though there certainly was not a level playing field when it came to doping), but the fact that aside from the doping, the game was often rigged to allow Armstrong to get a pass on his doping by the sport's governing bodies, all while his rivals were being busted.

[oboe]

Oh, one other thing: maybe you could expound on the whole "tainted witness" thing, which I find pretty hilarious.

Ten ex-teammates testify to things they've directly witnessed, but they're "tainted" because two of them previously denied having taken PEDs?

LOL.

[washcycle]

yeah, I've been an LA defender in the past, and even I have to concede that the breadth and width of evidence, and Armstrong's unwillingness to refute them, makes it highly likely that he's guilty of something close to what they've accused him of. I think even he realizes the game is up, and has come to grips with it. Perhaps it's even a relief to him. I wonder if we'll ever get a Nixon-Frost style admission out of him or if he will continue to deny along the lines of Pete Rose and O.J. Simpson.

[charlie]

The "tainted witness" thing is that they got sweetheart deals (lessened suspensions) for testifying. No different than convicting convicting a drug kingpin based on the evidence of his ten underlinings who got sweetheart deals on their various murders.*

Oboe is correct the UCI stuff is the most interesting. However, he is wrong about the hearsay. Almost all the stuff I've seen in the paper is hearsay ("The doctor was telling me a a story about saline...) or not probative "Lance was in the room with the doctor for 45 minutes."

In a court, a lot of that would be thrown out, which is probably one reason why the prosecutors would not touch this case. I know this is difficult, but hearsay evidence can be true -- it just isn't allowed in court.

* good practice not to get the plea deals for witnesses in place until AFTER the trial of the kingpin.

[oboe]

Actually the prosecution was squashed by the political appointee who oversaw the office. It was never a matter of the prosecutor declining to bring the case to trial. It was a matter of Armstrong bringing political pressure to bear on his investigator's bosses.

In fact, there are a lot of parallels between the Novitsky investigation and Armstrong's other near misses: the prosecution was killed by folks unconnected to the investigation after political pressure was brought to bear.

In any case, if you haven't read Hamilton's book, and want to speak in an informed way on the topic, you should.

From the Outside review: "It’s hard to describe the impact of The Secret Race by boiling it down to seven or eight shocking anecdotes. The book delivers them—make no mistake—but its real power comes from Hamilton’s unprecedented attempt at full disclosure. And I mean full. The book is the holy grail for disillusioned cycling fans in search of answers. In a taut 268 pages, Hamilton confidently and systematically destroys any sense that there was ever any chance of cleaning up cycling in the early 2000s, revealing the sport’s powerful and elaborate doping infrastructure. He’s like a retiring magician who has decided to let the public in on the profession’s most guarded techniques."

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/media/books/Keyes-hamilton-the-secret-race.html

[charlie]

Oboe; before going off of political conspiracies, look a the evidence. Would it be enough to get a grand jury -- probably. In fact, USADA's report reads like a grand jury report.

Enough to convict: in my mind, no. * There is a lot of stuff that could be impeached.

As you said, the allegations against the UCI are interesting; probably outside a US court's jurisdiction and very hearsay ("I heard someone say that we've got a guy inside who can kill the test.")

* RICO? Maybe. Or as I said perjury in the previous civil suit. That should be pretty easy.

[BlooEyedDevil]

There is one compelling piece of evidence that strongly indicates Armstrong doped: He won the TdF SEVEN CONSECUTIVE TIMES.

@Michael H., well written and thought out comment. However, you make an assumption that is common but incorrect...that Armstrong (via Livestrong) has "raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research."

Livestrong raises money for cancer *awareness*, not research. Awareness is important, but there's a huge difference between that and research.

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/athletes/lance-armstrong/Its-Not-About-the-Lab-Rats.html

[BlooEyedDevil]

Additional info on Livestrong's use of funds:

http://livestrong.org/What-We-Do/Our-Approach/Where-the-Money-Goes

[T]

It will cost $400 million more to build Baltimore's Red Line on a system that doesn't have near the frequency of use that Metro has, but how much do you want to bet MD will make that top priority?

[Buy viagra online without prescription]

ertsbuifxbtidzdmf, Buy viagra online, Wesqsgg, Buy viagra in canada, AZpfsrS, Kamagra jellies from abroad, LTvCOBv, Association Of Criminal Defense Lawyers, YhkCmQh, Buy levitra online, cObmNNt, Trade Show Displays Edmonton, YTRELqj.

[Blue volume pills]

mcnuauifxbtidzdmf/dpn, volume pills, yZhiWfR.

[Female herbal viagra]

ocdezuifxbtidzdmf/dpn, Viagra prescription buy, mbzlwCo.

[Levitra canadian]

rxawfuifxbtidzdmf/dpn, Levitra walmart 900, CRQikId.

[Wholesale electronic cigarettes]

gwtczuifxbtidzdmf, Truth about electronic cigarettes, gSEauBj, Hgh legal substitute, JGRNQXj, Where can i find electronic cigarettes, TtLJjVd, Les avantage et inconveniant phen 375, sdwxWGU, Is vigrx plus a scam, dzckxfv, Hgh factor legal, IOGkzzA.