From the archives: DC's Bicycle Coordinator abolished in 1991

I've been going through the Washington Post's older bicycle articles, from before the blog and even before I moved here. Some are pretty interesting, like this one about Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon's 1991 decision to let the bicycle coordinator go as a cost-saving measure.

The post, created by the D.C. Council in 1985 and funded almost entirely with federal highway money, has been filled for six years by Tom Pendleton, a professional bicycling specialist. Pendleton's last day of work was Friday.

Public works officials defend Pendleton's firing, saying it will free up federal dollars to be used for more bicycle paths and programs.

But bicycling advocates, buoyed by the mayor's reversal on staffing the city's tree maintenance division, have flooded the offices of public works officials and D.C. Council members with letters denouncing the layoff.

It sounds like Pendleton did a good job

They also credit Pendleton with major contributions in bicycle access and expanded routes for two-wheelers, including ongoing negotiations with landowners to make way for the Metropolitan Branch Trail bicycle path that would run alongside the CSX train tracks to link Union Station and Silver Spring.

Pendleton, who sat on various city and regional planning boards, also was involved in ensuring that bicycle lanes were included in major street resurfacing projects and in plans for the Barney Circle interchange proposed to link the Anacostia Freeway with Interstate 295.

It's interesting to hear that "at least 10" other major cities had a bicycle coordinator at the time. I'd bet there are few that don't have one right now. And that the position was then a part of the Public Works Department. 

Because 86 percent of his $42,000 salary is federally funded and the city must pay Pendleton 18 weeks' severance pay for abolishing his job, he could stay in the job for two more years for what it costs the city to fire him, Nathanson said.

"That's the kind of shortsightedness that led them to eliminate the tree people," said D.C. Council member William Lightfoot (I-At Large). "They've eliminated another amenity that makes it worthwhile to live in the city."

"There's a significant lack of interest {in bicycles} in the rest of the department, which is why we fought so hard to get the bicycle coordinator position in the first place," said Bill Silverman, president of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. "His loss would be enormous. Removing Tom is a big blow."

[I was wondering what happened to Thomas Pendleton. It looks like he got involved in the founding of the East Coast Greenway and then...well...hopefully not this (even though the name, age, interest in biking and residency in Michigan match).]

Comments

[Brett Young]

Yeah I only see his name partially here....but that looks like him
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090415/NEWS01/904150326/1006/

[SJE]

What might have been, eh?

[John Henry Holliday]

I wonder how many more bike paths those DC Public Works officials built with the money saved by eliminating that position?