Wednesday Morning Commute - 2014/2015

Good morning

• WABA has a very clear and complete post on why the Rock Creek Park Trail has not been repaired in so long, on where the repaving project is and on when (2014/2015) the trail might finally be repaved and improved. 
  • The paving would take place on a 3.7-mile segment of the Rock Creek Park multi-use trail from Broad Branch Road to P Street NW; a 0.8 mile segment of the Piney Branch Parkway trail from Beach Drive to Arkansas Avenue NW; a 0.2 mile segment of social trail from Broad Branch Road to Peirce Mill (referred to as the Peirce Mill trail spur); and a 0.5 mile segment of the Rose Park trail from P Street NW to M Street NW. Also incorporated into the EA is construction of a new, wider bridge parallel to the car bridge that crosses Rock Creek immediately south of the zoo tunnel, and a reconfiguration of the tunnel to allow for a six-foot-wide sidewalk for use during hours that the zoo gate is closed.
• The new bicycle ordinance making sidewalk cycling legal in Alexandria was approved 7-0.
• Some are worried that CaBi in Montgomery County will lead to more sidewalk cycling. "They are not careful about coming up behind people... because you can't hear a bike when it comes up behind you. And they are somewhat belligerent when you expect them to yield to you. And I'm afraid [we'll] just see more of that happening." But the county hopes to make some quick fixes including bike lanes and sharrows to entice cyclists into the streets. And more...
  • They hope to have the system set up by Sept 21, 2013 (which is almost 3 years to the day after the initial kick off)
  • The Bethesda Avenue/Arlington Road station is expected to be the busiest
  • Some stations will move because private property owners do not support the suggested locations (they'll regret that).
  • You should just read the whole link if you're interested in the expansion. It covers each station in detail. 
• City and County leaders from Richmond came to DC and Arlington to get ideas to make their city more bike friendly.
• "Nearly 94 percent of people riding bikes in Portland, Beaverton, Corvallis and Eugene stopped for red lights, a forthcoming Portland State University-based study of 2,026 intersection crossing videos has found. Of those, almost all (89 percent of the total) followed the rules perfectly, while another 4 percent entered the intersection just before the light changed to green....Is it possible that, much like more bikes on a street seem to make it safer for everyone, more bikes at an intersection tend to make everyone more law-abiding?" New mantra: if you want cyclists to obey traffic lights, make roads more inviting to cyclists. 

Comments

[david johnson]

" It would be a shame to see bad labor practices pollute the growth of such a socially and environmentally important industry."

The link below can be used to sign a petition to get fair wages for the
workers at Capitol Bike share

http://www.coworker.org/petitions/play-fair-bikeshare-backpay-benefits-for-alta-capital-bikeshare-workers-in-dc

[charlie]

@washcycle, I got a very different take from the ending quote on the Portland study.

"Is it possible that, much like more bikes on a street seem to make it safer for everyone, more bikes at an intersection tend to make everyone more law-abiding?

That's one theory from Peter Koonce, the City of Portland's top expert on stoplights. And that's why he suspects Portland red light compliance is so high.

"You have to have a little bit of gall to pass the crowd and blow the red light when there's six or seven or eight other people there," Koonce said."

[david johnson]

More info on Cabi

http://bikeworkers.tumblr.com

[SJE]

@Wash: re the OR study, someone commented that the fact that the infrastructure was better and they felt safe made it easier to follow the law. I can completely understand that.

[SJE]

Re Rock Creek:
Apparently the money has been there for 10 years but the NPS didnt want to wide the trail because of environmental concerns. WHAT? There is a 2-4 lane highway through a forest, and the stream is the back-up sewer for DC and Maryland, and they are worried that widening the trail from 8 to 10 feet will hurt the environment.

[washcycle]

charlie, I'm confused what is your take and how is it different from mine?

[Brendan]

The comments over at the original Oregon article are pretty smart. Worth a read.

[JimT]

To both of you, I add that this is a city where drivers stop (not just yield) for pedestrians in crosswalks. So the idea of stopping when you don't really need to, but that's what the law says, may be a bit more part of the culture.

If the majority stop, the outlier feels social pressure to stop. Conversely, if the majority goes, then the outlier will feel a subtle pressure to not be the oddball who stops anyway.

@david Johnson: Since the CaBi item today is about MoCo, not DC, could you research what the contract with MoCo says about these wages? I'm assuming the bikes all go back to DC rather than a satellite shop in MoCo.

[Jonathan Krall]

@SJE, Yes, and the bike path that was planned next to Maryland's Inter-County Connector was deleted from that freeway for the same reason. The defenders of nature prevail!

More "cars are inevitable, bikes are optional" anti-bicycling BS.

[Paytonchung]

FWIW, recently saw a talk by Peter Koonce about signals. There are many instances there where they've changed signals to better accommodate bikes, including timing a few key corridors (SE Hawthorne, NE Broadway) as "green waves" for bikes. Hawthorne was taken from 27 MPH to 12 MPH, for instance.