TheWashCycle

Tuesday Evening Commute - What did we do before Field of Dreams?

Good evening

• Let's Choose DC asks candidates in the Special Election about how drivers, cyclists and pedestrians can share the road. 
• A pair of letter writers to the Post either miss the point of bike helmet legislation opposition or ignore the reason for opposition. It is not opposition to bike helmets. It is opposition to a mandate to wear them. William Shepherd argues, in contrast to the evidence that a helmet law will not discourage biking and that "Helmet legislation such as that under consideration in Maryland will save lives, and passage of the bill will nudge the bikeshare system to provide helmets." Those points are very much in contention, and are not supported by the evidence thus far. 
• Bike sharing leads to more biking. "exposure to a BIXI station was associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of bike riding. The change didn't occur overnight. After the first season of BIXI there was a slight positive trend, but nothing measurable. By the end of the second season, however, Montreal residents who lived near a bike-share docking station were much more likely to be people who rode a bike."
• As a reminder, DC is a Green Lane Project city "The GLP aims to foster this evolving mindset by helping six target cities to adopt high-quality bicycle infrastructure – bike lanes where people can ride with at least some protection from car traffic in the form of bollards, parked cars, raised pavement, or other separation. Often they are painted – that’s right – green. GLP is educating city officials through travel and the exchange of information with peers around the world; identifying obstacles to implementation of better bike infrastructure; and gathering data to quantify the effect such lanes have on riding patterns and demographics. It will make its findings available to the general public as the project progresses."

2011 Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Hearing

Another Bankruptcy Post

Earlier this month Last year, there was a hearing on the Enforcement of Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety, chaired by Councilmember Phil Mendelson. The purpose of hearing was to serve as a followup to a February 4th hearing on the same subject  and to discuss the Assault of Bicyclists Prevention Act of 2011 (ABP Act).

Councilmember Tommy Wells spoke first in favor of the bill. Cycling is on the uptick in the District becasue the District has worked hard to be bicycle friendly. Wells discussed claims that the law is very harsh, but said that those who mistreat their fellow road users need to be treated harshly. He spent some time discussing the need for the ABP Act including the fact that DC has a very high number of taxis per capita and that, in his opinion, taxi cab drivers are the most hostile drivers on the road. He's seen them make very aggressive maneuvers - midblock u-turns for example - to get a fare. The testimony from the previous hearing made it clear to him that the Council must do more to protect cyclists. He noted that he is eager to hear if citizens think the bill should be extended to other classes such as pedestrians.

CM Mary Cheh started out by citing statistics that there have been 31 pedestrian deaths and two cyclist deaths involving cars in the last year (actually, three cyclists have died in DC in the last year, but none of them involved cars) and that pedestrian and cyclist deaths are an increasing percentage of total road deaths. Cheh called for a "culture shift" from a car-first culture, as well as enforcement, technology and road design changes such as bike lanes and Pedestrian Lead Intervals at intersections. She stated her support of the ABP Act and touted the other recently introduced bills to make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians.

[Names below are often phonetic. My apologies for any misspellings]

Evan Wilder was the first speaker. He's the man who was hit in the video that has become emblematic of the need for the law (He was hit, and it was pretty clear it was intentional, but the US Attorney refused to prosecute).

14:00

Shane Farthing

Sandy Lean

Rudy Reit

***

 

much of discussion was about how scary it is to ride because of a few bad apples. MPD is often kind and supportive, but in one case a woman was hit by a police van but was ticketed with riding abreast - even though it was one cyclist. A lot of input on the bill, but no one testified against it.

Officers now have to interview everyone before closing a crash report. Reports still need to be done by end of shift, but with a note that supplemental information needs to be added - and they're expected to be finished. MPD is fighting culture - with more people cycling, need to get officers into fold and let them know this is important. Training module is part of that. But need traffic officers (need a traffic division) who are experts in this. Some officers don't operate cars and bikes safely. Using police officers to enforce laws on cyclists. Will work with WABA and DDOT to decide how and where to do that. Late November enforcement period. 70 officers have now gone through online bike/ped training. 2227 tickets for bike lane violations.

Mendelsohn, Wells and Cheh all spoke first. The latter two made statements supporting the anti-assault bill.

The cyclist who caught his assault on video spoke about how he suffered as a result of an attack that he didn't deserve, but the driver didn't even get a ticket. The video was shown and Mendlesohn pointed out that the driver swerved into the cyclists lane causing the crash.

Shane Farthing of WABA mentioned that there is a systemic problem with MPD enforcement of cycling laws and that this is backed up by the recent Police Complaints Board report.

More coverage at these links:

http://talesfromthesharrows.blogspot.com/2011/11/ride-in-112.html

http://oct.dc.gov/services/on_demand_video/on_demand_November_2011_week_1.shtm

http://currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/NW%2011.09.11%201.pdf

http://www.waba.org/blog/2011/11/bicycle-enforcement-anti-assault-bill-hearing-recap/

http://dcbac.blogspot.com/2011/11/november-2-bike-and-pedestrian.html

http://dcist.com/2011/11/can_you_legislate_a_culture.php

wamu.org/news/morning_edition/11/11/03/dc_considers_allowing_cyclists_to_sue_drivers

https://twitter.com/wabadc/status/131762480673341440

http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-on-foot/2011/11/district-bicyclists-to-d-c-council-yes-we-need-protection-from-angry-drivers--13429.html

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2011/11/04/post-reporters-dont-go-to-jon-stewart-march-do-testify-at-d-c-council/

http://transportationnation.org/2011/11/03/d-c-considers-allowing-cyclists-to-sue-drivers/

http://dcbac.blogspot.com/2011/11/enforcement-of-pedestrian-and-bicycle.html

Friday Afternoon Commute - Chairs

Am I the only one hoping Barney Frank gets appointed to fill Kerry's seat? I know it won't happen, but that guy is just too fun to lose. And realistically, he already knows Congress, will be 'unemployed' in January and could possibly move some of his staff with him. He could hit the ground running more any of the other people being mentioned could. But mostly, I just like seeing him interviewed.  But Deval should really just put Paul Kirk back in and save us the expense of paying an additional pension. Who else has his kind of experience with caretaker Senatoring for the Commonwealth?

• Mary Cheh stays as the Transportation committee chair. Bike commuting CM Tommy Wells is now chair of the the judiciary and public safety committee - which means MPD is under his watch. 
• The zoning for the St. Elizabeth's East Campus has been approved and it includes bike parking.
• One of the unintended consequences of bike commuting. "The [parking] tickets started stacking up the day after Thanksgiving, unbeknownst to many residents because they often ride the bus or bike or walk."

 

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Distorted

Good afternoon

• 6 CaBi bike stations will have to be temporarily removed for the inauguration. "There were 199,127 trips and 221,809 miles traveled in October 2012. The number of trips decreased by 9.0% from September" But that's up from 123,497 trips and 140,402 miles a month in October 2011 - ~60% year-to-year increase in both.
• The DC Council Committee meeting on bicycle and pedestrian safety mentioned this morning has been postponed into the next year. No word on the topless bars hearing. 
• A utility pole was recently installed on the MacArthur Boulevard Trail in Montgomery County - and also, continuing coverage of the war on everyone else. (Photo by John Kelly)
• "Advocates for Holmes Run Park Trail are pushing to install mile markers along the West End greenway to quicken emergency response times." Rather than using posts, they might just paint the markers on the trail. It could help with emergency response or responding to assaults on the trail - of which there have been two this year. 
• Using recycled tires to make water pervious trails. Win win win.
• According to a recent study the risks of walking, biking and driving are about the same for men - except for young men. "risks were similar for men aged between 21 and 49 for all three modes of transport and for female pedestrians and drivers aged 21 and 69 years," said lead author Dr Jennifer Mindell (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health). "However, we found that for young male cyclists between 17 and 20 years of age, cycling was markedly safer than travelling by car....research regarding the safety of cycling tends to be distorted by a number of errors which are found repeatedly in published papers and policy documents, with many substantially overstating cycling injuries and under-reporting pedestrian injuries." I can't tell if cycling is safer for women than walking and driving or less safe. But my boys are not getting cars until they're 20 (at which point, they'll just get jetpacks instead). 
• Bike bays.

Related articles

Cycling is far safer than driving for men under 21

Thursday Morning Commute - Topless

Good evening

• Maybe I'm getting too close to DDOT, but I think this article (and especially it's headline) is a little over the top. The gist is that some lights on the MBT are not working. This is bad and DDOT should be working to resolve this. And it sounds like they are. " There are, again, more lights out and we have submitted this information to the company", Heather Deutsch (who manages these things) reports. She concedes that they are having trouble with their vendor. This is unfortunate, but not entirely DDOT's fault. At some point they might have to sue, which would also be unfortunate. It sounds like this was an experiment that didn't work out. That will happen and the alternative is no more experimenting, which isn't really good either. As for temporary lights under the bridge - I think that was found to be pretty expensive (there's not a good electricity source there and it would be constantly getting in the way of the bridge work). Cyclists should have headlights - even on lit trails. I'm all for lighting trails as I think it invites night time use, and improves safety (though as I read it, not security) and I think the District needs to find a near and longterm solution to this problem, but going after someone for response on Facebook - without following up with them - is a bit unfair. And the claim that DDOT said riders were on their own is completely false. She said that DDOT is working with the vendors, but if you want to do more than alert DDOT about something they already know about and are already trying to fix, you can contact the vendor. That's different.
• The DC Velodrome is dead because of real estate issues. "The site at Buzzard’s Point was a problem from the start First, it took forever to get a lease signed. Then along the way we found out they wanted rent of $30,000, which we didn’t have. The parking area we had been promised became subject to additional rent payments," explained David Butterworth, a driving force behind the velodrome." It's a crying shame they can't just set this up in the RFK parking lot. 
• Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown is upset that 3 parking spaces in front of their church were removed for a CaBi station, but Topher at Georgetown Metropolitan points out that the CaBi station serves 171 trips a day and that it's unlikely that three parking space match that. 
• Bicycling is on the agenda Monday at DC's Environment, Public Works and Transportation Committe hearing at 11am. Agenda: Bicycle infrastructure, pedestrian and bicycle safety. (Of Course on Wednesday you can stick around to talk about Topless Bars, if that's something you're more interested in). Update: the bicycle hearing has been postponed.
• The Springfield Mall is being redeveloped and part of that project includes "improved pedestrian and bicycle connections to the Franconia-Springfield Metro and Virginia Railway Express station."  A trail system centered at the Metro station could follow the railroad south to Newington, east from there along the abandoned railroad to Ft. Belvoir and then to many locations following the power lines in the area. And from Springfiled Mall it's not far to Lake Accontik which has trails too.
• Towson to get a loop of bike lanes and sharrows. 
• Ghost bike erected in Fairfax County.
• Electric bikes are good and cyclists and pedestrians spend more money shopping. 

Friday Afternoon Commute - Bad stats

Good afternoon. I successfully sold my folding bike (but my Schwinn) is still on the market. It's only the third bike I've willingly parted with since I became an adult. One I sold before leaving for Peace Corps and the other - the "Bike of Love" - I donated to Goodwill when I got a better road bike. They'll be some emotional adjustments needed.

• Bad Headline: "Biking to Work: Healthy Trend leads to more collisions." Proably not true. Sure, more cyclists will likely lead to more bike-related collisions. But they aren't (and probably can't) accounting for the fact that less driving should result in fewer car collisions. Also, it's hard to call one year to year comparison a solid trend. Still, next week's headline "Vegetables: Healthy eating leads to more chokings" This video, and others, below the jump.
• The last of those videos is for the Penn Ave bike lanes story, in which the on-the-scene reporter says that things had "gotten so dangerous that something had to be done" which is probably a bit of hyperbole. One crash per season isn't really Thunderdome. Another takes time to emphasize that cyclists "also need to follow the rules" pointing to red light running. Following the rules is good, but if 11 out of 14 crashes are the result of illegal U-turns, it's not really a "we're all equally responsible" situation.
• Text of the bill moving through the DC Council is here. 
• How to get more loacl bike news.
• Baltimore County approved the bike and pedestrian plan that Richard Layman worked on. It now becomes part of the Master Plan. "The plan offers a long-term look at the infrastructure and steps necessary to make roadways safer for children walking to school, commuters pedaling to work and recreational cyclists on a weekend ride."
• 20 gifts for cyclists. 

Thursday Evening Commute - What's wrong with "CaBi"?

Good evening. 

• Work continues on turning the eastern spur of the Southeast Freeway into a Boulevard - which will include a bike facility. 
• After a year when it seemed like it might not get anywhere, the WABA supported Anti-Harassment Law - now labelled the Access to Justice for Bicyclists Act of 2012 - was approved by a DC Council committee today. "It now goes to the full DC Council for consideration with the unanimous support of the Judiciary Committee."..."The goal of the legislation is to incentivize attorneys to take on the cases of bicyclists in these lower-damages situations, by making provision for attorney’s fees and costs and creating a floor for actual damages of $1,000," says the report.
• I disagree with this article in general, but I liked this caption "The addition of the New York Avenue Metro stop and walking/bike path was largely responsible for the boom in the District’s NoMa neighborhood."
• More support for a bike-friendly Broad Branch.
• Media coverage of the Penn Ave U-Turn rule clarification. 
• On the benefits of well-designed trail crossings - with HAWK signals. 
• "Held Nov. 8 at historic Christ Church, the kick-off event called Bows, Baskets and Bikes gathered DC-area event and meeting planners to help build bicycles for needy families through Christ Church's holiday initiative, the Christ Child Project."
• Yeah, a guy did have a truck roll over his head, and he did survive and he was wearing a helmet. "According to police, the cyclist was stopped at a temporary red light next to a construction site on Quincy Street near Wilson Boulevard, when an unoccupied dump truck started rolling south on Quincy and struck him." I'm sure some people will still find a way to blame the cyclist.

Complying with the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act of 2008

Nearly four years ago, in the wake of the Alice Swanson fatality, the DC Council unanimously passed the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act of 2008. One section of the law required the Mayor to add safety features to some District-owned vehicles and to require DC government drivers to get training.

Sec. 2. Bicycle safety enhancements for District-owned, heavy-duty vehicles.
    (a) The Mayor shall:
        (1) Equip all District-owned, heavy-duty vehicles with the following:
                (A) Blind-spot mirrors;
                (B) Reflective blind-spot warning stickers; and
                (C) Side-underrun guards to prevent bicyclists, other vehicles, or pedestrians from sliding under                 rear wheels. [WC: Section 4 notes that this will apply once funding is provided in an approved budget]
        (2) Require that operators of District-owned, heavy-duty vehicles receive bicycle and pedestrian         safety training from a curriculum and instructors that are approved by the District Department of         Transportation

So, I contacted the Department of Public Works, since they own and operate most of DC's heavy-duty vehicles to see how compliance was going. Below is their response

Blind spot mirrors: Blind spot mirrors are required on all new heavy duty vehicles purchased by the Department and are being installed on existing heavy duty vehicles maintained by the Department as they are brought in for repairs or routine maintenance.

Blind spot stickers: have been placed on all of the heavy vehicles

Side-underrun guards: The law only requires side-underrun guards to be installed if this is provided for in an approved budget. No such provision has been made. Also, side-underrun guards are not readily available for most of the heavy duty vehicles maintained by DPW, so they would have to be custom made. For these reasons, the Department has not installed any on the vehicles  it maintains.

Safety Training: Bicycle and pedestrian safety is covered in the Defensive Driving for CDL Drivers course offered for those employees who drive commercial vehicles for the District (please note: in this context ‘commercial vehicles’ refers to large vehicles, not necessarily vehicles used in commerce). The District Department of Transportation's safety officer has agreed to participate when the course is offered in the future.

So, in general it's a positive development, though, I don't know how what percentage of vehicles have the blind-spot mirrors at this point.

It would be nice if the District could come up with a plan to provide money for side-underrun guards - or some reaonable alternative. It would be great if the law extended to all heavy-duty vehicles in the District, not just those owned by DC, even allowing for a more open requirement to simply remove blind spots - which would allow for blind-spot cameras, proximity sensors or other yet-to-be developed technology.  But it's nice to see that the law was not passed and promptly ignored.

Thursday Morning Commute - “All signs from my case are pointing to the fact you can be assaulted on the road”

Good morning

• CaBi will be having a two-millionth rider celebration on Monday at the Blind Dog Cafe.
• WABA's full testimony at yesterday's hearing.
• Also from the hearing comes news that John W. Diehl, the driver who - in a highly publicized incident - was recorded intentionally hit a cyclist with his car,  has not been prosecuted "because the man has not shown up for court and has not been arrested on the outstanding bench warrant issued in the case. Reached on Wednesday by phone, 56-year-old Mr. Diehl said he had no idea he had been summoned to court and denied being involved in the accident. 'This is all news to me,” he said. “I never hit anyone. If I had a bench warrant, I would turn myself in.'" Put me down for skeptical.
• Last night, DDOT had a pre-construction meeting on the U St. Streetscape project. There are no bike lanes planned, but I also don't see mention of more bike parking. 
• Hurt is now calling CaBi bikes "dirty with disease-spreading handlebars." But when he says "I think it is awesome you want to ride [them]" I don't think he's telling the truth. I don't think he actually thinks it's awesome. Then there is a bunch of "stop spending my money on things I don't want" stuff in there. Look, we could all point to things that government spends money on that we wish our money didn't go towards. [For me it's the American Embassy in Canada. I don't want anything to do with those people.] But that's the price of living in a democracy. Welcome to being a grown-up Mr. Hurt.
• On the US Transportaton bill: "There has been next to no indication of where House leaders like John Boehner or Eric Cantor stand on Cardin-Cochran."
• "Of the four services I tested, Google is the only to offer bicycle directions. It's different from walking directions in that cyclists must respect one-way signs. Bike routes also favor bike lanes and shun steep hills when possible."

Wednesday Morning Commute - Or maybe they're more aerodynamic on men

Good morning

• If you want to testify in front of Mendelson's committee on Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety on May 30th, you have until Friday to sign up.
• The Clarendon Metro Plaza will get, among other things, covered bike parking.
• Men who wear bike helmets were observed to ride faster than those who don't. But there was no difference for women. Risk compensation or self-selection bias? More here.