TheWashCycle

The Milk Crate retaining wall

IMAG0420, originally uploaded by volcrano.

Along the Met Branch Trail

MTA meets with Woodside residents about future CCT

Silver Spring Trails has a full report about a meeting held between MTA and ~30 Woodside residents about plans to extend the Capital Crescent Trail through their neighborhood.

Among the concerns raised by residents during the meeting about the future CCT: possible loss of private yards from the residences along Third Avenue; loss of neighborhood privacy; undesirable increase in lighting near the trail; crime from the trail; and the cost of the trail.

Some residents at the meeting expressed a desire to have extensive fencing to isolate the trail from the neighborhood to protect the neighborhood from crime, or to screen homes from the trail for privacy.

MTA noted

Third Avenue would not be narrowed, realigned, nor restricted to one-way vehicle traffic. Nothing would be “taken” from any of the side yards along Third Avenue – an important point since fliers passed in the Woodside neighborhood by trail opponents proclaimed that homes would have their yards taken for the trail.

there are only one or two residences adjacent to Third Avenue where the trail is elevated higher than the street so that visual screening from the Trail might be a strong issue.

MTA team members pointed out that many studies had been done on trail safety and the great majority have found trails do not bring crime.

Another Woodside resident pointed out that the recent attempted rape in the neighborhood that was cited as an example of crime near the CSX tracks actually began on Spring Street, and that the would-be rapist attempted to drag the victim toward the CSX tracks because that area was secluded and trashy – a condition that would be corrected by the Trail.

The only criticism with any credibility, it seems, is that $60M is a lot of money (which it is). But is it too much for a bike trail? SST will address that later (I love a good cliffhanger, but if you can't wait, Casey Anderson of WABA addresses it in the comments).

Zimmerman to Chair the Arlington Board

Last week it was reported that Chris Zimmerman will be named chairman of the Arlington County Board on January 1. Zimmerman is a strong supporter of transportational cycling - and reportedly "He has a virtual Ph.D. in bicycle and transit planning," -  so this would normally be a step up, but he's replacing Jay Fissette who made bike policy a highlight of his year leading the board, and made biking to work 52 times during the year a goal (he needed 8 more as of Dec 14).

Among the board's accomplishments this year, according to Fisette: more bike lanes were created; the nation's only multi-jurisdictional Capital Bikeshare program was launched

So we'll call it a continuation of a good situation. On the downside Zimmerman has left the WMATA board to focus on his Arlington County duties, but here's hoping his replacement will be an advocate for bike-friendliness there. [Aside: Robert McCartney of the Post thinks Zimmerman's leaving is a good thing because he was one of the "most engaged and influential members during the years when Metro failed to build a safety culture and allowed maintenance to erode." But, he never addresses if these problems were because of or inspite of Zimmerman. We'll see.]

Biking features prominently in the County's end of year video.

CWL 2010 #5 Reverse commute bikes on Metro

I've been harping on this point for years, perhaps because I have personal experience with it, but Metro needs to allow bikes on sparsely-used reverse commute trains during rush hour.

Currently, full sized bikes are banned during the rush hours of 7-10 a.m. and 4-7 p.m everywhere in every direction. This is an improvement over the older policy of requiring licenses to take your bike on Metro or a no-bikes ban, but Metro is still leaving cyclists out of the system and money on the table.

When I ride from Potomac Avenue to New Carrolton in the morning, my train is so empty that I never have to sit next to anyone. Most of the traffic in that direction got off at Capitol South. Despite all of the available space, if I want to take a full sized bike, I can't. Some cyclists have expressed frustration with the policy that has either driven them to buy a folding bike, just skip Metro and bike the whole way, or drive the whole way. And they're not alone in finding this to be costly, inconvenient and bad policy. When Metro had a public workshop on bicycle facilities at stations, the rush hour restriction was the number one thing people wanted to talk about (even though policy changes were not part of the review). 

Metro could develop a more nuanced policy. They could allow cyclists to use only certain stations and only go in certain directions. San Francisco limits the stations and lines (highlighted on the schedule here) bikes can use, but it's not a wholesale ban. They also have a rule that "Bikes are never allowed on crowded trains...Use your best judgment." LA used to allow bikes, but reserved the right to turn cyclists away when trains were crowded. Since then they've decided to always allow bikes, but only on the last car of the train. This is the same policy that Dallas has on its light rail. Certainly, if these systems can do it, Metro can make it work.

Allowing reverse commutes on Metro has become more important than rush-direction commuters, because cyclists coming into the city in the morning can, in most cases, grab a CaBi; thereby negating some of the need to bring a bike along. If Metro upgrades its storage and parking to make it secure as it plans to, it will be easy for someone to bike to a suburban station, ride metro and finish the trip with a CaBi. In the reverse direction that's a bit less convenient, as it would require leaving a bike parked at the suburban station at night and on weekends - which means getting a second bike.

Metro should at least start a pilot program on one line to see if it will work. Try it for a year. See if people cheat (enter at one of the allowed stations and then go the wrong way). Maybe they could have strict enforcement at the first "No Bike" station on the line. For example on the eastern orange line they can place a Metro police officer on the platform who looks for bikes when the train comes in to Capitol South. If she sees one, she pulls the scofflaw off the train, writes them a good $150 ticket and makes them get on a train going the other way. I would have no problem with that. There is a way to make the system work.

This would benefit reverse commute cyclists as well as Metro. Increasing ridership doesn't make Metro money if they have to add more cars or service, but when they fill deadhead space it does. Furthermore, Tony Mendoza, DART's senior manager for consumer programs said this

"All the literature we're reading indicates that if an agency is bicycle-friendly, ridership will grow," Mr. Mendoza said.

My biggest complaint is that they haven't tried and so we don't know what it will do.  Maybe this change is ranked too high (I mean the CCT/MBT improvement will help cyclists 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.25 days a year). I don't know how many users we're talking about. But if it's only a few, then it won't overwhelm the system. If it's a lot, then they're missing out on a lot of business.

While they're at it, on the 4th of July, they should allow bikes on before 5pm.

Photo by Daquella manera

Street Signs on the Met Branch

IMAG0426, originally uploaded by volcrano.

While out there this weekend I not only noticed that the trail had been plowed, but that they now have street signs at the intersections. There's even one at W St. where the access is via a small path.

Tour de Links - animal control

Maillot Jaune: Long Beach, CA looks for peace in the bikes vs. everyone confrontation. Meanwhile NYC had hearings on its bike lanes. Brooklyn's borough president does not care for them. "He even adapted a popular tune to parody the idea that a special group should get their own lanes on the city's streets. "Strollers and schleppers and skaters and joggers, holiday lanes just for all the egg noggers, let's not forget cars, it's getting insane," he said. "Welcome to Brooklyn, the borough of lanes.""

Podium: Rails to Trails goes to AAA to stand up for bike-friendly transportation.

Podium: Idaho Falls invites cyclists to find their stolen and recovered bikes. "95% of found bikes are never reclaimed. 'And right now the animal control officers pick up all the stray bikes. We call them stray bikes,' said Irene Brown, Idaho Falls Animal Control.

Maillot Vert: Expensive lighter bikes are no faster than old heavy ones (or so they say).

Maillot a Pois Rouge: Students in Tempe, AZ awarded bikes for hard work.

Maillot Blanc: How to talk to a conservative abour biking. Speaking of market-based solutions, can the Carbon market help support bike-sharing?

Lanterne Rouge: Yikes!



CWL 2010 #6 Bike Lanes and Cycletracks

Trails are great. I love bike trails. But we will never be able to build enough bike trails in enough places to make trail-only biking a viable option. At some point, people need to get out on the street. For those who bike everywhere now, biking in the street is probably no big deal. But most of those cyclists probably fall within the two categories of "Strong and Fearless" or "Enthused and Confident". Together they make up 8% of the population. In the U.S. 8% is pretty good, but if we really want to break through, we need to find a way to get the 60% who are "Interested but Concerned" to ride a bike.

Survey after survey and poll after poll has found again and again that the number one reason people do not ride bicycles is because they are afraid to be in the roadway on a bicycle. They are generally not afraid of other cyclists, or pedestrians, or of injuring themselves in a bicycle-only crash. When they say they are “afraid” it is a fear of people driving automobiles. This has been documented and reported in transportation literature from studies, surveys and conversations across the US, Canada, and Europe.

The "Enthused and Confident" group responds to bike lanes and other low level infrastructure and we need to continue perusing these facilities. But the "Interested but Concerned" group is unwilling to bike on a busy street mixed with traffic. Maybe you think they're irrational and that biking in traffic is totally safe - or safer when you add in the health benefits. Maybe you're right. It doesn't really matter. We can either try to convince people that they're being irrationally fearful or make a roadscape that helps them leave their fears behind.

Bike lanes appeal to the "enthused and confident" and cycltracks appeal to the "interested but concerned". The DC region will need to add lots of both to get more people to ride. Luckily, DC has set a goal of increasing the miles of bike lane from 50 to 80 by 2012. DDOT also wants to add cycle tracks to the downtown area. Arlington and Alexandria are also adding bike lanes and sharrows, but there are places where they could add cycletracks that would make sense.

Both types of facilities are shown to increase biking

Cycletracks increase ridership by 18-20% compared to 5-7% for bike lanes.

There are a dozens or good places for these types of facilities. Many of them have been defined in plans for the various jurisdictions around DC. An aggressive plan to build bike lanes, and cycletracks would help attract the cyclists who are a bit nervous about riding around traffic. It just so happens that that is a large group, so addressing their concerns will have a big impact on cycling.

Photo by Nevermindtheend

CWL 2010 #7 Finish the Bicycle Beltway

The Bicycle Beltway is a nickname given to a combination of trails that would make a circle around NW DC. It includes the trail along the National Mall, the Potomac section of the Rock Creek Park Trail, the Capital Crescent Trail and the Metropolitan Branch Trail. The last two trails on that list are not yet complete, but doing so would  increase bike commuting and transportation, not just into and out of DC, but suburb to suburb as well. Luckily, this entire project is being planned, which is all the more impressive when you realize that it is actually four separate projects.

 First there is the effort to complete the Capital Crescent Trail. Currently it is paved from Georgetown to Bethesda, but from there to Silver Spring it is either unpaved or on road. That could all be changed with construction of the Purple Line. The Purple Line, if built, will use the same ROW as the interim CCT from Bethesda to the end of the old rail spur and will then continue into Silver Spring and to points beyond. In addition to paving the trail and allowing for the trail to go off-road into the Silver Spring Transit Center, it would also remove the at-grade crossings at Connecticut Avenue and Jones Mill Road. It would connect to new neighborhoods like Woodside. And, or course, it would connect to all of the Purple Line stations along the route. The current interim trail is significantly less popular than the permanent trail - getting half as much traffic on the west end and only 1/10th as much at the east end. It's not unreasonable to believe that traffic on the new trail would match or exceed traffic on the existing western section. The trail is part of the Purple Line functional master plan, as it likely must be, due to the railbanking statute under which it was acquired. While this is all good news for those who support the trail, none of this is funded. And the Purple Line is at least four years away from breaking ground, so the project is going to need sustained support to see fruition.

The next project of importance is Montgomery County's section of the Met Branch Trail. This trail will connect to the CCT at the Silver Spring Transit Center and with the DC section at the boundary. Part of this trail, a section alongside Fenton Street and Takoma Avenue to the DC boundary, is complete and has been for several years. A short section of the trail is also being built with the Silver Spring Transit Center. But the remaining section between these two are years away. Phase I, which would extend the trail from the Silver Spring Transit Center south through the Ripley District and across Georgia Avenue on a new trail bridge has been budgeted and is scheduled to be built in 2016. Phase II, which will complete the Montgomery County section, will be designed at the same time as Phase I, but will have to wait longer to resolve CSX and SHA issues. It is expected to be completed in 2019. 

The third project is the remainder of the DC section of the MBT. Sections of this trail have already been built, creating a continuous trail from Union Station to Franklin Street. The EA for the whole trail has been completed and design should already have begun on the section from Michigan Avenue to 1st St NE. But it's unclear when that section, or the not-yet-designed section north of that, would be built. It will probably be several years before the entire DC section is finished.

The final piece is the Prince George's County Connector, though not part of the beltway, it has the potential to be a strong complement to it by connecting the MBT to the Anacostia Tributary Trail system. A very short section of this trail has been built in the Avondale neighborhood. DC included their section of this trail in their EA, so it appears to be making progress on that at well. It is unknown when DC would build its section or when Prince George's County will build its remaining section from Avondale to the Northwest Branch Trail. The PG County trail is on indefinite hold.

Once all of these projects are completed, and that could be over a decade away, it will create new connections between DC and the inner Maryland suburbs. The number of trips coming into and out of DC on the Met Branch Trail should go way up, as will trips east-west between Hyattsville and Bethesda. It is arguably the most important set of facilities being built in the DC area and it's important that they continue to move forward.

Saturday Morning Ride - PDA

So long SmartBike

• Work begins on the New York Avenue Bridge. For cyclists who use the sidewalks on that bridge, they're being blocked off. Detour signs point the way south. As I recall, DDOT counted the number of daily users to be fewer than 10. The new bridge will have wider sidewalks. They will not close the MBT, unless they "have to."
• Send Virginia Gov. McDonnell ideas for improving bicycle transportation.
• "The first phase of Fairfax County's Bicycle Master Plan that will outline a strategy for creating and connecting bike paths through and around Tysons Corner will be completed by mid-February, its authors said at a Tysons Corner Open House last week."
• Klingle Valley Trail needs a hug. The EA is scheduled for release by the end of the month.
• Work will begin on the section of the ART that will connect Diamond Tegue Park and Yards Park this spring (rendering below). The rendering is confusing, because a couple of years ago they announced that biking would not be allowed on the boardwalk. They haven't said anything about it since and I've never seen signs to that effect. Perhaps they've backed away from that. Other activities that appear to be allowed based on the rendering are photography, jogging in baggy shorts and light groping.

• Friends ride to remember Neal Molloy who died after a fall from his bike earlier this year.
• The deadline to comment on the Bradley Blvd Bikeway was extended to Jan 12th. 
• Someone asked about survey questions. Here is a definition of bike commuting from a Commuter Connections survey "You bicycle to work if you ride a bicycle the entire way from your home to your office. For this survey, if you bicycle to a transit station and take the train to work, you do not bicycle to work." What if you bike 10 miles and ride the train 8?
• Sign up with BikeVA to lobby your member of Congress for Safe Routes to School.
• Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) rode around the Capital on a rocket bike. "The model Weis rode in is known as the "Go-One3" and features solar-powered turn signals, an iPhone, and lamps. "
• Georgetown bike thief appreheanded, charged with misdemeaner. "When questioned, the suspect said he was trying to steal the bike in order to get money for his family"
• We didn't get the bikeshare TIGER grant, but the one we did get will still help cyclists. "The District Department of Transportation, meanwhile, will be using its share of the money to make other improvements, such as adding real-time transportation information screens that tell commuters when the next bus is arriving and locate the closet Capital Bikeshare stands and Metrorail stations"
• A report on the Ugly Sweater Ride. 
• Hood College now has a bike fleet. The LAB likes bike sharing.

SmartBike DC to end operations Jan 3rd

SmartBike DC sent out an announcement to members that as on January 3rd they would cease operations, remove the bikes and stations and replace them with CaBi stations, where one isn't already sitting nearby.

Season’s Greetings to Current SmartBikeDC Members. As we come to the end of 2010 we are also coming to the end of the District’s bold experiment in urban transportation known as SmartBikeDC.  On Sunday, January 2nd, at the end of the day, we will shut down the SmartBikeDC stations and begin the final transition to Capital Bikeshare (CaBi), the new expanded bikesharing program.   We want to thank you for helping make the program a success and making us the first city in North America to successfully launch a bikesharing program. In a little over two years, you have taken more than 50,000 trips by SmartBike, demonstrating that bikesharing works in the District.  Your enthusiastic embrace of SmartBike provided the District and our neighbors in Virginia the support and encouragement needed to press forward with a greatly expanded multi-jurisdictional bikesharing program. We would also like to thank our partner Clear Channel Outdoor.Our plan is to cease the SmartBikeDC program operation on January 2 and begin the 5 week process of removing all 10 SmartBike locations.  As the stations are removed, DDOT will be installing CaBi stations. Luckily, the new installations take as little as 2 hours so you won’t have to wait too long to use your favorite station.

I'm not sure if anyone other than DDOT employees are still riding the little red bikes that turned white, but if they are, they only have a couple of weeks to keep doing so.  Despite this once-heralded system ending, I don't believe it to have been a failure.

Photo by Daquella manera