Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Newtown is Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech is Newtown.

Good afternoon

• Jonathan Maus visits the US DOT HQ in SE. I don't find M Street or New Jersey Ave to be so difficult to bike, but I'll agree they could be better. "there's a strong core of bike commuters at USDOT" and "I asked Lesh if the FTA would ever accept bikeshare as an officially recognized public transit option. He said it's too early for that; but it could happen in a few years"
• VDOT is holding public hearings on changes to I-66. FABB is asking cyclists to go to the hearings and ask that the Custis Trail be extended in Fairfax County in keeping with the County Trails Plan.
• The Newtown riders arrived in DC today. "Before riding into D.C. to meet at the Capitol, the group will meet up with members of the Virginia Tech cycling team. Frank says Virginia Tech alum and rider Omar Samaha told him that his team would follow the Sandy Hook riders, but Frank insisted the two teams would ride side by side."
• Arlington County will host a series of community events this week as part of the next round of public workshops for Realize Rosslyn, the effort to update the Rosslyn Sector Plan. 
• Read the transcript from the Kojo show yesterday. Veronica Davis of Black Women Bike showed up in place of Carolyn Szczepanski.
• WABA's Winter Open House is tomorrow (and getting in just under the wire)
• Pittsburgh next to get bike sharing. 
• Instead of a mandatory tax on bike purchases, what about an optional tax at car registration for bike facilities.

Comments

[PghSteve]

Team 26? 26 angels pushing them along? I seem to recall that there were 27 victims in Sandy Hook. I guess these riders feel that the shooter,s mother deserved to be shot while sleeping because, after all, she had guns in the house. Call me cold, but I'll not acknowledge the efforts of any group that feels that is is somehow OK to exclude Mrs Lanza from the victim count. Shame on these people.

[MM]

Extending the Custis would be freaking awesome. I think the logical split would be where the W&OD crosses the Beltway (unless money wasn't an issue and building the parallel to the W&OD for a few miles was in the cards). I can't help but think there is a lot of latent demand for those out in places like Fair Lakes and Centerville, who'd consider biking to Vienna and taking the Metro in, or biking to points along the W&OD/Custis corridor, rather than sitting on I-66.

It would also be a much less impactful way to visit the Manassas battlefield, which pretty much requires a car right now.

[washcycle]

Whoa, slow down. I'm not sure why they chose 26, but y'know, Hanlon's razor and all:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by ignorance.

This could just be a harmless oversight, or it could be that they don't consider her a victim in the same way. But I doubt they think she deserved to be shot. That's quite an accusation to throw around with zero evidence.

[Brad Hancock]

Why not keep this about bicycles and leave gun comments and "news" to another forum that is set up for that topic. I happen to like bikes and be a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights. I'd appreciate keeping the two relatively separate as I see zero real linkage between them. So far, I have ignored the gun posts, but they seem to be getting more prevalent. What's next on WashCycle, a debate on religion?

[washcycle]

What's next on WashCycle, a debate on religion?

No, there's nothing to debate. If you're not Catholic then you're going to hell. I thought we all knew that.

[Crikey7]

We could combine the two.

We could have confessionals where cyclists admits to sins venal and cardinal, like not wearing a helmet for the former and failing to signal when passing for the latter.

[TwoWheeledJew]

There's actually a pretty interesting debate on whether its in accord with Jewish law to ride a bike on shabbat or jewish holidays.

[Crikey7]

I've seen that there were big debates last year about closing bikeshare programs in Israeli cities on Yom Kippur.

[TwoWheeledJew]

Unlike a car, you arent engaging in combustion to ride a bike. The only shabbos law you are violating is the ban on "carrying" which is "work". But you are allowed to carry on holidays (though not on Yom Kippur) and you are allowed to carry on shabbot within an eruv (a symbolic enclosure traditionally of string, but can include utility wires, which can make an entire neighborhood like a 'shared courtyard' in which carrying is not work) - large parts of DC and MoCo are inside eruvs. That would make biking licit on holidays and within eruvim on shabbos. Most Orthodox Ashkenazi rabbis still ban biking in those instances, on the flimsy grounds that one might be tempted to repair one's bike (a violation) Most Conservative authorities, and Orthodox Sephardi authorities, reject this reasoning, AFAICT.

[TwoWheeledJew]

Its also customary among the secular population in Tel Aviv to ride bikes on Yom Kippur, a day when there is virtually no motor traffic in that city.

[David R.]

What's the thinking on locking and unlocking a bike on shabbos?

[TwoWheeledJew]

you are allowed to lock and unlock a house on shabbos. I suppose if someone holds by the opinion that riding is forbidden, they might believe that a bike is muktza (something forbidden to be touched on shabbos, as a car is) but that seems weird to me - the prohibition on riding is based on either the flimsy temptation to fix grouds, or the carrying ban - and you can certainly touch things that you are not allowed to carry. So I don't see any problem with locking/unlocking - but I Am Not A Rabbi.

[MB]

Dude, I don't roll on shabbos.

[Crikey7]

You can't mention Mormon missionaries without mentioning their bikes.

[Shalom]

In fact, bringing a lock might make it possible to overcome the "temptation to fix" grounds, if you know for certain that instead of carrying out a prohibited repair, you have prepared yourself to simply lock up the bicycle and walk to wherever you were going.

But most opinions err on the safe side, so you never wind up in that situation in first place, by just sticking to walking on shabbat and holidays. Which among other things tends to result in compact, walkable communities wherever there's a high concentration of those are shabbat-observant.