TheWashCycle

Bicycle Friendly Businesses

The League of American Bicyclists announced 34 new 'Bicycle Friendly Businesses' and two of them are in the DC area.

Toole Design Group LLC in Hyattsville, MD; a transportation planning and engineering company (they helped with the DC Bicycle Master Plan and the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail design)

The World Bank in Washington, DC

Consider using them for all your transportation planning and developing world financial needs.

Metro to get more bike lockers

The giant 2009 spending bill signed by President Obama yesterday contains increased funds for D.C. students, millions of dollars to revive the Chesapeake Bay's dwindling oyster population and money for Metro cars, buses and bike lockers.

11th Street Bridges Design-Build to Begin Soon

DDOT issued an RFP for the 11th Street Bridges Project last month. Since then there has been a lot of talk about it from several sides (some opposed, some for, and some suing to stop it).

[Personally I have mixed feelings on the project but am mostly for it as the new bridge will allow for transit, better biking/pedestrian connections and it replaces inefficient highway lanes with efficient ones. Kathleen Linehan Penney, Chief Engineer for DC makes a compelling case in the Capitol Hill Rag including:

2. The 11th Street Bridges replacement project will change the way the Southeast Freeway operates between 11th Street and Pennsylvania Ave. The connection will be eliminated by the 11th Street project. Conversion of this connection to a boulevard will be done in the future by DDOT. That section of roadway will no longer operate as a freeway.
3. There are four freeway lanes in each direction today: two connecting to the 11th St. Bridges and two connecting to the Southeast freeway spur and Barney Circle. When the project is complete there will be three freeway lanes in each direction connecting the South East Freeway and the Anacostia Freeway and no freeway lanes to Barney Circle. Thus there is a net decrease of one freeway lane in each direction.
4. Traffic increases on I-395 and the Southeast Freeway will result from decreased traffic on I-295, the Sousa Bridge, Whitney Young Bridge, Benning Road Bridge, Minnesota Ave, and Good Hope Rd. This is consistent with the project goal to reduce the volume of freeway traffic that spills onto the neighborhood streets due to current traffic patterns.

I'd be a lot more "in" if it came with a road diet on New York Avenue, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards]

Anyway, the bridge that will be built starting this year (with some stimulus money) is unchanged since the preferred alternative (Big pdf) came out last summer. That alternative built two bridges, one local and one freeway. It was not the alternative preferred by cyclists as the report noted (It doesn't appear that WABA has taken a position yet).

Pedestrian and bicycle groups expressed a preference for Build Alternative IV because the proposed cross-section over the river incorporated a 14-foot multi-use trail adjacent to local travel lanes on both structures. Other build alternatives incorporated a total multi-use trail width of 20 feet adjacent to local travel lanes on the downstream structure only.

In addition, Build Alternative IV would give cyclists views of the rivers on both sides.

But all is not lost. The contract is being issued as Design-Build and as Tommy Wells' blog points out

OCP reports that they will continue to accept public input in the "Design-Build" phase of the project. OCP stated "the public will be able to review and comment on these specifications and plans as they are developed by the Design-Build team. In fact there is a public engagement requirement in the Statement of Work and each "shortlisted" team has a subcontractor selected to work directly with DDOT and the community to inform the design phase.

The current design has one 14 foot Active Transportation Lane (ATL)* from 11th and N SE to Anacostia Drive SE (big blue line on picture) and a 6 foot ATL from 11th and N SE to MLK and Good Hope Road SE. Good Hope Road would no longer connect to Anacostia Drive. This would be a step up from what cyclists have now, but I would propose two changes.

• Increase the 6 foot lane (smaller blue line on picture) to at least 12 feet. I predict that the lane that connects directly to the Anacostia neighborhood will be the one that gets more use, 6 feet is too narrow.
• Build an ATL on the upstream side (red line) of the freeway bridge from 11th and M to the bike/pedestrian bridge over the Anacostia Freeway at Anacostia High School. This would shorten the distance for anyone traveling to Fairlawn and give better views of the river.

*I prefer this term, that I just made up, to the "multi-use trail" because trails make it sound like recreation and that's not all that this is about.

Georgetown to start optional bike registration

Here.

Cyclists Need to Crosstrain

So tells the LA Times

Many factors contribute to osteopenia or osteoporosis (very low bone mineral density) in cyclists, but one of the culprits is the nature of the exercise itself. Cycling is a low-impact sport that puts little mechanical load on the bones. That's great if you have joint problems, but it's the weight-bearing nature of exercise that signals bones to create more mass. Without such stress, bones don't get stronger, making them more prone to injury.

A recent study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that competitive male road cyclists had significantly lower bone mineral density in their spines than a control group of men who were moderately physically active while doing other recreational activities. They were also more likely to have osteopenia and osteoporosis than those in the control group, despite the fact that the cyclists had a greater calcium intake.

Jeff Mapes Interview

Here at the express

ClearChannel on Smartbike

Adam Voiland interviewed Martina Schmidt, the president of Clear Channel Adshel.

Are DC residents taking advantage of the service? Any recent stats on ridership would be helpful. 

SmartBike User Statistics a/o 1/31/2009: 

1,050 subscribers;

67% male, 33% female;

10% ages 18 to 25,

35% ages 26-34,

23% ages 35-44,

26% ages 45-60,

6% ages 61+;

87% users reside in DC, MD, VA, 13% in other states. 

CityPaper Helmet Story

The CityPaper recently had a lengthy cover story on bicycling without a helmet. It's heavy on anecdote and light on fact, mostly I suspect because there are so few.  Basically they include two

The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute says two-thirds of bicyclist deaths are from brain injuries.

According to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, the “direct costs of cyclists’ injuries due to not using helmets are estimated at $81 million each year” while the “indirect costs of cyclists’ injuries due to not using helmets are estimated at $2.3 billion each year.”

Everything else is anecdotal. One of the anecdotes involves a cyclist being hit in the head from behind, and that isn't what helmets are designed to protect against.

I've probably said this all before but...here it goes again.

I wear a helmet when I bike. If you were to ask me, I'd advise everyone to wear a helmet. Even though I can't really make a compelling case that you're safer. Oddly, I don't wear a helmet when I ski. I do wear a helmet mountain climbing in an avalanche zone, spelunking and rafting. I used to when I played football. I don't wear one when driving of walking, though I've been told it would improve my safety. So it's all a little arbitrary.

Wearing a helmet is not like wearing a seat belt. A seat belt prevents passengers from becoming projectiles that can harm others. A seat belt keeps the driver in front of the steering wheel where they can regain control of the car, reducing the severity of the crash. So if you wear a seat belt, it makes me safer. You wearing a helmet doesn't help me at all.

Wearing a helmet is like wearing sun screen. It protects you and only you from something harmful. Except unlike helmets, the efficacy of sun screen is not in question. And it helps you without some bizarre occurrence. The financial benefits of everyone wearing sun screen is probably higher than for wearing helmets. The same could be said of condoms. But, I don't hear anyone talking of mandating the wearing of either the way this article seems to encourage mandating helmet use.

Anyway, the citypaper blog continued with the subject here, here, here and here.

Krewe of Bike-us

One of the many unsanctioned parade organizations in New Orleans, the Krewe of Bike-us grew out of the lack of parking and the need to get around. Mother necessity.

“People see the dozens of members in costumes rolling down the street and they assume it’s a real parade and start cheering and yelling for beads,” says Krewe of Bikeus founder Rob Savoy.

Each year the group of friends and friends of friends gather in the Faubourg St. John area and cycle along a ceremonial path Uptown to catch the Zulu parade before making their way to the French Quarter for the rest of the day. The group has grown into one of the most recognized unrecognized groups of Mardi Gras.

Trail Enhancement on Arlington's stimulus list

But it's unclear which trails or which enhancements.