Wednesday Morning Commute - Mall

Good Morning. Ready for Hurricane Lee to move on out.

• The Virginia Avenue Tunnel project will tear up Virginia Avenue, but when the road is done it could have a bike path or bike lanes. There's a public scoping meeting on it on September 14th.
• WABA has plenty of opportunities for one to volunteer. Volunteer 3 times and get a free one month membership. Also, the 50 states and 13 colonies rides are coming up and they're running out of spaces.
• “The markings were removed because they provided a restriction to bicyclists that conflicted with the traffic signal at this intersection,” Whalen McDaniel said today. “This was recommended as part of a comprehensive trail traffic control study over a year ago."
• The Natasha Pettigrew Memorial Bike Ride is scheduled for Sept 17.
• Here is some more coverage of the announcement that CaBi would soon be on the Mall, which came right on the heels of an announcement that Tourmobile was closing up shop. News is moving so fast, it's like the Berlin Wall coming down. Meanwhile, RTCP believes Capital Bikeshare is perfect for College Park precisely because the Metro is so inconveniently located.
• Take the car free pledge and possibly win great prizes.
• Next in NYC, horse lanes.
• Boston's bikesharing system is exceeding expectations. "The “doomsday scenario’’ envisioned by critics - crashes, graffiti, theft - has not materialized" Complaints include "why isn't there a station in my neighborhood" and dockblocking.
• A cyclist who crashed but, due to a concussion, couldn't remember why, used his GPS to find the spot where it happened (I won't ruin the ending). GPS is becoming a more-frequently used tool in crash litigation.
• If you like roads, then you're a socialist.

Comments

[charlie]

Two points on bikesharing.

I didn't realize Boston was live. Looking at OObrien's maps, you can see how dense the network is. And how dense other cities are. Meanwhile, bikeshare in DC wants to expand to College Park, Betheda and Rockville. And maybe Alexandria. That's great, but I also think you can easily double or triple density in DC. And where are the Arlington bikes?

The stations on the mall may be good, but bikeshare is earning tons of revenue based on people taking those bike out for 2-3 hours. Actually more like 5 to 24 hours. Those are a lot of tourists (day passes). Getting bikeshare on the mall would be nice, but I'd worry far more about getting them on other NPS properties.

[washcycle]

Holben says he's optimistic that NPS will allow stations on other park property. They're working on it.

As for density, DC is adding 32 stations and Arlington is adding 30. More density requires more money.

[Jacques]

As for timing, DDOT plans to install the 32 new stations in October (and have them all up in 2-3 weeks).

Arlington has been talking about a "fall-to-winter" installation of the Rosslyn-Ballston stations, and hasn't been more specific than that.

I'm not sure whether the Arlington stations/bikes are being delivered at the same time as the DC ones, but if not that could be the cause of the holdup.

[Greenbelt]

The column on collective funding for "free" roadway use and other direct social subsidies for driving and car parking is great, but...

...the author missed the huge cost imposed by minimum parking requirements, the costs of which are embedded in the prices of products or services of all the facilities forced to install sprawling "free" parking lots. The cost in needless environmental degradation and unlivability/unwalkability imposed by vast, often empty suburban parking lots is also very high.

[charlie]

The point about the Arlington station is the spot for the courthouse station (small sliver of county land) hasn't been cleared -- and summer is over. Little to no updates on the rest. If we get them by spring of 2012 we'll be lucky.

[Shawn]

Hope Tourmobile folks find new jobs - as pedicabs drivers?

I'm reminded of this image when reading about horse lanes in NYC: