Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Everything is safer than cycling

Good afternoon

• The DC Council considered the Bicycle Safety Amendment Act of 2013 today.
• The push is on to further limit sidewalk cycling. “We understand that there are concerns with sidewalk bicycling, but we think that sidewalk riding is normally a problem where there is not a space in the roadway that bicyclists perceive as safe,” said Shane Farthing, executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. Jeanne Mallett is really worked up about sidewalk cycling. 
• Crowd-sourced bicycle maps of cities, including DC. 
• ANC 3D should support bike lanes on New Mexico Avenue. 
• DC Bike Party organizer's bike stolen before 1 year anniversary ride (this Friday).
• Long Bridge Drive, which will feature bike lanes that might some day connect Arlington to the MVT, might finally be ready for construction. 
• Centerville Football coach is either wrong, or misquoted "Haddock said the highest rate of concussions in youth sports occurs in girls soccer, and the highest rate of concussions in the United States stems from bike accidents." He's talking about NUMBERS, not rates and not at the high school level. Either way, it's deceptive to try and cast football as less of a concussion risk than cycling. The numbers are higher because far more people participate in those sports. Concussion rates for football are the highest in all high school sports. I'm unaware of any data on concussion rates for cycling, but I'd be stunned if they're higher for cycling than for football.  While there are twice as many bike-related concussions per year than in football, there are far fewer people playing football than biking (for starters, almost no women play). 
• Speaking of failing to consider the denominator. Here's someone arguing that Mixed Martial Arts fighting is safer than cycling because more people die while cycling. He also fails to consider the benefits of cycling - everything looks bad when you only consider the costs [Thousands of people contract sexually transmitted diseases each year? Well, I guess it's cold showers for me from now on.] "Is it all so simple that we can just ignore the hard numbers behind these two activities and two data sets?" he asks. Apparantly, it is.  By his logic it's safer to play Russian roulette than bike, because fewer people die doing it. [I don't have an opinion on MMA and whether it should be legal or not, but casting Citibike as dangerous or biking as more dangerous than fighting without using all relevant data is bad form]. 
• Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail are back to pushing the idea that light rail near high schools is dangerous - because two men who were too old to be in high school were hit by a different kind of train at a time of day when high school students would not be at school. But there is no reason to fear roads near schools. None at all.
• "The Montgomery County Planning Board approved the facility plan for the North Branch Hiker-Biker Trail on June 27"
  • The south end of the proposed trail will connect to the existing Lakeside Trail located on the east side of Lake Frank within Rock Creek Regional Park and will continue north to connect with Muncaster Mill Road and cross at the Emory Lane intersection. The trail then will use the Emory Lane Bikeway and cross the Intercounty Connector Bikeway to the ICC bridge over the North Branch of Rock Creek. The proposed trail will go under the ICC bridge and connect to a future hard surface trail, which will be constructed by the developer of the Preserve at Rock Creek and will be dedicated along with parkland to the Department of Parks. The developer-built trail will end at Bowie Mill Local Park.
  • There was a suggestion to connect the trail to two local, dead-end roads, but residents of those roads didn't want the trail connections. “Connecting the trail is important to the Olney community, as it is a missing piece of a larger network, said association President Barbara Falcigno. “GOCA feels the master plan alignment that keeps the trail within the natural area is preferred over directing users onto roads.”
  • "The resolution also stated that GOCA feels the trail route should stay off area roads such as these which do not have a shoulder or sidewalk, which could make it unsafe for users."
• "The 2013 Giro di Coppi bicycle race will take place in the Sugarloaf Mountain region beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday"
• At least he wasn't on the sidewalk. 

Comments

[dynaryder]

So that entire blog is dedicated to getting cyclists off the sidewalk? Srsly? A cyclist hasn't killed anyone in the District since 2009. Cars kill people pretty much weekly. DO THE MATH.

[contrarian]

Sounds like high school football should have mandatory helmets...

[twk]

GOCA seems to be blinded by windshield perspective and doesn't understand trails are also transportation corridors. One of the biggest problems with the trails and bike networks in MD is lack of connectedness. I just completed an MDOT survey that is working to address this. It seems home owner association stubbornness needs to be addressed.

I wonder how many of those dead-end road residents will end up driving to get to a trail access point. I sure hope parking lots along the trail are not being considered.

This is one of the many reasons why I don't live in an HOA community!

[ACyclistInTheSuburbs]

Re the football coach - I am NOT a helmet hawk, but it should be borne in mind that some cyclists do not wear helmets, and ALL players in organized football do.

re sidewalks - while I will again affirm the need to allow sidewalk cycling in suburban traffic hells with bad road conditions and few pedestrians, I see nothing wrong with studying an extension of the no sidewalk zone in DC. I presume the key location would be DuPont Circle - where pedestrian activity is higher than all but a few other parts of the metro area, and on road biking is generally very good. I presume the greatest controversy will be about Conn Ave, which has poor on road conditions, and also congested sidewalks. And no prospect of bike lanes? I would also want an exception for times when bike lanes are blocked - some cyclists will ride around in the general travel lane, but some won't.

[Smedley Burkhart]

Agree about the suburban hells, etc., but, to my mind, sidewalk riding reinforces the related notions of bikes not being legit road users and the roadway being too dangerous. It also, frankly, sucks being a pedestrian on a narrow sidewalk with riders irritably on-your-lefting, dinging their dingers, or forcing one to dodge, much as motorists do to us on the roads. All things being equal, I'd like to see it actively discouraged where the roadway is adequate for reasonably safe cycling.

I haven't been to Japan for a few years, but nearly everyone rode on the sidewalk back when I used to travel there and it was mess.

[Brendan]

re: football - I have a theory that if you removed facemasks from helmets, players would self-regulate and play slower, thus trading concussions for broken noses. Which is better?

[Brendan]

re sidewalk riding - Because I don't share her perspective, I don't share her passion, I still agree with her general cause. Bikes don't belong on sidewalks. It's more dangerous for both the cyclist and the pedestrian. It also goes against my principal that all vehicle operators (and people in general) should protect and not do harm to weaker actors.

[Mike]

there's nothing inherently wrong with riding on a sidewalk if that's the safest choice for the cyclist (and yes, sometimes it is). there is something wrong with being a jerk while riding on the sidewalk, but there are similar issues caused by being a jerk while walking or driving. focus on not being a jerk rather than creating more unenforced harassment-only laws.

[washcycle]

Yeah, the thing about the sidewalk law is that it's confusing and blunt. Most people don't know exactly where sidewalk cycling is disallowed (I have to look up the boundaries all the time). And then in some places outside of that area, it doesn't make sense. In others within the zone (and at times like weeekends) it still makes sense.

So a better policy would be to make the behavior we don't like - passing too close, riding too fast -illegal.

But then enforcement becomes tricky. We could just say "If you hit a pedestrian on you're bike on the sidewalk you are 100% at fault every single time. So do so with caution."

Still, does anyone have an example of a place that does this better?

[Christopher Fotos]

re: football - I have a theory that if you removed facemasks from helmets, players would self-regulate and play slower, thus trading concussions for broken noses. Which is better?

That's actually something like the view held by some in the football biz--adding all those layers of protection, not just the high-tech facemasks but all the layers of armor has basically motivated players to be more willing to use themselves as missiles.

[black jack]

Re football, concussions, and helmets: rugby players apparently have concussion rates similar to American football, but (and?) they don't wear helmets: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ycn-10991566

Which suggests that playing without helmets doesn't make competitive men self-regulate to safer play.

On the other hand, now that I'm AARP-eligible, my testosterone levels have finally dropped enough that when I bike without a helmet (about 1% of the time), I do ride more cautiously than I do the rest of the time (when I am wearing a helmet). But that's no fun.

[Michael H.]

FYI - Construction on Long Bridge Drive started/resumed a couple months ago. The old southbound lane(s) have been torn up and part of it has been repaved. Concrete curbs have been installed along the southbound lane. Some of the new sidewalk on that side of the road is in place too, although not accessible for pedestrian use.

The road remains a very rough ride for cars and bikes, but at least there has been a lot of progress recently. Note that the road is still prone to flooding during most rain storms, so cyclists (and drivers) should beware. When the storm sewer system is finished, the flooding problems should be fixed.

[Froggie]

Not sure why we need bike lanes on Long Branch Drive to "connect to the MVT" when we will have Long Branch Park do the same thing, complete with (if NPS allows) a bridge over GW Pkwy to connect directly to the MVT. Instead, bike lanes on Long Branch Drive would connect to Boundary Channel Drive and the east side of the Pentagon.