TheWashCycle

Halloween Afternoon Commute - The Assembly

Happy Halloween

• LAB released their Fall 2012 list of Bicylce Friendly Businesses. Local entries include Bethesda Urban Partnership, Capitol Hill Bikes, Environmental and Energy Study Instititute (EESI) (Washington, DC), MEPT Courthouse Tower LLC c/o Lincoln Property Co (Arlington), SRA International, Inc. (Arlington) and Winrock International (Arlington) - all Bronze; and Honorable Mention winners American Center for Physics (College Park) and Kittelson & Associates, Inc. - Reston.
• The DC BAC is requesting information on the delayed Met Branch Bridge to the Rhode Island Avenue Metro. 
• In addition to U-turns across the Penn Ave cycletrack, one must look out for what my oldest would excitedly call a "digger". 
• BicycleSpace is organizing an advocacy group called the Assembly which will attempt to 'devise and organize "Street Actions"-- focused efforts meant to inspire and involve people.' The Pennsylvania Avenue "no u-turn" ride is an example of what they have in mind. 
• Speaking of Pennsylvania Avenue, WABA references the downgrade of that project in their action alert about L Street. 
• Two more robberies on the Met Branch Trail this month "3:06 p.m. Oct. 20. Two males walking on a bike trail approached a man working on a bicycle, then robbed him of the bike and a cellphone at gunpoint." and "Oct. 19. Two pedestrians approached a bicyclist at the entrance to a bike trail, knocked her from the bike and robbed her of a laptop computer, a fanny pack and the bike. No serious injuries were reported."
• I'm sorry, but no, Chicago and New York are not better biking cities than DC. [I can't speak for San Francisco]
• The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority has announced proposed safety changes to the W&OD Trail.  See list of changes below

Belmont Ridge Road
• Relocate or eliminate parking area on the northwest and northeast corners. This work has been completed.
• Add actuated rectangular rapid flash beacons to alert motorists to the presence of a trail user.
• Trim vegetation to improve sight lines. Work completed by NVRPA and VDOT
• Consider construction of a 12 foot wide crossing island to create a refuge and to traffic calm the crossing.
• Consider in the long term grade separation as the ideal improvement.

Sterling Boulevard
• NVRPA and VDOT are working together to consider reducing the length of the northbound deceleration/left turn lane on Sterling Boulevard to expand median refuge.
• Consider the addition of actuated rectangular rapid flash beacons to alert motorists to the presence of a trail user, based on results from Belmont Ridge Road.
• NVRPA to work with VDOT and Loudoun County to expand the sidewalk network along Sterling Boulevard.

Wiehle Avenue
• NVRPA and Fairfax County to work together to identify short term improvements to include:  improved roadway markings, additional signage and potential lane width improvements.
• Consideration to widen the median refuge.
• Consider alternate signal timing to reduce conflict with trail crossing.

Hunter Mill Road
• NVRPA and VDOT to address vegetation and terrain issues that affect sight line distance.
• Consider replacing advanced trail crossing flashing beacon with Actuated Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacons.

Lee Highway (Route 29)
• NVRPA to realign trail approaches to orient better to the crossing for trail users and motorists.
• NVRPA to work with Arlington County to consider adjusting signal timing and phasing.
• NVRPA to work with Arlington County to consider turn lane options, such as relocating or adding additional signage. 

Columbia Pike:
• The trail approaches will be realigned to intersect at a better angle to the roadway.
• NVRPA to work with Arlington County to consider adjusting signal timing and phasing.

 

Crystal Ride Bike Light Giveaway

Are you ready for Daylight Savings Time?  Set your clocks back 1 hour this Sunday and be ready for an earlier sunset with the Crystal Ride Bike Light Giveaway!  The Crystal City Business Improvement District will be stationed on the Mount Vernon Trail at the Crystal City Connector from 4 PM to 6 PM (or while supplies last) this Friday, November 2^nd handing out free front “Bug Eye” lights and Tail Lights to any and all cyclists who stop by!  Grab one of each for yourself or if you already have lights, give them to a friend or loved one! 

Student Conservation Association helps maintain DC trails

The Student Conservation Association, in conjunction with DDOT and NPS, performed hundreds of hours of service maintaining trails, removing trash and removing invasive species.

SCA also partnered with the District Department of Transportation for the second year which helped fund 4 crews and 22 students in District parks and green spaces this summer. SCA was able to establish two new wonderful relationships this summer. There were 10 students working with the District Department of Environment in their Cooperative Weed Management Areas

In Fort DuPont Park, they built 385 feet of new Mountain Biking Trail and maintained over 2000 feet of trail (some of which may have been hiking trail) including removing fallen trees.

Crew members working along the Metropolitan Branch Trail maintained 1,840ft of trail.Students removed invasive plant species along 1,640ft of the trail and built 40ft of new trail.Students also removed nearly 200 sq. ft. of trash from along the trail and installed 4 large log steps

And of course there's an education component to the whole program as well. This is a well-run program and it's funded - in part - by DC's Recreational Trails funding. 

Tuesday Afternoon Ride - webinar

Good afternoon

• Capital Bikeshare reopened today at 1pm (1 hour earlier than Metro). Rebalancing will not resume until 4pm, and the Prince and Union station in Alexandria will remain out of service
• The Green Lane Project will be giving a free webinar on cycletracks and other such facilities. 
• The 2012 DC Tweed Ride is coming up on November 4th. They should make a stop at an early voting facility. 

NW Branch Trail repaving started this week

Photo by Jeff L.

Jeff reports that this started a few days ago "between Route 1 and 38^th Street.  With this section paved, our levee reconstruction woes would seem to be over. The NE Branch trail has been fully paved, painted and reopened for a week or two now."

Tuesday Afternoon Stay Home - Sandy

8665140Good afternoon

• DDOT finally plans to start putting ads on CaBi stations, which could bring in several million dollars for CaBi. "It could well pay for all operating costs combined,"... "Arlington County does not currently allow outdoor ads like those D.C. is seeking. Hamilton said county staffers are interested in changing those rules to allow ads on the bike stations and on bus shelters. Additionally, Hamilton said, the county wants to get a systemwide sponsorship of the bikesharing program the way New York City has done with its Citi Bike program sponsored by Citibank and MasterCard. "We'd love to see it and get the revenue," he said."
• Cyclist nearly dodges being victim in single car crash. Blames speeding.
• CaBi closed for "hurricane". So did the airport this morning, even though it was just barely raining, trapping my Mother-in-Law here for two more days. 
• More on the Penn Ave cycletrack protest. 
• GGW documents progress on the L Street Cycletrack. I rode it this weekend, and I like what I see so far. 
• UVA is a new honorable mention Bicycle Friendly University. 
• "the head-shakers and finger-waggers have it exactly wrong. Yes, the Armstrong scandal revealed systemic cheating in a sport that was corrupt to its core—a decade ago. In the landscape of professional sport right now, cycling may actually be one of the cleaner sports around." Also, this.  
• The Netherlands is considering heated bike lanes. When I was in Iceland, I seem to recall that all the roads were heated by geothermal energy. 
• This is a weird article, especially for a bike blog, but here is the relevant part “Bike rides,” he says, “are reimbursed half a kroner per kilometer.”
• Compact chainless bicycle. 

Sunday Video - Roads are for Space Shuttles

This isn't totally bike related (though it does appear staff are using bikes to follow along with the shuttle and people are using bikes to see it - so I'll call that working bikes), but it is pretty darn cool. 

Bike for sale

I'm selling one of my bikes. This was the bike I used to get around DC. I could leave it parked in public unlike my commuter, which had too much stuff attached. Now I use CaBi. So I don't need this bike anymore, but it's a good little bike (it's the bike I got from Bicycling Magazine as part of Bike Town). I'd hang on to it, but we need to make room for the au pair. So now it's for sale.

Anyway, if you're interested - or you think I've wildly mispriced it - let me know (dcwashcycle@gmail.com). This has the advantage of not quite buying from a stranger, and it might be like buying Jon Voigt's car among the limited number of people who equate me with Jon Voight. 

Friday Afternoon Commute - Cardboard

Good afternoon

• Wired's autopia feature covers bike sharing and CaBi in particular. 
• Local retail stores not really impacted by USADA's Lance Armstrong report. Michelob Ultra sales, however, have plummeted. 
• Metro is seeking input on how to improve and how to prepare for the future. So far, only one discussion topic even mentions bicycles or bicycling - and then it is just in passing. I made a list of recommended Metro improvements several years ago (since then #3 and #5 have been enacted), but we could also talk about bike parking, CaBi station space/integration and preventing bike theft and ending full day bike bans such as on the 4th of July. 
• There are some good common sense improvements suggested in this article about the place where the Rock Creek and Potomac Park Trail crosses the old western turnaround of Constitution Avenue. I reeally like the idea of closing the circle and extending the trail straight across the site along the road. It would make for a nice park and perhaps the site of a future memorial. 
• A cyclist crashed on Qunicy Street in Arlington because of a very poorly patched utility cut in the pavement (video), and Mark Blacknell points out that poor pavement is often the cause of crashes. "Failure to aggressively hold itself and others to reasonable standards of safe pavement — both temporary and permanent — does a real disservice to Arlington County." In a later column, he follows up with Dennis Leach, the county's transportation director. 
• A couple of weeks ago, WABA met with Montgomery county officials and representatives of Montgomery Preservation Inc. (MPI) " to resolve the impasse on the trail alignment as it crosses Georgia Avenue and passes the historic B&O Train Station that serves as a headquarters and event space for MPI.  At this meeting, MCDOT officials stated that the agency, the County Executive, and the County Council were committed to the Master Plan Trail Alignment and to a grade separated crossing of Georgia Avenue, and that design work is beginning."  So, according to WABA the issue of alignment is resolved. That's good news. 
• Here's more good news. $2.3 million has been allocated to build a W&OD Trail overpass at Wiehle Avenue. It was funded as part of improvements identified in the Reston Metro Access Group study, in which FABB participated several years ago. "In the interim, $46,000 was allocated for installing a raised median and additional signage there. This is a relatively low cost measure that would help slow motorist at the crosswalk, especially those using the left turn lane."
• "Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Bethesda has proposed the county seek authority from the state to establish either a local gas or sales tax to fund transportation." This is relevant for two reasons. One, higher gas prices might induce more biking (though probably not much) and, two, some of the money would likely go toward building the Purple Line. The Purple Line will change the Georgetown Branch Trail from an unpaved tree-lined trail that ends suddenly, into a paved and completed Capital Crescent Trail all the way to Silver Spring. 
• Next week, the Virginia Transportation Board will be holding a public meeting in Fairfax to "discuss projects and programs in the CTB’s current Six-Year Improvement Program (SYIP) and provide comments for the development of the Fiscal Years 2014-2019 SYIP"
• The $20 bike with a cardboard frame could change the world. "These bikes need no maintenance and no adjustment, a car timing belt is used instead of a chain, and the tires do not need inflating and can last for 10 years," he said. It would also put an end to bike theft. 

Friday Morning Commute - U-turn, Me-turn, we all turn for ice cream or something

Good morning

• One person stood on Penn Ave during rush hour and observed 25 cars make illegal U-turns across the cycletrack in 30 minutes. In response MPD put up those earlier mentioned "No U-Turn" signs and reportedly wrote some tickets. 
• There was a forum on bicycling this week that featured Martha Roskowski of Bikes Belong, Jim Sebastian of DDOT and Ellen Jones of the Downtown BID, which is probably why you're seeing so many stories like this one. 
• "What is the best way to bike in the Georgia Avenue corridor from the Matthew Henson Trail crossing to Forest Glen Road?  As with the proposed Rt. 29 corridor route, Montgomery County DOT is planning to post bike route signs along the best Georgia Avenue corridor route and is asking the cycling community for input."
• WABA and MoBike make recommendation to Montgomery County about which facilities are needed to make bike sharing a success. 
• "Cycling teams are calling for an independent audit into the sport's fight against doping after Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles."
• Wired on bike sharing and Capital Bikeshare.