TheWashCycle

Friday Afternoon Commute - Army-Navy

Good afternoon

• On Saturday, the Arlington County Board will vote on a plan to add a cycletrack to Army-Navy Drive. "According to the county staff report, the project would reconfigure 3,300 feet of Army Navy Drive from S. Joyce Street to 12th Street. It would provide shorter and safer pedestrian crossings, improve pedestrian space and construct a separate two-way bicycle track. The redesign is also intended to make room for the future streetcar line."
• Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda might stay in a tunnel. "a minor master plan amendment request filed by a property owner last month would offer the cheapest solution to building a station that would link the Purple Line to the Metro subway system and create a tunnel for the Capital Crescent Trail. It would allow the construction of a new tunnel — a separate tunnel — from the one that already exists and it would run under the Apex building and completely avoid the Air Rights building."
• VDOT would like your feedback on the Bicycling in Virginia Map. Are you aware of any new trails, bicycle clubs, or other features we should include when we update our map? Have you noticed any typos or errors? If so, please submit your comments
• "While advocates .. say more people are biking to work and more businesses have taken steps to make cycling to work easier, Montgomery and Frederick counties still rank below the national rate of commuters who bike to their jobs. About 2,200 people a day cycled to work in Montgomery in 2011, some 0.4 percent of the commuters in the county, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. In Frederick, some 165 daily commuters used bicycles, about 0.1 percent of the total. The national cycling commuting average in 2011 was 0.6 percent."
• The reopening of the closed section of the C&O Canal Towpath wasn't just good for trail users, it was good for local businesses too. 
• "Monique Dykman, 20, of Arnold was riding the bike west on College Drive in a lane against oncoming traffic at 5:15 p.m. last Saturday, the sheriff’s office reports, when the bike collided with the 1995 Dodge Caravan driven by John Smith, 32, of Park Hall. Smith did not require transportation to a hospital for medical treatment."
• This article about what it will take to make CitiBike succeed only makes me more confident of it's success. Basically, one time they didn't return their Velib correctly and it was stolen; and also SmartBike was too small. Related story - some business owners are upset about having a bike share station in front of their business. I suspect their tune will change when they see the added foot traffic. 

Monday Morning Commute - Bicycle Easter Egg

Good morning

• What causes traffic?
• Arlnigton County's new wayfinding signs are up and they look good. DC has some new ones too I noticed, and I'll be posting photos of them later. 
• Easter was historically a big day for biking. (And, it appears they used the Examiner trick of mismatching the picture with the headline, In this case "Natives Shot Like Dogs")
• Neighbors are worried about how kids will access the new Southern Regional Technology and Recreation Complex in Fort Washington. One key connection might be the Henson Creek Trail. The trail will go under the new Bock Road bridge, which is under construction and is being raised six-feet to accommodate hiking and biking on the trail underneath.
• Austin's new bike map colors roads and trails by a level of comfort.
• "The findings from this paper indicate that while bicycle helmet laws are widespread and thought to be effective, the net effect of these laws on health outcomes is actually not straightforward. It is clear that there are offsetting behaviors and unintended consequences of these laws, and these effects need to be considered by policymakers."
• One possible effect of driverless (and thus mistake-free and crash-free, so the theory goes) cars might be Driverless cars will increase the appeal of walking and biking. I think we're much farther from driverless cars than perhaps the cheerleaders think we are, but it's interesting to conisder how much more people would bike if they didn't think it was possible to get hit by a car.
• "When asked to describe their bicycle in one word, many cyclists of all kinds use the word “freedom.” Nowhere is this description more appropriate than for the women who make up the Afghan National Women’s Cycling Team."

Friday Afternoon Commute - Good Roads are Plentiful

Good afternoon

• New CaBi animations. And the list of bikeshare expansion stations in Arlington this year.
• Map of DC government bike parking. My earlier post on this was based on the current zoning regulations for bike parking, under which only 6% of DC government facilities would be in compliance if the law applied to them. Under the proposed zoning, it would probably be lower. 
• Cool, if somewhat indecipherable, DC bike map from 1896. I think WABA has a map like this on their office wall. 
• Megan Odett of Kidical Mass DC talks about Empowering Moms to Ride.

Wednesday Morning Commute - Fat

Good morning.

• The Tour de Fat is coming back to Washington, DC. June 1st at Yards Park. 
• JDLand has the latest renderings of the 11th Street Bridge project including the overlooks and the north side trail alignments. 
• Arlington puts out a fantastic graphic about the Arlington Loop. It shows where you can go and what you can see along the loop. 
• More bike parking at Studio Theatre. 
• Sign up for the MBT 5k. 
• Thankfully, Richard Layman got a quote into one of these AAA "war on drivers" stories about why red light cameras should be supported. “On my bicycle I’ve been hit by a car running a red light,” says Richard Layman, a transportation blogger.
• “Making the W&OD available during commuting hours is a significant step in the movement to encourage more non-motorized transportation.”
• Other ways we subsidize driving, but not biking. 

Friday Morning Commute - % on sidewalks

Good morning

• MV Jantzen has another map of biking in DC. This time using bicycle count data. Be sure to play with the picklist on the bottom to see how things differ when you look at helmet use or CaBi use. For example, the statistics tell you that 27% of cyclists counted were on sidewalks, but when you choose "% on sidewalk" you see that almost all the dark red ones are on bridges. Helmet use really goes down east of the river, perhaps lending support to the idea that helmet laws especially hurt the poor.
• Gotta listen to the boss. 
• On Feb 13, the Rockville Planning Commission discussed the final draft of Rockville’s Pike Plan and a set of associated zoning requirements for the area along Rockville Pike from just south of Town Center to the city’s southern border. "The draft plan calls for a boulevard design on Md. 355 with more side streets, low-speed access roads and pedestrian crossings. It also seeks to bring new buildings closer to sidewalks and to break up the area into smaller, more walkable blocks...The new Pike Plan was prompted by concerns about traffic, accommodations for pedestrians and bicyclists, and development interest near the Twinbrook Metro station, which opened in 1984, according to the draft plan."

Friday Afternoon Commute - Bats

Good afternoon. I find myself annoyed by terms like "finding a plan both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue can agree on". Why does anyone need Green Landing Nursery and the Georgetown Wachovia to agree to anything?

• Austin, TX tries to make a better bike map. 

Friday Morning Commute - PAL

Good morning

• Take the Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Survey. 
• Alexandria has a new bike map. 
• Arlington is asking people to commit to sharing the road with a program targeted at cyclists and pedestrians telling them to be Predictable, Alert and Lawful. 
• Scofflaw driver, on his way to talk to God, yells "F*** You" at innocent police officer. I'm sure God approved. 
• Meanwhile, red light cameras actually do reduce red light running.
• WABA unveils it's Women and Bicycles logo
• PG County presents the Southern Green Line Station Area Plan. "The site most likely to see revitalization in the short term is near the Naylor Road station, Gore said, where State Highway Administration officials appear ready to move forward with a “streetscape” plan to improve pedestrian and bicycle access. "
• Assault/abduction on the W&OD trail.

Wednesday Morning Commute - Not Fearing the Turtle

Good morning

• "WABA will not be providing a staffed bike valet this year, as we have done in the past. The 2008[sic] valet was enabled by significant sponsor support and donations of bike racks and equipment that are not available to us this year without substantial cost."
• Bicycle Action Day in Richmond to lobby the state legislature is January 29.
• One person's rides mapped out over four years (it includes a couple of WAGBRADs even)
• As another defenseless road user, I find this a little disturbing "Weaver put a realistic rubber turtle in the middle of a lane on a busy road near campus. Then he got out of the way and watched over the next hour as seven drivers swerved and deliberately ran over the animal. Several more apparently tried to hit it but missed."
• Lance Armstrong will sit down with Oprah for 90 minutes. So, I'm betting this is the confession.

Friday Morning Commute - New, but Old

Good morning. I was down at Canal Park for the first time in a few weeks. They recently added bike parking and I'm not kidding when I say that there is probably parking for 120 bikes at bike racks there. It sounds crazy to say this, but it actually might be too much bike parking. I can't imagine when it would all be used. Still, a nice problem to have.

• New bike parking in Adams Morgan.
• Once again, Metro will be banning bikes on Metrorail all of Inauguration weekend. 
• State and local efforts to improve cycling in Maryland are paying off. "At the state level, transportation and parks officials have recruited volunteer and community groups to enhance off-road trails and create new ones. Maps and online services are being upgraded to supply more real-time information to mobile devices. 'We're getting close to producing a map of every single trail in Maryland,' said Steve Carr, a planner for the Department of Natural Resources." But communities remain underserved. And "the 20-mile Western Maryland Rail Trail will be extended another 4.7 miles from Pearre in Washington County to Little Orleans."
• The 16^th Annual Bicycle Symposium, hosted by Bike Maryland, has been scheduled for Feb. 27 in Annapolis.
• Virginia Bill would make it illegal to open a door on the traffic side of a car unless it is safe to do so. If Del. Barbara Comstock is your delegate, ask her to not stand in the way of crucial bike safety legislation. 
• Ask VDOT to to ensure that safe bicycling accommodations are included in the widening of Route 1 through Fort Belvoir. We won't get a second bite at this apple in our lifetimes.
• The Old Bike Shop in Arlington has opened. So it's actually new.
• South African Olympic cyclist Burry Stander was killed while training Thursday when his bike collided with a taxi.
• "They'll drive their car home, and they'll wash the blood off, cover the car up and act like nothing happened," says Laurino. "It's incredible the lack of conscience some people have."
• "Mayor A. C. Wharton Jr., elected in 2009, assumed office a year after Bicycling magazine named Memphis one of the worst cities in America for cyclists, not the first time the city had received such a biking dishonor. But Mr. Wharton spied an opportunity."

Wednesday Evening Ride - Get out the map

If I miss something, feel free to add it in the comments for others

• Alexandria Parks opportunity: "Beginning in October 2012, The Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities is undertaking a nine-month public outreach process to inform Management Framework Plans for the City’s large multi-use Parks. The Citywide Parks include: Four Mile Run Park, Simpson Stadium Park, Chinquapin Park, Henlsey Park, Holmes Run Park, and Ben Brenman/Boothe Parks. The goal of this effort is to study and understand the existing conditions and future needs for each of the Parks."
• There are new "Bicycling in Virginia" bike maps. But it lacks necessary details. 
• A debate about gas taxes, roads and bikes in the papers of Pittsburgh. I'm not sure this stat is accurate though "cars additionally impose an estimated 6.5 cents per mile of road wear [per mile]." That seems high.