TheWashCycle

French electric bikes

French electric bikes, originally uploaded by Joe in DC.

I think these belong to the embassy. If I'm not mistaken, the Swedes have some too.

By coincidence, the Post has a story on e-bikes. Charlottesville bought a few for city employees to use (are you reading this Kwame Brown?).

If Fabio had been driving a car, he might have sped past the tire pile without seeing it; and if he had seen it, he couldn’t have investigated until he found a place to park. Instead, he was riding an electric-assist bicycle, using both pedal power and its battery-operated motor to cruise at a practical 10 to 15 mph. His $1,800 Giant Twist Freedom model is one of two e-bikes the city provides to its zoning officers to increase efficiency while diminishing congestion and greenhouse-gas emissions.

Popular elsewhere in the world — about 20 million a year are sold in China, where they are licensed and regulated like cars — e-bikes are slowly gaining ground in the U.S. market. Some buyers like their green credentials; Charlottesville bought its e-bikes after signing the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. (The city considered Segways, but e-bikes were cheaper and allowed officers to get across town almost as quickly as they could by driving.)

I wonder who will offer public e-bike sharing first: CaBi, Zipcar or some other entity?

Monday Morning Commute - Snow? Really?

Did everyone have Butler and VCU in their bracket's final four? Me neither.

• Getting ready for the Silver Line, and some residents are intent on being able to bike to those stations.
• GWU student body president James Lifton names biking as his favorite mode of transportation "I love biking around Washington. After my bike sat in the basement of a friend's townhouse for a year, I decided to take it for a ride. Since then, I've relied on my bike to get me all over the city. I've recently become a huge fan of the Capital Bikeshare program. It seems that there's a station everywhere I want to go, so I foresee that becoming my new favorite mode of transportation." 
• Capital Bikshare's plans for the Cherry Blossom Festival

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=109&sid=2321578

Tour de Links - I scream, you scream

New York, NY - ICYMI, an exhaustive cover story about New York City, bike lanes and the so-called bikelash was in last week's New York Magazine - "For bike lanes to really work, New Yorkers are going to have to learn to share." It also turned out that the anti-bike lane sentiment is a minority position (54% support, 39% oppose) and the city's deputy mayor pushed back on the effectiveness of bike lanes (in audio form here). "From 2001 through 2005, four pedestrians were killed in bike-pedestrian accidents. From 2006 through 2010, while cycling in the city doubled, three pedestrians were killed in bike-pedestrian accidents." I was in NYC last week. I rode many of the new bike lanes and pathways. Let me say that they're nice, but if you think we have a problem with people and cars in the bike lane, you don't know how good we have. I literally could not go two blocks without something or someone in the way. Police cars? Check. Runners? Check. People pushing strollers the wrong way? Bike Salmon? Construction equipment? Buses? Parked motorcycles? Check to all of those - in 90 minutes of biking.

Toronto - Toronto joins the League of Bike-sharing Cities in May. Like DC, they're using 1000 Bixi bikes.

Chicago - Illinois cyclists call on the state to track doorings. The state does not consider that a "crash" because the car isn't moving.

Nebraska - Though not news, it is news to me. In 2008 a federal judge basically declared railbanking illegal "A federal judge ruled in January 2008 that the now-abandoned land should have been returned to owners, not handed over for rail trails, under the terms of some easements granted to the railroads for construction and use of rail lines." I couldn't find any more information about the case, but I did find a lot more about property rights and rail-trail conversions.

Grand Junction, CO - NPS denied Lance Armstrong's Colorado bike race's request to staging a portion of the race in Colorado National Monument.

Yellowstone - Roads in Yellowstone will be open to bicycles for three weeks before car access is allowed. Must be nice.

Chico, CA - Two pedicab passengers sued the city of Chico after their pedicab was hit from behind by a car. Ironically they took the pedicab because they were too drunk to drive, but then were hit by a drunk driver. Their case against the city - that the bike lane was too narrow - was thrown out in part because the state designed the bike lane.

London - An assesment of Boris Bikes by someone who doesn't like biking. And the Laverstoke Park Ice Cream Race- see pro cyclists race while "selling ice creams during the race on Mercedes modified bikes featuring a special ice cream container on the front."

Very Late Saturday (Sunday really) ride

I have old friends in town

• House Bill 363, the Manslaughter by Vehicle or Vessel - Criminal Negligence bill, passed the house 137-0.  If you have not already done so, please contact your State SENATOR right away and strongly urge them to support HB 363 - a bill that brings justice to bicyclists and pedestrians. Enter your home address HERE to identify your Senator - they will be listed on the left side of the screen. Click on their name for contact information. To learn more about the legislation please click here.
• GGW discusses the new Street Smart campaign posters. I wish they were targeted more at things that were highly dangerous and where education was needed, like using lights at night and giving three feet when passing
• "Ride to Provide is an annual charity bike event hosted by Washington Redskins, Lorenzo Alexander and Kedric Golston. Lorenzo, Kedric, Redskin teammates and media personalities, will be joining hundreds of children and adults on the W&OD Railroad Regional Park Trail for a 10-35 mile scenic bike ride that begins and ends at Reston Town Center."
• DC continues to push bike sharing wherever they can. The Ward 5 Wal-Mart is going to include a CaBi station and they'll pay for bike lanes on NY Avenue. It also seems to include bike lanes on Montana Avenue. When the bike plan was being put together 5 years ago, NY Avenue was the poster child for a failing Bicycle level of service road.
• Bike lanes: the beachhead for the end of "chocolate city"?
• Lance Armstrong was in DC promoting cancer research.
• The CBO studied a VMT tax, which - if enacted - could prod more people to bike.

City bikes Capitol hill open

City bikes cap hill open, originally uploaded by volcrano.

Percolating Pedal Power

Percolating Pedal Power, originally uploaded by M.V. Jantzen.

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.

Performance Parking to pay for Bikeshare stations

A draft copy of the Ballpark District Performance Based Parking Report shows that a good chunk of the money raised in the program is going to go to cycling. (Thanks to Michael Perkins for posting the link).

Last year they used the money to buy and install decorative bike racks in the area, like the one below.

Photo by r_bowley

But this year the biggest line item ($250k out of nearly $900k) is to be spent on Capital Bikeshare stations. I think these are in addition to the planned expansion this year - but I'm not sure of that. This will fund "3 or 4" new stations, including one slated for Yards Park. They're seeking stakeholder input for the other stations.

There is also $32k for some transit and bike wayfinding, and $5000 for more ornate bike parking (same as last year). The wayfinding is a holdover from 2010 - "wayfinder maps were delayed in 2010 due to contract procurement issues.  These issues are nearly resolved and DDOT will begin installing these ornate wayfinding maps this fiscal year."

They also report plans for a Capital Riverfront Transportation Plan to start this year, which will - among other things - "recommended routes for bike lanes that tie into the Riverfront Trail system."

This, combined with the tidbit yesterday about the Georgia Avenue Walmart adding a CaBi station, shows that DDOT is serious about leveraging its resources to build out Capital Bikeshare wherever, and however, possible. They're not sitting around waiting for a TIGER grant.

 

Metro to take on bike theft, add pay by the hour lockers

Bike theft makes up 30% of all larcenies at Metro Stations and Metro appears to be making a real effort to attack the problem.

Metro plans to install 153 security cameras at the entrances of its rail stations and is also considering recruiting auxiliary police officers to improve security, Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said Thursday.

The new cameras will be able to take picture of high enough quality to identify someone. It's unclear if any will be pointed specifically at bike parking.

Metro customers who bike to the stations say theft is a major concern. Metro provides bike lockers at some stations, but riders have complained that the price of those lockers more than doubled last year, from $70 to $200 annually.

Nat Bottigheimer, Metro’s director of long-range planning, said Metro plans to build bike lockers during the next year and a half that will rent for about a nickel an hour.

I'm waiting to see data on the rental rates of lockers before and after the price increase. The new pay by the hour lockers are brilliant (and I don't just say that because I've been pushing them). Bike theft can be a real deterrent to bike commuting so this is an important step to encouraging cycling.

Clowns.

Which one doesn't belong?, originally uploaded by BrianMKA.

What? in the background.