TheWashCycle

Tuesday Morning Commute - Today's Special

I hope that bike has a chain guard...I mean that's a nice suit.

• "As my oncologist spoke, I thought of the commuting bike, purchased two months before my diagnosis, gathering dust under the basement steps. There was virtually nothing I could control about the nightmare of my cancer, I thought. But give me one thing that I can take charge of, that I can do — that I love to do — and I’m going to ride as if my life depends on it."
• "According to the District Department of Transportation's Monica Hernandez, there'll be new bike lanes on Illinois between Randolph Street and Grant Circle and shared lanes (with "sharrows") between Grant and Sherman circles. DDOT is hoping to have the lanes installed by next month."
• Montgomery Preservation Inc., has changed its mind and will now submit plans for the Met Branch Trail near the historic train station to the Maryland Historic Trust. This is not the finish line, but it gets things closer. [BTW, I like the idea of opening the station itself as a trail-side cafe. Win-win]
• US DOT is now accepting applications for TIGER 2013 the 5th round of TIGER funding. There's $474 million on the line. In the past MWCOG has unsuccessfully sought TIGER money for expandingbike sharing across the region or improving access to Metro stations - including for cyclists. More recently, DC and Maryland won a grant to finish the Ancostia Riverwalk Trails. No word on what applications local bodies might submit this time. 

New Street Smart Poster shows dangers of driving

Hat top to duffmanrb

Sunday Video: Driving Fast and Riding Slow

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Lettuce

Capital Bikeshare is opening on Columbia Pike next Thursday (the first of 30+ new stations coming to Arlington this spring). There will be a ribbon cutting at 9:00am at the Walter Reed Community Center.

• "The police department sent 76 special assignments to enforce pedestrian and driver compliance last year, according to Innocenti. During those operations, 1,100 pedestrians were issued citations for various offenses, such as not crossing in a crosswalk or starting to cross after the solid red hand has begun blinking, and those citations often come with fines. There were 38 vehicle citations during as well, Innocenti said." So there are 28 pedestrian violations for every driver violation? That sounds off to me. 
• The east gate to the Navy Yard Promenade will be closed until the end of April for 11th Street Bridge construction. 
• WABA walks readers through the basics of Bike to Work Day. No word yet as to whether the lettuce bikini girls will show up again. 
• Sure, you could watch college basketball all night, OR you could go to the Public Meeting regarding the Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan Update for some real madness.
• "In Mississippi's healthiest county, many residents have easy access to bicycle paths and walking trails. In the least healthy county, there are few places to exercise"...."if someone wants to walk or ride their bike and they can't do it safely near their homes, "I haven't done my job," Mayor Chip Johnson said.
• Rep. Blumenauer "not interested" in being Secretary of Transportation. That's too bad. 
• Bike battles (between cities competing to be the best, not between cyclists and drivers) is named one of the top trends of 2013 by Planetizen.

Thursday Morning Commute - Memorial Trends

Good morning

• DDOT presented new information on the South Capitol Street Bridge to the BAC and PAC. The alignment would change to be parallel to the existing bridge. The ovals will stay, but "some sort of bicyclist and pedestrian facilities and connections will be included in the ovals."
  • DDOT is planning 16-foot bike/ped pathways on both sides, with horizontal separation of markings or signage to show that one portion is primarily for pedestrians and one is primarily for bicyclists.
  • There is not a change of elevation from the walking portion to the biking portion, allowing for flexible space to handle peak traffic of either bike or pedestrian during busy periods, like ballpark events or morning commutes.
  • Most importantly, that 16-foot bike/ped pathway will be present around the western oval, with eight feet marked for bicycle use
• The NCPC has released the revised version of the Comprehensive Plan's Visitors & Commemoration Element. NCPC is seeking public comment on this updated element through March 15, 2013. "NCPC will host a public forum on the draft element on Wednesday, February 20 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Come learn about the element, NCPC’s recent Memorial Trends and Practice in Washington, DC report, and provide us your feedback." There isn't anything in the Memorial Trends document about cycling, but the Visitors and Commemoration Element has a section on transportation that does mention bike sharing. 
• Tomorrow, WABA is partnering with Dr. Ted Eytan, a full-time promoter of active transportation within Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Total Health, to lead a public meeting on how to make bicycling a part of your everyday life, and how decisions like these lead to a healthier life. 
• Another report on the Green Mile meeting with SHA. 
• Bicycle Action Day in Richmond. And more here. 
• Freeairpump.com

Friday Afternoon Commute - Bridge to trail connection

Don't tease me with this Massachusetts!

• Zoning hearings are another opportunity to push for a bike friendly DC. 
• DDOT says that they will, in fact, connect the new 11th Street Bridge to the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. Hooray. "DDOT will build a temporary path connecting to the existing path (which links directly to Good Hope Rd and the Riverwalk Trail).  This is a temporary solution because DC Water will be working on the site long term as part of the Clean Rivers Project.  When finished, DC Water will build a permanent ADA-compliant trail in its place."
• A bike/ped bridge over the railroad tracks in Rockville may not be replaced due to high costs that designers blame on ADA compliance. The original bridge, built in 1973 had to be closed in 2010 and removed in 2011 because it failed a structural integrity inspection. Public officials say that the $1.19 million price tag, a budget shortfall and the limited use of the old bridge make it a poor use of money. "The bridge is about a quarter mile from two other railroad crossings, and it does not connect to bike lanes." A half mile is a long way to walk. 
• Which muscles do you use when biking?

Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Spinning

Good morning

• Braddock Road Metro CaBi Station installation. 
• BeyondDC tries to simplify the DC bike map. I would have included the Bluemont Junction Trail 
• An 8 year-old boy riding his bike was hit by an SUV and dragged for 50 feet. "Police say the boy will be okay because he was wearing his helmet." "Police say the boy was riding his bike near Old Mount Vernon Highway and Surrey Road about 6 p.m. Tuesday when the accident occurred. Authorities say the boy rode his bike into the street and the driver of the SUV was unable to avoid him....the driver stayed at the scene and has not been charged." I'm gald he was wearing a helmet, but clearly he's not "OK" since he was airlifted to a hospital, and they have no way of knowing what would've happened without a helmet. 
• Bikes are good for cross-training. 
• Another PR review.

Tuesday Morning Commute - Gordo

At the pool tonight there was an adult "learn to swim" class going on. Which got me thinking of the Times transportation reporter who was learning to bike. Brett Stewart - or someone like him - should find someone who doesn't know how to swim or bike (statistically, such people must exist, right?) and get them from there to the point where they can finish a sprint triathlon. It would make for a good story.

• The St. Elizabeths East Bike Carnival is on August 25th. 
• DC is among the least fat "states" in the USA where only slightly less than 1 in 4 residents are obese. Colorado is tops at 20.7%. "Partnerships with initiatives like Capital Bikeshare and the D.C. Healthy Corner Store Program, which promotes access to fresh produce and low-fat foods in needy neighborhoods, also play a role in the [Washington, DC's] efforts [to promote healthy living]."
• Montgomery County is worried that adding bike sharing risks increased crashing - because that is what has happened nowhere that similar programs have started. Still, it's hard to argue with the efforts that are planned. "as the county nears its program launch, Leggett said it will look at education and safety initiatives for cyclists, as well as motorist and pedestrians, to help mitigate safety concerns. He also said the county will look at where it can “engineer” the roads with features such as bike lanes to aid in safety....Montgomery County looks to place about 50 bikeshare stations along both legs of Metro’s Red Line starting around Silver Spring, Friendship Heights, Chevy Chase, Forest Glen, Takoma Park and Bethesda as the first two phases of the project, Esther Bowring, a county spokeswoman, said in an email. The first stations are expected to open in spring of 2013...Silver Spring, Bethesda, Forest Glen, Wheaton-Glenmont and Germantown were identified by police as the county’s “high-incident areas,” with nine crashes reported in Silver Spring, eight in Bethesda and six in Forest Glen, five in Germantown and four in Wheaton, according to the data."

Friday Afternoon Commute - It's French for "the mond"

Good afternoon.

• Frederick, MD will be hosting America's only Penny Farthing race.There is apparantly a pretty big one in Tasmania, and two in England: London and Knutsford, but this may be the only one in all of the Americas.  The race will start at 4 p.m. Aug. 18 in front of Brewer's Alley. If that doesn't entice you, Greg Lemond will be competing. 
• "let’s have an honest discussion about being the “fattest people in the world.” Every day, “decision makers” make transportation infrastructure and planning decisions that favor cars over people, decisions that make walking and biking—walking or biking to real public transit options, to work, to school, to the store—come to seem more and more…radical. It is indeed time we took responsibility for these and for the full range of consequences they entail. Let’s take some personal responsibility and make sure we as a society make the decisions that instead favor people over cars, favor transportation infrastructure built around the human scale."
• A response to Wiggins' claim that "Ultimately, if you get knocked off and you don’t have a helmet on, then you can’t argue...You can get killed if you don’t have a helmet on."

Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Cut the Waist

Good afternoon. I'm in Arizona, and the local PBS affliate had a half-hour show on biking in the Phoenix area last night. They showed the Tempe Transportation Center  (which has a bike station) and the downtown bike boulevard with green paint down the middle. That's a nice touch, it encourages cyclists to take the lane, but keeps paint away from car tires.

• It's OK for cyclists to use the W&OD bridle path, but it may require extra caution. 
• New CaBi stations at 21st and Penn NW and at 19th and K NW. 
• The new Staff Draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan includes several bicycle improvements, including trails that parallel and connect to the Capital Crescent Trail. It will also bring development right up to the trails edge. 
• One letter writer complains that in Alexandria "the Bike Share Program for Old Town produces a resoundingly negative result."
• Anti-cycling mayor of Toronto, fails to hit weight goal in Cut the Waist charity challenge. Perhaps bike commuting would help?