TheWashCycle

Toll revenue from I-95/395 HOT lanes could be used to make biking better

VDOT Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) is planning to extend the I95/395 HOT lanes north to the Pentagon in order to reduce congestion in the corridor, improve safety and give more choice to travelers. [The Draft EA for this was just completed]. The toll revenue from those lanes will be directed several places, including an annual transit payment, sound wall construction and, most notably, at least $15 million a year for Transportation Demand Management initiatives. 

Eligible projects will increase mobility and move more people along I-95 and I-395 and benefit toll payers in the I-395 corridor.

Example projects:

− Enhanced service to existing routes

− New local and commuter bus service

− Transit capital (bus and rail) projects

− Park and ride lots

− TDM program enhancements

There is nothing specifically suggesting bicycling initiatives in the corridor, but TDM funding has paid for, or been suggested to pay for, bicycle projects in the past. Things like bicycle parking at transit and bikeshare stations are examples.

Work on the Transit/TDM study began in April and tomorrow night there will be a public Open House to discuss the status of the Study.

The public Open House will be from 5 :30 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 21, at Alexandria City Hall, (301 King St.) in the Sister Cities Conference Room (room 1101). 

The purpose of the I-95/I-395 Transit/TDM Study is to develop a comprehensive list of transit and TDM projects that would be eligible for funding from revenues generated by the I-395 Express Lanes Extension project.... DRPT staff will be in attendance at the Open House to answer questions.

If you can't go, perhaps you can fill out the survey.

As part of the study, DRPT has developed a survey to gather information about transit and TDM needs along the I-395/I-95 corridor.  Regular commutes in this corridor are encouraged to take the survey.

One other impact of note. It does appear from the map of sound wall construction that a wall will be built on the south side of I-95 where the Four Mile Run Trail and I-95.

Bicycle Awareness Motor Vehicle License Plate Amendment Act Of 2016 hearing on Monday

The Committee on Transportation and the Environment is holding a hearing on Monday at 11:35 am on the Bicycle Awareness Motor Vehicle License Plate Amendment Act Of 2016.

This bill will increase safety for bicyclists on the road by allowing motorists to buy specialty automobile license plates that emphasize the 3-foot minimum passing law and by assigning the $25 application fee and annual $20 display fee for these specialty plates to the Vision Zero Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Fund.

The Committee invites the public to testify or to submit written testimony, which will be made a part of the official record. Anyone wishing to testify should contact Ms. Aukima Benjamin, staff assistant to the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, at (202) 724-8062 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Persons representing organizations will have five minutes to present their testimony. Individuals will have three minutes to present their testimony. Witnesses should bring 5 copies of their written testimony and should submit a copy of their testimony electronically to [email protected].

I suspect the plate will be similar to this one, but for DC, but the design will come after the bill.

 

Bike commuting data - in charts!

Here are some updated charts based yesterday's ACS data. First we can see that bike commuting in the area is generally growing, and at a rate faster than the national average.

And that when DC is compared to the 4 other big, high bike commute cities it is growing at around the same pace as most.

Encouraging, even as the number of bike commuters grows, bike fatalities for all cycling is dropping.

As a ratio of fatalities to bike commuting, the trend is generally down, though flat lately.

National bike commuting sees its first drop since data collection began 10 years ago

The Census Bureau starter releasing annual estimates of bike commuting in 2005 and in every year since then, bike commuting has gone up - until now. In 2015 data released yesterday, bike commuting went down a little bit from 0.620% to 0.597%, or about 9000 people total. There are about 885,000 American bike commuters according to the Census.

In DC, bike commuting went up from 3.9% of all commuters last year to 4.1%, a small increase and good enough for a tie, with 2012, for the 2nd best year. It is not good enough, however, to meet the 10-year goal set out in the 2005 DC Bicycle Master Plan, which was 5%. Driving was down in 2014 dropping to 38.8% from 40.7%. Meanwhile, walking is up to 14.0% from 13.1% and transit dropped again, from 36.1% to 35.8%. Working from home was up 1% to 6% total.  

Among major cities, DC was again #4, again behind Portland, Minneapolis and San Francisco. Minneapolis is now at 5%. 

Elsewhere in the region:

Arlington continues its steady growth, up to 1.9% from 1.8% and Alexandria is back up a little to 1.2% from 1.0% last year. 

Silver Spring, last year's bright stop, collapsed from 1.3% to 0.6%. Also, over the last two years, ACS has been reporting numbers for Rockville and Gaithersburg too. The former is down from 0.8% to 0.7% and the later is holding steady at 0.2%.

Work is beginning on the Rock Creek Trail and Beach Drive Rebuild

Next Monday, the federal portion of the multi-stage, multi-year, multi-project effort to rebuild both Beach Drive and the Rock Creek Park Trail will finally kick off. The result may not be everything bike advocates had hoped or asked for, but it will represent a massive improvement of a much-beloved, but much-criticized, bicycle facility. 

The entire project, which entails a full reconstruction of the road and its parallel trail, will last about three years, according to the Park Service.

The adjacent trail, used for commuting and recreation by hundreds of cyclists, joggers and pedestrians, will be widened to 10 feet in areas. There will be new trail construction between Porter Street and Piney Branch Parkway and a new crosswalk on Beach Drive at Blagden Avenue.

The Post article makes much of the traffic disaster that is likely to follow the closures, saying it is likely to cause abysmal traffic.

Starting Sept. 19, a major road rehabilitation project will shut down a segment of Beach Drive, disrupting traffic patterns for thousands of commuters who use the route to get to downtown from Maryland and upper Northwest D.C. neighborhoods.

But fear not cyclists...

While the road is being reconstructed, the trail will remain open, and when the road is completed but not yet open to car traffic, and the trail is being reconstructed, then bicyclists and pedestrians will have access to the road.

It might even be a golden age for RCP bike commuting.  

Still, I'm not sure that traffic is really going to be abysmal. Similar predictions of chaos have turned out to have been overblown. In fact, I'm hoping that it won't cause chaos. As I wrote last April

Phase four of the Beach Drive rehabilitation project involves the closure of the very section of Beach Drive, Joyce to Broad Branch, that faced opposition in 1983 and 2005. Will the impact of such closures—during the midday, not rush hour—be "minimal," as the Park Service concluded, or will it be "severe?" Will neighborhood roads be filled with traffic? Will safety be compromised? Will travel times dramatically increase? Will those with disabilities stay away from the park? And what are the impacts during rush hours?

We'll now get a chance to study these things in a much more robust way—during a real-world experiment, which is exactly what Norton, Van Hollen, Mikulski and others asked for.

And at a recent BAC meeting we were told that DDOT plans to do just such a study. But it looks like I was wrong about this part

Unfortunately, since the road won't be open for non-automobile traffic, we won't be able to determine to what extent its closure would increase recreational use.

In fact the National Zoo Trail gate will be open from 6am to 7pm to help bike commuters

 

Beach Drive bikes & peds @NationalZoo trail gate open from 6a-7p during rehab. Thanks @WABADC for input on plan pic.twitter.com/yGEfAzprQW

— Jenny A-S NPS (@JennyASNPS) September 14, 2016

Still, this is a project that people have been talking about since I moved here, so it's fantastic to see if finally about to start.

The 77 year old cyclist killed Monday? He was a complicated person

The 77 year old cyclist who was killed on Monday was almost surely (based on age and name and love of cycling) Dr. Robert Dickey, who in 2013 was convicted of possession of child pornography. He served 18 months.

For decades, Robert P. Dickey was one of the only pediatricians who treated families in some of the District’s poorest neighborhoods. He made house calls on his bicycle and didn’t charge families who could not afford care.

Dickey, 74, pleaded guilty in September to downloading and viewing graphic sexual images of young children in his office east of the Anacostia River — down the hall from the exam rooms where he had treated patients since the early 1970s . Prosecutors have said there is no evidence that the doctor inappropriately touched his patients or any other child, and he voluntarily gave up his medical license.

Cyclist struck and killed on Campus Drive in College Park

College Park District 3 City Council Member Stephanie Stullich has been proven right, but I bet she wish she wasn't. Back in 2009, after a 2nd crash and another injured cyclist at the same trail crossing of Campus Drive, she said

"Cars travel very fast on [Paint Brach Parkway] and drivers don't necessarily pay attention," Stullich said. "We're lucky he wasn't killed. But there's been other close calls at that crossing, and I'm afraid it's only a matter of time."

Yesterday a 77-year old man was crossing Campus Drive (which used to be Paint Branch Parkway) on the Paint Branch/Trolley Trail, was struck by a car and killed.  

At about 7:30 a.m., officers were called to the 4600 block of Paint Branch Parkway for the report of a collision involving a car and a bicyclist, Prince George’s County Police said in a statement.

A preliminary investigation revealed a car was stopped at a red light on Paint Branch Parkway (sic) as Robert Dickey of Southeast Washington was riding his bicycle in the crosswalk and attempting to cross the street, the statement said. When the traffic light turned green, the car struck Dickey, who was taken to a local hospital where he died several hours later, according to the statement.

The 4600 block would place it on campus, but this account differs with another from the Diamondback yesterday, which has it at the trail crossing farther east.

A 70-year-old male bicyclist was struck by a car while heading south on College Park’s Trolley Trail on Monday morning, University of Maryland Police spokesman Maj. Marc Limansky said.

 

The man was attempting to cross the Campus Drive intersection at the time of the accident, he said.

District 2 Councilman P.J. Brennan wrote in a message that he’d biked by the scene and saw a bent bike and two distressed onlookers.

I'm not sure which account is correct yet, but if this crash did happen at the trail crossing that would not be the first serious crash there. There were two serious crashes there in 2009, but since then the crossing has been made safer with an island and a traffic light.  Of course, as recently as this summer, the College Park Bicycle Boulevard Implementation Plan recognized that this crossing was still a "Challenging Area."

 

Anyway, regardless of where it happens, it sounds like the cyclist was struck in the crosswalk by a driver who started on the green, but when it wasn't clear.

 

BTW, here's how a Complete Streets public workshop proposed improving this intersection, by cutting a hole in the wall where the trail is.

 

Update: This gets more confusing. WTOP places the crash on River Road at Campus Drive, right near the Metro; but Fox5 has a photo of the bike near the trail crossing. Anyway, if it is the trail crossing - and I think that's the most likely location based on the photo - it brings this into contrast with the Viers Mill trail crossing where there have been two recent fatal crashes. Here - unlike there - a light has been added and yet there was still a fatal crash. 

Klingle Valley Trail, end of summer status

Progress on the new 0.7 mile long Klingle Valley Trail continues even if some of that work is just demolition.

One major portion of the work has been on a new retaining wall on the east side of the project. They've begun pouring concrete for those and that work will continue for a few more weeks. Then it will cure and workers will paint it. 

They've also completed work on a new ADA-compliant sidewalk along the ramp.

Finally, they've begun removing the old Klingle Road pavement and road bed to prepare the right-of-way for the trail.

The 7th Montgomery County Farm Tour and Picnic

The promise of the harvest, cooler days, and sweeping colorful vistas beckon. Enjoy it all on a leisurely bike ride AND support Montgomery County's Ag Reserve at the same time. Join us for the7th Annual Reserve Bike Tour on Sunday, October 2 - in partnership with Potomac Pedalers.

Space is limited and filling up fast. So if you want to participate in a well planned outing with many alternative routes culminating in a wonderful picnic lunch at Kingsbury's Orchard with live music by Justin Trawick and the Common Good, register now! This event always sells out, so don't ewe wait any longer...

 CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

I hope you enjoy the Brompton Urban Challenge this weekend - because it's illegal!

Always Be Scofflawing

The 2nd annual Brompton Urban Challenge is coming to DC this Saturday and it sounds like a lot of fun. 

Akin to a two-wheeled scavenger hunt, the Brompton Urban Challenge tests the creativity and ingenuity of its participants as they explore their city, interpreting clues, and completing challenges, all from the seat of their bikes. What better way to end the summer than by joining your fellow DC Bromptoneers and exploring the city on two wheels?

All types of bikes are welcome to participate, but each team of 2-4 riders must have at least 1 Brompton to qualify.

I'm not able to go, because I'll be in Nashville which is not having the BUC that weekend, but even if I were, I wouldn't go because at least I still have respect for the law.

See, even though a Brompton looks, acts and tastes just like a bicycle, it isn't, and so you aren't legally allowed to ride it on the roadway.

Let me explain.

The DC regulations ban bicycling on the sidewalk in parts of the city (basically the Central Business District and any place designated by the Mayor of which I am unaware of any). But, they didn't want to keep kids from being able to ride on the sidewalk downtown because, y'know, they're kids. So they did what any reasonable person would do, they created an exception for children under a certain age. 

Nah, I'm just kidding. They did something insane and created a whole new thing called a sidewalk bicycle and it would be legal to ride a sidewalk bicycle on downtown sidewalks, because... I mean, look, it's got sidewalk right in the name. Duh. Obvs it was meant to be ridden on the sidewalk. But they waned to define this sidewalk bicycle so that it would be something only ridden by kids. So they defined it by wheel diameter.

Sidewalk Bicycle– a device which would be included within the definition of “bicycle” as set forth in this section, except for the fact that such device either has two (2) or more wheels, all of which are less than twenty inches (20. in.) in diameter, or is not designed to be ridden on a roadway. (Reg. No. 71-26)

The Brompton has two wheels and meets the definition of a bicycle, but it's wheels are only 16 inches in diameter, thus it is not a bicycle. 

This means at least two things. 

1. You can legally ride a Brompton (or other small wheeled bike) on a sidewalk in the CBD, because the reg dealing with the ban doesn't specifically call out sidewalk bicycles. 1209.9 "...no person shall ride a bicycle or operate a personal mobility device upon a sidewalk within the Central Business District except on those sidewalks expressly designated by Order of the Mayor, nor shall any person ride a bicycle upon a sidewalk in any area outside of the Central Business District if it is expressly prohibited by Order of the Mayor and appropriate signs to such effect are posted."
2. You can't legally ride a Brompton (or other small wheeled bike) in the street, because the regs specifically say you can't. 1211.1 "No person upon rollerskates, skateboard, or riding by means of a sled, coaster, toy vehicle, sidewalk bicycle, or similar device shall go upon any roadway except when crossing a roadway in a crosswalk."

I'm not sure there are any other rules specific to sidewalk bicycles, like the Brompton, but there may be.

This is a classic case of the law not predicting, and not keeping up, with technology. I suspect it will be widely ignored, until it isn't, and then it will changed.