TheWashCycle

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Listless

Good afternoon

• A husband and wife riding west on Four Mile Run Drive were hit by a truck when its driver lost control, went over the median and struck the cyclists. "The male victim, 63, suffered multiple broken ribs and a punctured lung on his left side....His wife, 61, suffered head trauma and a broken pelvis and remained in critical condition as of 1:45 p.m. Monday at George Washington University Hospital."
• Frequent commenter Oboe gets a shout out in a cranky old man article that complains, among other things, that our "Gracious streets have become clogged with bike lanes". Anyone who reads GGW's comments know that Hogwash and goldfish almost always disagree with Alpert.
• "Upgrades to the Crystal City Metro station, ranging from signage and bike racks to an expanded pedestrian plaza" will be funded by state transportation dollars that come directly from the state rather than from the NVTC. 
• WABA asks members to refer a friend. 
• On Saturday, Oct. 20, join in on the largest clean-up and beautification effort in the 45-mile W&OD trail's history. "American Idol" alum Lauren Alaina will be performing. 
• At a Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board meeting, citizens were skeptical of Capital Bikeshare's safety. They "questioned whether Montgomery County would be held liable for accidents, why many Bikeshare users in Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Va., don’t use helmets, if there would be enough room on sidewalks for pedestrians and if drunk bar patrons might steal the bikes from docking stations after a night on the town." There are legitimate questions about where the county will find the space needed for the stations - since their sidewalks are more narrow than DC's. "Planned locations now include the Bethesda and Medical Center Metro stations, a number of Woodmont Triangle sidewalks, Bethesda Row posts, a NIH/Suburban Hospital docking station and a stop at Woodmont Avenue and Bethesda Avenue for Capital Crescent Trail access."
• After 16 years of closure, the Big Slackwater section of the C&O Canal Trail is finally open. Paid for in large part by Obama's Stimulus bill. 
• Dr Gridlock on Dream Projects for the region "I’d also like to see politicians back new incentives for commuters to use transit or bike. Again, not many ribbons here — unless they’re opening bike lanes, and those can be very controversial if taking space from drivers, so they require some political courage, if not clout."
• The Heritage Foundation blames "Costly transit projects and low-value transportation enhancement programs for bicycle and horse trails and roadside transportation museums" for the 33% increase in transportation outlays over the last 10 years. If that were true, there would be a lot more bike parking. They also say these programs "do not improve mobility or relieve traffic congestion" which is demonstrably false. 
• Chips start to fall from USADA report. Levi Leipheimer was fired. The IOC may strip Armstrong and Leipheimer of their Olympic medals. And how will WaPo columnist and BCS-hater Sally Jenkins handle Lance Armstrong's downfall. Meanwhile, Michael Barry argues that the sport needs to be completely reformed (cyclists should form their own organization similar to the PGA with their own races). 

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.

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Capital Bikeshare Day

Good afternoon

• BAC reviews the M St SE/SW alternatives.
• More images of the Eye Street SE/SW green bike lane. It looks like it is in between a right turn only lane and a traffic lane. 
• "The "Gimme 5!" ride will travel to some of Ward 5's well-known and best-kept-secret sites.  This ride is in partnership with Cultural Tourism - a nonprofit organization helping DC residents and visitors discover, experience and celebrate the city’s art, culture, and heritage." 
• This Saturday: Car Free Day and the 50 States Ride. 
• BART is experimenting with allowing bikes - regular non-folding bikes - on during rush hour. "The experiment was a test of the feasibility of relaxing the existing rush-hour bike blackout, and by all accounts it went smoothly, aided by the generally low ridership of Fridays in August."...“It looks promising,” said Steve Beroldo, BART’s bike program manager, of the bike pilot program. “There haven’t been any disasters.”
• CaBi has thoughts on their birthday. "To bring you up to speed, we added an additional 40 stations in DC, and expanded 26 stations. We also added 26 new stations in Arlington and welcomed Alexandria into the fold with eight stations in Old Town. Overall, the system added 74 stations, expanded 26 and added a new jurisdiction to the mix for a current grand total of 189 stations system-wide."
• MAP-21, the new federal transportation bill, includes a provision that would require all major arterial roads to be folded into the national highway system. "this designation basically forces state and local governments to treat arterials like major highways... Speed will increase, certain designs, like bulb outs, won't be allowed without an exception. So on and so on."
• LAB adds a new Bicycle Friendly City category past Platinum: Diamond. Next stop: Unobtainium
• Albany is looking to add bike sharing. Yes, Albany. 

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Basement

So am I the only one who had to evacuate to the basement at work due to tornadoes? The funny thing is we're doing a launch rehersal focused on anomalies and so now we can check that contingency off the list. Lots of "how did you pull that off" jokes directed at the simulation director.

• "I don't harbor any illusion that they changed the policy because of me," says Tregoning.
• The optimal M Street (and Eye Street) design probably isn't even one of the options here. As oboe might point out, there is some extra space (scraps) and they're letting transit, bikes and peds fight over it. Instead, they should accept that maximizing transportation through there might mean taking some space from autos. 
• An interview with Bethesda native Rich Roll (not to be confused with a rickroll) one of only two people to complete five Ironman triathlons on five Hawaiian islands in under a week. He's also one of the 25 fittest men in the world (Paul Ryan is the other 24). 
• Counter-intuitively, Philadelphia has more cyclists and fewer crashes. We could probably argue over which caused the other (did safety lead to more cyclists, or more cyclists to safety), but really, why fight?
• MAP-21, the new federal transportation bill, may have less money for biking and peds, but it is targeted more at cities. 

 

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.

Unobligated funds released for states. Good for cyclists?

Last week, the Obama administration announced that it was making over $470 million in unspent earmarks immediately available to states

President Obama has vowed to veto any bill that comes to his desk with earmarks and would support legislation to permanently ban earmarks. But $473 million in highway earmarks from FY2003-2006 appropriations acts remain unspent years later. Those acts contain provisions that authorize the Secretary to make the unused funds available for eligible surface transportation projects.  Effective today, state departments of transportation will have the ability to use their unspent earmarked highway funds, some of which are nearly 10 years old, on any eligible highway, transit, passenger rail, or port project. 

 

States must identify the projects they plan to use the funds for by October 1, and must obligate them by December 31, 2012.

The details of this plan are still unclear (to me at least). It appears that each state will be able to redirect these earmarks towards any project they want - instead of what they were earmarked for. This could be good for cyclists, if money that was sitting unspent quickly finds its way to eligible bike/ped projects. But it could also be bad if money already earmarked for bike projects get redirected to other items. And there are such earmarks at risk now.

In DC, things can probably only get better, but then DC isn't sitting on much money. There's only $56,000 in play - money that appears to be left over from the 9th Street NE bridge and South Capital Street projects. I don't think that the second project includes the South Capital Street Trail, but if so, bike advocates should ensure that it stays there. If it's truly left over money, $56k could buy a lot of bike racks or a new CaBi station.

In Maryland, there's a little over $4M available. $680,000 of it is for the Intercounty Connector - which may be related to the bike trail. Another $742,000 is for the Long Branch Village Center Access Improvements project in Silver Spring, MD. Though the money was set aside in 2006, none of it has been spent and it does appear to be bike related.

One objective is to improve vehicular, bike, and pedestrian accessibility and circulation between the existing public facilities at Village Center.

Farther out, there's also over $700,000 unspent on the unbuilt St. Mary s College of Maryland Pedestrian Overpass.

But it's Virginia where the real risk - and opportunity - lies. With nearly $10M in earmarks, there is a lot of money at play. Unfortunately, much of that money is already set aside for biking, which means that it could be lost. Top of the list is $983,928 for land acquisition for the pedestrian trail "over the George Washington Memorial Bridge" which I assume is for a new connection to the Mt Vernon Trail.  We should make sure that isn't lost. Also in Arlington County, there's $390,000 for the Jefferson Davis Highway (Rt 1) Improvements, $79,000 for Columbia Pike Improvements and $60,000 for the South Glebe Road improvements, any of which may include bike infrastructure. There's another $983,928 for Fairfax County Trail improvements in Great Falls. All of this money is now in play - and at the state level, and that may not be good. But, $558,000 earmarked to widen I-66 within the Beltway - something unlikely to happen for example - may become available and might find it's way into bike programs.

This is all kind of new and so it's impossible to know what will happen.  Virginia's DOT has been asked about it, but they aren't yet ready to answer.

At this time, [VDOT spokeswoman Tamara] Rollison was unable to say how Virginia's share may be spent, but she said she was working with a transportation program manager to determine how the state will proceed.

"Obviously, any bit of money is good news," she said. "It's good for us to be able to add to projects in the transportation network regardless of the amount. Sometimes small projects can do big things — there is always a call for that. But trying to build a tunnel or express lanes — it's not going to go too far. There are a an awful lot of needs out there, big and small."

Anyway, it may mean bike advocates have to refight for money they alread won. Or it could mean an opportunity to get more - if we're "shovel ready." We really won't know until October. 

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Biggest loser

Good afternoon

• MAP-21, the new federal transportation, cuts spending for Transportation Alternatives (TA) - what used to be Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and Recreational Trails. DC is one of the bigger losers by percentage at -43%, coming out well below the 28% average. Only 5 states do worse, with VT being the biggest loser at -52%. Maryland and Virginia do much better, only losing 26%. More detail here.
• It's a good day for on-line mapping tools. RTC announces a new TrailLink website. Among other improvements, it now shows trails spacially.  
• Queen Anne's County has a new bike map. 
• "Havre de Grace in Harford County will improve its North Park Trail with a grant of $34,300. The project will provide safe pedestrian, bicycle, vehicular and visual linkages from the trail to the city's Main Street and Susquehanna State Park."
• American Bobby Julich, comes in just under the wire and wins the Silver Medal in the 2004 Olympics Men's Road Time Trial.  

Monday Morning Commute - Stick the Landing

Good morning

• MAP-21 (the new federal transportation bill) will no longer mandate that money be spent on biking. So the advocacy push moves to the states - and DC. Spokes (page 20) contacted Maryland, DC and Virginia officials to see what they planned to do starting Oct 1.  So far, all three plan to keep their Safe Routes to Schools Coordinator, continue funding Recreation Trails Programs and fund Transportation Enhancement programs. 
• It's official: treating red lights as stop signs, and stop signs as yield signs is ethical - even when not legal. [An ethisist says so]. The column also has a local tidbit " Uninterrupted motion, gliding silently and swiftly, is a joy. It’s why I ride. And it’s why Stephen G. Breyer says he rides, sometimes to work at the Supreme Court: “The advantages? Exercise, no parking problems, gas prices, it’s fun. An automobile is expensive. You have to find a place to park and it’s not fun. So why not ride a bicycle? I recommend it.” I don’t know if he runs red lights. I hope so." BTWD speaker!
• Human rights bike rack.
• Many MoCo neighborhoods are closing their street grid to reduce traffic. This is a bad idea, and bad for cyclists who would like to avoid traffic sewers. A better option is to "turn streets like Ellsworth Drive into "neighborhood greenways," also known as "bike boulevards," designed to give people on foot or bike priority over drivers. That's sort of what currently exists on Second Avenue between 16th and Spring streets in Silver Spring, which allows bikes and buses during rush hour, but not cars. And if we're going to turn a street into a dead-end, we should at least make it passable for pedestrians and bicyclists, like on Middleton Lane near downtown Bethesda."
• Real estate executive Mark Schneider, a man who was "instrumental in the development of Heinz Field, PNC Park and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh died Sunday from injuries he sustained after crashing his bicycle near Thurmont" two weekends ago during a 100 mile charity ride. "Schneider was at the rear of a group of nine riders near the 8300 block of Ramsburg Road when he took a left turn down a hill and lost control of his bicycle."
• UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun injured in a bicycle accident for the 2nd time in 4 years.
• Austin is getting bike sharing. 

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Spinlister

Good afternoon

• The TIGER program, which is funding the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail extension, is getting some criticism for a lack of transparency in choosing grant recipients. And a lack of transparency always creates an opportunity to accuse people of making political decisions instead of policy ones. "The transportation secretary must sign off on the grants, but the final decisions get little public scrutiny. And the criteria, which include a cost-benefit analysis, delve into the less quantifiable aspects of livability and sustainability....DOT created detailed cost-benefit studies and evaluated aspects like project readiness, public usefulness and economic competitiveness. The awards were billed as earned rights — no earmarks, no state-funded formulas." A grant program is in the new transportation bill, but it's different from TIGER "The new transportation law authorizes another grant program, but it’s geared toward large projects and makes funding available only to state transportation departments and a handful of other entities"
• Spinlister, a site that lets other people rent your bicycle, could expand to DC at some point. 
• Just as happened in Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul four years ago, Charlotte is rolling out a bike sharing system prior to the Democratic National Convention. Tampa probably won't follow suit. "First lady Michelle Obama’s press office did not respond to questions regarding whether she will be taking part in Charlotte’s new, healthy, sustainable mode of transportation during the convention"
• The bus driver in the fatal London Olympic bus crash was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. Bradley Wiggins, when asked about it, called for mandatory bike helmet laws.

Thursday Morning Commute - One City

Good morning

• Mayor Gray's One City Action Plan calls for expanding bike share stations (by 87 by the end of the year which has already been reported) and bike lanes. Bike lanes would go from 56 now to 61 by 2014, which doesn't sound that aggressive compared to the Action Agenda from 2010 which aspired to have 80 miles by 2012. The One City Plan adds "DDOT will also add high visibility bike lanes with green paint beginning on L Street and in other high conflict areas. Lastly, additional pavement markers that help to better identify bike lanes will also be added to help increase bicycle safety."
• WAMU is not finding as many abandoned bikes as I'd expect. Maybe next they can focus on something that impacts safety.
• Ray LaHood "If accessibility advocates and biking and walking advocates make their voices heard in their state capitols and in their county and city councils, there's no reason to believe that the tremendous progress we've made in the last three years can't continue." Except that many state capitals are dominated by the kind of people who oppose spending money on biking. 
• Velib is 5 years old. 10% of Parisians are members, and car trips are down 25%. Velib has turned a profit the last 3 years.