TheWashCycle

Penn Avenue Bike Lanes at Night

2010 06 23 - 1014 - Washington DC - Pennsylvania Ave Bike Lanes, originally uploaded by thisisbossi.

Better picture than the one I took.

Klein Discusses Bike Parking

Dr. Gridlock hosted a panel discussion that included Director Klein.

Klein said...that what a sensible transportation policy does is offer mobility for everyone rather than focusing on one mode vs. another. In his presentation, Klein ... described plans to expand bike parking through a string of mini-parking stations across the city.

Unfortunately, few details were given. Did anyone attend this?

Glowing Article on Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood

Ashley Halsey III of the Post has a very complimentary article on Ray LaHood today. It covers his career, his initiatives since become SecTran and the surprising way that he's become one of the stars of the Obama administration (who saw that coming?) His blog, for instance, gets more hits than anyone's except Obama's. The article covers his fight against distracted driving

His lasting legacy, however, may be the assault on distracted driving, and LaHood hammers on it from every angle that he and his agile staff can devise.

They've formed a MADD-like group -- Focus Driven -- persuaded Oprah Winfrey to devote an entire show and a multi-city rally to the subject, hosted a "Distracted Driving Summit," and blogged and Twittered on the subject. And they salute each state that has banned text messaging while driving.

"These are preventable deaths," he says. "We gotta do something about them."

He has also obtained restrictions on cellphone use by federal workers, banned truck drivers from texting and, after a couple of Northwest Airlines pilots flew 150 miles off course, cracked down on distracted flying.

And it covers his stated intention to stop favoring motorized traffic over biking and walking.

"This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized."

The National Association of Manufacturers fired back that the policy was "dumb . . . irresponsible" and "nonsensical for a modern industrial nation."

Unfazed by the criticism, including the suggestion from a former GOP colleague in the House that he was on drugs, LaHood climbed onto a table at a convention of cyclists to reiterate his support for treating "walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes."

And it notes that he's a recreational cyclist

But [LaHood and his wife] still find time for their weekend bike rides. They both wear helmets, of course, because when it comes to safety in all matters, the man's a stickler.

Photo by Marvin Joseph/the Washington Post Photo

Awkward News/Good News

The awkward news/good news is that last December, during the Christmas Wish List, I criticized the rule requiring cyclists to "ride right." Specifically the law in DC read

1201.2 (b) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall travel as closely as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, or as closely as practicable to the left-hand curb or edge of the roadway when on a one-way street.

Except:

(1) When overtaking and passing another bicycle or other vehicle proceeding in the same direction;
(2) When preparing for a turn;
(3) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, parking or moving vehicles, vehicle doors that are or may open, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes that make it unsafe to remain near the curb or edge of the roadway. For purposes of this section, a "a substandard width "lane" means a lane or other area on the roadway that is too narrow for a bicycle and an overtaking vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane. Any lane that is eleven 11 feet wide or less shall be presumed be a substandard width lane for purposes of this subsection;
(4) When necessary to comply with lane use restrictions; or
(5) When necessary for the bicyclist's safety.

So the "news" is that that wasn't the law in December, nor is it now. The law now is much more reasonable

1201.2 A person shall operate a bicycle, sidewalk bicycle or personal mobility device in a safe and non-hazardous manner so as not to endanger himself or herself or any other person.

It's kind of awkward for me to bring your attention to this since the law changed way back in 2006 (thanks former CM Schwartz), but hey, that's great news. Victory for us!

Also, did you know it was illegal - illegal - for anyone except District employees to remove a bicycle that has been locked up? I didn't. So if some business owner threatens to remove your bike, you can tell them to pound sand.

But Maryland and Virginia law still stinks.

Bike Lanes Double as Event Staging

Ryan sent in this photo of police and trucks parked in the Penn Avenue Bike lanes on Friday evening in preparation for the Bar-B-Q Battle

Help Me Raise My Baby

And by baby, I mean this blog.

Mrs. Washcycle and I are having a real baby very soon (any day now) and I will have to cut back my writing a lot. I've been trying to get some posts in the can, but not nearly enough. If you would like to write blog posts - even very sporadically, even crossposted elsewhere - send me an email at [email protected] and let me know. It would be greatly appreciated by all.

Quote about Fort Meade BRAC

From Bert Rice, BRAC project manager at Fort Meade

Fort Meade still has the same road network it had when it was formed in 1917. It was trails in[to the base] -- we just sort of put some asphalt on it and there you are. We don't have bike lanes, we don't have sidewalks, we don't have any of those kinds of things ... So we're going to have to think smart about what other options there are for people to access the installation

Priors for Quinzy Fraser

Quinzy Fraser was the driver in last Friday's bike fatality. Officers reportedly smelled alcohol on his breath. Pulled up from the comments.

Maryland public court records shows priors: DUI, DUI, Driving While Impaired by Alcohol, Failure to Control Speed to Avoid an Accident - and some reference to motor vehicle bodily injury and failure to appear for sentencing that resulted in a warrant request. Charges for this most recent case include resisting arrest and assaulting a law enforcement officer.

If this is all accurate, then it's unfortunate that this man never got the help he needed.

And here is more information from the Gazette.

Fraser, 34, refused a Breathalyzer test at the scene and was taken to a hospital for a blood sample, according to Starks. Fraser resisted attempts to draw blood at the hospital and got into an altercation with police. Results of the test are expected within several weeks.

Maryland law allows police to require a blood test after a fatal traffic collision if there is reason to believe the driver is under the influence of alcohol, Starks said.

Update: Fraser is a former University of Maryland football player

Combatting Bicycle Theft is Next Step in Bike Encouragement

The New York Times has a story about bicycle theft and the steps some cities are taking to deal with it. Police in San Francisco and the University of Nevada, for example, are using hidden transmitters mounted on bikes to catch thieves.

“It’s a lot like the drug war,” said Marc Caswell of the San Francisco Bike Coalition, an advocacy group. “We need to get the higher-ups.” 

“The very first bike I built, by the time I retired it, it had been stolen 33 times,” said Jason Cecchettini, whose company, Bait Bike, began selling radio-tracking technology for bikes to law enforcement agencies in 2002. Since then, the police and college campuses across the country have bought the systems, Mr. Cecchettini said, at a cost of $7,000 each, not including the price of the bicycle, which is usually valued above the level for grand larceny in a given state.

And it works

In Sacramento County alone, the use of such bikes has resulted in 150 to 200 felony arrests, according to Sgt. Todd Deluca of the Sheriff’s Department, which has been using the bikes since 2004. “When we started, I thought we’d get kids stealing each others’ bikes,” said Sergeant Deluca. “But what we’ve found is that we’ve gotten some pretty heavy-duty criminals.”

Boston has been trying to use Twitter and Facebook, but so far "only 'two or three' of the 238 bikes reported stolen using the city’s social media outreach have been recovered."

The story has theft statistics, but notes that they're under-reported

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports 188,698 thefts nationwide in 2008, up slightly from previous years. It is certainly an undercount, experts said, because cyclists assume that once the theft occurs there is little chance of getting the bike back, and often do not report thefts.

In fact, many police departments — including in Portland, Ore., where bicycling is particularly prevalent — said they did not keep official records of bicycle thefts. (Departments voluntarily send their bicycle crime data to the F.B.I., another reason for a potential undercount.)

In New York, where the police do keep a record of bicycle thefts, riders have seen about a 35 percent increase in the number of reported thefts in 2010 over the same period last year, according to statistics provided by the police. But the number of reports was small, 519 through May 16, in a city where tens of thousands ride each day.

DC has 86 reported bike thefts so far this year. DC should invest in a bait bike, or they could share one with Arlington, Alexandria etc... There are some serious bike thieves working in this area.

I often wonder if it would be worth it for bike shops to record the serial numbers of the bikes that come through for repair and run them through the Stolen Bicycle Registry. Don't mandate it, but pay healthy rewards for recovered bikes and arrests. Most bikes pass through at some point. And of coursed if you buy a used bike, check it against the registry before you buy.

Ad on the C&O Canal

Pretty sure this is against the rules. It's an ad for the Capital Criterium "in support of Giro 2012".