Tuesday Morning Commute - Today's Special

I hope that bike has a chain guard...I mean that's a nice suit.

• "As my oncologist spoke, I thought of the commuting bike, purchased two months before my diagnosis, gathering dust under the basement steps. There was virtually nothing I could control about the nightmare of my cancer, I thought. But give me one thing that I can take charge of, that I can do — that I love to do — and I’m going to ride as if my life depends on it."
• "According to the District Department of Transportation's Monica Hernandez, there'll be new bike lanes on Illinois between Randolph Street and Grant Circle and shared lanes (with "sharrows") between Grant and Sherman circles. DDOT is hoping to have the lanes installed by next month."
• Montgomery Preservation Inc., has changed its mind and will now submit plans for the Met Branch Trail near the historic train station to the Maryland Historic Trust. This is not the finish line, but it gets things closer. [BTW, I like the idea of opening the station itself as a trail-side cafe. Win-win]
• US DOT is now accepting applications for TIGER 2013 the 5th round of TIGER funding. There's $474 million on the line. In the past MWCOG has unsuccessfully sought TIGER money for expandingbike sharing across the region or improving access to Metro stations - including for cyclists. More recently, DC and Maryland won a grant to finish the Ancostia Riverwalk Trails. No word on what applications local bodies might submit this time. 

Comments

[ken]

vis a vis nada:

@MM - if you're out there I just got back from Paris and Velib was perfectly described by your guest post in Sharrows last year. Thanks.

My commute includes going west on the last two blocks of Oliver St. in Bethesda that is one way east for those two blobks so I ride on the sidewalk - I had checked and it appeared to be legal there. This morning when riding down the sidewalk there was a policeman on the sidewalk talking with a cyclist within those two blocks on the sidewalk. I approached carefully and when I got to them the officer (facing me) alerted the cyclist that I was trying to get by. As I did so I heard the cyclist (male over twenty - beyond that I have a terrible record of assessment) state: "You're kidding, you can give a ticket for riding a bicycle....." I assume the end of that sentence was "the opposite way"....Sigh.

[Crickey7]

Welcome news on the Met Branch Trail. Montgomery Preservation's approval, though not a done deal, is critical for the entire bike circulation system in downtown Silver Spring.

[oboe]

RAISE THE F-ING SEAT!!!1!

Sorry, pet peeve.

[Jacob]

Bike lanes between Grant Circle and the Cemetery? I just can't see how those would ever be very useful. Petworth has tons of locations where new bike facilities would provide meaningful connections between existing bike lanes, but this is not one of them. The lanes on Kansas end abruptly at Georgia and don't connect to facilities farther south on 11th & 14th. Also, why not actually make it easy to bike around the circles. They are a disaster for biking, yet this project completely ignores them, even though it connects to both. Ugh.

I'm glad things are getting better, but we can be much much smarter about how we do it.

[SJE]

If they want an example of how to use an old station as a cafe, look at the North Central RR trail that runs from Baltimore Co into Pennsylvania. I used to ride it regularly, and stop at the repurposed stations. For anyone in DC looking for another trail to ride on, its a great alternative.

[charlie]

Yeah, Obama looks pretty stupid on a bike.

I hope they don't keep resubmitting the failed bikeshare expansion plan for TIGER. We do need more stations but the regional plan (bikehare in Reston! Bikeshare in Rockville!) isn't very good.

[oboe]

Yeah, Obama looks pretty stupid on a bike.

They're not exactly helping him out by giving him such crappy rides.

Bush got to ride a Top Fuel 98 w/ a custom paint job http://www.goclipless.com/2006/02/potuss_mountain.html

Kerry on what looks like a Felt: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_urSQl6wUA5g/SM_4LrzSovI/AAAAAAAADYQ/ODuzAaE2QiE/s400/senator-kerry-180.jpg

Who the Hell let Kerry on this WalMart bike three sizes to small for him?

I'm offering my services as the Presidential Bike Style Advisor. Let me know, Barack!

[Crickey7]

I admit to being dubious about Bikeshare expansion outside the Beltway. You need significant density of users at the various destination points, none of which can be too far or inaccessible from each other.

[washcycle]

Well, since they haven't submitted the bikeshare expansion plan since 2010, I suspect they won't. The fact that the bikes were made in Canada probably didn't help with the application. I'm not sure what they will ask for the money for. Money usually isn't the problem anyway. It's usually NPS, CSX, AOC, WMATA, MPI etc...

[Dave]

Kerry owns an older Serotta and recently bought a Cervelo, the Garmin picture was from a ride with Jonathan Vaughters. That was David Millar's bike he was riding - it's actually a fun story: http://www.slipstreamsports.com/2008/08/29/my-un-conventional-ride

[oboe]

Kerry owns an older Serotta and recently bought a Cervelo...

Always knew Kerry was a secret Canadian. I bet he bought one of those aero Cervelos, too...

[SJE]

Obama has a nice bike and looks good on it.

However, when he is there for a quick photo op, in his suit, and there is no time to adjust the seat etc, he looks awkward. I'm glad he was willing to hop on an try, even if he didnt look perfect.