TheWashCycle

Someday on MARC, Amtrak, VRE and Metro

Here's something interesting

MBTA officials unveiled yesterday a commuter rail coach equipped with 39 bike racks that will make two round trips from Boston to Rockport on Saturdays, Sundays, and some holidays.

Half of the coach's seats were removed to make way for the racks, leaving 42 seats.

The new coach will begin running Sunday during the 47th Annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic race, hosted by the Fitchburg Cycling Club.

``We wanted something to serve the bike community," said Will Shannon , deputy chief mechanical officer for the T.

T General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said that while bikes are allowed on the commuter rail, riders often have trouble getting them on and off.

So they already allow bikes on board, they're just trying to accommodate cyclists. What a crazy idea.

It's never too early to learn safe biking

The Gazette ran a story a while ago about bicycle safety training at Berwyn Heights Elementary School.

The Berwyn Heights Police Department and the Washington Area Bike Association helped to organize the event.

‘‘It’s a good idea because some people crash their bikes,” Joshua Hamilton said. ‘‘My brother crashed his bike once and he got a concussion so this will make sure I am safe.”

Kids were taught the basics of bicycle maintenance, hand signals and aware cycling. These types of programs, in conjunction to Safe Routes to School, have the potential to really turn back the clock on kids biking to school (as in they used to a lot and now they do it rarely). And it has real benefits. According to the League of American Cyclists

 

There are more than three times as many overweight kids today as there were 25 years ago.

More than 1 in 3 young people in grades 9–12 do not regularly engage in vigorous physical activity.

As much as 20% of morning rush hour traffic can be parents driving kids to school

School bus transportation is frequently the second largest budget item for school districts after salaries

Option 1 Chosen for Met Branch

From the Silver Springs Trails website:

The Montgomery County Council Transportation and Environment (T&E) Committee finished its review of the DPWT Phase I Metropolitan Branch Trail conceptual design. The Committee voted 2-0 (Floreen and Leventhal for, Perez absent) to direct DPWT to carry the MetBranch Trail Option 1 into Phase II facility design. The Option 1 alignment will follow closely along the CSX right-of-way from the Silver Spring Transit Center to the Takoma Campus of Montgomery College and will have a trail bridge over Georgia Avenue and a trail underpass under East-West Highway.

This is good news. This is the trail (in Maryland - more about DC next week) that cyclists wanted.  Phase II takes about 18 months. Funding could begin in the FY09 budget.

Also, when I was out on the MBT last week, I saw the construction of a fence going on along Fenton Street (see photo). I'm not sure what the purpose of it is. Is it a safety feature? Even if it is, I don't like it. Why block the view from the trail and of the trail. One goal of trail development is place-making. Fences do not make places. They divide people. This is unfortunate.

Bicycle Thefts

If you want to read local articles about bikes in the Post (and I do) the thing you'll most likely read will go something like this

MANOR HOUSE LANE, 5900 block, 10 p.m. June 13 to 11 a.m. June 15. A bicycle was stolen from a residence entered through an unlocked front door.

because the place where the Post most often mentions bikes is in their crime reports. This is not an indictment of the Post but merely a means of pointing out how common bike theft is. Of course anyone who rides a bike in DC already knows that theft is a problem.

The FBI keeps national crime records, but bicycle theft has always been just one part of the larceny category. They only count it as a bicycle theft (I've been told) if the bicycle was the most expensive thing stolen and they only report on bicycles that were reported stolen. Still in 2004 - the only year I could find bicycle thefts broken out of the larceny category - over 250,000 bicycles were stolen in the US. They count a stolen bicycle's value as $240, so that's $60 million a year.

I wrote about a guy who wanted to put a lo-jack device in a bike and use it to catch thieves, but he had trouble getting the police to cooperate. Here's an article about a guy in Sacramento who did get help.

Back in mid-January, Jason Cecchettini’s girlfriend’s truck was broken into near her Curtis Park home. Unfortunately for the crooks, they picked on the wrong person. Cecchettini was sure that a thief was targeting the neighborhood and that, if tempted, the villain would strike again. With the help of the Sacramento Police Department, he laid a trap.

The next evening, Cecchettini placed a fancy bike, unlocked, on the back of his pickup truck in front of his girlfriend’s house at midnight. By 1:30 a.m., the bike was gone, stolen from the back of the truck.

What the thief didn’t know was that the bike was a special “bait bike” of Cecchettini’s own design. Using radio receivers tuned to the special frequency, the cops were able to pinpoint the exact location of the thief.

a Sacramento Police Department helicopter, equipped with a tracking receiver, was dispatched to hover over the house until patrol cars arrived.

“He was just freaking out. He was probably only home five minutes when the police helicopters moved in,” he said.

“I noticed the bed was pretty lumpy. I pulled back the covers, and there she was.” Apparently, it was the best the thief could do on such short notice. “I guess he didn’t have time to stuff it in the attic,” Cecchettini observed.

Rock Creek Flood of 2006

  Rock Creek Flood of 2006 
  Originally uploaded by maxedaperture.

Congressman Weds on Bike Trail

U.S. Representative Rich Boucher from Southwestern Virginia and his long time girlfriend Amy Hauslohner, an editor of the Galax Gazette in Galax, Virginia tied the knot on an old railroad bridge that now makes up part of the Virginia Creeper Trail.

"We have decided since I will be 60 in August and she just turned 50 last week, we probably are mature enough to handle marriage."

Before the ceremony, the couple bicycled from Abingdon to Damascus on the trail. While biking the 10 miles back to Abingdon, they stopped at the Alvarado Train Station restaurant and shared a slice from a coconut cake at the counter.

Another advantage of rail trails, the money you save on renting a wedding chapel.

Storm Damage

I was thinking we'd gotten away with only minor damage like silt deposits and mudslides, but it appears a bridge on the W&OD trail has been damaged enough to be closed pending repairs.

Fairfax Station, VA (June 26, 2006) – The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority closed a section of the W&OD Trail (Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park) today due to significant damage to the bridge over Piney Branch between Hunter Mill Road and the Town of Vienna.As a result of the flood conditions over the last 24 hours, the stone embankment that supports this bridge has been significantly eroded and has lost much of the stone work that held it in place. This stone work was part of the original railroad construction in the 1850s. The Regional Park Authority has closed the bridge until the bridge embankment can be rebuilt.“We are already working with engineers to assess the damage and repair the bridge as soon as possible. Until it can be repaired, it is vital that pedestrians and cyclist not use this crossing,” stated Paul Gilbert, Executive Director of NVRPA.

Addendum: And from the W&OD site

A detour will be put in place after the rains cease, but apparently a few weeks will be needed to arrange this temporary installation. While plans to repair/replace the stonework are already being made, complete restoration of the bridge (and elimination of the detour) will clearly take several months.

More trail conditions are in the comments of this post and at WABA's website.

Ten For Tuesday- We differ on the definition of "perfectly lovely"

1. I did recently write that WABA is not technically an environmental group and then they went and joined the DC environmental network and made me look like a liar. Anyway the network is sponsoring a mayoral candidate forum this Thursday, so if you're a DC voter it's your chance to meet Michael Brown, Linda Cropp and Adrian Fenty.

Thursday June 29, 6:30-9:00pm
Cramton Auditorium, Howard University
2455 6th St. NW

2. In other WABA news, WABA's providing valet bike parking on the mall during the 4th of July. This should be similar to the Cherry Blossom festival parking. I didn't go to that but it looked a bit like triathlon parking with a secure area for bikes. I've gone to the mall for the fireworks a half dozen times and I have to say that biking is really the only way to go. Traffic is insane. Certain gates become overwhelmed and others are unused. On a bike you can ride to one of the unused ones. Last year we were with some people who decided to take the bus and it was an hour difference both ways.

3. Dr. Gridlock has retired (or more accurately Ron Shaffer, who created the Dr. Gridlock column two decades ago - he will probably be replaced much like James Bond). I know many complained about his column; that it was anti-transit or anti-bike, but it was always thought provoking. Maybe they'll hire Richard Layman to write the column from now on.

Speaking of Dr. Gridlock here's an exchange where his explanation of biking behavior, and law, is right on. Still I would like a Dr. Gridlock who, at least occasionally, rides a bike on the major commuter routes - so that they don't have to rely on what "bikers have told" them. 

Rockville, Md.: I drive along Beach Drive, and I am always vigilant for bike riders (I used to bike to work at the National Zoo years ago). Someone, please! explain to me WHY in the WORLD bike riders are insisting upon riding in the road when there is a perfectly lovely bike path provided. I mean, when it's part of the road--I understand--but this is SCARY. At 4 p.m. there are VERY VERY FEW pedestrians--I can SEE the open bike path!

I just do NOT get it.

Dr. Gridlock: Bikers have told me in the past that the bike path is in poor shape, with craters, and walkers/joggers/dogs so that they feel safer in the roadway, which they are entitled to use.

4. Mark McCormack, 35, became the first American since 2003 to win the CSC Invitational, the region's most prestigious cycling race.

5. I'm embarassed to admit that I don't know who Bill Rice is, but I feel like I should. Rice is running for the Ward 3 Council seat. Here's an article about him from the Examiner.

I first met Rice when he was covering D.C. politics for local weekly papers. Back in the 1980s, two men would arrive at political events on funky bicycles: Dave Clarke and Bill Rice. Both were a bit, ummm, shall we say, quirky.

Sounds like my kind of guy (this is not an endorsement - like I said I don't know him) the post said this

You can see him riding around town on his bicycle but [he] should be taken seriously.

What the ...? I don't like what they're insinuating.

6. Construction on the Bethesda Avenue/Woodmont Avenue bumpout started on April 20th and from what I saw last week it's basically complete (see photo)

7. Baltimore isn't the only city promoting a new bike plan. As RPUS pointed out, Chicago is too. Chicago is really becoming one of the great cycling cities in America. Here's the Chicago Times article.

From Geneva, Switzerland, they got the idea of raised bike lanes, a layer of pavement above street level and below the curb that would help dissuade motorists from veering into cycling territory. By 2010, the city hopes to experiment with raised lanes in a few locations.

In Copenhagen, Cambridge and other places, planners saw bicycle lanes colored a startling shade of teal green, thermoplastic markings they hope to duplicate at some Chicago intersections to try to warn right-turning cars to watch for bikes.

Of course, he said, cars are not the only deterrent: "Try to get a girl to go on a date with you on a bike."

Chicago has the new Millennium Park Bike Station - that's my model for the Dupont Circle Bike Station.

8. Arlington is looking to add bike rentals.

The new staff members also will help to set up kiosks in Rosslyn, Clarendon and Ballston to enliven the streets with such ventures as bike rentals and flower and ice cream sales.

9. $250,000 was set aside in the federal fiscal 2007 Transportation Budget for the Four Mile Run pedestrian and bike trail between Alexandria and Arlington

10. An essay in the Post on fixies.

Fixed-gear bikes, aka fixies, are those clean-looking city steeds you often see messengers riding, the ones without multiple gears or even, in some cases, brakes. The gear is "fixed," meaning that if the wheels are turning, so are the pedals -- no coasting allowed.

11. And finally there is this. I knew something had happened because so many people were googling my site looking for this.

Paul Gerard Rossmeissl, 54, an experimental psychologist who became a quality control expert, died June 7 at Inova Fairfax Hospital of injuries suffered three days earlier in a bicycle accident on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail.

A spokeswoman with the Fairfax County Police Department said Dr. Rossmeissl was biking near Hunter Mill Road when he hit a pedestrian, fell and struck his head.

There aren't any other details. It's unusual for a cyclist to die in a crash with a pedestrian. I'm curious as to how it happened. Was he wearing a helmet? How fast was he going? Regardless, I think this is the W&OD's fifth fatal accident.

Bike map sort of done

So I've finished my first draft of the bike trail map. It has all the trails I plan to include, and data is now pulled from an XML file instead of the actual page so it shouldn't crash anymore (though it will take longer to load).

I plan to improve it with time. I want to switch from the cumbersome system of coloring each trail a different color and instead label the trails on the map with different colors designating different types of trails. I want to add in all the little trail spurs that I skipped over. I want to link each individual trail to its own map that shows bike shops and metro stations. And I want to add a permalink/save this map feature, address look up and a print this map feature. Let me know if you have any other suggestions or if you're using it (and if so how?)

Got Any Other Bright Ideas

[That was some rain storm last night. My car was flooded and even pushed about 2 inches over thanks to a flooded Four Mile Run. And I had to detour off a closed NE Branch Trail on my commute. I suspect several trails were closed this morning, anyway...].

So my earlier prediction that pedicabs would be in DC by fall of 2008 wasn't nearly ambitious enough. I got an email shortly thereafter from one of the owners of DC Pedicab telling me that they were planning to start operations by July 4th. Some of you have pointed out that they're running ads on Craig's list and the company had two recruitment parties this month to get drivers (Sorry, I should have posted those before hand). In addition, I've had two others contact me about how to start a pedicab company - like I know how to start a business. If you're interested in becoming a driver for DC Pedicab here's the lowdown.

call us at (202) 345-8065 or [email us at] [email protected].

Which brings me to my latest bright idea. A little while ago I found out about a subway tunnel in Rochester, NY that the city was going to fill in with dirt. A local group is trying to preserve it - either as an underground rail trail/museum or to convert it to a canal with a river walk type environment. That got me thinking about one of DC's more notorious abandoned subway structures - aka Dupont Down Under.

Below Dupont Circle, but above the Dupont Metro Station is the old Dupont Circle Subway Station (see photo at right) It was built in 1949 to reduce the impact of the old trolley system on Dupont Circle traffic. In 1962 the station was closed when the trolley system was shut down. In 1995 it opened as a food court called "Dupont Down Under" but closed in September of 1996. Back in 2003 there were rumblings that the site might reopen, but I never heard what happened with that.

It turns out people don't want to eat under ground when they could eat outside at one of the city's great public spaces. Nor do people want to work or shop or live or do pretty much anything underground if they can avoid it.

What people don't mind doing underground is parking. That's why the site is ideally suited to be a bike station (like this bike parking facility in the Netherlands - where else?). Unlike the station being built at Union Station and the one not being built at Silver Spring - the structure is already there, it just needs to be converted. Since it was a food court, it's safe to assume that there's already plumbing so that showers and changing rooms would be easy to add in. It's located at a major metro station in one of the busiest parts of the city. It's ill-suited for almost any other use but in an area with extremely expensive land.

I wish I'd submitted this idea to the Solving DC's problems contest. I'd have $5k burning a hole in my pocket right now.