Tuesday Morning Commute - 15 minutes

Still on vacation, so this is all the link dumping I can do in 15 minutes. And go...

• What are Arlington's toughest hills? DC's etc... map them. Fun!
• Capital Bikeshare, now tracking calories burned, CO2 not created.
• "biking questions the dominant mobility paradigm of automobility, and people with cars don't like very much any perception of their giving up what they see as their "rights" (not "privileges") to the road."
• Green Zebra Striped bike lanes. Yes please. 
• Is that street legal?
• Citations agains cyclists in DC are down."Bikers were cited 334 times in the last fiscal year, data from the city's Department of Motor Vehicles show, and 171 times so far this budget year. That's a drop of about 27.8 citations per month to 17.1." The #2 most cited offence "Riding a bike so as to create a driving hazard." What is that even?
• Floirda Avenue might get bike lanes from "Sherman Avenue to 9th Street and will connect the bike lanes on V Street, W Street, and Sherman Avenue."
• Mass Avenue in front of Union Station almost surely will get bike lanes when Columbus Plaza is rebuilt starting in September. Plus, there is a tiny bit of the Met Branch Trail (which is brown in this rendering) in the project too. 

 

Comments

[Bilsko]

You get about 350 ft of gain over 7 miles on the CCT from Georgetown up to Bethesda. Not much compared to some other spots, but there you go.

Foxhall from Canal up to Nebraska gives you 450ft over 2 miles. No bike lanes and single lane traffic make it a pretty poor candidate though.

[Crickey7]

DC: Adams Mill Road from Harvard. Brutally steep.

13th Street by Cardozo HS: really steep, impatient traffic. Great view from the top.

Harwood by the National Shrine: Long, though scenic. How 'bout them Ukranian Catholics?

Connecticut coming up from Florida; heart pounding terror from the chaotic traffic and a short steep momentum-killing stretch. Only for those with the strongest of talismans.

[Jim T]

On a related note, the longest hill in DC with no cross streets is Chain Bridge Road.

[I forgot]

Doesn't the amount of CO2 not produced depend on the mode of transportation that the CaBi ride is displacing. According to the grant applications, a large majority of the displaced travel was walking and mass transit. As the transit would be likely running anyway even without your large butt on it, the net CO2 not produced is about zero. (What about the CO2 produced in rebalancing the system?)
On calories consumed (which is pretty well correlated with CO2 produced by the cyclist), does CaBi properly increase the values given that the bicycles are tanks and require much energy to get up to the appropriate 5 MPH?

[Crickey7]

I agree on CO2. On calories, they take the weight of the bike and the "average rider", who weighs 180 pounds.

[Jim T]

It is very difficult to know what the actual net savings is for 100 cyclists who would otherwise take mass transit, but only including the reduced electricity savings from less mass on the train is a lower bound at rush hour but a good estimate off peak.

A better estimate for rush hour is probably achieved by looking at the energy consumed by running one extra car on one train, for every X people, where X is the capacity of a car. These packed trains can only carry so many people without adding cars. The increased crowding may actually put some people back into
cars.

[Shawn]

In D.C., Capitol Hill's a pretty steep climb, both on Independence (which I think is a slightly higher grade) and on Constitution (which benefits from an additional lane heading up the hill).

16th Street NW is a pretty fun climb...if you don't have heart issues.

[JJJJJ]

The b-cycle system has a GPS in every bike so it can accurately count calories based on actual route taken, hills etc.

[Michael H.]

S. Walter Reed Drive heading up from Four Mile Run Drive is tough. So is Brandywine Rd. in DC.

The green-painted crosswalk is confusing. It might be difficult to see the bike symbols amidst all of those green lines. I think a solid green section would be better, with the bike symbols painted on top of the green.

[washcycle]

The CO2 not produced is for a comparison to driving. Only the users know if they would have driven or not. But it is a useful exercise (pun intended).

[Crickey7]

Ridge Road in the Park coming up from Broad Branch is probably the only true switchback climb in DC. It's like a tiny slice of the Alpe d'Huez.

[Bilsko]

+1 on Chain Bridge Road (between Macarthur and Arizona)
Now that DC-WASA finished their work and its repaved, I'm kind of anxious to give it a ride.