Saturday Morning Ride - Replacements

Still catching up from the holidays

• Bicycle Stations, the little bike shop at 14th and W has closed. "They will be opening a new location in Alexandria next week."
• NCPC approved several amendments to the comp plan. Many involve cycling as doesn one item put off until February. "review of the National Park Service plan for the last section of the Georgetown Waterfront Park, stretching from Thompson Boat Center to the Kennedy Center. The final phase of the project includes a resurfaced asphalt bikeway, a new asphalt-tile pedestrian promenade, and replacing the Sycamores now on the site." 
• Purple Line planning moves forward, but still has big funding hurdles to overcome. "The most vocal opposition comes from the town of Chevy Chase and Columbia Country Club. Both have objected to trains running along the wooded Georgetown Branch Trail, which follows the town's border and cuts through the club's golf course. Opponents say the route would require cutting thousands of mature trees along the popular path.
  
  State planners have said they need the trail route, which Montgomery County bought from CSX in 1988 for a transit line, to move trains most efficiently between Bethesda and Silver Spring.
  
  Chevy Chase town council member Pat Burda said residents worry that school children and trail users could get hit by trains while crossing the tracks near Lynn Drive. Current state plans call for an at-grade crossing. Burda said residents want a pedestrian bridge.
  
  Burda said the town, which has opposed the trail route for years, hasn't decided yet whether it will challenge the transit proposal in court."
• I think I know the answer most readers here will come up with. 
• College Park is asking all developers to pitch in money for a bike sharing system. Not sure if that is CaBi or their own. They asked one developer for $54,000. 'Wojahn added that bike sharing is one way of handling congestion. "The entire region is using it and it's shown to be successful. This is a real priority."...Councilwoman Stephanie Stullich (Dist. 4) said. "At the same time, it's not something we're just asking you, it's something we're asking all developers"'
• Virginia is looking for a new statewide bicycle/pedestrian planner. 
• "Bikes for the World is losing its long-time storage site in Northern Virginia and needs a replacement.  A sleek, heated indoor facility with loading dock is not required.  Bikes for the World simply needs an outdoor parking lot to re-locate five 40' truck trailers used for storage of bicycles, pronto.  For leads on empty lot space for placing trailers in Northern Virginia, or inexpensive warehouse space, contact Keith Oberg at 703-525-0931 or [email protected]."
• Plans to make Sligo Avenue safer has led to some debate as to where bikes should ride. "he has proposed making an at-street-level path that would cut through the bump-out curbs so bicyclists could ride through them unfettered.

  That idea, however, didn’t go over so well with some East Silver Spring residents who worried that bicyclists should stick to the roadways since they could hit pedestrians.

  "We’re giving them a bike lane at every crosswalk," Karen Rooper said. "Now, you’re exposing the pedestrian to another lane of traffic."

  "I ride a bike, but what I’m trying to do is advocate for pedestrians," Ernest Bland said. "I don’t want to advocate for bicyclists at the expense of pedestrians."

• DDOT's new digital displays include information about CaBi. 
• The Post profiles Nancy Natasha Pettigrew. "Despite the pressure of the campaign trail, Pettigrew made time for triathlon training. She was up and out of her mother's house before dawn on the morning of Sept. 19 for a bike ride. She had often complained to friends in Miami how terrible the city was for bikers and praised the trails and bike lanes in Maryland. She set out on one of those bike lanes along Route 202 in Largo. At 5:30 a.m., a Cadillac Escalade crashed into her; the driver didn't realize she'd hit a person until she got home. Pettigrew died two days later, just five weeks before Election Day. An investigation is ongoing, according to police."

How CaBi moves bikes around

he has proposed making an at-street-level path that would cut through the bump-out curbs so bicyclists could ride through them unfettered.

That idea, however, didn’t go over so well with some East Silver Spring residents who worried that bicyclists should stick to the roadways since they could hit pedestrians.

"We’re giving them a bike lane at every crosswalk," Karen Rooper said. "Now, you’re exposing the pedestrian to another lane of traffic."

"I ride a bike, but what I’m trying to do is advocate for pedestrians," Ernest Bland said. "I don’t want to advocate for bicyclists at the expense of pedestrians."

Comments

[Jim Titus]

Did you mean Natasha Pettigrew?

Regarding the truck in cycle track discussion, Oboe made the key point that there are gradations of harm, with parking in a counterflow lane (esp in rush-hour) being far worse than parking in an ordinary bike lane. I'd set the fine for blocking the 2-way cycle track or counterflow lane equal to the highest possible infraction which, presumably is parking in a handicap space. Parking in other bike lanes is logically like doubleparking.

[washcycle]

Yes I did. I fixed it.