TheWashCycle

Sunday Video - How to get around the Metro bike ban

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. 

Riding High in Norfolk

Photo by ajfroggie

Monday Afternoon Commute - I'm for briefcases, but against briefcase laws

Good afternoon. I lost my wallet a month back and just yesterday found it in my mailbox, since I already paid to replace everything, I'm going to assume it just showed up this weekend. But thanks to whoever returned it.

• So, yeah, riding with headphones is possibly unsafe (depending on if they're on and how loud they are) though I'm unaware of any research on it, but it's not really "hard to beat" as far as examples of bad cycling go. It's not even illegal in DC. But this letter-writer seems to have a very low standard for what is unsafe. 
  • Riding in a construction zone? People seem OK driving in them.
  • Riding a CaBI bike? Totally safe, possibly safer.
  • Riding with a distracting child? People seem OK driving with them - though it's against CaBi rules.
  • Riding with a briefcase in the luggage rack? That's why they have the luggage racks.
  • Riding without a helmet? Maybe less safe, but also not illegal.
  • Riding around cars driven by humans? Well, that doesn't leave much does it

Oddly, Krisinger doesn't mention the one thing that is unsafe and illegal  - riding a bicycle with more persons on it at any one time than the bicycle is equipped to carry. But most of what Krisinger is complaining about is called "riding a bike in the city." No wonder some people get so indignant about cyclists. They think they're maniacs.

• Cyclist victim in hit and run on the Assault of Bicyclists Prevention Act:  "Without this act I have been unable to find a lawyer who is willing and able to pursue civil action," 
• An interview with Chuck Harney, owner of the Bike Rack. 
• I feel like someone did this - biking to every ballpark in one season - last year. 
• DC's cycletracks are swell.
• CaBi party tonight.
• The 2012 CSC is this weekend.

Friday Afternoon Commute - situational awareness

Good afternoon

• Tales from the Sharrows explains why biking is not allowed on the Navy Yard Promenade. There is a narrow bridge at one point and "Employees exiting through turnstiles onto the Riverwalk will not have immediate situational awareness of their surroundings, and may not see oncoming vehicular traffic in time to avoid a collision....This is an obvious safety concern as collisions would be unavoidable." This is followed by a pretty hilarious take down, including the notation that on the other side of the fence is a parking lot. "A parking lot. With cars driving. Apparently disoriented Navy employees are well equipped to deal with the potential hazards of motorized, multi-ton vehicles."
• Can we make BTWD more diverse?
• The President was nearly hit by a cyclist speeding down 15th Street, but escaped unharmed. Later the cyclist was arrested for not having a bell. 
• Bethesda thief, riding stolen bike, arrested. 
• OK, now that I see the photos, I do believe it was her bike. 

Friday Morning Commute - unless you pedal like the mayor. Then it’s more like 15 minutes.

Good morning

• New signs on H Street warn cyclists about streetcar tracks. I wonder if that is enough. 
• "Federal Highway Administration is studying the widening of Route 1 from Telegraph Road to Mt. Vernon Memorial Highway. Current plans include wide outside lanes for use by bicyclists. There is opposition to the project that will impact Woodlawn National Historic Site."
• Alexandria City Council voted to use unspent transportation improvement funds to cover the first-year operation costs of CaBi after the Federal Highway Administration announced in April that certain federal funds could not be used for operating expenses associated with bike-share programs. This led to a discussion about station placement - cluster them or spread them out? Some wondered if a station in Del Ray made sense.
• Central Avenue in Capitol Heights could become bike friendly. "Long-term solutions with no projected start date include turning Central Avenue into a “complete street” that would reduce the three lanes on both sides to two, add bicycle lanes and landscaping, said Carol Kachadoorian of Silver Spring-based Toole Design Group."
• Bike lanes might complement Bethesda Trolley Trail along Woodglen Drive. 
• It's a great story, but I suspect it isn't really her bike. Not that she's lying, just that she is misidentifying it [I know, where's my sense of wonder.]
• Michigan senior prank brings attention that safely biking to that high school is basically impossible. Complete streets and Safe Routes to Schools could help. 

Sunday Video - Canadian Tire Bicycle Commercial

Friday Afternoon Commute - "They're what?" said Amsterdam

Good afternoon

• European embassies are hosting open houses on Saturday as part of a tourism sales pitch called "Shortcut to Europe" The Danish embassy will be celebrating bike culture since "since Copenhagen is the Bike Capital of the World."
• Despite recent opinion pieces, some writers at the WaTimes are big fans of biking. "Riding a bicycle in a city like DC is the best, and if you’ve been riding for a while you might say its theonly, way to get around.  Let me just preface this by saying that I had not been on a bike in 20 years.  My husband first brought up the idea when we were dating and I was initially steadfastly against it.  It took him two years, but I finally got a bike and got on the road.   I was hesitant at first, as every new rider should be, but now my bike has become my favorite mode of transportation, even in the winter.  I have had my bike for 14 months now and I hate to admit it but at this point I’d rather give up my car than my bike."
• Boston and DC reach out to low-income communities to expand bikesharing.

Monday Morning Commute - Guzzle

Good Morning. I can't believe that I mentioned the classic American song "Home, Sweet Home" last week without making a Motley Crue joke. Opportunity missed.

• Washington area developers on two of the country’s largest demographics by age — millennials and their baby boomer parents: "They want to carry groceries by hand, not load them into trunks. They want to bike or bus to work, not guzzle gasoline."
• Paul Clement, former U.S. Solicitor General, lead attorney on the challenge to the health-carcare law and possible future Supreme Court Justice is also a bike commuter. "When he has the time, he bicycles the 35 minutes from his Alexandria home to his small, cluttered office at the Bancroft PLLC law firm on M Street NW. His bike helmet, festooned with the logo of his beloved Green Bay Packers..." So, when you see him on the trail, you can ask him about the case.
• Bikes don't injure shins, people with bikes injure shins.
• USA! USA!
• I will have to do this the next time I go to Vegas.

Thursday Noon Ride - Told you so

Good morning

• Veitch and 20th in Arlington being prepped for a new CaBi station.
• The Examiner reports on Oboe's vision of the future ""People are saying, 'Get me close to the city, get me close to transportation, put me in a position where I might be able to use my bicycle,' " Prince George's County Realtor Boyd Campbell said."
• Many people spoke up in favor of the Capital Crescent Trail at the meeting on the non-motorized Boathouse Zone last week. No sign of "Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail" though. "Another theme from several of the teams was that they wanted to restrict vehicular traffic beyond the old aqueduct and near the Capital Crescent Trail."
• Lynchburg cyclist killed in late night hit and run.
• Crystal City Diamond Derby this Saturday. "Spectators can enjoy a free party throughout the day at the lounge, which includes a large screen to watch the action, live music and a cash bar. An outdoor midway will be set up with vendors, food and a bicyclist sprint lane."
• More on the Maryland bike grants. I didn't realize how far north the BWI trail extension will go. Almost to the Patapsco River. Really the trail is another section of the WB&A trail as that is the ROW it will run along, and could make biking to Baltimore easier someday. The pylons for the old Patapsco River bridge are still there, so it may be possible to easily build a trail across it. 
• At least one person "knew" that running the CCT and the Purple Line through the tunnel would have been cost prohibitive because of costly alterations. Would've been nice of them to point that out beforehand. 
• St. Mary's County comes up with agreeable solutions to ROW issues with the Three Notch Trail route.