Friday Afternoon Commute - Army-Navy

Good afternoon

• On Saturday, the Arlington County Board will vote on a plan to add a cycletrack to Army-Navy Drive. "According to the county staff report, the project would reconfigure 3,300 feet of Army Navy Drive from S. Joyce Street to 12th Street. It would provide shorter and safer pedestrian crossings, improve pedestrian space and construct a separate two-way bicycle track. The redesign is also intended to make room for the future streetcar line."
• Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda might stay in a tunnel. "a minor master plan amendment request filed by a property owner last month would offer the cheapest solution to building a station that would link the Purple Line to the Metro subway system and create a tunnel for the Capital Crescent Trail. It would allow the construction of a new tunnel — a separate tunnel — from the one that already exists and it would run under the Apex building and completely avoid the Air Rights building."
• VDOT would like your feedback on the Bicycling in Virginia Map. Are you aware of any new trails, bicycle clubs, or other features we should include when we update our map? Have you noticed any typos or errors? If so, please submit your comments
• "While advocates .. say more people are biking to work and more businesses have taken steps to make cycling to work easier, Montgomery and Frederick counties still rank below the national rate of commuters who bike to their jobs. About 2,200 people a day cycled to work in Montgomery in 2011, some 0.4 percent of the commuters in the county, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. In Frederick, some 165 daily commuters used bicycles, about 0.1 percent of the total. The national cycling commuting average in 2011 was 0.6 percent."
• The reopening of the closed section of the C&O Canal Towpath wasn't just good for trail users, it was good for local businesses too. 
• "Monique Dykman, 20, of Arnold was riding the bike west on College Drive in a lane against oncoming traffic at 5:15 p.m. last Saturday, the sheriff’s office reports, when the bike collided with the 1995 Dodge Caravan driven by John Smith, 32, of Park Hall. Smith did not require transportation to a hospital for medical treatment."
• This article about what it will take to make CitiBike succeed only makes me more confident of it's success. Basically, one time they didn't return their Velib correctly and it was stolen; and also SmartBike was too small. Related story - some business owners are upset about having a bike share station in front of their business. I suspect their tune will change when they see the added foot traffic. 

Comments

[MM]

Given that the cyclist reportedly was riding in the wrong lane, I'll withhold judgment on his liability in the accident. However, I find it odd that the news writeup felt it necessary to note that the driver did not require an airlift. "Nobody worry, it's okay!! The driver of the 4000 pound vehicle wasn't injured in the collision with the cyclist..."

[MM]

"withhold judment on **the driver's** liability"

[JimT]

If they didn't say what happened to the driver, it would be a gap in the story, given that there are two paragraphs on the fate of the cyclist.

A Maryland State Police helicopter crew flew a St. Mary’s College of Maryland student to a hospital last weekend

The bicycle rider was unconscious after impact with the vehicle’s windshield, a St. Mary’s dispatch log report states, and the helicopter crew flew her to University of Maryland Hospital’s Shock-Trauma Center in Baltimore. A hospital employee said Wednesday that Dykman has been discharged from the facility, but no further information was available as to her condition.

What I found confusing was that she is from Arnold, where College Parkway runs right by Anne Arundel Community College. But this accident did not occur there. It was on College Drive in St. Mary's.