Monday Afternoon Commute - Staple

Good afternoon

• Another Best of DC winner - BicycleSPACE, for best unpretentious bike shop. But which is the best pretentious bike shop? They also won the best bike shop as voted on by readers. The Bike Rack and City Bikes came in 2nd and 3rd. But they have new competition - The Daily Rider just opened. 
• For best bike parking they went with the staple rack. I'd place it below the inverted U, bike valet and a CaBi rack. 
• The 11th Street Recreation Bridge is by no means a done deal, but there is good news about access to the Navy Yard Promenade from the meeting "the Navy Yard now actually finds it somewhat of a burden to open and close the trail every day, and would like to avoid that responsibility. They've also added more security along that edge of the yard, making them more comfortable just allowing public access along that side. He gave no firm details, but it sounds like residents can hope for a 24-hour trail in the future." 
• Let's not get too excited about 2011 regional bike fatality numbers. Yes 5 is down from the previous year's 9, and lower than the average over the last 10 years (6.3 per year). But we're dealing with such a small sample size that it's hard to call it anything other than noise. Let's throw together a few years below 6 fatalities and we can call it a trend. 
• Washington, DC makes Huffington Post's list of Top 10 Cities for Cyclists. We did not come in 10th place though as The Needle implies. They're listed in alphabetical order. 
• GGW has the designs for the L Street cycletrack. It will be one way only and buffered, with bike boxes at most intersections.
• "From 2010 to 2011, bike trips through 20 city intersections surged nearly 21 percent, according to District Department of Transportation data."
• The bike path/emergency access road that is to be built along the edge of the Army-Navy Club is still waiting on more detailed engineering and funding. And probably the end of a lawsuit. While some people worry about the crime the path will bring, others note that it isn't behind schedule because there never was one, nor are the high costs a surprise to county staff. 
• Virginia Commonwealth is a new Silver Bicycle Friendly University. 
• American cyclist Levi Leipheimer was hit from behind by a car while training in California Spain. He had a sore and swollen lower left leg but no broken bones.
• Bike movie. What it needs, looking at movie revenue this week, are some other kids trying to kill him as part of a tv show. 

Comments

[Portajohn.wordpress.com]

I think Levi was hit in Spain while training for a race, then transported to CA for medical treatment. Last I heard the final diagnosis (broken bones or not) was still to be completed. Scary as hell though, the car driver was going full speed when he was hit it sounds like.

[Neil]

Levi was hit in Spain, but flew back to California for treatment.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/04/news/leipheimer-i-could-be-dead-for-sure_211934

[dynaryder]

So if bicycles are so dangerous,and we ride so lawlessly,then why are the motorist fatality numbers so much higher than ours? I mean,I thought airbags and ABS were magic.

Also,anyone notice how much higher the traffic fatality numbers were than the murder rate? Almost twice. Seems bumbers are more dangerous than Glocks.

[antibozo]

I wonder by what failure of intelligence the makers of that article (traffic fatalities down) thought that the bar graph should be normalized so that all bars are the same height.

[washcycle]

antibozo, I wondered the same thing. Awful.

[DaveS]

Here's how it maybe should have looked.

I wonder if the story would have been written any differently with a better visualization...

[DaveS]

(or this unstacked one)

[Michael H.]

It appears as though the driver who struck Leipheimer was an elderly person, perhaps with poor eyesight or peripheral vision, and not a malicious person who was trying to gun down a cyclist. Leipheimer emphasized the driver's age a couple times.

[antibozo]

DaveS, those are so much better. Thanks! Maybe you should send them to Kate Ryan at WTOP.

[antibozo]

I can't for the life of me understand why society tolerates a status quo in which people get killed just going from point A to point B. It's outrageous and pathetic, and it could be prevented if people valued life just a little bit more.

Sorry to pontificate. It just drives me nuts.