TheWashCycle

National Park Service Fellow studying Mount Vernon Trail

Tim Bevins, who's working under a National Park Service (NPS) Fellowship, attended a recent Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting where he discussed his plans for the 1-year fellowship. He will spend 7 months working with the FHWA on the Mount Vernon Trail looking for safety improvements, and 5 months looking at the rest of the National Capital Area. So far, he's been doing some counts along the trail to gather data, but he would like to update the 1990 Capital Area Bike Plan.

While at the meeting, he updated the status of several projects with some good news and some bad. The good news includes NPS plans to separate pedestrians and cyclists at Gravelly Point along the MVT and their consieration of CaBi stations near NPS trails. In additon, NPS is talking to WABA about bikes on the GW Parkway south of the Beltway.

As for bad news, the Environmental Assesment for the Long Bridge Connector to the MVT is inadequate and this is stalling the project and the MVT extension north has been stalled due to the alignment of the trail near the CIA Building.

In other news:

VDOT has stated that the State Bicycle Plan will be issued and that a state BAC will be reinstated.

Wayfinding signs for the Custis Trail and Rosslyn/Ballston corridor may already have been delivered and installed. More will follow for the W&OD Trail and Four Mile Run Trail.

Funding is available for the Army-Navy Road cycletrack; bike lanes will be installed on Lorcam Lane and Carlin Springs Road, and sharrows will go on George Mason Drive.

Arlington got a silver ranking from LAB on this year's Bicycle Friendly Community application.

At a more recent meeting, the BAC voted to write a letter suggesting that trail management be moved from the Parks Department to the Department of Environmental Services as cited in the County's Bicycle Master Plan.

Evidence of cycling during the blizard of 2012

Photo by by sockslessfox

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Speed, it's not just an awesome bus movie

Good afternoon

• WABA calls out DDOT for only installing one mile of bike lane this year, instead of the 10 miles the bike plan calls for. 
• Legislative priorities for Maryland bike advocates include a Cell Phone ban for drivers, a Safe Passing law, Funding for the full ICC trail, bikes on MARC trains, trail use after dark, trail maintenance requirements, and ways to help localities build complete streets. 
• The Bike House has winter bike commuting tips.
• Is it better to build more Capital Bikeshare stations or larger ones? Answer: it depends. 
• "Speed may be the next battleground for urban streets" If you thought turf battles over space were difficult, wait till someone starts trying to slow traffic down. 

Thursday Morning Commute - CaBi closes the gap

I would actually go to the Military Bowl, which is only a five minute bike ride away, if tickets were reasonably priced. $10 to sit in the cold and watch two teams I don't really care about [but I would of course root for Air Force - it's rare to see actual student-athletes]? OK. $25? I'll watch at home.

• Tree work on the Custis Trail starting today. Be on the lookout for work crews. 
• Bethesda may be getting a new boutique hotel on Wisconsin Avenue at Cheltenham Dr and the hotel will leave space for a bike-share station. "County planners recommended approval of the project plan and preliminary plan reviews, subject to more than a dozen conditions, including granting an easement to the Department of Transportation to install a bike-share station, preferably on Woodmont." Nice to see them planning ahead.
• Also work will begin in late January on the new buildings to go on the site of the large parking lot just east of the CCT trailhead in Bethesda (lot 31). "One to two months after the project begins, Woodmont Avenue between Bethesda Avenue and Leland Street will close for about 20 months. The Capital Crescent Trail will remain open. Construction is expected to be complete in the summer of 2013.
• TBD covers the Women's Bicycle Forum in an excellent article. Let me just quote this one part "Capital Bikeshare has provided encouraging statistics that more accessibility and safety will close the gender gap. Women make up about 40% of users, and according to GoDCGo director Katie Sihler and one of DDOT's bikeshare folks, women make up an impressive 52% of casual Capital Bikeshare users. No gap exists there."
• Preaching to the converted here.

Thursday Morning Commute - Plainclothes

Good Morning. Bad internet connection last night.

• Police in Northern Virginia have been ticketing cyclists on trails for running stop signs, and - if you can believe it - speeding. "I was quite surprised a few days ago to see an Arlington County policeman wearing a DayGlo vest aiming a hand-held radar speed detector at bicyclists (who don't have speedometers) coming toward him on the Custis Trail leading to Rosslyn. This on a trail where the speed limit isn't posted....Falls Church police recently stationed a plainclothes officer on the W&OD bike trail who apprehended bicyclists who didn't come to a complete stop at stop signs. Rolling through slowly after ensuring that there was no traffic approaching wasn't good enough."
  • The latter isn't just a $75 ticket, it seems you have to go to court and pay $61 in court costs too.
  • Enforcing a speed limit that isn't posted, for trail users who aren't required to have a speedometer, seems like dirty pool. Update: Looks like it wasn't APD but rather Toole Design. No tickets. 
  • Do cyclists get the same 11 mph margin of error for speeding tickets that drivers get. Maybe 26 mph does deserve a ticket - and a racing contract.
  • I have to agree with the letter writer about priorities. I'd put ticketing lightless night cycling as a higher priority than either of these offences.
  • Are they really enforcing a full stop policy at stop signs? Ridiculous.
• More on the proposed changes to federal bike/ped funding. " bike/ped-averse state governments will be able to opt out of CMAQ-AA altogether."
• DDOT discussed snow removal yesterday, but no one asked about trails. 

DDOT working to improve trail maintenance

Trail maintenance in DC is currently handled by a mish-mash of agencies and contractors, but no single person or agency is truly responsible. The Department of Transportation (DDOT) is responsible for some maintenance, but so is the Department of Public Works (DPW) which DDOT does not direct. This leaves many tasks routinely ignored and results in damaged, unusable trails, some in need of complete repaving.

Photo by Travis Jon Allison on Flickr.

To address this problem, DDOT, through its Urban Forestry Administration (UFA), is pursuing a plan to assign an employee to the full-time task of trail maintenance and to equip this employee with specific tools to aid in that task. Given the tools needed to do the job well, the new staffer can increase both the utility and longevity of the trails DDOT builds.

There are many tasks that need to be performed to keep a trail open and in good repair. Tasks like sweeping, debris removal and snow removal improve the utility of the trail. Clearing vegetation that grows next to and over the trail can improve safety and extend the useful life of the trail. In some cases, trails have been effectively closed due to snow. On the Suitland Parkway Trail maintenance has been ignored so long that the trail is literally crumbling away.

This isn't just a matter of convenience for trail users, it's about saving money by dealing with problems early. Just as changing your oil frequently will save you money in car repairs, maintaining a trail will save money that would otherwise be spent on repairs.

At the Recreational Trails Committee meeting this week, UFA announced that the new trail maintenance staff member would be issued a small utility work machine, like a Toolcat 5600. This machine can be equipped with one of over 40 attachements that would allow the operator to perform dozens of tasks: plow and remove snow, clear glass or sand that poses a safety hazard, and mow grass, for example. The new staffer would take ownership of both the vehilce and the trails.

Perhaps as importantly, the staffer wouldn't have to limit him or herself to off-street trails. In a snow event, he or she could clear bike lanes like the prominent ones on Pennsylvania Avenue, or the wider bridge sidepaths.

Initially, maintenance would be limited to DC trails like the Metropolitan Branch and Anacostia Riverwalk, but its possible DDOT could work out an agreement to also maintain National Park Service-owned trails like Rock Creek, the Capital Crescent and the DC portion of the Mount Vernon Trail (the island next to Arlington Cemetery at the west end of the Memorial Bridge is actually part of the District).

Until recently, DC didn't have much of it's own trail network, but the District now owns several miles of new or repaired trail. If UFA's plan is approved, users will start enjoying much better, and safer, cycling conditions.

Friday Morning Commute - stick with it

Good morning

• Mike Madden argues that Gray, policy-wise, isn't that different from Fenty and that includes bike lanes. That may be true, but when I look at what Gabe Klein is doing in Chicago, I sure miss him (and that is not a slam on Terry Bellamy, who seems to be doing a fine job). DeBonis quotes Gray saying about car/bike conflicts "We've got to recognize we're changing the culture in this city, and we have to stick with it."
• Bike share expansion (and small station movement) at 7th and Water St SW and 25th and Penn NW, 
• MoBike's Jake Cochrane sends a list of maintenance needs for Bradley Blvd to the SHA.
• 14 3 Bike Arlington employees  and 11 others spent the weekend earning their League Cycling Instructor certification.
• Indoor cycling studio coming to Clarendon.

Should DDOT remove Penn. Ave. pylons to aid plowing?

by David Alpert

Winter is getting closer and closer, which means sooner or later DC will likely see some snow. DDOT is pondering how to ensure they can plow the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes when snow does come.

Photo by afagen on Flickr.

DDOT uses large plows to clear Pennsylvania Avenue and other major roads quickly after a snowstorm. The large plow, however, can't fit in the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes, at least not as long as the white pylons remain near intersections.

DDOT added those pylons to make sure drivers realize they're not supposed to drive in the lanes when making turns. Occasionally, some do anyway, and police cars periodically park in them, but most of the time the pylons effectively guide drivers and protect cyclists at the corners, where there are more conflicting turning movements.

A smaller plow could come back later to clear the snow from the lanes, but depending on the size of a snowstorm, this would likely not happen until 24 to 48 hours later, meaning the lanes could remain impassable for up to 2 days while the regular roadway is clear.

The other option DDOT is considering is to remove the pylons for the winter. This would allow the plows to clear the lanes. On the other hand, it could mean drivers again getting confused and driving in the lanes, and cyclists feeling less safe at corners.

It doesn't snow very often, so if they do remove the pylons, the lanes would be a little bit worse every day in the winter, but keeping them means they'd be a lot worse for a few days. What's better: keeping them always passable to cyclists, or keeping them in their optimal condition at the cost of losing them temporarily when it snows?

The bicycle team would like your input. What do you prefer?

Cross-posted from GreaterGreaterWashington

Monday Afternoon Commute - Panic

Good afternoon.

• DDOT quickly responded to a bothersome trench near the DC trailhead of the CCT. 
• Most deaths in triathlons occur in the swim portion and are usually attributed to drowning, but another hyposthesis is that they're caused by panic. Reminds me that a friend of mine is a herpatologist and he told me once that while he'd seen quite a few people who died from snake bites, they were almost never bit by a poisonous snake. Instead, the victim died of shock.  
• Michigan student starts a petition to encourage the University to create a free bike-share system on campus. 
• Also, NPR has a story on bike-sharing, but it's not online yet. 

Be wary of high water

Photo by rootchopper.

You can check trail status on bikearlingtonforum.com