TheWashCycle

Oberstar in, Young out

Regardless of where you come down on the Democrat-Republican-Whig spectrum, if you're a bike advocate it's hard not to be excited about Jim Oberstar becoming the Transportation Committee chairman.

From airline mergers to bike paths, Oberstar is expected to put an outsized imprint on how Americans get around in the future. If you're a railroad tycoon looking for a federally backed loan, you have to talk to Oberstar; if you're an airline lobbyist looking for a new route or an acquisition, you have to talk Oberstar.

Which is good news, because Oberstar is arguably the House's biggest bike advocate. As the BTA blog puts it...

Oberstar is known to be part of the dynamic bike duo with Congressman Blumenauer (D-OR), and has received many national accolades for his work on bike issues.

Oregon's bike-friendly Congressman Defazio may head an important subcommittee of House T&I.

We hope to work with the 110th Congress to pass the Bicyclist Commuters Benefits Act, among other things.

138 of 148 House Bike Caucus members who ran for reelection were reelected, as were 6 of the 7 Senate Bike Caucus members.

Spring Bicycle Education Program

An email I received...

ATTN: Community Leaders, Teachers, and Youth Leaders,

This spring, The Engaged University will offer a youth bicycle program in bicycle repair, maintenance, safety and applied skills. It will have a focus on youth empowerment, environmental education, and building young leaders. The program will span two months, meeting twice a week after school and will include several weekend fieldtrips. This program is one of several new youth oriented programs that will be based in our new Center for Educational Partnership in Riverdale, MD, including a community garden and art education program among others.

We are asking community leaders, teachers, and others who work closely with young people to recommend students whom they feel will be an asset to this program or whom have demonstrated particular merit and need. The program is free of charge.  Students who are accepted and participate will be rewarded with a bicycle and helmet of their own upon completion of the program. Students who complete the program may also have an opportunity for a paid summer internship in which they help teach other students bicycle repair skills.

We are particularly looking for a group of students who:

• Are culturally diverse and representative of PG      county youth
• Enjoy hands-on activities and thrive in      learning-by-doing environments
• Are between the ages of 14 to 18
• Are in need of meaningful and exciting after      school activities
• Are able to get to the Center for Educational      Partnership (we are accessible by public transportation via East-West Hwy)

We invite you to recommend students or young people whom you believe will benefit from such a program. We are very excited to offer this opportunity to local young people. Please feel free to pass this message on to other local organizations or individuals who work with young people or who may have an interest in such a program. To recommend a youth, apply for the program or ask a question, please contact Adam Schwartz.

adam schwartz
Bicycle Education Program Coordinator
The Engaged University/Maryland Cooperative Extension
1241 Tawes Bldg, College Park, MD 20742
301.405.0660 (office)
301.275.2362 (cell)
301.314.2533 (fax)
[email protected]
[email protected]

WABA's Featured Ride

I think this may be a new feature of WABA's new and vastly improved website. It's a good idea. Endless arguments about the utility and safety of various bike facilities are fun, but riding is funner. The feature ride for the winter is in The Plains.

Bike thiefs and Cable Locks suck

It really is the worst feeling. I've had three bikes stolen in my lifetime. The first time was at the local library as an 11-year old. I walked out, talking to a friend, walked over to where my bike was and then just stood there. I really could not figure out what had happened for several minutes until my friend said, "Do you think it was stolen?"

Turned out this guy who ran a local bike shop was paying kids to steal bikes. He'd ship them to Houston where a Houston bike store owner was doing the same and would ship bikes back to Beaumont. It worked fine until a bike was stolen twice. Stolen in Houston, shipped to Beaumont, sold, stolen, shipped back to Houston where the owner recognized it in the guy's store. Worst part - the guy who owned the Beaumont shop was a family friend.

Anyway Lindsay at Self-Righteous Biker had her bike stolen recently thanks to the use of a cable lock. Still it sucks that we live in a world where you need a high tech $55 lock to keep your bike safe. Keep your eye out for it (I really don't plan to keep doing this, I'd love to set up something like this, but with work, grad school and wedding planning - I just won't have the time)

College Park Trolley Trail Expansion (South)

The town of Riverdale is looking to expand the College Park Trolley Trail. This was placed in the comments of a post from 2005 and I felt it was important enough to "promote"

Riverdale Park and Hyattsville hope to turn more of this abandoned trolley line into a hiker-biker trail extending the College Park Trolley Trail.

We are showing a movie clip from the 1950s of a trolley car rolling along this line through My Rainier, Hyattsville, Riverdale and College Park. The movie clip is a delightful quick peak into our past (just 12 minutes long).

After the movie there will be a short 10-minute Q&A, then we'll take a walk (weather permitting) and identify some landmarks from the film and see where this hiker-biker trail might run. Come dressed for the outdoor hike. The whole event will take less than an hour.

When: Saturday, Feb 3, 2007, 3 p.m.
Where: S&J Restaurant in Riverdale Park Town Center,  6108 Rhode Island Ave and Queensbury Rd.

It should be fun and educational (no charge). Dress is very casual - weekend hike-in-the-woods casual.

We hope to see you there. Please pass this along to anyone that might be interested.

- Mayor Vernon Archer and Council Member Rob Oppenheim, Riverdale Park

P.S. In the movie, we board the streetcar (line #82) at 4th St NW NE and Rhode Island Ave. Here the trolley runs up the middle of Route One. We see a few sites, such as the railroad underpass, the loop in Mt.Rainier (terminal cafe), and a bit of downtown Hyattsville.

And from Hyattsville the trolley car follows alongside the railroad tracks into Riverdale Park, where we get a glimpse of the Riverdale Park town center from the late 1950s - including the S&J restaurant where we will be viewing the movie. We then see the trolley continuing north thru Riverdale and College Park.

Someone pointed out in the comments of the same post that it appears that some expansion of the trail south has already occurred. I'll have to check it out.

I was running in College Park south of the metro station recently, and it looked to me like part of the "southern extention" is complete. I had been on it a couple of years back and the existing path was narrow (maybe 3' wide) and cracked. It has been repaved to standard bike path width with nice curb cuts in the residential section south of Calvert Rd. No work has been done, as far as I can tell, between Calvert Rd and Paint Branch Parkway.

Frederick Douglass Bridge to close for two months

I'd heard about this a couple of months ago, but I was waiting for it to become official.

The Frederick Douglass Bridge, an important commuter route that carries South Capitol Street traffic over the Anacostia River will be shut down for July and August for a big reconstruction job. Drivers will be detoured north to the 11th Street Bridge.

It will also be closed to cyclists. It won't be closed to cyclists for several upcoming weekend closings to replace bridge expansion joints. During the two months the bridge is closed, for now, cyclists will have to detour to the 11th Street Bridge - which could be more than a two mile detour, depending on where you're going.

WABA and DDOT, last I heard, were planning to approach WMATA to see if they would allow bikes on Metro's Green Line during rush hour during the closure. Even if only for a limited set of stations (Anacostia, Navy Yard, Waterfront and Archives for example) this would help cyclists who depend on the bridge. It would also allow WMATA to experiment with bikes on metro during rush hour without it seeming they were changing policy (and since the ban is baseless). They would look like the good guys. It's a win-win really. So if you use the Douglas, it's time to start contacting your city council member and WMATA.

There was an article about this after the chat.

When the bridge reopens, there will be a new intersection at Potomac Avenue and South Capitol Street, pedestrian and bicycle walkways, and improved roadway access throughout the area.

This is probably a good project for cyclists in general - providing a chance to connect to Potomac Avenue, P Street and Q Street earlier.

Bike Lanes encore

"Do you need a bike lane to ride in the city?" Richard Layman asks on RPUS. No more than you need a racing kit.*

One of the people at the aforementioned meeting asked a question about putting in bike lanes on K Street, opining that more bicyclists use K Street than any other street in the city--because of couriers.

I found that odd, because couriers are probably the most experienced cyclists in the city, though I could see how it might help them make deliveries faster (I'm not talking from experience, I've never been a messenger so someone could set me straight).

He then points out that he doesn't need bike lanes. I agree. I don't think anyone needs bike lanes - not downtown at least, but they are nice (if you can work with the intersection problem - and I do see that as a problem). Anyway he quotes from a book,

Accommodating the pedestrian: adapting towns and neighborhoods for walking and bicycling, and their research on the various segments of bicycle users, she writes:

Bicycle advocates tend to segregate into extremes and lobby for different facilities based on physiological capabilities and purposes for the trip...characteriz[ing] the bicycling populations as 'commuters,' 'recreationists,' and 'learners.' The first group can include children who commute to school but this group is primarily comprised of individuals who commute to work. Principally athletic white young to middle aged educated males, these individuals prefer to bicycle in the road, function as a car, obey traffic regulations and push 'share the road' policies in which cars share the road with bicyclists.

He argues for more bike parking and more showers. I whole-heartedly agree. I think these are more important than bike lanes. The Virginia Bicycling Federation (VBF) is working on a bill to help with this in fact

HB 1826 proposes two different types of income tax credits for expenditures related to bicycle commuting: 1) an employer tax credit up to $5,000 for expenditures to provide employee bicycle parking racks and/or showers at the worksite and 2) an employee tax
credit of $15 per month for commuting by bicycle at least ten days in any given month.  VBF strongly supports both proposed tax credits, but we have suggested expanding the employer credit to include rented as well as purchased facilities, to include all
types of suitable bicycle parking facilities (not just racks), and to include employee clothes changing and storage facilities as well as employee showers.

The bill has been referred to the House of Delegates Finance Committee and will be heard by Finance Subcommittee #1 on Monday, Jan. 22.  A favorable fiscal impact statement has already been issued by the Virginia Department of Taxation.

But I think all of these goals (parking, showers and lanes) can be pursued in parallel. And since bike lanes are questionable (due to the intersection issue) I think going slow and studying them as you go makes sense too.  But I do think there is a build-it-and-they-will-come aspect to bike lanes.

I saw a presentation recently about bike safety where they mentioned one problem with bicycle accident statistics is that the police fill out a paper form with limited information entry in it. The same form is used for all accidents so it's a jack-of-all trades, master of none. In Denver we were told, they have a digital form, so if it's a bike-car collision, for example, it brings up questions specific to that accident (helmet use? bike lane use? etc...) Another problem is that the police often enter a block or intersection for an accident, but that may not be specific enough. I read something (and I can't find it now - but I did find this satisfying article) about how the police in Chicago were using GPS receivers to enter the exact co-ordinates where the accident occurred (braking started here. Collision here. etc...) Maybe it's just the science nerd in me, but more - and better - data can only help.

*There have been some comments about wearing racing gear and how unnecessary it is (though I don't recall anyone saying it was necessary). You don't need racing clothes. You don't need clothes at all. You can ride in a tutu. You can ride in a box. You can ride with a fox. Some people "like" to wear racing gear, and that should be OK with others (freedom and all). What matters is not what they're wearing, but how they ride (safely & courteously).

Metro's Bike Racks

On RPUS, he printed a long comment by reader C4bl3Fl4m3 (Cableflame), about Metro, the fare increases and how to get people to take transit (Getting people to take transit is easy BTW - raise the gas tax). For one portion she talked about metro's bike racks.

Another way to get people to use transit is better bike lockups in more locations. I don't know WHO designed those bike racks, but they're a horrible design. Because I'm a small woman (5'1"), I use a youth bike. My bike doesn't fit properly in those racks. Also, I was reading how to use them properly to lock down your bike, and you're supposed to use a standard padlock. I know of NO ONE who uses a standard padlock to lock down their bike... everyone has either a cable lock or a U style lock. And how about making the bike lockups be in a sheltered place not too far out of the station and public view? It would discourage crime.

The first time I saw a Metro station bike rack I felt about it the same way I do about my gray hairs. I don't like them, but they're better than nothing. But they aren't as good as they should be. The quality varies station to station. Grosvenor has a lot of parking, some of it even covered. At New Carrolton (pictured), they just have a sign with a picture of a bike designating the fence as bike parking. I guess you're supposed to lock your bike to the fence? The bike boxes are great, but there should never be a waiting list for them. Take away a parking space if you need to (you could probably get six bike boxes in a parking space if you stack them two high). Raise the rental fee if money is a problem, but the waiting list should be a sign of pent up demand. Every station should have the following:

1. Ample, covered, secure bike parking
2. Enough bike boxes for the number of people who request them
3. A guard dog trained to attack people with bike stealing tools (ok, well that may be hard to do).

Speaking of metro security, someone posted a comment (here, I can't even remember now) about bikes being stolen off the front of buses. Has anyone heard of this? Is this happening? If so, this is a serious problem. I always try to make sure the bus driver makes eye contact with me and knows that the bike is mine.

Bicycle placement on the Pike

There's been a lot of discussion about bicycle placement, so when I watched this animation about the proposed Columbia Pike streetcar (warning the animation is large) I was struck by this "after" picture. Over on the left you can see the cyclist. He's not even in the road really, but over in the part where the intersection makes the road wider (as though he moved over in the intersection). I ride the pike a lot and there's no way I'd want to be between the streetcar and the curb. I'd either ride in front of the streetcar or over in the left lane. I really don't think they consulted a cyclist on this picture.

Alexandria's Pocket Parks

In the Post's Arlington/Alexandria Extra, they reported on Alexandria's effort to preserve 100 acres of additional parkland.

The creation of pocket parks, which have no minimum size but cannot exceed 20,000 square feet, is just one initiative Alexandria officials are working on as they push to maintain and create additional open space in the city. Their goal: 100 acres in 10 years. It is an aspiration, not a maximum, insist planners. Since beginning the program in 2003, officials said the city already has amassed 64 acres.

I think it's smart for the city to be thinking about land preservation, and now that the housing market is cooling down, they may get enough time to meet their goal. This is good for cyclists as several of the pieces can be used for bike trails or are along side existing trails.

In the past year, planners say they have acquired three key parcels on Alexandria's waterfront, land needed to update the historic seaport, as well as four properties along Four Mile Run, where a long-term redevelopment is in the works to transform the flood-control passage into a natural streambed with trails and parkland.

No linear parks were mentioned specifically, but Alexandria had shown an inclination to these in the past. It may include the W&OD right of way in Del Ray

Mt. Jefferson Park and a bike path now occupy the site. The city's new bike plan calls for extending the path from Raymond Avenue to Route 1, and eventually over a new bridge to the Potomac Yard development.