TheWashCycle

Monday Morning Commute - For just once, can't we as Americans focus on race?

Good morning

• And...the racist take on the Met Branch Trail attack. The idea that the story has been ignored is pretty laughable really. I've actually been surprised at how much press it has gotten. It's been more reported than some rapes, sexual assaults and murders that have occurred along other trails in the area (or hit and run fatalities on our roads). I don't want to get into a "this attack is worse than that attack" kind of argument, but I actually think that this one has been one of the most reported ones out there - largely due to the lack of motive and the visuals. And I wouldn't really be able to argue with someone who thought that reporting spike was because of race too. So, it's funny that I read it all in a nearly opposite way. But, they're right that there have been many similar attacks on this trail over the last year. It is novel argument - however - that the police are somehow biased in the favor of black people. I've not heard that one before. 
• The GAP is open. Or closed? I mean it's finished. Which is to say it has started...Whatever. 
• On the all-powerful bike lobby: "The effort has been a bit more successful on the local level in some communities. D.C. Mayor Vince Gray recently proposed to spend what the D.C. Bicycle Advisory Council estimated was about $3.7 million of its transportation fund on bicycle programs, and the district has made a robust, multiyear public investment in its Capital Bikeshare program."
• "A Hagerstown, Md. man riding a bicycle in Adams County[PA] was struck by a vehicle and later pronounced dead at York Hospital, according to the York County Coroner's Office."

Monday Afternoon Commute - somewhere else in her head

I had a dream that they finished the Met Branch Trail in DC, but as an art installation, they added a ninja along the trail that would try to kill you as you rode by. So, you had to go fast. I remember thinking "I support the arts, but this is a bad idea." Now that I'm awake, I stand by that position.

• Stabbing on the Four Mile Run Trail. "A witness say the woman was walking alone near Glencarlyn Park at about 11 a.m. when a man jumped out of the bushes, grabbed her from behind and began attacking her with the knife."
• Details on last week's drunken driver on the W&OD Trail incident. "An intoxicated McLean woman drove at high speed for five miles down a popular Northern Virginia recreational trail Saturday night, sending trail users scrambling for safety before the car struck and seriously injured a bicyclist, police said." She's been charged with drunken driving and felony hit-and-run. "Police have not named the [victim], and a police spokeswoman did not know his condition Sunday afternoon." She was reportedly going 50 mph. She lucky that more people weren't hit. 
• Tandem cyclists nearly hit by marjor league home run in Pittsburgh. 
• CitiBike and fashion (See video below)
• Sen. Rand Paul uses his love of biking to bolster his claim that "Republicans care just as deeply about the environment as Democrats." [But isn't planting a Sequoia in Kentucky actually equivalent to planting an invasive species]

Monday Afternoon Commute - Beatty for Council?

Good afternoon

• There are quite a few stories about how drivers are parking or driving in the not-yet-completed L Street Bike lane. I kind of think this is much ado about nothing at this point. And look, I'm no defender of drivers in bike lanes, but (1) they aren't finished yet, (2) in some cases the signs haven't been changed yet (3) even when finished, there will be some lag time between that point and when drivers are fully informed about them. I think we all knew that there would be drivers in the bike lane for some time after the construction starts. But once the safe-hit flex posts are installed, I suspect you'll see less of this, until then it feels a little like fishing for a story. Once it's finished there should be a period of light enforcement (warnings and such) and then some ticket writing, but until then, some patience is probably needed. Here's more about the cycletrack that recognizes the temporaryness of this problem. 
• Challengers for District Council At-Large seats were asked for several positions on issues - including mandatory helmet laws. "Cooper, Swain and Wilcox support a law. Beatty opposes, calling it a “freedom issue.” Grosso would “have to think about it more” before deciding."
• Broadneck Pennisula Trail moves forward.
• The Pucher/Buehler book on City Cycling is now out. 
• Banning texting while driving might actually cause accidents as drivers contort themselves to hide their texting. "The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that 3 of every 4 states that have enacted a ban on texting while driving have seen crashes actually go up rather than down."

Saturday Morning Ride - Muppets

Good morning

• Montgomery County police have released a composite sketch of a suspect in the sexual assault of an adult female that occurred along the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda on October 21, 2012
• The Post is looking for the most notable newcomer to DC since the last presidential election in 2008. One nominee: Capital Bikeshare. How things change. 
• "Responding to the notion that people in the transit-friendly area could get around by means other than a car, [Zoning Commission Chairman Anthony] Hood said that no one rides a bike to the grocery store." Hood replied to the City Paper story "I just said that I don't see many people with a lot of bags shopping by bike. The transcript is better to get from the hearing to get my actual comments."
• Tweed Ride Tomorrow.
• Rep. Jim Moran "I have also helped fund countless other projects to make housing more affordable, bus and rail transit more accessible, and regional bike trails more enjoyable."

Monday Afternoon Commute - I've now won the Tour de France as many times as Lance Armstrong did

Good afternoon.

• The Phillips wants you to "See D.C. Danish style". That would be by bike. 
• After complaints about drivers making illegal U-turns across the Penn Ave bike lanes, DC put up giant signs telling drivers not to do that. But they took those down when cyclists pointed out it blocked their view. 
• Bethesda and Rockville are new Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Communities. [Rockville was a BFC in the past, but didn't renew it] and being a bike-friendly city can be good for business.
• Prince George's County is considering a law that would "instruct the county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation to include lanes for bicyclist and space for walkers on all new roadways or when existing roadways go under repair." 
• "The governing body of cycling will not appeal the United State Anti-Doping Agency’s findings that Lance Armstrong led a massive doping program, concurring with the USADA decision that he should be banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles." Still, all in all, it was probably worth it.
• Jill Stein for President? "Her platform includes ... a “Green New Deal” that she says would cost less than the first stimulus package and put millions of Americans to work weatherizing homes and businesses, installing solar panels, building bike paths, upgrading public transit systems and constructing safe sidewalks. The only benefits, of course, would be lowering unemployment as well as our dependence on fossil fuels and making us healthier. Cuh-razy, right?"
• The rise of anthropological bicycle studies. “More and more of the research is pointing to the fact that also people’s attitudes, social norms and things like that have an influence over their decisions to bike or walk or take public transit.....In Portland, installing a cycle track – where the bike lane is moved from the actual street alongside drivers to the other side of a row of parked cars – resulted in bikers breathing less of some pollutants."
• More on the new "Forester was wrong" study out of Canada. 

Friday Afternoon Commute - But who won?

Good afternoon

• ANC 6B05 Candidate Brian Pate calls for "a Bike Friendly Business District on Capitol Hill"
• DC has painting conflict zones in bike lanes green in 9 locations, with more to come. 
• From the "I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often" file: Battery Lane and Park Ave., 8 p.m. Sept. 26. Following a traffic incident, a bicyclist and a motorist fought each other.
• Army Secretary John McHugh is back in the office after three weeks at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center recovering from a Sept. 24 bicycling accident in which he fractured his pelvis.
• As part of an expansion of Walter Reed, planners are recommending implementing a bike-share program. They should instead pay to include CaBi stations. 
• A study shows that certain types of roads are more dangerous than others. "The greatest risk to cyclists occurs when they share major streets with parked cars, with no bike lanes present...In contrast, infrastructure designed for cyclists – including bike lanes on major streets without parked cars, residential street bike routes, and off-street bike paths – carries about half the risk, while cycle tracks (physically separated bike lanes) carries the lowest injury risk for cyclists, at about one-tenth the risk."
• "Dutch bank Rabobank is ending its long sponsorship of professional cycling, saying “the trust in the cycling world has gone” following the publication of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s report on Lance Armstrong."

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Phase 4

Good morning

• A WABA Board member, Martin Moulton, is running for the ANC 6E02 seat. 
• During game 3 of the NL playoffs, about 9% of all the bikes went to the baseball stadium at least once, in part because they had a bike corral. 
• Last week, College Park's City Council selected a contractor to complete the fourth phase of the College Park Trolley Trail. That section is a roughly seven-block stretch of off-road pavement between Calvert Road and Paint Branch Parkway. Construction for phase four will begin in the spring and be completed by mid-summer. Phase 5 will add another 2 block section in the Lakeland area.
• Another bridge over the Beltway - this time Route 7 - is rebuilt with facilities for cyclists and pedestrians thanks to the HOT lanes project. 
• "On Saturday, October 20, fans of the Western Maryland Rail Trail have organized their own fall foliage bike ride and picnic. When the colors start to turn and blaze, there are few better seats in the house than a rail-trail. Here's a few rail-trails famous for their fall colors."
• An Australian study finds that both helmet use (in the case a mandatory helmet law) and cycling infrastructure reduces the rate of injuries. 
• "For the first time since the end of the Second World War the number of bicycles sold in Italy has overtaken the number of cars"

Tuesday Morning Commute - Supposed to be

Good morning

• WABA calls on DDOT and MCDOT to finish the Metropolitan Branch Trail. "In the District, no one has provided a solid reason why work cannot begin immediately on the northern segment of the trail from Riggs Rd. to the Montgomery County line. It needs to be done.  Idleness is unacceptable.  It is no more acceptable in Montgomery County, where WABA fought to have funding for the trail restored to the budget after it was removed from County Executive Ike Leggett’s original proposal.  The restoration of funding has come with no commensurate sense of urgency to put it to use, however.  Despite the existence of funding and the inclusion of the trail in approved master plans, the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) has not even begun the design of the critical crossing of Georgia Avenue, much less initiated any form of construction.  Instead, they continue to tiptoe around and negotiate with owners of the historic Silver Spring B&O Train Station, who do not want bicyclists able to travel along the master planned route, which includes an area the group currently rents as event space." Follow the above link to send them a message. 
• CaBi station at Prince & Union St. in Alexandria. 
• The Washington Examiner, among other things, thinks that increasing transportation spending over 1 year by 130% should reduce your commute time by 130%. Which would mean you would arrive, before you leave*. In addition to being bad at math and science, they say that
  
  • "In 2009, the highway trust fund spent $52.7 billion, but only 62 percent of that went to general purpose roads and safety programs. The rest was diverted into pet liberal causes like trolleys, bicycles, buses, scenic byways, historic covered bridges and "community preservation." Yes. Pet projects that help move 15% of commuters in the DC area. Also, even Reason puts that number at 75% of money goes to highways.
  • "And those are the dollars that are supposed to be going to highways." The bipartison transportation bill differs with you - as it has for a very long time. 
  • "Not only would Romney and Ryan stop wasting your transportation dollars on bike paths and high-speed trains to nowhere..." Yes wasting. You do know what the "Blank" to nowhere refers to, right? (Hint: not bike or train infrastructure).
• "The Frederick Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a Maryland Department of Transportation grant Aug. 16 that provides $12,000 to study the feasibility of a bike-sharing program in the city. The city will provide a $3,000 match in the form of in-kind services, according to Tim Davis, a transportation and airport planner for the city."
• Bike the Vote. 
• I've mentioned this before, but still a good story. "[Muhammad] Ali took up boxing at age 12, when his bike was stolen and he wanted to find and whip the culprit." Relatedly, Lance Armstrong took up cycling when he got beat up by a kid and then stole his bike as retribution.

*OK. They don't really say that your commute time would be reduced by 130%, rather that your commute would be 130% faster. So if you average 30mph on the way to work, you'll now average 69mph. Which is still ridiculous, but not as funny.

Thursday Morning Commute - Scooter

My CaBi key broke yesterday - it wouldn't fit in the keyhole anymore and I realized it has delaminated a little. There going to send me a new key, but instead of having my black charter member key, I'll have a red one - like a commoner. I already feel like a hobo.

• A new definition of scooters could change who can park at bike racks. 
• "Wells will have to convince large swaths of a skeptical black electorate that his push for a more pedestrian- and bike-friendly city isn’t a veiled attempt to speed up gentrification."
• Arlington County is looking for trail counters.

Tuesday Evening Commute - Naked or Nekid?

Good afternoon

• Groupon has an offer for an $80.00 tune up for $39 at Rollin' Cycles in Logan Circle. 
• "A Fairfax man has been charged with indecent exposure after reportedly riding a bicycle while naked on Jermantown Road."
• Why Ryan instead of Portman? "maybe the prognosticators were right and Romney was leaning toward Portman… but somebody might have informed Romney that Portman and Sen. John Kerry are good buddies; they have been seen frequently on morning bike rides."
• During the London Olympics, "the city's bike hire scheme broke a record with 46,000 bikes rented on a single day." I suspect that record will stand for a good while.