TheWashCycle

Clearing out the backlog

I want to start with a clean slate when I get back. Here's everything that's been sitting in my to do box.

1. Most people know about Bike to Work day, and even Walk (and Bike) to School Day, but some congregations have Bike to Church day. Unfortunately it's not national, each church does it's own thing - but LAB could get on this next.

His home church, First Presbyterian of Boulder, now hosts an annual "Bike to Church Day," model after the better-known "Walk and Bike to Work Day." More than 200 parishioners forsake cars in favor of bicycles and a free church breakfast.

There are even some church based cycling groups, like Outspokin' for Jesus.

So why stop there? Why not Bike to the Zoo day, Bike to the Game day (Run not by a team but an entire league like MLB or the NFL, with discounted tickets if you show up by bike - or free team socks or water bottles), Bike to the Grocery day (with free hotdogs in the parking lot) etc...You get the picture.

2. July 2007 Bicycle Advisory Council meeting minutes. There was an update on the Optional Bicycle Registration Law and the Residential Parking Law - the second of which has since passed in committee, a presentation on the Safe Routes to School Network Project, an update on the Smartbikes program (behind scheudle due to the lack of a project manager) and another on the Bicycle Friendly Community reauthorization process (DC has to reapply this year).

DDOT put out a request for a Smartbikes manager on August 13th.

Clear Channel Adshel, the firm that is managing our bus shelter and proposed bike sharing program, is hiring a project manager to assist with the development of the SmartBike program.  The position is for 6 months, with a possible extension.   The project manager will help with assessing rack locations, coordinating installation of the racks and bikes, marketing, membership, etc.   Qualifications include experience with bicycling, downtown DC, permitting, utilities, marketing, coordinating among stakeholders, managing projects, and meeting deadlines

Those who are interested should contact Jim Sebastian at DDOT (Jim.Sebastian.at.dc.gov)

The Legislative Committee decided to drop the Department of Health from the list of BAC agency members, leaving only DDOT, MPD, the Office of Planning and the Department of Parks and Recreation.

The Facilities Committee reported on bike route designation in the Ballpark area and it was reported that if the Rec Trails doesn't find a way to spend $500K it has alloted to it, it will lose this money. The ART, MBT, bike station and Oxon Run Trail were all listed as possible things to spend it on.

WABA announced plans to bring back BikeDC in May of 2008.

3. Louisville follows the lead of Tulsa - "The program, called Freewheelin', is only for Humana employees, but that could change. Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson would like to see it expanded so city residents one day could check out a bike from a number of locations -- for example, to go wheeling around the parks. "

4. U-MD is trying to become a more bike friendly university - "Allen said, the group will likely promote a bike registration program, and explore buying bikes in bulk, and selling them cheaply to students and making rental bikes available.

“The most important part is really the physical side,” Allen said. “We are probably going to hire a consultant to give us recommendations on different things we can do to make bikes more safe on our campus, just a more comfortable place for bikes to traverse our roads.”

Currently, Allen said, there are no bike trails on campus, and the grounds are “not really designed for biking.”"

5. A call for courtesy on the trail - "As he rode the trail between Bethesda Avenue and Arlington Road, adult and teenage bikers would whiz by him at high speeds, failing to use general biking etiquette — warning riders ahead with a shout or a bell that they were passing us on the left."

I was on the CCT over Labor Day weekend and it was beautiful out so it was crowded. As I passed one rider I called out "On your left" and she mumbled "I'm as far over as I can get." So I stopped to explain to her what "On your left" means - it is a warning not a scolding - and that riders do it as a courtesy. She huffed back, "Well, it's hard to enjoy the outdoors with everyone yelling 'on your left, on your left' all the time." At that, I continued my ride.

6. A proposal for a Swiss-like theft fighting fee -  "There, every bicycle must be licensed and the licensing sticker displayed on the bicycle. The fee was about $15, affordable for anyone who could afford a bicycle. The fee paid for the entire cost of the program and insured every bicycle against theft.

Anyone riding or even possessing an unlicensed bicycle was subject to significant penalties. My wife and I had to license our bicycles as soon as we brought them into Switzerland. All we need here is the political will to enact a similar program and to enforce it."

Washcycle's 2nd Anniversary

That's correct. It has been two years since this blog started with one simple plan: shamelessly rip off BikePortland. In the two years since I have learned tons - about biking, urban planning, civil engineering, local politics, html, and flickr's rules about photo use (I hate spaceball) - most of it from the frequent comments on the site. I didn't even know what the door zone was when this started.

Despite my ignorance, the site has been, due to the patience of those who read it, more successful than I ever hoped. Back then I hoped for a 100 daily readers and maybe a bike shop to cover half the cost. But now WABA covers most of it (and this year they won't pay anything since Google ads, shirts and paid reviews have covered all the costs) and readership averages 570 hits a day.

The numbers: 997 posts, 1881 comments, 158748 total page views.

Happy Birthday to us. Hopefully you'll get to go for a ride today.

BTW, I want to get a count of how many people regularly read this, so if you're reading this between 9/30 and 10/6 - on a reader or RSS or on the site, if you could click through and comment - just a number will do - I would appreciate it.

News from WABA

A new (OK not really - sorry) updates from WABA about the bike lane program (or lack thereof).

Seven months into 2007 the DDOT bike lane striping program appears to have been stuck in park. So far in this year less than 1 mile of bike lanes have been striped!  According to the implementation schedule of the DC Bicycle Master Plan, DC is supposed to have 40 miles of bike lanes by the end of this year.  Right now we only have 25 miles of lanes.  If we are truly to make gains in bicycle mode share and improve bicycle safety, on-street facilities are one of the keys, yet little effort is being made to improve and expand the bike lane striping program. 

          WABA urges you to contact DDOT Director Emeka Moneme to urge him to get the bike lane striping program back on track and to begin a crash program to accelerate the implementation process.

Velospace

It's social netoworking for your bike (like MySpace).

Obsessed with your bike or motorcycle? Give them a profile on Velospace.org

The only DC cluster I could find was "Bikes of the DC Pirates". Arghh

Stadium Parking (San Francisco)

Commuterpageblog has a link to a video by streetfilms and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition about the attended bike parking at the San Francisco Giants ballpark. It's an example of what we can expect at Nationals Stadium ("the Natch" as I heard someone call it).

Bike tourists

Richard Layman writes about how adshel bikes should be easier for tourists so that they can take the idea home with them...like a virus.

I keep meaning to talk to the bike people here about this. And I have brought it up at a couple of public and private meetings with DDOT officials about implementing the Adshel bus shelter and bikesharing contract in DC.

But what about biking?

Walking does more than driving to cause global warming, a leading environmentalist has calculated.  Of course, this article is more about how energy intensive producing and supplying meat is than about how dirty walking is. What's not mentioned is how - even considering the "oil we eat" - biking is still hands down the most energy efficient way to travel. Gotta love rolling friction.

Liberal media hates bikes

From FishBowl DC

The National Press Building management sent out a memo this week informing tenants that they can no longer bring their bikes into the building and must chain them up outside if they ride to and from work. The management brought a copy of the rules and regulations to every office and the memo reads, "As you will note item #7 restricts bicycles from any portion of the demised premises or public common areas of the building. ... We respectfully ask for your cooperation in informing all of your employees and couriers of the above policy of this building."

I wonder what would prompt something like this. Was someone injured? Did they get fined by a building inspector? Did someone complain? Was everyone getting so thin and sexy that it was distracting? It's just odd.

I'm sure they provided tenants with adequate bicycle parking in a secure facility, natch.

Purple Line Series

The blog Just Up The Pike did an excellent six part series on the Purple Line back in August.

Nearly twenty years after Montgomery County first proposed an east-west transit line between Bethesda and Silver Spring, the debate rages on. Once former Governor Glendening's top transportation priority, the Purple Line has become mired in debate and utter confusion. Most people aren't even familiar with the technologies - bus rapid transit or light rail - that it'll use if built.

The Purple Line, for those who have been living in a cave, is most often thought of as running on the same right of way as the interim Capital Crescent Trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring. The series interviews (among others) Peter Gray, chair of the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail, which is officially neutral; Pam Browning who opposes the purple line because of what the trail will lose (trees) and frequent washcycle commenter and silverspringtrails.org editor Wayne Phyillaier who supports the trail because of what it will gain (a connection into Silver Spring). The state of the interim section is discussed.

Not long ago, "you couldn't ride it on a road bike safely," laments Peter Gray, chair of the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail. "That part of the trail was in horrible shape."

Drainage problems and an uneven trail surface made it a difficult ride for bicyclists - not to mention the fact it currently ends a mile west of Downtown Silver Spring, forcing riders onto a poorly marked, convoluted route through neighborhood streets for the remainder. While the county recently spent $100,000 to rebuild a portion of the trail so it would drain properly, there remains a lot to be done to bring Silver Spring's part of the Capital Crescent up to par.

At Stewart Avenue in Lyttonsville, the off-road portion of the trail abruptly ends in an industrial district. A string of poorly-marked signs attempt to guide users to neighborhood streets in Rosemary Hills and Woodside, following a convoluted, mile-long route that ends at the Silver Spring Metro.

The debate breaks down to this question: is it worth giving up the reserve (or neighborhood park) like atmosphere of the trail and spending all that money to build the improved trail and the light rail line?

If the Purple Line is built alongside it, according to Gray, the trail would be fully paved between Bethesda and Silver Spring, replacing the current gravel surface. "The County is not spending millions of dollars to build a trail," he notes.

If the Purple Line were built, Phyillaier suggests, the trail and the rail could follow the rest of the unused Georgetown Branch right-of-way - currently owned by CSX and overgrown beyond recognition - behind the neighborhood and onto tracks that lead to the Silver Spring Metro. The trail would likely be elevated over the railway. "If [the Maryland Transit Administration] can negotiate with them, we have the access we need," says Phyillaier, but CSX will not grant the right-of-way for a trail alone.

"They're telling us it'll be a nice trail," says Browning, referring to the Maryland Transit Administration's plans to build the Purple Line alongside the trail. To do so would involve the removal of thousands of trees dating to the area's original development a century ago. "I say it's a fiction in the most generous terms."

It's nice to see the safety argument dropped. I think that's a sign that it's been shown to be a complete fallacy and I'll stop showing photos to dispute it. I've always said that you might be able to convince that the costs (money and trees) outweigh the benefits (transit and trail) but if all you had was safety your argument was a loser.

On one side are people whose motives can be questioned.

We have people who are adamantly opposed to putting rail on the trail," Gray says. "Folks I would characterize as living right by the trail in Bethesda

The neighborhoods that [the trail] goes through were vehemently opposed to it going in," explains Gray. "They thought poor people were going to ride their bikes in and rape their women! And now, ten years later, everyone's going 'Wow! My property values are up because of this trail.'"

In the Columbia Country Club, which surrounds the trail on both sides, the trail is hemmed in on both sides by tall chain-link fences. Columbia, the most exclusive country club in the region, has historically been the Purple Line's largest opponent, suing the County for control of the railway in the 1980's when the project was first proposed.

And on the other those...whose motives can be questioned.

Groups like the Action Committee for Transit have opposed previous campaigns to have the trail paved because "it would preclude the perception of the Purple Line being built," says Gray.

That's unfortunate. The trail should be paved.

While Phyillaier stresses the significance of the Purple Line in completing the Capital Crescent Trail, he insists that the two projects are not fully intertwined. But it's hard to understand what he means when a business card advertising his website reads Finish The Trail - Build Light Rail at the bottom.

"I would never make the argument that we need the light rail to build the trail," he says. "We can't have the tail wag the dog . . . I think we should sell the Purple Line for its own reasons."

That may be the most telling statement. The Purple Line will probably fail or succeed on it's own merits and the trail will probably only be a small part of that.

Purple Line or no, the trail is not a high priority for local politicians. "I think the County doesn't seriously take biking as a form of transportation," Peter Gray says. "For me to be seen biking to work or biking in my neighborhood, it's seen as a little . . . odd."

And the FTA, who will be the final arbiter, probably cares less than the local politicians.

The key decisions about Maryland's proposed Purple Line -- the route it takes, the type of rail cars it uses, the possibility of tunneling underground -- will be determined not by public opinion or political pressure.

Rather, a single agency that controls the limited federal money set aside for transit projects will shape the rail or bus line that could eventually link Bethesda and New Carrollton.

"It's the driving force behind the planning process," Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari said of the competition for federal money. "You can have the best conceived transit project in the world, and it's not going forward if it doesn't qualify for federal funding."

Toward that end, Porcari delayed consideration of the Purple Line for another year after deciding that the rider estimates were too crude to impress the federal officials in charge of doling out critical funding. Analysts are now recalculating ridership predictions using more sophisticated forecasting models.

Browning makes the Metro line argument.

"I'm saying the best transit plan for this area is Metro, and if it's tunneled or along the Beltway...I would love to have a Purple Line. I'd just like to have it underground," laments Browning. "We shouldn't be pitting transit against the environment."

Unfortunately, almost any transit program is going to have an environmental impact. It's hard to argue that an underground line - one that runs regular metro trains and allows for connections to the red line - is not the best technical solution. But, then there's the price tag and the FTA will never go for it.

Concerns about federal guidelines also led local officials to quickly rule out heavy rail -- the type of trains used on Metro -- in favor of slower, but far cheaper, light-rail trains or express buses. State officials have also rejected calls to run the line under the popular Capital Crescent Trail, saying it would be too expensive without saving travel time -- another effort to satisfy federal criteria.

And it's not like an underground system is going to save those trees. It would probably be built by digging a trench (cut and cover) not with a tunnel boring machine, and all those trees would go. And they wouldn't come back, it's not good to have trees growing above your tunnel.

In the end, I don't know if the cost is worth the benefit, but I'm glad to see the argument getting to where the rubber meets the road (or trail in this case).

Problems with the FTA are another issue. I'm pro-transit, and I hate the FTA. What does that say about the job they're doing. The feds fund highways at 80% and transit at 50%, highway funds come without strings attached

Unlike federal highway funds, which states receive based on a formula and may spend as they wish, money for new transit projects is awarded at the discretion of the FTA.

and yet states still line up for the a chance at the transit money.

More than 100 transit projects across the country are expected to compete for federal money in coming years, according to a federal report.

Doesn't that mean that maybe we should balance the playing field - and that includes this ratio

The FTA has proposed spending about $1.4 billion on new transit projects next fiscal year, compared with $42 billion that states will receive for highway maintenance and construction

And there is this...

The process has grown so complicated and time-consuming that, across the country, many local officials have begun to forgo federal money if they can secure enough local or private funds to build a project, according to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

How f$#ed does your program have to be when local governments say "no thanks" to money?

Coffee plus Bike commuting

may help prevent skin cancer.

A new study funded by the National Cancer Institute found that the combination of caffeine and exercise might help the body heal itself from sun damage.

According to the report, drinking the caffeine equivalent of one to two cups of coffee each day, along with moderate exercise, can cause the body to destroy cells with damaged DNA.

"The body has its own mechanism, called apoptosis, to help destroy precancerous cells," said Dr. Elizabeth Tanzi of the Washington Institute of Dermatologic Laser Surgery. "It turns out the combination of caffeine and exercise increases apoptosis, therefore it can protect against skin cancer."

So you might want to get a cup of joe before your morning commute. Of course, this doesn't mean you should stop using sunblock.