Occasional WashCycle Contributor and LAB employee Jeff Peel joined the BAC as Councilmember Gray's Appointee.
Legislative Committee - Draft legislation of a Comparative Negligence law that WABA suggested the BAC investigate, has been submitted to CM Wells office and he's looking into submitting it sometime after the budget process is done. The law is based on Colorado's law.
Complete Streets - This nearly passed last year and Gabe Klein is aware of it and interested in seeing it pass.
Safety, Education and Enforcement Committee - The SEE Committee, along with Eric Gilliland of WABA met with the MPD representative to the BAC Officer E.G. Fowler. They drafted some recommendations for the BAC to consider to improve accident reporting. These included
- That George Branyon with DDOT prepare slides for use at police roll calls to educate officers about unique aspects of bicycle incidents.
- That any incident in which a cyclist (or ostensibly a pedestrian, motorcyclist, etc...) is knocked down will not be deemed a minor incident. As such it will require a police response and report.
- Police form PD10, the accident report form, be updated to delete outdated information (such as treating cyclists as pedestrians) and facilitate bicycle-related information such as helmet use and proper light use. [I remember reading about how Denver police officers have a sweet electronic pad to record accidents - like a giant iPhone. It can record testimony, take photos, translate into seveal languages, record locations with GPS, and as questions are filled in spur new questions - like if it's a cyclist, ask if they were in a bike lane or not, etc...]
- The Police should initiate an enforcement program at high crash areas/locations to enforce motor vehicle laws likely to affect bicyclist safety (such as turning and signalling) and laws governing cyclists - but not to include rolling stops if the cyclist properly yields.
- That the BAC work with the DC DMV
b) to develop a ticket diversion program for motorists and bicyclists ticketed for bicycle-related infractions. This would likely involve a Confident City Cycling course.
- A revised "procedures after a crash" card should be developed and distributed to police and cyclists
- DDOT should revive free helmet giveaways as a means of communicating safe bicycle practices.
DDOT update -
The Union Station Bike Station should be done by the end of summer. The RFP for the operation contract will be going out soon (it's been delayed a couple of months). The station will not accept members until there is an operator, even if the facility is finished. DDOT hopes that the ready facility won't sit empty for want of an operator. The facility will have water, for a sink and plants and maybe a water fountain, but no bathrooms or showers.
11th Street NW is under reconstruction between Massachusetts Avenue and O Street and when done will be getting bike lanes. This will be finished in the Fall.
14th Street Bridge - 14th Street Bridge bike lane will not be closed during work on that bridge (same as when the TR Bridge was repaired). Jim Sebastian promised to see if improvements can be made on the DC side such as moving the streetlight pole and widening, smoothing the transition.
11th Street Bridge - They'll keep the sidewalk on the existing bridge open for most of the time, but the whole bridge will be closed for a few months sometime next year (winter, one can hope) much as was done with the Douglas Bridge. The contract is design/build so nothing is finalized, but no one is sure if there is still time to get input - especially with the connections - before the work begins.
DDOT bicycle mounted enforcement team - The TCOs (Traffic Control Officers) are not doing moving violations yet, but have been ticketing parked cars and cars parked in the bike lane. They will begin to ticket moving violations eventually.
DDOT has (hired?) someone to lead a Bicycle Ambassador program similar to ones in Chicago and Tucson. These volunteers would work to encourage more cycling and safer cycling. You can see some of the handouts Chicago used here (and one at right).
Statistics - DDOT presented some bicycling statistics they've been gathering since 2004. The methodology has changed over the years (From one DDOT employee checking one location a week, to summer interns doing counts, to its present and preferred system of paying MWCOG employees to do all the counts over a couple of weeks) so the numbers change quite a bit. But some of the trends you can spot are:
- The percentage of cyclists wearing helmets has gone up pretty steadily from 62% to 73%.
- It looks like the average number of cyclists per hour is going up, but with only 5 years and sketchy data it's hard to say. Last year was the highest of the five and if you curve fit it, you get an upward slope.
- About 77% of cyclists counted are male.
- If you eliminate bridges and trails where 100% or 0% of cyclists are on sidewalks, about 10% of cyclists use the sidewalk.
- Cyclists using bridges or coming off the CCT are most likely to wearing a helmet. That's probably your commuters.
- The average hourly count at Water Street (the highest location) is 145 cyclists
- For the bridges, the average hourly count are: Key -101, Mason - 100, Memorial - 68, TR - 24, Chain - 14, Douglas - 8, Sousa - 6, Benning - 5, East Capitol - 2
Proposed bike/ped budget - BAC will try to encourage the District's Public Works and Transportation Committee to include the $1.5 million in Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Enhancements in the budget. This additional funding goes to the Bike and Pedestrian programs in DDOT, and since DDOT made a list of expenditures last year, they know exactly what they'll spend the money on if they get it.
$10,000 for the BAC and for the coming Pedestrian Advisory Council made it out of committee and is likely to be included in the budget.
Campaign for Active Transportation - On May 19-20, there will be a meeting in DC for cities seeking the Active Transportation Investment Fund. This will include meeting with Congress Members to lobby for the program which would grant several cities $40 million in active transportation funding. DC is trying to be one of these cities.
ANC member Tom Whitley from ANC 3F came to discuss a sidewalk bill that would require every road to have a sidewalk on at least one side. This is not the law now, but it is a design guideline. Because it's not a law, the Mayor can waive the guideline at his discretion and direct DDOT not to add a sidewalk. This has happened at times recently, and a law would take that power away from the Mayor. The BAC ageed to investigate the bill and decide on if they support it.
It was noted that if the Complete Streets Legislation passes, this law would be covered by that.
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