TheWashCycle

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Guardian Angel

Good afternoon

• More MBT attack follow-up here. WABA's planning a safety walk. And those cameras DC installed? Almost entire for show.  It's clear we're going to need an Enforcement Droid* 209. 
• The complete history of road lanes and how cyclists got kicked out of them. Long, but good. "The UVC therefore gave bicyclists the superficial appearance of being drivers, but without the right to use travel lanes like drivers. Although a travel lane is intended for a single line of vehicles, bicyclists were told that they could not use travel lanes like real drivers. Bicyclists were told they had to ride at the right edge and if they strayed from the edge, they were doing so at their own peril. Bicyclists were now officially second-class road users."
• "Crashing without a helmet exposes the head to accelerations and forces – or loads - up to 9.5 times greater than with a helmet and so greatly increases the risk of head, skull and brain injury, according to a detailed biomechanical study published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention."
• Because only rich people live and work in Manhattan and Brooklyn and only poor people live in the other bouroughs, bikeshare is part of the dividing of people into haves and have nots leading to a dystopic future from out of a sci-fi novel. Or something. 
• Is it possible to create a cycling superhighway parallel to Route 50?
• Dockblocking makes people sad.

*Since George Lucas owns the word "Droid" I guess he makes money off the Robocop franchise?

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Free High Fives

Good afternoon

• Support a trail connection between Carlin Springs Road and the W&OD Trail. 
• WABA is awarded an REI/Bikes Belong grant.
• A well-reasoned argument in support of expanding CaBi in Alexandria versus the one woman who opposes it. 
• I hate it when this happens.
• DC has installed 18 of the planned 54 CaBi expansion stations. 
• The new Bike to Work Day T-shirt. And Bike Month starts tomorrow.
• The Landmark Mall redevelopment in Alexandria isn't as friendly to cyclists and pedestrians as some might want. With Holmes Run Trail just north of the property, they're missing a real opportunity by not building a connection to it. A connection from the Trail alont Shirley Highway and the ramp to Walker street (with a small path to a bike parking facility at the Mall) seems like a no brainer. 
• Sigh..."The American Association of Neurological Surgeons reports that more sports-related head injuries in 2009 occurred on bicycles than on football, baseball, and softball fields combined." Which would be relevant if I knew how much time people spent on the activities. There are probably more gun deaths related to hunting accidents than to gunslinger elimination tournaments, but that doesn't tell me much about which is safer.  
• "A volunteer who often pedals more than 30 miles a day assisting hikers along a popular southwest Virginia trail is being recognized by the U.S. Forest Service."
• London's low-line.

Wednesday Evening Commute - Roof Access

I went to see Donald and Ivanka Trump talk at the Washington Post today. He's exactly the same in person (all superlatives, arrogant etc..) but less crazy and more charming. Ivanka might have a future in politics if she wants one. She's very good at staying on message.

• CaBi set a new one-day record - 9854 trips - yesterday. 
• Matt Johnson at GGW was almost hit by an unapologetic driver near the Greenbelt Metro. If only they had seen a street smart poster. 
• The hiker-biker trail at Huntley Meadows Park in Virginia will be closed soon and remain closed for the rest of the year to allow for construction. 
• Frederick has released the design for the East Street Rail with Trails
  • The proposed path would be begin at the Frederick MARC station, where bikes would share the road with cars. It is possible that the bikes on the road could be a traffic concern, Gammon said; however, traffic is so slow in that area that he did not think the shared lane would affect drivers.
  • The path would connect to secondary pedestrian trails at Fifth and Seventh streets, giving bikers an alternate route if they wanted to avoid biking with cars downtown.
  • At Fifth Street, where there is more space along the road, the trail will become a dedicated bike lane.
  • The design had several safety features including raised crosswalks and "bike boxes," which help bikers make left turns by putting them ahead of traffic at intersections.
  • The biggest safety feature would be a new bridge over Md. 26 at Clemson Corner.
• Preliminary results of the National Family Biking survey are in. 
• NYC Bike sharing installation ruffles feathers 
  • “Yeah, he’s really pissed off,” says Escobar. “The docks block our access to the roof that we need access to for our AC unit. We don’t have access to the roof from the inside, so we have to use a ladder, which is now going to have to go over the docking stations.”
  • “My main concern is garbage,” says Kolesnyk. “With more people comes more garbage. But I am green-oriented, so at the same time I think the bikes are a big advantage for New York City.” 

Monday Morning Commute - Launch Day

Good morning. If you aren't doing anything a little after 1:00pm today, you can watch my satellite launch over on NASA TV.  Blogging might be light for awhile. 

• See, even without the three foot law it's hard to pass without inadvertently crossing the yellow line.
• Developers broke ground on Fenwick Station in Silver Spring. The building will back up to the future Capital Crescent Trail extension (should the Purple Line ever be funded) and will include a Capital Bikeshare station. Until the Purple Line work ends, it will also include a temporary walking and biking trail that will ultimately connect to the planned Capital Crescent Trail.
• The Cafritz-Riverdale Park-Trolley Trail project continues to make changes. 
• Stop by the public hearing for Washington Boulevard bridge over Jefferson Davis Highway rehab project between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at the VDOT Arlington Area Headquarters, 1426 Columbia Pike in Arlington.
• FABB's Bruce Wright responds to the LTTE complaining about DC's new priority on safe streets that provide space for everyone. 
• The Broadneck Trail's first phase will be delayed until summer because of utility relocation problems.
• Tales from the Sharrow's Brian McEntee has a family history with bicycling. 
• A discussion of police enforcement of events they didn't see. 
• Update on progress of bike-safety bills in Virginia. 
• CaBi serves as an example of how going big can often succeed where going small (SmartBike) did not. [Lesson for high speed rail?]
• Part of Chris Dorner's rambling manifesto: "Cyclist, I have no problem sharing the road with you. But, at least go the fucking speed limit posted or get off the road!!! That is a feasible request. Livestrong you fraudulent assholes."
• Wisoncon Avenue's road diet was meant to slow down traffic, which it did, and now people are unhappy. Is it easier to bike?
• Pedicabs in Reston.

Wednesday Afternoon Commute - "Iron"y

Good afternoon

• Barbara Favola's SB959 bill, that would allow local jurisdictions to put stop signs on trails at highway intersections, passed out of the House Transportation Subcommittee #2 this morning.
• A non-scientific poll to see who will use Capital Bikeshare in Bethesda. 
• The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors endorsed three major trail project funding applications that will be submitted to VDOT for Transportation Alternatives funding. 
• After trying to get the sidepath off the Wilson Bridge improved, a cyclist was hit by a car on the actual facility he was concerned about. 
• Expect more cyclists. Americans are spending more on gasoline than they have since the early 80's.
• New Bicycling move (sort of) - Walk of Shame. 

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. 

Thursday Morning Commute - That is low

Good morning

• Well said. 
• An $8,000 tricycle handmade for a boy dealing with Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare disease that limits muscle tone and causes rapid weight gain, was stolen. A Dundalk, MD bike shop put it up for sale on Craigslist and someone recognized. As a result, police have charged a Hagerstown man with theft and malicious destruction of property and the bike has been returned.
• The driver who plowed into Jodi Grant is still at large. Montgomery County police are investigating and would certainly like to talk with this person--and any witnesses.
• See this is how you report it. "The life of an 8-year-old boy on a bicycle may have been saved by his bike helmet, according to Fairfax County Police." Is that so hard?
• Tobacco Heritage Trail adds 2.8 miles.

Monday Morning Commute - Wiggins

Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour de France. It was quite a day for Great Briton, with Brits Christopher Froome coming in 2nd and Mark Cavendish winning the final stage. American Tejay Van Garderen became only the 3rd American to ever win the White Jersey for the Young Classification (best rider under 25) and George Hincapie set the record for most Tours participated in at 17. 

• New bike parking at the Brookland Metro. DDOT urban forestry maintains the Met Branch Trail. Better parking in buildings. All at RPUS. 
• WABA now has office hours EOTR. 
• Longtime anti-nuclear war protester's 31 year vigil interrupted after she was hit by a taxi on her bicycle and broke her clavicle.
• Wolf Trap, now easier to get to, but still with cruddy bike parking. [Maybe they should hire Richard Layman]
• The city of Richmond, VA will buy land owned by a cement company and use the rail line that accesses it to build a section of the Virginia Capital Trail from Williamsburg to Richmond. The cement company will lease back the rest for two years and then will vacate. "The trail also got a boost last week from the Commonwealth Transportation Board, which awarded a $7 million contract to Henderson Inc., a Williamsburg firm, to design and build the New Market Heights trail section. That segment of trail will extend more than 10 miles from Kimages Road in Charles City County to Long Bridge Road in Henrico.Construction already has begun on the Sherwood Forest segment of trail from the Chickahominy River to Charles City Courthouse." Meanwhile, the Cannon Creek Greenway that connects to the Capital Trail got help from the National Guard. The Guard cleared more than a half-mile of trail for the greenway as part of its Innovative Readiness Training program.
• Rails vs. Trails in the Adirondacks (answer: both?)
• Help Rails to Trails win $30,000 from Pacifico.
• "Vulnerable user law" not being enforced as expected in Oregon. 
• Bicycle infrastructure from Vancouver. 
• Tyler Hamilton may have his gold medal from the Athens Olympic games stripped because of his doping admission. Bobby Julich would move up to Silver as a result.

Friday Morning Commute - Nobody told me

Good morning

• Herndon Town Council discusses the Fairfax County Bicycle Plan and in so doing, obsses over keeping cyclists out of the way of cars and pedestrians. Meanwhile the public is focuses on safety, connectivity and more options. 
• While WABA and Arlington BAC haven't taken a position on the Columbia Pike streetcar tracks, they are concerned about the potential they have for causing bike crashes - as the tracks on H Street NE in DC already have. Personally I support streetcars, but I also worry that the bicycle boulevards won't perfectly address this issue. “If you basically take a piece of roadway that’s a major regional connector for cyclists, and you make it somehow unsafe for cyclists, you’re actually going to be discouraging ridership,” said Farthing. “It’s a challenge that needs to be worked out. You don’t want to invite crashes and hazards, or decrease ridership.”
• More on the controversy over expanding the Washington Boulevard Trail. "Unfortunately, the project has recently encountered a bit of opposition from local civic association members and Arlington’s Urban Forestry Commission. Some of the civic association complaints are the same as those frequently heard about transportation projects in general – “Nobody told me!” And I’ve certainly got some sympathy, as someone who tries hard — yet frequently fails — to keep up with local transportation projects. But that’s simply not a valid complaint in this case. The project has been on the books for years and, heck, anyone who has driven down Washington Boulevard for the past few years has seen an actual sign announcing the project’s future."

Wednesday Morning Commute - Canopy

Good morning

• Montgomery County Planning: "What could make your experience better on the Georgetown Branch Trail? Join planners on a Greater Lyttonsville Trail Run/Walk on Thursday, July 12 at the Stewart Avenue Trailhead on the Georgetown Branch Trail. Show us what works – and what doesn’t – on the trail" @ 7pm
• Steve Offut writes about the Washington Blvd Trail extension in Arlington County and the concern by some that the tree loss will be too high a cost. "The entire project may present a terrific opportunity to create an even more beautiful canopy as well as improve habitat.  By working with arborists and urban forestry experts, perhaps an even better canopy could be created in harmony with the trail." I too am hopeful. As Offut writes, many of the trees are non-native and there may be room to add enough trees to balance off the loss. The proposal to move the trail to the east side would also remove a lot of trees, while creating a more circuitous trail cut off from many possible users. 
• Bike education at Long Branch Elementary School.
• American Teejay Van Garderen is currently in the Tour de France's White Jersey for the top rider under 25. He's been in it for most of the race so far. "The 23-year-old cyclist from Montana, who many think will one day contend for the yellow jersey, finished fourth in the ninth stage and moved up to eighth place in the overall standings....Only two Americans, Greg Lemond and Andy Hampsten, have won the Tour’s white jersey."
• I suspect she'll make more money over her lifetime because she quit her day job. Olympian probably looks good on a resume.