TheWashCycle

Thursday Morning Commute - Zebra

Good morning

• DDOT will submit a proposal to the CFA for protective devices for the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes called the Zebra. "If CFA is open to the Zebras, DDOT will probably install them on a test block of Pennsylvania Avenue as a trial before putting them elsewhere."
• Green Lane Blog post on the M Street cycle-track
• Washington is the second best city for fitness in America. 
• Baltimore has a bike party too. 

Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Bolts

Good afternoon

• NBC4 Story on Penn Avenue Bike lane violations below.
• Attend a Move DC Public meeting
• New Belgium Tour de Fat party starts on Thursday. Volunteers needed. 
• "More than 200 injured veterans and active military personnel have been training in Bethesda for the 2013 Ride 2 Recovery United Healthcare Memorial Challenge, a nearly 400-mile trek that started Monday in Arlington, Va., and finishes Sunday in Virginia Beach, Va."
• "Many years ago Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas fought to save the C&O Canal from destruction from those who wanted to build a highway there, and we now enjoy that park."
• Work begins on the Fairfax County Parkway/Fair Lakes Parkway interchange that includes improved shared use paths. 
• The warm weather is causing something to emerge and it's not cicadas according to ABC7, it's bike thieves.
• Shout it from the rooftops: "People who walk or bike to work are likely to influence their co-workers and partners to do the same, according to health researchers....married people were more likely to participate in AC than non-married people, men actively commuted (AC) more often than women and mothers were even less likely to actively commute....People who were comfortable with their bicycling skills were more likely to actively commute, as were those who believed they had a shorter biking or walking time to work. Believing that an employer supports active commuting and working for an employer who supports AC, living in a community that supports AC and believing that the community is supportive of pedestrians and bicyclists were all positively significantly related to active commuting. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the researchers found that lack of on-street bike lanes, off-street bike and walking paths, and sidewalks all negatively influenced active commuting. Difficult terrain, bad weather and the speed and volume of traffic along the commuting route were also significantly related to people deciding to not actively commute."
• "the researchers concluded that head injuries were decreasing across the country at a rate that wasn't "appreciably altered" by the new helmet laws. Other rider health initiatives — namely, public safety campaigns and the introduction of better bike infrastructure — rendered the contribution of helmet laws "minimal"
• Chicago Bike Share, Divvy, to start on June 14.
• Bolts on the the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge bicycle path were installed incorrectly and as a result, many of the bolts have been sheared off.“It will be 100 percent fixed before they open that bicycle path,”

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

Wednesday Morning Commute - Roosevelt

When they first installed the electric car chargers at Canal Park in SE I thought they were a gimmick and no one would ever use them. But I saw a Tesla Model S parked there last night. 

• "We helped build Alta's flagship Bikesharing program in DC and we're proud to see Alta landing big contracts all over the USA as a result of our hard work: Citi Bike in New York, Divvy in Chicago, Hubway in Boston; Puget Sound Bikeshare in Seattle; San Francisco, Columbus, Baltimore, Portland... It would be a shame to see bad labor practices pollute the growth of such a socially and environmentally important industry."
• Pennsylvania Avenue Plan meeting is tonight. The BAC points out the the 1974 plan (an interesting read for sure) includes space for bus/bike lanes "Treatment of the Avenue roadway is intended to make its broad expanse less of a physical and visual barrier than it is today. two 11-foot outside lanes would be paved in different material than the inner lanes and, if traffic conditions permit, reserved for exclusive bicycle and bus use."  In addition to bike lanes, it would be nice if CaBi stations and bike parking would be allowed on Penn. 
• "Kidical Mass Arlington takes its inspiration from an existing Kidical Mass group in Washington, which has been building up over the past few years."
• The Greenbelt Museum held its first Roosevelt Ride on Sunday, inviting bikers to take a leisurely ride through historic downtown Greenbelt.
• Marketplace is dubious of NYC DOT's claim that cycletracks in NYC increased business by 49%.
• "“We have the A train, and we have yellow cabs, and we have the Staten Island Ferry,” Ms. Sadik-Khan said at the news conference. “And today, Citi Bike joins the ranks of the transportation icon family in New York City.”"

New Bollards on Penn Ave

Photo by Rob

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Dangerous sound

Good afternoon

• The cyclist hit on U Street the day before Bike to Work Day did, in fact, die from their injuries. "The crash occurred just after 10 a.m. Thursday. Police say a male driver was heading east on U Street when his car struck a bicyclist at the intersection with 11th Street. The bicyclist, 50-year-old Andre Brands, was not wearing a helmet. He was taken to a hospital, where he died." That's the third local fatality this year and the second in DC. 
• Bike to Work Day broke registration records. And more coverage here.
• "That blur zooming by on MacArthur Boulevard might be Alexis Zink, a Bethesda woman who recently qualified for the Nature Valley Pro Chase Cycling Team."
• On Saturday, runners who oppose the Purple Line and the completed and improved Capital Crescent Trail the project will include participated in a "Save the Trail" 5k. "The organization also points out that the sound created by the passing trains could be dangerous. When the sound of the train is emanating from only five feet away, "you won't be able to call to your children," or hear a bicyclist call out "on your left" (the standard signal a bicyclist calls out when passing a pedestrian) or a bicycle bell ringing. "Warnings will be drowned out 250 times a day," Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail say."
• Meanwhile, the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail has submitted comments on the NPS Boathouse Feasibility Study, a study on which Save the Trail has been oddly silent. 
• Many stories on NYC's bike share startup
  • "a woman made off with one of the bicycles Sunday evening as workers unloaded them at a Manhattan station, police said. Bloomberg said the bike was recovered. Police were looking for a suspect."
  • “We’re not against the bikes — we’re against them in our park,”
  • "Certain bike share members were supposed to receive a fob in the mail allowing them to skip the one-time rental charge a normal rider would pay. "When I think about how many people with lower Klout scores have gotten their keys," Dobkin told Gothamist. "It hurts,"
  • "having spent several hours riding through Brooklyn and Manhattan on the new shared bicycles – the only two boroughs that have docking stations thus far – I think that we're going to be okay. More than okay, in fact."
  • And more here.
• It goes with my Lance Armstrong football. 
• Bollards hit and damaged by a driver in Baltimore have been repaired. 
• And in a related story, in the video below a cabbie gets the police's attention after making an illegal U-turn in front of a cyclist on the Pennsylvania Avenue cycletrack. The illegal U-turns here are far too common. WABA is asking supporters to attend an NPS meeting on the long-term management of Pennsylvania Avenue and ask for "physical separation from motor vehicles on Pennsylvania Avenue."

Permit issued for the Anacostia Riverwalk Kenilworth section

Last week

The D.C. Department of Transportation will lay down 3 miles of asphalt, four prefabricated truss pedestrian bridges, 130 feet of retaining wall and 1,100 linear feet of heavy-duty boardwalk as part of the Anacostia Riverwalk Kenilworth Trail project. The 3.9-mile trail will originate beneath the Benning Road Bridge and extend north along the east bank of the Anacostia River. It will end a Bladensburg Waterfront Park in Prince George's County.

Tuesday Morning Commute - We're Number 2

With New York City's bike share program now open for business, the DC area now has the nation's second largest bike-share system. But still, the largest south of the Mason-Dixon line (We're #1)

• Last week, Capital Business had a cover story on the opeartion of Capital Bikeshare. A lot of it is well-worn territory, with the only surprise being a negative comment from Simon Pak, a manager of the Bike Rack. “Since Capital Bikeshare started, any incident [I’ve witnessed] in bike-to-bike collisions have been with Capital Bikeshare riders. They’re the most inexperienced riders emulating more experienced riders,” he said. “I can’t say it’s been great,” Pak said, though he mentioned that about one in 10 customers come into the store looking for a sleeker alternative to the heavier bikes Capital Bikeshare provides. But also
  • After installation, stations require on average about $24,000 a year for maintenance — redistributing bikes from station to station, operating a call center and Web hosting. Since 2012, each station generally brings in about $20,000 in revenue, Holben said, though at its peak, when Capital Bikeshare offered a deal through LivingSocial, they were bringing in about $23,000.
  • In Arlington, the system in total brought in about $411,000 in revenue in 2012 — more than twice as much as it did in 2011. Its total costs were $643,000, meaning it recovered about 64 percent of the expense.
• The first comment in the above story prompted a response from David Alpert
• Sustainable DC. "In other words, Gray told me afterward, the future of city travel is about sharing routes safely. Look for more bus routes, streetcars, bike lanes and devices such as the pedestrian signal, which can make walking safer and more popular without infringing on people’s ability to drive autos...Many motorists suspect that the bike lanes are part of a broader effort to squeeze them off the roads."
• Bike racks enhancing Hyattsville have been making a positive impact for pedestrian safety and travelers, according to community data and investigation.
• I forgot who sent me the photo of the snake found on the CCT, but there it is. 

Vacation Videos: Asad

While I'm on vacation, please enjoy this Academy Award nominated live action short.

Vacation Videos: Paperman

While I'm on vacation, please enjoy the 2013 Academy Award winning animated short.

Vacation Videos: Adam and Dog

While I'm on vacation, please enjoy the Academy Award nominated animated shorts.