Friday Morning Commute - Simply the Best

Good Morning

• It looks like the Manslaughter by Vehicle bill is headed to the MD Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. "The Senate committee Chairman is Brian Frosh from District 16 in Montgomery County. Senator Jamie Raskin from Montgomery (District 20, i.e. south of Randolph Road, east of Northwest Branch) and Victor Ramirez from Prince Georges (District 47) are also on the committee. If you live in one of those three districts, the rest of us are counting on you to call your state Senator."
• City Paper's Best of Issue is out. Best Bike Shop is once again The Bike Rack, with City Bikes and Capitol Hill Bikes in 2nd and 3rd. Housing Complex had some extra awards including Best Bike Lane (15th Street Cycletrack - I agree, though is it technically a bike lane?), Best Way to Pretend You Don't Live in the U.S. (Capital Bikeshare), and Best Side Effect of Road Construction (Beach Drive as Bike Highway).
• The EPA has been pushing me to post something about redirecting your stormwater. Their tie to relevance? If you bike, you probably go by the river and you want it to be clean, right? I'll let it pass - since it's a good cause.
  
  So here's their ask: With spring right around the corner and lawn preparation underway, now is a good time to take a look at your yard’s watering system. You may not think of your hose and gutters as a “system” but they both can help direct water where you want it most – on your lawn and plants vs. down the storm drains. Instead of directing your gutter downspouts into your driveway or street, direct the rainwater collected by your roof to water your lawn or garden.
  
  Help your yard soak up free water, while keeping your water bill down and keeping dirty rainwater out of your local streams and rivers, like the Anacostia. To learn how to get the most out of every rainstorm, see this. [I'll add that DDOE has some good programs to provide cheap rain barrels, and rain gardens which I've personally taken advantage of]
• The Brita Climate Ride only has 15 spots left in the NYC-DC ride.

Comments

[asuka]

"Best way to pretend you don't live in the US." Why would I want to do that? Stupid stuff like that reaffirms negative stereotypes.

[Riley]

I dunno... five days is a limited sample I admit but Paris was pretty damned appealing. ;-)

[Contrarian]

Instead of directing your gutter downspouts into your driveway or street, direct the rainwater collected by your roof to water your lawn or garden.

Make sure you know what you're doing. It's not very green to have to rebuild your house because you flooded the basement with stormwater.