Tuesday Afternoon Commute - rebid

Good Afternoon

• The Met Branch Trail bridge to Rhode Island Avenue will be delayed since they only received one bid and it was too high. "After going out to bid for construction in January, the bridge will be re-bid again in the next few months. This is because District procurement regulations require that Contracting Officers make contract awards ONLY after a determination is made that the price is Fair and Reasonable. An analysis of the bid received failed to confirm that DDOT had received such pricing. Since there was only one bid received, DDOT had no recourse but to cancel the solicitation." 
• The Golden Triangle BID is having another bike rack competition. 
• Possible hit and run fatality of cyclist in PG County. Update: Not a hit and run. Instead the cyclist was shot. 
• TBD on the CaBi recovery rate for Arlington and DC. "The idea that Capital Bikeshare D.C. is recouping costs at 120% is, like Arlington's number of 81%, a little deceptive for not including those other very real costs. But hey, the revenue still beats operating costs for D.C. That bodes well for the system." It's even better considering that road user fees have a recovery rate of only 50%
• How to talk to Agenda 21'ers. 

Comments

[I forgot]

I think one can make a strong argument that transportation and urban planning are primarily local issues. That the federal government collects transportation taxes and delivers them to the states and localities with strings attached causes problems regardless of whether one is pro-bike or not. Invariably these strings will piss of a local constituency. I don't think that most Tea Party folks are anti-bike. Frankly they probably don't care one way or the other. Of course the New York Times did write an excellent hit piece equating the Tea Party with the black helicopter crowd.

[JeffB]

"These individuals have interpreted the UN’s Agenda 21 as an international plot, implemented by a Town Hall near you, to herd humanity into habitation zones and save the rest for the animals at the behest of enviro-fascists and their bicycle advocate shock troops."

Hey if that is what Agenda 21 is really all about where do I sign up?