TheWashCycle

Saturday Morning Ride - Give us any chance, we'll take it

Good morning

• WABA is hiring interns.
• The Mall may become a more friendly place for bikesharing and pedicabs. "the Park Service also is in discussions about whether and how to allow rent-a-bicycle operator Capital Bikeshare to install stations for its bright red bikes on the Mall...Pedicabs, whose operators have complained loudly about being harassed by Park Police when they try to pick up or drop off passengers near the museums, are also being discussed, Line said.
• Speaking of Capital Bikeshare, July numbers are in. Ridership is down a bit from June, but so were bikes available (Not sure why). Membership is up. But even with the 4th of July numbers, July might just have been too hot and the trips per bike per day number dropped for the first time since December 2010. From 5.07 in June to 4.99 in July.
• The Capitol Deal (a groupon competitor) has an urban bike adventure for sale.
• The Georgetown Patch on bike safety. "Nothing is more terrifying for a bicyclist than being trapped in rush hour traffic between a honking taxi and a distracted driver." How about being run over? Isn't that more terrifying? I bounced off the side of a van that turned in front of me. That's was way scarier than the situation they describe. Also, clowns.
• Herndon is considering a two-way “cycle track,” in lieu of on-street bike lanes on Herndon Parkway south of the new Metro Station.

“There are a lot of people who really aren’t comfortable biking in the street,” said Elizabeth Gilleran, director of Community Development. “Having the separate cycle track actually affords that sense of comfort,” she said, encouraging more people to travel by bike.

The north side of Herndon Parkway is not expected to redevelop for decades, so the town is not counting on many pedestrian or bicycle improvements there on that side of the road.

Even the revamping of the south side is a longer-term proposition. In the near term, when the new Metro service begins, cyclists and pedestrians will likely use existing sidewalks and trails, like the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, to access the rail station, Robertson said.

• The Southern Maryland Century is scheduled for September 11, 2011
• The TIDE light rail opened in Virginia Beach. Even though it was packed, bikes were still allowed.
• Milwaukee's Underwear Bike Ride. Yes, that is actual thing.

W&OD Medallion Roundabout

road furniture by bikesnick

This is in Purcellville and I haven't been there in years, so I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but that raised center part has a large medallion marker in it.

I guess the point is to get cyclists to slow down. I wonder if the cone is permanent.

Gazette Letter-to-the-Editor fight, round 4

A June article on ... I don't even remember, had led to several rounds of letter-writing about cyclists on Mongomery County roads. 

The latest includes a letter from Kevin Bookman who writes

I’m an Army veteran who rides in Poolesville every weekend. Along with my cycling friends, we drop a significant amount of money at the Chevron gas station, Bob’s Bikes, and the local gym kitty corner from the Chevron. My group is riding as we ramp up to ride from Pittsburgh back to Gaithersburg in October to raise money for wounded Soldiers, Airmen, Seamen, and Marines. I’ve been hit by a car in Poolesville with no investigation done by the police (even given suspect description, partial plate, make and model of car).

And another from Paul Meloan, president of the Montgomery County Multisport Club

the last thing you want on the MacArthur Boulevard pathway is me or my cycling friends training at between 17 mph and 30 mph. Those paths are all mixed-use facilities, open to people walking their dogs, kids, rollerbladers, and other slower-moving traffic. Throw cyclists moving at high speed into the mix and watch the wreckage. That is why cyclists belong on the roadway, even in the presence of mixed-use paths.

And considering the recent fatal crash on the Rock Creek Trail, which may have been caused by poor design or maintenance, it isn't clear the trail is safer.

Friday Morning Commute - Sock-tuckers

I'll be on vacation the next few days. I may blog. I may not. We'll see.

• Mike DeBonis comments on Alex Baca's bike lane piece. "My point: The more sock-tuckers hit the streets, the quicker I think cycling becomes part and parcel of mainstream D.C. culture. And Capital Bikeshare, I would submit, is helping a great deal."
• Another "I saw my stolen bike, what do I do?" stories. What you don't do, is write a neighborhood blogger to ask. That's what bike bloggers are for.
• The road hazard on 9th St NW - expansion joints. 
• A while ago I wrote about what would happen to the Potomac River Generating Station site, and the Mount Vernon Trail that runs through it, if it closed. Well, the American Clean Skies Foundation put together a proposal.  It's obviously not official, but their plan involves an improved MVT (moved out of the cage along the river and onto a greenway along Slater's Lane), a second trail on Dangerfield Island, connections along the extended street grid, and a bike station near a new water taxi pier.
• Vienna Town Council member Laurie Cole wants to make helmets mandatory for those under 14.

Thursday Evening Commute - Periphery

Good Afternoon

• Rockville is performing bicycle traffic counts as part of a public health project. In one week they counted 2065 cyclists on one bike path.
• Frederick County sherriff's office is encouraging residents to register their bike. Registration is simple and it’s free. Visit the Sheriff’s Office website, under Frederick County Bicycle Registration, at www.frederickcountymd.gov, and fill out the online registration form.
• Germantown college student bikes across country to raise money to fght cancer. Meanwhile a Patuxent High School graduate rides his bike across New Hampshire "to document and support local community initiatives to build a more sustainable future by advocating for a rapid and responsible transition away from fossil fuels." And some Boy Scouts bike from Cumberland to DC.
• The US Post office has 70 bicycle routes for delivery. Which frankly doesn't sound like that many to me.
• One more push to save Safe Routes to Schools funding.
• Jurisdiction over the sailor who killed a bicyclist during a military operation in Australia has been handed over to the Navy.

Oxon Hill Road to be redesigned with bike lanes and traffic circles.

This is a welcome improvement. 

Construction to improve safety and bike and pedestrian access on Oxon Hill Road could begin in the spring as part of an agreement with the community to maintain the residential character of the area, Prince George’s County officials said.

Hubbard said construction is expected to be completed two years from the start of construction.

The project will include about a 2.5-mile stretch of road from just south of National Harbor to Fort Foote Elementary School. Hubbard said the project will include bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the road. Space also will be provided for on-street parking.

Traffic circles will replace several existing signals to improve traffic flow on the road, she said. Residents had requested traffic circles, because lights alone did not alleviate traffic on the road.

Hubbard said the project’s estimated cost is about $14 million, with funding coming from the county’s Capital Improvement Program.

Oxon Hill Road has had a long history of being an unsafe road, said Jim Hudnall, public relations officer for the Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club, an organization that promotes bicycling and bike safety in southern Maryland.

Hudnall said he and his wife, Jane — Fort Washington residents who live near Oxon Hill Road — have had problems sharing the road with motorists when they have biked. People trying to get to bus stops often have trouble crossing the street with oncoming traffic, he said.

While it seems that everyone is happy with this solution, there is still a push to move the Potomac Heritage Trail to the road and away from the Potomac.

She said that she would like to see the Potomac Heritage Trail, part of a network of locally managed trails between the Potomac River and the Allegheny Highlands, run along Oxon Hill Road.

“We have two primary concerns: protecting the value of homes in the community and addressing the rush-hour back-ups,” Bick wrote. “The Potomac Heritage Trail would avoid the need to widen the road. . . . The biggest advantage would be saving the historic character of the road and the value of our homes and our community.”

Bike lanes, race and politics in DC

Alex Baca at City Paper has a cover story on "on the symbolism - and politics - of bicycling in DC."

Bike lanes in D.C. seem to come with an extra emotional charge, a legacy of the way they were installed—rapidly, and without much notice to or input from the people nearby—under Fenty and his transportation czar, Gabe Klein. Fenty and Klein were largely well-loved by people who didn’t, for the most part, look or act like those who’ve lived in D.C. longer. The white-striped lanes became a powerful visual implication that change was coming; they looked like a welcome mat for newcomers.

It starts with the story of adding bike lanes to 25th St SE which has residents complaining that they weren't informed beforehand. And so it begs the question, how much outreach is required before repainting a street to include bike lanes? In this case they were removing parking, but does DDOT need to have a meeting about that? Do they need to send letters to everyone? Attend an ANC meeting? What?

I don't think DDOT needs to keep people informed about everything they're going to do. One neighbor complained that the city planted a tree in the box in front of their house without letting them know beforehand. That's total overkill. And I feel like painting new lines falls in the same category. Maybe a letter to the ANC (and there may very well be one sent), but really I don't think every change like this requires a huge outreach. But some disagree.

“I think one of the problems is that there hasn’t been a whole lot of outreach by [the District Department of Transportation] on bike issues. Mostly you find out things after the fact, and people start scratching their heads and asking, ‘Why is this being done here?’”

And it's clear that some people don't think we need bike lanes.

Both say DDOT laid down lanes without giving the usual chance for locals to weigh in, which typically manifests itself in community meeting upon community meeting. Both believe that bike lanes will encroach on parking, a near-existential threat in their neighborhoods’ suburblike settings. Both ask why anyone needs the lanes, because they rarely see people riding in them, anyway. 

“Why waste money on bike lanes? They ride bikes wherever they want to ride bikes,” says Anthony Muhammed, a commissioner on ANC 8A in historic Anacostia, referring to just about anyone—kids, adults, commuters, spandex-clad racers—who might dare to ride on two wheels. “No one enforces any bike lanes anywhere in the city.” Enforcing bike lanes, though, would actually mean keeping cars out of them, not bikes in them

Anyway, the story goes after the myth that only rich, white men bike; it asserts that the policy battle has largely been won by cyclists - since Gray has stated he wants to make DC among the most bicycle friendly cities in the U.S.; and it covers a bit of what will happen next.

The much-ballyhooed crosstown cycle tracks on L and M Streets downtown, a cornerstone of the 2005 Bicycle Master Plan, should be in place by next spring. 

It's worth a full reading for sure. 

Cyclist who fell in Rock Creek Park dies from injuries

Katherine Y. Cudlipp, 68, who retired in 1991 as minority chief counsel to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, died July 28 at Washington Hospital Center, five days after sustaining severe spinal cord injuries in a bicycling accident. She fell from her bike in Rock Creek Park.

I believe this was the same fall that was mentioned here (the timing is right). The post link is broken but it's also detailed here.

A woman is in critical condition at an area hospital after a passerby performed CPR on her at Rock Creek Park on Saturday morning, Park Police say.

Authorities say that the victim was riding her bike near Grove 1 Pierce Mill at about 7:30 a.m. when she apparently suffered a cardiac event.

What it sounds like is the cardiac event caused the fall, and the fall caused the death. [Update: according to one commenter, there was no cardiac event. She was thrown from her bike, possibly due to a metal grate, but no one knows for sure as she was left paralyzed and unable to communicate. She was wearing a helmet.] Terribly sad. She sounds like a remarkable woman, a Fullbright scholar and in college the student government president and editor of the student newspaper. 

She led Potomac Peddler group rides and participated in the 2002 AIDS ride from Raleigh, N.C., to the District.

She was also a major donor to WABA.

This is the fourth area cyclist fatality (if one counts it as such) this year and oddly, 3 out of 4 don't involve a car.

Thursday Morning Commute - Phobos

It's the 134th Anniversary of the discovery of Mars' Moon Phobus. Which was discovered by Asaph Hall right here in DC. As a result, I always thought Phobos would be the great name for a DC bar (you can have that one Joe Englert). 

• It seems there are no bike racks at the MLK Memorial. Now I have a dream.
• Capitol Police already made an arrest in the bike theft that John Kelly reported on yesterday. "Thomas F. Goode, 40, of Southeast Washington was charged with second-degree theft and receiving stolen property. In the end, it wasn’t a security camera that led to the man’s arrest. It was a tip."
• In the same article was something that seems to have validated a story I heard. "There was a rash of bike thefts from the employee bike racks a couple of months ago when about 7 or 8 bicycles were stolen. Apparently some people weren't locking their bikes up at all because the racks are in the garages and there are Capitol Police officers who are stationed right next to the bike racks. Capitol police investigated and caught a U.S. House employee who had an apartment full of bicycles that were apparently stolen. Sadly it's just another example that you can never be too careful when it comes to locking up your bike." I contacted Capitol Police back then, so that they could brag a bit, but they didn't contact me back. John Kelly has what I assume are the details. "In June, the Capitol Police arrested Dana J. Wright and charged him with the theft of 10 bicycles. They were recovered by the Capitol Police and returned to their owners."
• Every week the Smithsonian gives details on one of the 137 million artifacts in their possession. This week it's the Shire Velocipede. "In the late 1860s, the forerunner to the bicycle was the velocipede, which originates from the Latin words for 'swift foot.' The velocipede had pedals on the front wheel but no drive mechanism, such as a chain on a bicycle. The velocipede was a stepping stone that created a market for bicycles, which led to the development of more advanced and efficient machines."
• There was another car crash on the GW Parkway at the crossing between Memorial Bridge and the MVT. Same as usual, cars stop to let trail users pass and get rear-ended. Maybe this will encorage NPS to find the money to build a tunnel. The Lynn Street tunnel was estimated at $1.3M, and that's for a longer tunnel.
• Greater detail on the various plans for the Cafritz project that straddles the Trolley Trail. The trail is basically the same in all of them, but the older ones are better.
• The MoCo Epic is a supported mountain bike ride connecting many of the major parks in Montgomery County. More than 80% of the ride is on singletrack. All proceeds benefit MORE.
• A guide to various bike facility types, though I don't think a "road" is technically a bike facility, I get where he's going with it.
• Helmets, they aren't just for biking anymore. "Helmets while riding a bike or playing football are good, reasonable precautions to take. Wearing a helmet while learning to walk? Now that’s just ridiculous." Is it?
• A judge dismissed efforts by a group of Brooklyn residents to remove the cycletrack installed by the city on Prospect Park West, claiming that the case was filed outside the statute of limitations.
• Markets in Everything

Normally I don't care for offers to have my nuts tightened

Photo by michaelvenske