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.
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