TheWashCycle

Ten for Tuesday - Who's counting

1. Operation Lifesaver has good advice for cyclists:

In the wake of the controversy surrounding bicyclists who cycled around railroad crossing gates to cross in front of a train during the Paris- Roubaix cycling race, Operation Lifesaver (OL), urges bicyclists to ride safely when at railroad crossings or near train tracks

-- Bicycle wheels can get caught in rails. To minimize catching wheels in the rails, always try to cross at a 90 degree angle to the tracks, and if your approach is at less than a 45 degree angle, dismount and walk your bike across.

-- You should not rely on your own senses to second-guess warning signals. It is a misconception to believe track vibration or train noise will warn of a train's approach. And beware -- one train may have passed but another could be behind it, or coming from the opposite direction on the next track.

-- You can't accurately gauge the speed of a moving train. An optical illusion makes trains appear to be farther away and slower-moving than they are.

-- Trains are wider than their tracks. To ensure safety and to ensure that you are not struck by anything hanging from the train (or dragged by anything hanging from you), keep yourself and your bike at least 15 feet from the tracks and behind any gates or "stop lines" marked on the pavement.

-- It is not only dangerous, it is illegal in the United States to go around railroad crossing arms, whether on foot, in a car, or on a bicycle. It is also dangerous and illegal to bicycle on railroad tracks and on most gravel or green space beside railroad tracks.

2. Great letter about Metro Parking, but I really do believe this is going to get better.

I had navigated rush-hour traffic and reached the Vienna Metro station at 8 a.m., confident that I'd find parking. Not so: In the small space allotted, every spot was taken. The parking facility provided was old, and apparently some people had abandoned their vehicles. I parked in an unapproved, probably illegal spot and hoped for the best.

The twist? I'm describing the rusty bicycle racks on the south side of the Vienna station.

BTW, if you ever see a group of 4ft x 7ft x 3ft boxes near a metro entrance, those are bike lockers and you can rent them for $70 a year, as available.

3. Chain Reaction Bike Shop reopened June 1st at their new location at 1416 North Capitol Street NW (between O and P). They're asking for volunteers to complete work on the new shop.

4. The President goes biking with his new ambassador to Sweden, who promptly broke his collarbone. Boy, that has got to look bad in front of your boss.

5. Here's a disturbingly effective German ad for wearing your bicycle helmet. "Be careful when transporting fragile goods."

6. This sounds crazy, but few things can make one insane with rage like having a bike stolen (or the more perplexing front wheel theft). It's enough to turn anyone into a vigilante.

Chevy Chase resident Evan McAnney ran across an article about a man who installed a tiny radio transmitter into a bicycle and then, with the help of police, left it unattended and unlocked in order to entice a thief.

It sounded like a worthy strategy to McAnney, who's had five bicycles stolen in three years of living in the District. “I will never be able to afford a car. A bike is my only personal means of transport, and an important element in maintaining morale,”

7. The Gazette covered the Ride of Silence in Frederick.

According to the Frederick Police Department 2005 Accident Analysis, Frederick city saw 13 bicycle accidents last year.  In 10 of the 13 accidents, the bicyclists were at fault for not following traffic signs and signals, said Lt. Kevin Grubb.

8. Taipei, Amsterdam of the east?

Taiwan is planning to construct 2,600km of bicycle lanes by 2011 to help promote the use of bicycles rather than motor vehicles.

9. B.I.K.E at Silverdocs Saturday Night at 10:15. Who wants to go and report on it? I'll be out of town.

The New York City chapter of Black Label Bicycle Club is a surly but lovable crew of punks, artists and activists. Fighting capitalism, dumpster-diving, sitting drunkenly atop six-foot bicycles with big sticks-these are high-intensity guys (and occasionally gals) that drink hard and playfully joust each other and rival gangs, but still hug and cook each other vegan food.

10. Oh no he didn't!

Mark Rabinowitz notes many environmental groups were fooled into focusing on proposed bike paths to accompany these highways while ignoring the majority of the funding was going for the roads. A Washington, D.C.-area bicycle group, for example, is urging its members to demand inclusion of a bicycle path with the $3 billion Inter County Connector superhighway in Maryland. This flies in the face of other environmental groups there who have spent years fighting this highly destructive project.

Them's fighting words. I'd like to point out that WABA is technically not an environmental group (though biking has environmental benefits) and that trying to stop a project that is unstoppable is not always the best policy. Sometimes you have to take what you can get. There's nothing wrong with saying, "You shouldn't build this, but if you do, you should do it right."

11. There's a WABA gear swap this Saturday, so stop by before going to the film festival (Seriously, if you go, I'll post your review of the movie).

9am-2pm, Parking lot behind the Bicycle Place at 8313 Grubb Road in Silver Spring, MD. Have breakfast, coffee or lunch at Parkway Delicatessen or Red Dog Café and talk shop with some of the most knowledgeable cyclists in the Washington region.

12. Baltimore almost ready to formally present its Eastern Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan.

The Planning Department hopes to formally present its 68-page proposal to the Baltimore County Council in the fall for a vote, making the document officially part of the county’s master plan for development. The plan addresses hundreds of specific problems, large and small, that community activists and the Planning Department have identified as hindrances to increasing pedestrian and bicycle activity.

13. Finally, DCist followed around a bike messenger all day.

I soon begin to marvel at the subtle efficiency employed by Ian and other messengers. Locks, phones, and radios are all attached to a shoulder strap for easy access while playing in traffic. Keys are worn around the wrist, identification badges are clipped in visible holsters -- nearly everything has a specific place. I begin to wonder how much of an idiot I look like, fumbling around in my shoulder bag for my keys and ID. I finally resolve to keep my lock on my belt instead of in my bag

New Section Complete

No, the title doesn't refer to the new Wilson bridge, but rather the latest piece of the North Bethesda Trail (NBT). While I was gone last week (yes, work dropped some serious coin to send me all the way to northern Bethesda - I'll never get used to the accent) I wound up riding past a new piece of the NBT.  It runs along the old trolley line ROW just east of Fleming Avenue, from Grosvenor Blvd to the Beltway. I didn't have a camera with me, but here's a photo of the same area last fall when it was flagged for construction.
 
Another bit of construction began recently on the Mount Vernon Trail just south of Dangerfield Island. Here the trail is being moved away from a wetland portion and raised up, ostensibly to avoid an area that is often wet. No word on whether or not the new trail portion will be graded so that the center is higher than the edges for good drainage. This (I forget the technical term for it [crowning]) is almost never done on trails (though always on roads) so probably not.

The point of all of this is that I couldn't find anything about either project anywhere. No reporting in the media. No news on the NPS website for the GW Parkway. When I started this blog I asked the bike coordinators of DC, MoCo, PG County, Alexandria and Arlington to put me on their regular mailing lists. I get occasional emails from Jim Sebastian at DDOT. That's it. I get regular, unsolicited letters from Eleanor Holmes Norton where her office tells me all about the things she's doing to make my life awesome.  Sometimes bureaucrats need to behave more like politicians.  How hard is it to get a small periodic update together and send it out? Certainly easier than updating a website (which is also rarely done). What I'm talking about is open government and asking bureaucrats to promote themselves and the work they've done.

I do get emails (again unsolicited but welcome) from Alexa Viets with NPS's National Capitol Region Office for example one that told me that starting today NPS will begin to add a cofferdam at Outlet Bridge.

Pedestrian and bicycle access will be detoured to the northbound sidewalk of East Basin Drive during this brief closure. The planned completion date for all work is November 2007

How hard is that?

Inverted U's needed

At one bike to work day a few years ago I remember DDOT had a survey form that it asked participants to fill out. One of the questions asked where bicycle parking was needed. I remember thinking that it would be easy enough to walk or ride around town and find places where numerous bicycles were locked to street signs and parking meters. Those were places where bicycle parking is needed. I saw one such place recently and took a photo (outside of the World Bank). Also here's a similar photo on RPUS

The next photo is from the Mall during the Darfur rally. I've also suggested that the Park Service needs massive amounts of moveable, temporary bike parking that it can locate and relocate for rallies, functions, Screen on the Green etc...The valet parking for the Cherry Blossum Festival was nice, but can't be sustained all summer. Perhaps providing adequate parking could be required of permit seekers.

This Berlin site shows some innovative parking structures that use advertising, on street bike parking and "Bike Huts."

In other parking news, I can't wait for metro parking to improve. I parked my bike at Grosvenor today - what a mess (Especially compared to something like this). It was hard to find space and several of the metro racks were broken.

Terrible Loss

Last Friday, I was biking home and I noticed that Soil Conservation Road - which runs through the Goddard Space Flight Center - was closed down, but I had no idea why and assumed it was part of the road construction for the realignment going on. It was only this week that I learned that one of my co-workers, Dr. Yoram Kaufman was hit while riding his bike just north of the guard gates. He was in a coma most of the week and on Wednesday he passed away.

Yoram was a brilliant senior scientist and a highly regarded and well-liked member of the Earth-Sun Exploration Division. A Senior Fellow, Yoram was the Project Scientist for Terra through its launch, worked on MODIS and other earth science projects, and developed methods for remote sensing of fires and aerosols.   He wrote or co-authored over 170 scientific papers.

His family set up a website for those concerned about his state and they have an accident description. The only real description of the accident comes from the driver who claims it wasn't her fault, but for an experienced cyclist - the accident sounds unusual.

According to the driver, as she moved her vehicle across the double yellow line to get around Dad, he turned his head, noticed the oncoming vehicle, was startled, and collided with it.

Soil Conservation Road is a two lane road with about 6 inches of shoulder. Drivers drive at high speed and at rush hour it can be very crowded. Back when NASA was working on it's facilities master plan (the report itself is not online - or at least I couldn't find it) I remember going to one of the meetings and listening to them talk about the plan. Right now Goddard has 97 parking spaces for every 100 employees. They have a mandate to get that down to 90. They were talking about how difficult it would be to get to 90. Someone suggested encouraging cycling. They complained that since Goddard was bordered on the north by the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center it would be difficult to get to 90, since few people would bike from the north. Someone pointed out that if Soil Conservation road had wider shoulders people would. The designer's response (this is all from memory from year's ago - so I want to point out I could be wrong) was basically that the county only required 1-foot shoulders and so that's what they would provide. With other roads they held the same “only what the county requires" attitude. So they were only going to do the minimum.

I'm not saying that this contributed to the accident last Friday, construction is just now going on so any changes made then would not be implemented yet, but I doubt the accident would have happened had there been wider shoulders (and I believe the road is a county designated bike route - so one can't say he shouldn't have been there).

If Goddard continues the realignment without improving cycling facilities, but expects to get 10% of employees out of their cars then I fear this is only going to be the first such accident.

National Trails Day

I mentioned this before, but Saturday is National Trails Day. There are several events in the area, including riding with Maryland Secretary of Transportation Robert Flanagan on the Anacostia Tributary Trail system. Make sure you ask him why the largest transportation project in Maryland has no bike trail. Some other events in and around DC include:

A bike ride on the Black History National Recreation Trail
Northwest Branch Trail maintenance
An archaeological ride of Alexandria

And there are even more events on the American Hiking site; rides, hikes, walks, opportunities to volunteer and for general fun.

I'll be getting out on a trail, but not as an official event.