Sunday Afternoon ride - Everything is new

I had a post written, but unsaved on my computer. When I got home I tried to submit it, and I lost it all. So sad.

• Tommy Wells went for a ride on the new Wetlands Bridge on the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail - 3 days before it officially opened. Scandal!!!
• New warning signage about biking and texting on the Capital Crescent Trail. And the River Road Plaza will go before the Planning Board on May 17th. Assuming the Planning Board votes on May 17 to approve the plan, the County Parks Department and the Coalition will move forward to let out bids for actual construction of the Plaza. It is hard to estimate how long the bid process and the actual construction of the Plaza will take, but approval of the plan by the Planning Board is a huge step towards having a beautiful place for Trail users to stop, get a drink of water and enjoy another rest area on the Trail."
• New, lower prices for Metro bike lockers go into effect July 1. 
• New bike path between Shady Grove Road and Redland Road near the Shady Grove Metro will break ground later this month.
• "About four out of every 10 drivers passing through a work zone in Northern Virginia are on cellphones, according to a new survey of law enforcement officers in Northern Virginia."...."Because I'm calm, I'm just talking, you know," he says. "I think it is distracting when people have arguments and they get emotional on the phone. What would it take you to stop? Well, I'm talking to my employer so I have to communicate with my employer getting different kinds of jobs like that."
• PG County leads the region in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities.
• Vienna candidates for Mayor and city council, discuss Safe Routes to Schools, bike parking, helmet laws and the Bicycle Advisory Committee. Meanwhile, Herndon candidates and Fairfax city candidates discuss joining Capital Bikeshare or other bikeshare and cyclist access. Elections are on Tuesday.
• New investigation into Floyd Landis for possible wire and mail fraud connected to a defense fund he set up to fight doping charges.
• Officials handing out free bike helmets - for tornado preparedness.

http://www.gazette.net/article/20120427/NEWS/704279555/0/SEARCH&template=gazette

Comments

[Riley]

River Road Plaza - an exceptional example of a valuable county investment in cycling infrastructure - when the trail east of Connecticut Ave remains unpaved.

[Wayne Phyillaier]

@Riley:

The bulk of the "investment" for the River Road Plaza will be coming from the CCCT and neighborhood private donors, and is not either/or to paving the trail elsewhere.

The CCCT has pressed for paving the Interim CCT east of Bethesda (and completing it into Silver Spring), but the cost to do so is an order of magnitude greater than the Plaza. The schedule to do so remains intertwined with the Purple Line plans.

[aaa]

You would think that not biking and texting would be a no brainer and that a sign asking people not to do this was unnecesaary. But every once in a while, especially in the bikes lanes, I'll encounter a cyclist slowed to 1 mph sort of weaving back and forth across the lane busily typing a text. I don't get it.

[Shawn]

I saw people on the Wetlands Bridge 10 days before it open, moving their bikes around the barriers that were still in place. Pretty and practical, and I hope to use it this coming weekend.

[Michael H.]

The case against Floyd Landis shouldn't be difficult to make. He sought financial help from the general public to support his effort to fight the drug suspension. Then he later admitted that he doped, also publicly. I think he was hoping for immunity or a reduced penalty for testifying against Lance Armstrong.

But now that the Armstrong case has been dropped, Landis is out of luck. He made a real mess of his life. His story will not end well.