Thursday Morning Commute - Unearthed

Good morning

• DDOT will be holding its third and final meeting on the M Street Southeast/Southwest Transportation Study TONIGHT. The study is evaluating proposed alternatives for multi-modal transportation improvements to the M St SW/SE corridor. WABA is pushing for a cycle track, but cycle tracks on both M St SE/SW and on M ST NW are going to confuse me like crazy. Still, I'm all for it.  
• Biking in DC? There's an app for that. 
• In WABA's full letter on automated enforcement, they actually support LOWER fines. "If lowering of fines so that they not seem punitive is necessary to the expansion of the program, we support such lowering up to the point the deterrent effects begin to erode." So another deception by Milloy. 
• Police promise to step up enforcement on U-turning cars on the Pennsylvania Ave cycle track. 
• “A lot of our team members take public transportation, and from the Bethesda Metro it makes much more sense to come down the bike path — it’s only a mile and a half down to the building — than having to take a 45-minute route on the bus,” Joanna Bragg, a marketing team leader for the store, told Patch last year. “We also have a lot of customers who are health-conscious and eco-conscious, and the trail runs directly behind our building — it just seems like such a no-brainer.” A public hearing on bike sharing in Montgomery County has been scheduled for Oct 23 - "As the county nears the launch of the program, he said it will look at safety and education initiatives for cyclists as well as motorists and pedestrians and at where the county can engineer roads with features such as bike lanes to aid in safety."
• With construction underway next to the Capital Cresecent Trail, workers have started discovery remnants of Bethesda's industrial past, including old rail spurs. Of course, the region has made good use of the old Gerogetown Branch rail line that those spurs used to connect to. 
• A $32,000 bike might seem expensive, but, to put that in perspective, Victoria's Secret has a $2,500,000 bra. I suppose the two can only properly be used together. 

Comments

[wd]

How do these examiner "reporters" live with themselves? Southeast? really? Maybe that's nit-picky but certainly indicates the level of their journalism.

Oh well, I think of suburbia as one giant strip mall with the occasional Olive Garden, so I suppose they can't be faulted for not having any idea about where they are when they come to the city.

[NeilB]

What indicates the level of their journalism is the article that ran on the same page:

Motorists Fuming As Bicyclists Pack Roads

In the print edition, this was front page, huge type. Subheading: Everyone angry at clueless Bikeshare riders

[washcycle]

I saw that, but didn't ding her because I've gotten my quadrants confused a few times recently. Also, Olive Garden has good bread sticks.

[Joe D]

Why do I have to click through to the Patch to learn that "the store" whose "team members" and "customers" might use bikeshare is Whole Foods?

[xmal]

Grrr . . . Milloy article cites AAA which claims that "most people in the city still get to work by car". The plurality do, but not the majority, and more people transit than drive alone.

Washington:
Total Workers: 291083
Total Auto: 43.1%
Total Non-Auto: 50.4%
Driving Alone: 36.5%
Carpooling: 6.7%
Transit: 37.1%
Biking: 2.2%
Walking: 11.1%

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2010/10/13/transit-mode-share-trends-looking-steady-rail-appears-to-encourage-non-automobile-commutes/

[washcycle]

Joe D. Answer: User error.

[T]

@Xmal, I think they're speaking regionally (the statistic two down from the chart you showed). The statistic disparity is much more stark regionally given the 'transit' under 15% statistic also includes folks driving to the Metro. Not surprisingly within a small city (and land wise, DC is fairly small), a number of folks just walk to work. Poor choice of words by AAA folks.

It's too bad the side streets by M SE/SW don't really connect in a full parallel because M is more annoying to ride on then going down the side streets, imo. Between the buses, crossing guards during games, etc, I prefer cutting between the sidestreets. The cycletrack on M NW will be nice too, albeit will it be one-way or two-direction similar to many of other newer cycletracks?

[DaveS]

All but one of the photos accompanying the Examiner article were taken on Pennsylvania Ave SE - and yes, I'm sure I got that quadrant right.

The exception wasn't even taken in DC.

[T]

I would like to nominate my one anonymous comment for best comment on Examiner story. Guy says roadways were built for automobiles. I ask, what did George Washington drive.

[RyanB]

Neil B: i also love that below that incendiary headline on the examiner's print cover they showed an armed protester in front of burning cars in Libya, as if those fuming motorist were launching some sort of uprising.

The article itself is not nearly that inflammatory and is hardly even newsworthy, let alone front page stuff.

[Michael H.]

I saw the Examiner headline on the Metro today. I could only laugh at what they actually said in the story. No way I was going to bother reading it with a front page headline like that.

Glad to hear that the article wasn't as inflammatory.

As for the $32,000 bike, uh, no thanks. Even if I won the lottery, I wouldn't waste my money on that thing. Sure, I'd spend a few nickels on some nice bikes, but not a pointless $32K contraption.

[5555624]

Other than the p.m. rush hour, I don't find M Street SE/SW all that bad. (Part of my commute is on M Street SE/SW, from 6th Street SW to 11 Street SE.) The worst part is in front of the Navy Yard and DOT, with car/van pools pulling over. I'll often ride from 7th Street SE to Half Street SE on side streets, for that reason. This past week I was riding M Street SE (westbound) at lunch time and it was fine.

The biggest hassle on M Street SW, in my experience is the DMV. (I guess traffic going to Fort McNair could be a problem, but there is virtually no traffic on M Street when I am riding eastbound.)