TheWashCycle

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - East Street

Good afternoon

• A proposed apartment at Barney Circle requests a variance to provide less car parking (11 fewer spaces). More interesting (to me at least) is that they're offering 28 bike parking spaces for 81 units, which sounds good - if you don't realize that under current zoning regulations they’re supposed to provide 60 long term bike parking spaces and 4 short term spaces (and under proposed rules that would go up to 81 long term). 
• StreetSmart Campaign kicked off today. 
• A neighborhood so nice, you can bike in it (without a helmet). 
• The Maryland General Assembly passed a measure on Monday to make talking on a handheld cellphone while driving a vehicle a primary offense. Under the bill, a police officer could pull over a driver for talking on a handheld while the vehicle is in motion.
• Frederick,MD officials are hosting an open house tonight where they will unveil plans for a new rail-trail - the East Street Rail with Trails. "The planning for this project goes back as far as 2000 when this link was placed in draft form on the Official Shared Use Path Plan. In 2002, the Plan was officially adopted. The design project began in November and is scheduled to run through May when a final public presentation will be held with the Mayor and Board of Aldermen. Once completed, the project will be eligible for final design and construction funding." The MARC train station is the current terminus of the rail line to Frederick, but it used to continue along East Street (and the tracks are still there) through town. 
• Bike to School day is May 8th 5th.
• Bikeshare station installation has started in NYC. Check out their solar tower instead of a panel. Cool innovation. 
• Toronto voted to turn 24 car parking spaces below city hall into a bike station which "will include 380 secure bike spaces, free air tools, change rooms but only four showers." The $1.2 million station has at least one detractor on city council. 
  • “We’re taking away parking space down here at City Hall that is creating $70,000 worth of revenue, and — ready for this, folks? — they’re putting in showers for the bike riders to come down here, to a tune of $1.2 million,” said Ford after the meeting. “That’s the gravy train. That is reckless spending — to put showers here at City Hall at $1.2 million. It’s disgusting.”
  • I will note that the space only "potentially" create $70,000 a year - if they're all being used. 
  • "Jared Kolb, executive director of Cycle Toronto, said he went to the parking garage at various times of the day and took photos to show that many of the spaces were empty. He included the photos in a report to the government management committee on Monday.'It raises the question how the TPA is making money on 24 spaces that are sitting empty all day,' Kolb said."

Photo by Transportation Alternatives

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Heritage

Good afternoon

• There's more to this article than this, but the Heritage Foundation has agreed to pay for "a new 40-foot Capital Bikeshare station, which costs about $70,000 [at a new parking garage/rowhouse they want to build on Capitol Hill]. Heritage also will build 42 new bicycle parking spaces, 6 in a locked room and 36 in the new garage, in addition to 10 existing indoor spaces." Be careful what you joke about. I understand the concerns, but the more money they spend on parking, the less they spend on ...y'know, the stuff they do. I look forward to seeing this garage sit half empty for years as a testament to the power of urban transit.
• CCT trail narrowed. 

Alexandria's First Bike Corral

Photo by LocaMotion

Baltimore Orioles Bike Corral

The photographer adds:

"This was just installed yesterday, prior to Opening Day tomorrow.  The bike corral (which is in addition to the racks next to the Babe Ruth statue) will accommodate more than 100 bikes.  It will also be supervised during Orioles home games (although the O's and MSA encourage owners to secure their vehicles.)

This corral, just outside Gate C on Maryland Square, can be accessed via Lee Street or the breezeway in the Warehouse near the Veterans Memorial.

There are also bicycle racks in front of Dempsey's Brew Pub, on the east side of the Warehouse, and at the Camden Yards MARC/light rail station (which will be upgraded this year.)

So if you have an Amtrak approved bike (which many of the DC-Baltimore commuters do) you can easily bike to the park from the DC metropolitan area on weekdays."

Friday Afternoon Commute - Fulparkerare

Good afternoon

• DDOT Spanish-language outreach.
• CaBi expansion in DC has been delayed, according to Mayor Gray's spokesperson Pedro Ribeiro "because of delays getting them from the supplier...but DDOT thinks in the next 6 weeks they will have all the stations in."
• There's only one word for someone who parks in the L Street cycletrack - Fulparkerare
• Other bike stuff I missed from Mayor Gray's budget
  • "There is a pot of $10.7 million for bike lanes and trails, which appears to be entirely new; formerly, there was no dedicated local bike money. The budget staff have promised to follow up to confirm this. Another $5.1 million will go to "bike-friendly streetscapes," which will be interesting to see in more detail."
  • The new Douglass Bridge gets fully funded.
• A profile of locally-educated Alta Planning + Design president and bike-lover Mia Birk. It's interesting that in all the talk of how women are under-represented in biking, there are quite a few bike businesses operating in DC that are led by women (Alta, Toole Design, BikeStation, Capitol Hill Bikes, etc...)
• And an interview with Alta's Eric Gilliland, Director of Capital Bikeshare. The article includes a photo of an artistic bike rack in DC that I haven't seen before. 
• "It is bike lanes. It is dog parks. It is about state-of-the-art swimming facilities. It is about recreation centers. Capital Bikeshare. Car2Go. Streetcars. It's about a way of life. Black folks want this stuff, they're just not as passionate about it.""
• Following another installment of the argument charlie and I have every 6 months on the appropriateness of using CMAQ funds for bike-sharing, streetsblog has a post on how difficult it is to calculate calculating the carbon-reduction benefits of increased biking. If only I had my own research staff and grad school students to deploy. 
• Chicago might finally get a riverwalk trail along the Chicago River, but based on the photos, I don't think it will be for cyclists. 
• Check out the Fire and EMS bicycle. 
• "This is the make or break year, so we know that we need additional revenue, the state needs additional revenue in the trust fund to actual build the Purple Line," said Madden. "So far we are optimistic, based on the discussions going on, that will happen."

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.

Friday Morning Commute - Division

It does feel very spring like out there. Maybe my calendar is broken.

• Bike to the Cherry Blossoms. Capital Bikeshare's shiny red bikes are another popular option for getting to the Tidal Basin. The bike-sharing system had about 6,000 riders every weekend of the season last year and this year will have its five new stations on the Mall available for blossom-goers, spokeswoman Monica Hernandez said.District Department of Transportation officials will set up a corral, where riders can always return a bike even if the nearby stations are full, for the next three weekends, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., near the Martin Luther King Jr. and Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorials on the Tidal Basin.
• Portland requires new buildings to include bike parking, but not car parking. But now is rethinking its parking minimum. "The city’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has proposed that developers of larger apartment buildings — those with at least 40 units — include at least one parking space for every four units. Hales said he has yet to decide if that’s the right target." Despite complaints that occupants of parking-less buildings still own cars, it turns out that parking isn't really that constrained. "On-street parking also does not appear to be that difficult to find on Division Street, the epicenter of the apartment boom. Ample spaces were found during three recent visits to the neighborhood, on different days and at different times." One example is of a guy who keeps his car to haul stuff and go snowboarding. Perhaps a small carshare monthly credit would convince him to sell his car? Still likely cheaper than building parking.

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. 

Saturday Morning Ride - Bibliotheques

Good morning

• The Ride of Silence is scheduled for May 15th at 7 p.m. DC's ride is reportedly leaving from Hains Point, but I don't have any more information about it at this point. 
• Arlington's 6th annual Tour de Bibliotheques is scheduled for April 13 @9:45. This is a fun little ride that visits 7 of the county's 8 public libraries. 
• How to bike to the Wiehle Avenue Metro Station. The station has a bike parking room with space for 240 bikes (and there is more parking outside). 
• Beginning next week, members of B-Cycle (the major competitor to Bixi which provides bikes to Capital Bikeshare) will be able to use B-Cycle bikes in any of 15 American cities at no extra charge. Recipricosity is a big improvement for bike-sharing, one that makes it more valuable via the network effect. This will make B-Cycle a more appealing choice for other cities, and put pressure on Bixi-systems to match. Meanwhile, Denver's system is expanding with the help of a $650,000 Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation, Community, and System Preservation Program grant - which aims to make U.S. transportation systems more efficient while reducing their environmental impact

Monday Morning Commute - BART

Today might be your last, best chance to see the Pan Stars comet with the naked eye. Around 7:40 pm in the western sky. 

• Tomorrow, cyclists riding from Newtown, CT to ask for comprehensive gun control legislation will stop at Proteus Bikes where they hope other like-minded people will join them for the last few miles into DC. 
• The 11th Street Bridge's 16-foot wide sidewalk should open in late May or early June. "Walkers and bikers will have access to several scenic overlooks under construction in the middle of the span." As a statement to the sad shape of the old bridge, even the temporary set-up they're using now is better than the old facility. 
• Two new bikeshare locations have been approved in Georgetown. " One station will be located next to the CVS on O Street NW at Wisconsin Avenue and the second will be located on what is currently an empty lot where 34th Street intersects with Water Street, NW "
• During the bike summit, bicycle industry leaders toured DC's protected bike lanes.
• DCBAC testimony at the oversight hearing.
• Matt Yglesias responds to AAA's claim that the new parking regs are dangerous. 
• Spring 2013 adult cycling classes
• Lots of MSM coverage of the 26% increase in reported bike crashes in Fairfax County in 2012. "According to the records of the 15 accidents involving bikes in January and February of 2012, bicyclists were determined to be at fault in seven of them. Of those seven incidents, only one biker was given a citation. The offense was riding on the wrong side of the road." I suspect the uptick is, in part, the results of better reporting. 
• Conservatives and liberals agree - taxing bicycles for GHG emissions is stupid. 
• San Francisco is going to try another round of bikes on BART, allowing bikes in all stations and on trains at all hours on every Friday. "We heard from countless bike riders on both sides of the Bay that the August pilot opened up regional commuting by bike for both experienced bike riders and those wanting to give it a try for the first time,” 
• Less federal transportation funding could be coming down the pipe. 
• London planning to become more bike friendly.