Thursday Morning Commute - Close call

Good morning.

• Cyclist in near collision with bus. (only newsworthy because of the video)
• A griper complains about cyclists riding too fast on the sidewalk, in a place where sidewalk cycling is legal. I'm sympathetic, but making sidewalk cycling illegal is not going to solve their problem. Cracking down on bad sidewalk cycling will. The equivalent would be me saying that a car was driving too fast on the road the other day endangering me and other cyclists and so cars should be banned from roads. 
• As mentioned yesterday, CaBi released individual trip data and people are already doing interesting stuff with it. Like studying very long trips. Or determining that the average ride goes downhill by about 2 meters, that the most popular rides are last mile rides ("The four most common one-way trips are Adams Mill/Columbia to Calvert/Woodley and back as well as Eastern Market Metro to Lincoln Park and back.") and that tourists use it like crazy and pay fees to do so. And the data release coincides with the release of a report “Capital Bikeshare Study: A Closer Look at Casual Users and Operations" led by frequent bike researcher Ralph Buehler. "The report also included several suggestions to improve the system, including improving technological approaches to redistributing bicycles, expanding repair facilities as the system grows, and providing maps and increasing the visibility of stations." I have not read the study yet. 
• The Silver Spring Transit Center will open late - which you knew, but the bike station across the street won't open until after the center. 
• The Three Notch Trail is back on track. Why was it held up? "Commissioner Dan Morris (R) brought up issues with the Mechanicsville section of the trail last month. In addition to concerns from residents there, “Immaculate Conception is my church,” he said, and sits along the county’s right of way for the Three Notch Trail. The church has a wooden walkway over the county’s right of way."
• The off-duty police officer who was harrased as she rode her bike home from work had her day in court. The driver was sentenced to 3 years in jail for an assortment of charges, though only one of them for assault - and that one because she's an officer. 

Comments

[oboe]

Like studying very long trips.

If I had to guess I'd say this was a user who checked out a bike, rode to a station near their house, but the dock was full, so the CaBi rep told them to keep it overnight. This has happened to me several times.

[Tara]

Did Commissioner Morris ever consider that some parishioners might actually bike to church if there were a way to do it? The trail might ease Sunday morning parking lot congestion.

[oboe]

Does anyone know why the Custis Trail was shut down at 8:30 this morning (between North Calvert Street and Lee Hwy)? Looked like tree work. Was there any advance notice? Really pisses me off when they do this in the middle of rush hour on one of the region's major bike commuter "highways".

[DCAKen]

@oboe, this has been discussed on the Bike Arlington forum: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?1552-Custis-Trail-Tree-Work&p=12956#post12956