TheWashCycle

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Gravel

Good afternoon

• BAC testimony at Wednesday's hearing.
• VDOT has new biking maps. Some static and a dynamic one. 
• Gravel on Lee Drive inside Fredericksburg National Battlefield Park is none too popular with cyclists. 

Thursday Morning Commute - “All signs from my case are pointing to the fact you can be assaulted on the road”

Good morning

• CaBi will be having a two-millionth rider celebration on Monday at the Blind Dog Cafe.
• WABA's full testimony at yesterday's hearing.
• Also from the hearing comes news that John W. Diehl, the driver who - in a highly publicized incident - was recorded intentionally hit a cyclist with his car,  has not been prosecuted "because the man has not shown up for court and has not been arrested on the outstanding bench warrant issued in the case. Reached on Wednesday by phone, 56-year-old Mr. Diehl said he had no idea he had been summoned to court and denied being involved in the accident. 'This is all news to me,” he said. “I never hit anyone. If I had a bench warrant, I would turn myself in.'" Put me down for skeptical.
• Last night, DDOT had a pre-construction meeting on the U St. Streetscape project. There are no bike lanes planned, but I also don't see mention of more bike parking. 
• Hurt is now calling CaBi bikes "dirty with disease-spreading handlebars." But when he says "I think it is awesome you want to ride [them]" I don't think he's telling the truth. I don't think he actually thinks it's awesome. Then there is a bunch of "stop spending my money on things I don't want" stuff in there. Look, we could all point to things that government spends money on that we wish our money didn't go towards. [For me it's the American Embassy in Canada. I don't want anything to do with those people.] But that's the price of living in a democracy. Welcome to being a grown-up Mr. Hurt.
• On the US Transportaton bill: "There has been next to no indication of where House leaders like John Boehner or Eric Cantor stand on Cardin-Cochran."
• "Of the four services I tested, Google is the only to offer bicycle directions. It's different from walking directions in that cyclists must respect one-way signs. Bike routes also favor bike lanes and shun steep hills when possible."

New Bollards on the Mt. Vernon Trail

Photo by Rootchopper

Uh-oh, I know at least one person who will be very upset.

Rootchopper adds "After 40+ years of being unprotected from evil doers, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge is now safe, but bicyclists aren't. Here are three new bollards with red lights atop at the bottom of the Mount Vernon Trail ramp leading up to North Washington Street. Immediately behind me is a 90 degree turn in the shade. On the far side of the trail is a messy sidewalk detour with gaps between the street and sidewalk. Remember: the League of American Bicyclists has named Alexandria a bicycle friendly city until 2013."

Be heard in Fairfax County

This is your one week reminder that the following 2 meetings have been scheduled for the Fairfax Countywide Bicycle Transportation Master Plan.

In order to reach as many constituents as possible we have picked two locations centrally located in the northern and southern parts of the county.

We hope you will be able to make one of the days scheduled.

The purpose of these final public meetings is for people to review and comment on the draft plan.

You will be able to review the recommended on and off road improvements as well as programmatic and policy ideas.

Please feel free to pass the announcement on to your neighbors and friends, we hope to have as big of turn out as possible! Click either location title to get a pdf of the meeting announcement.

North County Location:

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Reston Regional Library

11925 Bowman Towne Drive, Reston, VA 20190

South County Location:

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

6:00 - 8:30 p.m.

George Mason Regional Library

7001 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003

Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Duryea Motor Wagon

Good afternoon. Tulsa is going to make a bid for the Olympics. I don't know if it's winter or summer, but I give either bid about an equal possibility of being successful. 

• At a meeting last night, DDOT formally presented plans for the 1st Street NE cycletrack. "The cycletrack will be 8 feet wide and separated from automobile traffic. Plastic bollards will handle that duty from the circle to K Street. From K to M, a 2-foot-wide precast concrete barrier will keep automobile and bicycle traffic separate. This barrier will be the same height as a standard curb."
• The Hunt opinion piece on CaBi isn't just stupid, it's sexist too.
• The SuperNoVa Survey for northern Virginia transportation is still taking comments. 
• How times change "The first recorded automobile accident involving two vehicles occurred on this date in 1896 in New York City.  Henry Wells of Springfield, Massachusetts, was driving a new Duryea Motor Wagon, the first automobile to be made and sold in the U.S.  Unfortunately, he collided with Evelyn Thomas of New York, riding a bicycle.  Thomas went to the hospital with a broken leg, and Wells spent the night in jail."
• The father of Beto O'Rourke, the new Democratic nominee for Texas' 16th Congressional District, was killed in a bicycle crash and now has a hike and bike trail named for him. Police seemed to blame the sun instead of the driver for driving too fast under dangerous conditions. 
• Ray LaHood "And we’ve put our actions behind those words with grants for complete streets initiatives, better sidewalks, and more bike infrastructure like bike-sharing programs, bike lanes, and off-road paths. The Federal Transit Administration has made it easier for commuters to access transit service by bicycle."

CaBi bike helmet sales probably won't hurt local bike shops

Neil Sandler, editor and publisher of Spokes magazine is concerned that Capital Bikeshare's decision to sell helmets for $16 will be taking business away from legitimate bike shops, according to TBD. 

While it's true that having the government subsidize a product can hurt the commercial businesses that sell it, there are several reasons why this is probably not a concern.

For starters, Capital Bikeshare is limiting who it will sell to. It will only sell then to new or renewing members. Most cyclists/potential customers in the DC area probably aren't even members, and being able to buy one day a year is a real inconvenience. Most cyclists will continue to buy their helmets from stores. 

In addition, CaBi will limit the kind of helmets it sells to one kind. And that kind is unsuitable for racing or children. And it is one style - the red helmet with yellow lettering - so if you want something with a little more style, you won't find the CaBi helmet appealing. 

The buyers of these helmets will probably be people who don't ever ride a bike other than CaBi and who probably wouldn't drop $50 on a nice one anyway. 

Bike shops might lose a few sales. But they've probably gained a few sales from CaBi members wanting a nice nutcase helmet or a stylish riding helmet. And once people have owned a helmet, maybe they'll be encouraged to buy their next one or even upgrade.

I haven't heard from bike shops, but I'd be surprised if they're worried. If I wrote a magazin instead of a blog, I'd probably call a few and find out what they thought.

As long as Sandler is going after this, perhaps he should also go after helmet give aways, like the one run by the brain injury law center or countless police departments. They can't even claim that they're encouraging cycling. Why do they hate bike shops?

Taxpayer money also paid for the MacArthur Causeway - so that incident is another source of pride

Now, only because it is a slow news day, I will poke some holes in this awful article by Charles Hurt that I can only assume is an attempt to be funny. I thought the last Washington Times article was the worst possible opinion piece on Capital Bikeshare ever, but Hurt has somehow topped it.

First off, he calls Capital Bikeshare "broken-down socialism."  Now I was taught that socialism involves government owning the "commanding heights" of the economy. I'm not sure that CaBi qualifies as the commanding heights. Nor is a system that is moving over 6000 people a day at almost no operating cost "broken-down." But, unless you're against free public schools and free sidewalks, we're all socialists now.

Then come some factual errors:

CaBi stations are not loud.

The frames are called step-through frames.

Priuses have not been catching fire, those were electric cars and only when crashed and left to sit for weeks.

Finally he gets into the "problems"

The most obvious one is that you can check out a bike and pedal yourself anywhere your heart desires — so long as it happens to have a docking station for your bike.

Neither true, because one is free to bring their own lock, nor relevant. You can't drive to Hawaii either, but that isn't a "problem" with cars. It's just a fact. But several thousands of people are finding trips for which CaBi is useful every day, so many in fact that....

If your destination just so happens to have a handy-dandy bike-docking station, you better get there early or hope that not everybody is going in the same direction at the same time.

Let me see if I can recap so far: His points are that there are only so many places you can use CaBi which makes it undesirable and that everyone is using it so much that you probably won't be able to use it anyway. No disconnect there.

Since he's a lover of the free market perhaps he would like to explain why membership keeps going up in the face of these "problems"?

Then he finishes up by pointing out that after 18 months there was a crime committed using a CaBi bike:

My personal pride in the program reached a new level last week after reading about a woman in my neighborhood who was talking on her cellular phone. A thug rode by on a bike, slapped her and swiped her phone.

Which is quite a burn since no one in a car has ever committed a crime.

Wednesday Morning Commute - Mugabo

Good morning. The DC Council hearing on Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety is today at noon, in case you want to watch online.

• The cyclist injured yesterday is a bike messenger who goes by the name of Mugabo. His injuries are reportedly very serious, with possible brain damage. "Friends of Mugabo add that he was a teacher at a school in Adams Morgan, and a father to a one-year old-baby." The news report shows the SUV being towed away - is that for evidence?

The Purple One is totally doping

Tour de Peeps by Joe in DC

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - VAT

Good afternoon

• A new CaBi station is being installed at the corner of Quincy and Wilson Blvd in Ballston (see photo by Mark P)
• If the Virginia Avenue Tunnel project goes forward, bike/ped crossings at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th and 11th are planned. And the post construction Virginia Avenue will include a "pedestrian/bicyclist friendly facility from Garfield Park to 11th Street." In option B that means bike lanes and in option C that's a shared use path. 
• Cyclist injured this morning after falling off of their bike and getting hit by a car. "Police are talking to witnesses and trying to determine who had the right of way." The article makes sure to note that "There are no bike lanes there." Unless this happened at an intersection, or they cyclist swerved in front of the car without proper distance, I can't see how they don't have the right of way.
• The National Mall Design winners will present their designs at the building museum Thursday night. 
• Dog follows long-distance cyclists for 1139 miles and 24 days across China.