TheWashCycle

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Phase 4

Good morning

• A WABA Board member, Martin Moulton, is running for the ANC 6E02 seat. 
• During game 3 of the NL playoffs, about 9% of all the bikes went to the baseball stadium at least once, in part because they had a bike corral. 
• Last week, College Park's City Council selected a contractor to complete the fourth phase of the College Park Trolley Trail. That section is a roughly seven-block stretch of off-road pavement between Calvert Road and Paint Branch Parkway. Construction for phase four will begin in the spring and be completed by mid-summer. Phase 5 will add another 2 block section in the Lakeland area.
• Another bridge over the Beltway - this time Route 7 - is rebuilt with facilities for cyclists and pedestrians thanks to the HOT lanes project. 
• "On Saturday, October 20, fans of the Western Maryland Rail Trail have organized their own fall foliage bike ride and picnic. When the colors start to turn and blaze, there are few better seats in the house than a rail-trail. Here's a few rail-trails famous for their fall colors."
• An Australian study finds that both helmet use (in the case a mandatory helmet law) and cycling infrastructure reduces the rate of injuries. 
• "For the first time since the end of the Second World War the number of bicycles sold in Italy has overtaken the number of cars"

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Faranwalia

Good afternoon

• A bicyclist was injured early this morning when two other men, who were fighting in the street, ran into him. "The man on the bike was [taken] to GW [hospital] but is expected to be fine."
• It might be that the Caffritz property in Riverdale - that straddles a future gap-closing section of the PG County Trolley Trail - is closer to being reality. 
• The Silver Spring Transit Center, and it's section of the Met Branch Trail, are further delayed. ""We're still pushing to have this, whatever we do, done before the cold weather sets in," Dise said. Though he would not commit to an opening date, he suggested the possibility of opening parts of the facility while continuing to repair others."
• If not New York City, what is DC like. Alan Sunderman argues Faranwalia, Guinea where many people bike despite being 99.99% black; and Alex Baca argues Montreal - because we use the same bike sharing system and we both have a lack of dedicated funding. Although I think Baca is wrong to worry that CaBi might go bankrupt or lack for necessary funding. 
• Fairfax County Parkway Trail still closed at Fair Lakes Blvd
• Bike tours of Virginia wine country. 
• This was to be the summer of bikeshare in NYC and a huge victory for the 40 year-old Transportation Alternatives non-profit. But software delays have halted deployment. "Any stumbles could call into question the wisdom not only of bike share itself, but of its underlying premise: that bicycles are a key part of the city’s transit system, an argument the group has made since the 1970s." Nonetheless, much of what the group once promoted as pie-in-the-sky has come to be. 
• Converted bike-advocate, Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), has suddenly decided not to run for re-election this fall. 
• Choosing a bike to match your outfit (future project runway theme)
• In Milan, Italy a parking garage sued the city over the new congestion charge, which was working, but costing them revenue. "The ruling, which eliminated a charge of 5 euros, or about $6, to drive into the city’s core, was embraced by many businesses in the affected area. Environmental groups and cycling lobbies reacted angrily, saying that the ruling suspended what had been a strong effort to improve the air quality and livability of one of the most traffic-clogged and polluted cities in Europe. ...During the six months when the charge was enforced, traffic within the zone decreased by 34 percent and overall traffic in Milan by 7 percent, Mr. Maran said, noting that the point of the fee was to diminish the use of private cars. The money raised was tagged for more public transport, bike lanes and parking lots outside the city center." Maybe giving parking garage operators a cut of the revenue - at least for a few years - is a solution. 

Monday Morning Commute - Already expecting a lot of "2020, it looks great" kind of promotions in 8 years

I think I failed to publish this this morning. If not I apologize for republishing.

• The Bethesda Trailhead of the Capital Crescent Trail has been restricted for some time and will continue to be so for weeks. "The crosswalk over Bethesda Avenue between Barnes & Noble and the trail has been closed due to utility work. Unfortunately, it will be around the end of July before this work is complete.  In the meantime, they have signed the temporary entrance to the trail and made room around their barricade for trail users coming from the Bethesda Avenue roadway to have direct access"
• Prince George's County officials voted last week to approve the rezoning of a site that will straddle the future extension of the College Park Trolley Trail through Riverdale (Should we start calling it the Prince George's County Trolley Trail?). "With the new mixed-use zoning designation, the Cafritz family can move forward with plans to develop the wooded site just north of East-West Highway, where it plans to build a Whole Foods." The trail now ends just north of the site and work is underway just south of it. The store is planned to open in 2015.
• Joel Gwadz writes about the recent fatal bike-ped crash on the Four Mile Run Trail and about suggestions for using trails safely. 
• The draft plan for the SW Ecodistrict is finished and available for comment through Sept 10. The pictures on this post are both from the plan. A meeting is also scheduled for July 19. The plan includes bike lanes, bike sharing, signage, parking, storage and repair facilities.
• Chicago's Transportation Commissioner, Gabe Klein, recently discussed that city's 2020 Bike Plan . [I guess that right now he's glad Gray didn't offer to keep him on] The plan calls for over 600 miles of bike facilities bu 2020. “Car sharing, ride sharing, bike sharing really are the ways you can make a difference in the way your city functions and how it connects with the neighborhoods,” he said.

Tuesday Morning Commute - The Minuteman Trail people will stop at nothing

Good morning

• DDOT has scheduled a public meeting to provide an update on the M Street SE/SW Transportation Study."The study examines the transportation challenges on M Street between 12th Street SE and 12th Street SW as well as from the Southeast-Southwest Freeway south to the Anacostia River. Among other things, the study is looking at how to best allow pedestrian and bicycle traffic to coexist with cars and buses, while also trying to accommodate residents and visitors.  The meeting will take place on Thursday, May 24, between 6:30 and 8 p.m. It will take place at the Capitol Skyline Hotel, located at 10 I (Eye) Street SW."
• A proposal for a bike path at Washington Circle. 
• There have been 5 sexual assault on the Northwest Branch Hiker/Biker Trail this year. "In the most recent attack, police say the victim was walking on the trail near the Chillum Community Park and the West Hyattsville Metro Station when she was approached by a man with a gun....Anyone with information is asked to call park police at 301 459-9091 or Hyattsville police at 301 985-5060"
• New CaBi stations in Arlington. At Wilson and George Mason and at Washington and 7th.
• Project that will extend the College Park Trolley Trail runs into some opposition.
• Want more shade on your bike route? Get DDOT to plant a tree for you. 
• More on the study of gender disparity on Bicycle Advisory Committees.
• Is getting rid of the dock the future of bike sharing or does it make it harder to use?
• Get a free bridge - one way or another. "Claiming to be a demolition crew, the con men-turned-thieves showed up at a train station in Slavkov with forged papers saying that the bridge had been condemned and that the unused railroad track was supposed to be torn up to make way for a new bicycle path"

Trolley Trail in PG County to be extended south

Construction will begin early this summer on an approximately one-mile stretch of the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Line Trail in Riverdale Park from Tuckerman Street—just south of the Cafritz property— to the recently constructed trail in the Hyattsville EYA district.

The trail will run along the industrial district at the north end of town, take a stroll through the town center parking lot, and pick up again along Rhode Island Avenue beside the current home of the Archie Edwards Blues and Heritage Foundation. That building, which also once housed a book and coffee shop, is actually one of the few existing trolley car depots in the area.

The asphalt path will be built at grade and be about 10-feet wide in most places, said Nivera. The connecting trail in Hyattsville is just asphalt, but because the trial in Riverdale has to follow new Prince George's County stormwater management regulations, it will also include rain gardens and swales, she said. These features are commonly used in construction to harvest rainwater and conserve soil.

Construction on the $600,000 trail will likely take between 6 and 9 months, during which time the trail will be closed, Nivera said. Residents can plan on taking hikes and bike rides on the new trail sometime next spring.

That will still leave a gap across the Cafritz property which will filled in once the property is developed.

More work on Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail and Little Paint Branch Trail to start soon

College Park is going to start work on the trail gap near the Metro Station. 

The City of College Park, Maryland requests sealed bid proposals for the construction of a hiker/biker trail in the right-of-way along Rhode Island Avenue between Paint Branch Parkway and Calvert Road in College Park, Maryland, for a distance of one-third (1/3) mile.

Bids are due on March 15. This gap isn't too dire, since you can easily ride on Rhode Island Avenue, but it should be nice for peds. 

Meanwhile, not very far away, the Little Paint Branch Trail extension will begin design this year. 

A new two mile segment of the Little Paint Branch Trail will begin design in 2012. The new trail extension will connect the existing trail at the Beltsville Community Center to the Paint Branch Trail that currently ends at Cherry Hill Road in College Park. The new trail will parallel Cherry Hill and Sellman Roads. With the new trail segment, you will be able to bicycle or walk from the Beltsville Community Center to the Bladensburg Waterfront Park on a continuous 10-mile trail. 

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Megazord

Good morning

• A car, illegally parked in the 15th Street cycletrack, was ticketed. Then nastygrammed. Then vandalized. Then towed. Sometimes, the whole city just pulls together. [But I don't condone the vandalism]
• The Capital Bikeshare station at 15th and P streets NW was expanded today. 
• There's a new section of the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail under construction in Hyattsville. This 5-block long section between Hamilton and Madison is being built by EYA as part of their development there. 
• More on the Clarendon Circle redesign.
• Research shows that urban greening creates activity that drives away crime. And RTC points out that trails create the same kind of activity. Despite this fact, people fear that trails will bring crime.
• LAB, the Alliance for Walking and Biking and Bikes Belong have agreed to unite into one organization.  They will not, however, be joining the Big East like everyone else. 

Friday Morning Commute - Mission Accomplished

With the Iraq War now over I just want to take a brief moment to thank all the men and women who served their country over there. Welcome home. This does not include my friend Rick who met his lovely wife there and considers the war the best thing that ever happened to him. He's gotten plenty out of it and doesn't need any thanks.

• The Whole Foods project that surrounds a future section of the PG County Trolley Trail is stalled. "Riverdale Park officials said in a letter to the Planning Board that it can support the zoning change under several conditions. Those include: ... improving the hiking and biking trails..."
• COG will consider reapplying for a TIGER grant to make walking and biking to transit stations easier when the next round of money is made available next year. 
• 10 surprising facts about Arlington cyclists.
• Respect the troll.
• USA Cycling has narrrowed the list of cyclists who can make the Olympic track cycling team.

Monday Afternoon Commute - Room for bike trails

Only one link for today

• Riverdale Park, MD officials commented on the proposed Whole Foods development along Route 1. The development straddles the streetcar ROW that further north is used for the College Park Trolley Trail. Plans are to extend it south along the development.  In their draft letter to the Prince George's County Planning Board "Riverdale Park officials recommend approving the zoning change, but only if dozens of changes are made to the development plan, such as trimming large swaths of surface parking and leaving room for bike trails and other transportation to access the development in the future."

Thursday Morning Commute - Phobos

It's the 134th Anniversary of the discovery of Mars' Moon Phobus. Which was discovered by Asaph Hall right here in DC. As a result, I always thought Phobos would be the great name for a DC bar (you can have that one Joe Englert). 

• It seems there are no bike racks at the MLK Memorial. Now I have a dream.
• Capitol Police already made an arrest in the bike theft that John Kelly reported on yesterday. "Thomas F. Goode, 40, of Southeast Washington was charged with second-degree theft and receiving stolen property. In the end, it wasn’t a security camera that led to the man’s arrest. It was a tip."
• In the same article was something that seems to have validated a story I heard. "There was a rash of bike thefts from the employee bike racks a couple of months ago when about 7 or 8 bicycles were stolen. Apparently some people weren't locking their bikes up at all because the racks are in the garages and there are Capitol Police officers who are stationed right next to the bike racks. Capitol police investigated and caught a U.S. House employee who had an apartment full of bicycles that were apparently stolen. Sadly it's just another example that you can never be too careful when it comes to locking up your bike." I contacted Capitol Police back then, so that they could brag a bit, but they didn't contact me back. John Kelly has what I assume are the details. "In June, the Capitol Police arrested Dana J. Wright and charged him with the theft of 10 bicycles. They were recovered by the Capitol Police and returned to their owners."
• Every week the Smithsonian gives details on one of the 137 million artifacts in their possession. This week it's the Shire Velocipede. "In the late 1860s, the forerunner to the bicycle was the velocipede, which originates from the Latin words for 'swift foot.' The velocipede had pedals on the front wheel but no drive mechanism, such as a chain on a bicycle. The velocipede was a stepping stone that created a market for bicycles, which led to the development of more advanced and efficient machines."
• There was another car crash on the GW Parkway at the crossing between Memorial Bridge and the MVT. Same as usual, cars stop to let trail users pass and get rear-ended. Maybe this will encorage NPS to find the money to build a tunnel. The Lynn Street tunnel was estimated at $1.3M, and that's for a longer tunnel.
• Greater detail on the various plans for the Cafritz project that straddles the Trolley Trail. The trail is basically the same in all of them, but the older ones are better.
• The MoCo Epic is a supported mountain bike ride connecting many of the major parks in Montgomery County. More than 80% of the ride is on singletrack. All proceeds benefit MORE.
• A guide to various bike facility types, though I don't think a "road" is technically a bike facility, I get where he's going with it.
• Helmets, they aren't just for biking anymore. "Helmets while riding a bike or playing football are good, reasonable precautions to take. Wearing a helmet while learning to walk? Now that’s just ridiculous." Is it?
• A judge dismissed efforts by a group of Brooklyn residents to remove the cycletrack installed by the city on Prospect Park West, claiming that the case was filed outside the statute of limitations.
• Markets in Everything