Wednesday Morning Commute - Prince George's County Innovates

Good morning

• Ballston will get its first CaBi station sometime next week. "The station will have 19 docks, and will be set up on N. Stuart Street at 9th Street, in front of Welburn Square. The station is scheduled to be installed from noon to 2:00 p.m. next Monday, with a ribbon cutting event to follow."
• Images of the new ART bridge. 
• Legislation approved yesterday in Prince George's County "would require most new developments in the county to calculate not only the amount of car traffic they would generate but also whether the projects are safe for cyclists and walkers. For those that are not, the developer would be asked to improve the area within a half mile of the project."
• NYC floats some of the possible locations for its future bike share stations. "Jonathan Schnipper, co-owner of Schnipper Restaurant Group, said he hoped the kiosk in front of his restaurant, in the Times Building, would draw even more business to his restaurant, which he said did not benefit fully from the traffic one block north."

Comments

[Kolohe]

Frankly, I don't think the Prince George's County initiative is going to do all that much. Being only a requirement for new development, it's likely going only effect what already would trend towards upscale, TOD projects, and thus already be predisposed to having bike and ped infrastructure anyway.

The existing older (and poorer) parts of the county will continue to be a bike/ped wilderness, even inside the beltway. (& that's where the accidents are happening, too)

[think a little]

Friends dont let friends bike in PG. The drivers there are the worst in the area and the roads are horrific....

[charlie]

CABI is probably losing an opportunity for advertising on their stations.

Call the new Key/Scott station the "hell burger" station for $10K. Or the Rose Park "the Sprinkles" station.

I am sure they would rather settle for a corproate deal on the entire system -- "CABI presented by FIAT500" for instance but local, in the end, means more money.

[Jim T]

@Ka;ohe: There is quite a bit of infill development to come, and inconsistent requiremetns has left a patchwork of sidewalks along collectors and arteries that may become less patchy. Whether this helps will vary case-by0-case. Often neighbors on a collector with no sidewalks do not want a sidewalk on their property, or at least want to be paid for the land.

Large developments near trails can not be asked for a contribution for trail extensions, in rough proportion to the number of units being built compared to the total number of units close to the trail. Maybe not alot of money but it might cover the local match for a design study.

[Jim T]

Too many typos. I meant that with this new law, there will be an opportunity to get a contribution to trails from developments near a trail. To date, some developments get stuck with contributing land and building the trail because the trail route happens to go through their land, while an adjacent developer makes no contribution. That practice probably violated Dolan v City of Tigard; now we can have a procedure that does not.

[Elizabeth]

I'm happy they passed the bill and that the exec supports it. It wasn't intended to change the poor existing conditions, but it's an improvement that trails and sidewalks are more likely to be put it in county centers and corridors.

And the CountyStat initiative is continuing to work on existing high rates of ped/bike accidents. We'll see how much effect that has, but again, it's a move in the right direction.

[Michael H.]

Here's another post about the NYC bikeshare system:

http://www.streetsblog.org/2012/04/20/bike-share-is-going-to-be-huge-at-nyc-transit-hubs/comment-page-1/

The Port Authority and Penn Station locations could have bike stations with 140 and 180 docks. Seems to make sense.

But the article does take an odd potshot at how small the CaBi station at Union Station is. That's really not the most important CaBi station, so chalk that up to unfamiliarity with D.C. and CaBi.

[Jacques]

That is a curious (if unsurprisingly NYC-centric) view of the Union Station CaBi station.

The problem may lie in the fact that the Columbus Circle station has Union Station as part of the name.

The better analog for DC in terms of foot traffic is probably the Smithsonian Metro station, which now has ~130 docks available within 3-4 blocks of the station.

[Greenbelt]

Photos from this morning's gorgeous commute in PG county: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?2145-Photos-from-this-morning-s-commute-action-ospreys

PG county bashing is sometimes warranted, but as long as you stay off the arterial traffic sewers, I think it's a great place to ride. Try the BARC sometimes or the Anacostia Tributary trails.

[Kolohe]

The arterial traffic sewers are the only way to get from point A to whereever one works in Prince George's

[Ron Alford]

Kolohe: There a number of good choices for going north-south (specifically, to or from DC). East-west links, especially near MoCo, are lacking.

[Kolohe]

Fair enough. I'm only familiar with the area between Nat Harbor/Oxon Hill and Andrews. And that whole stretch is awful. And that's *with* the presence of 3 (and a half) Metro stations, all built this century.

[bryon]

Good for PG - it's long overdue; but it's just a start. Relentless enforcement is the key. But I should say that Rockville is not alone in the DC area in requiring by law that developers review for bike/ped trips.
http://walklaurel.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-pedestrian-and-bike-regulations-in.html