Not everyone stoked about BikeDC

They aren't against biking, just street-closures.

District streets were closed last Saturday morning for what I was told, by two police officers, was a bicycle race.

Not a race, a ride.

The resultant delays, almost two hours for some, were extremely disruptive to meetings scheduled at my downtown office. I spent 1 hour and 45 minutes getting from Constitution Avenue at 21st Street to the Dupont Circle area. In addition to the frustrating traffic jams delaying hundreds of motorists, massive amounts of gasoline were wasted.

Although I subscribe to Alert DC, there was no notification that this event was taking place. Nor was there an announcement in any media that I saw or heard.

It was in the Post, the City Paper, the Express, Washingtonian, DCist, WTOP, Inside NoVa, and, of course, this blog.

Why was such an event scheduled? Has revenue from bicycle racing surpassed that from sales, income and property taxes generated by local businesses? There must be many places for bicycle races other than downtown Washington. In the face of disruptions like this one, it is easy to see why some businesses prefer to locate in and support economies in the suburbs.

Comments

[Matt O'Toole]

I can't answer to this person's complaint about the event being in "his" way, but I share his frustration with not being alerted.

We have the same problem in Blacksburg and Montgomery County -- flaky government staffers who don't use the excellent e-government tools at their disposal. They either forget to do it at all, or they send stuff out as PDF attachments which no one will open and read.

[chiggins]

We are led to believe, by this person's complaint, that if there were no bicycle ride, that the motorists would have been happy.

This is a false conclusion. I ride among motorists in the city nearly every day, they're never happy. The best a motorist can hope for in that part of town is to be less angry.

And as for this:

...getting from Constitution Avenue at 21st Street to the Dupont Circle area...massive amounts of gasoline were wasted.

Again, they'd have you believe that there are times when using a car to get from Constitution and 21st to Dupont Circle doesn't waste tremendous amounts of gasoline.

Pobrecito!

[gwadzilla]

I defer to Sarah Silverman...

if Barabra Hyde were to watch the Sarah Silverman program
the episode with the wheelchair marathon she may see that she is being selfish

we need to see the big picture

I read other editorials where parents complained about being late

I understand the frustration

one sunday I went to Home Depot
on my way back I got stuck in traffic behind the Caribbean Festival
it seemed like hours to go around
it was absurd

it was frustrating

but I did not desire for the parade to be canceled so I could run my errands

[Chris]

Why in the world wouldn't she just get out of her damn car and walk? According to GoogleMaps, she could have walked the 1.1 miles in about 24 minutes.

[Kyle]

For what it's worth, on that day I was trying to drive my 80+ year old grandparents from Cleveland Park to the WWII Memorial and the police blocking off the course downtown told me that there was NO way to cross Pennsylvania Ave. I eventually had to backtrack from near Metro Center all the way to Woodley Park so I could get on the Rock Creek Parkway and snake around the city down to the memorials. I agree that biking through DC is a cool idea but this event literally divided the city into two. I would have been more receptive if the police were supplied with detour information for those who could not get around driving that day.

[Chris]

I took a look at the MPDC advisory on the web regarding this event (which I didn't attend).

In the advisory, they incorrectly refer to it as a race. They also state that "most intersections will be open to motorists to cross only, when bikers are not present." So it sounds like the letter writer dealt with a police officer who was following what he was told by the advisory - ie, she got across PA Avenue (eventually) and was told it was a race. Unfortunately for Kyle, it sounds like you got a police officer who didn't get it right, if you were told there's no way to cross PA Avenue.