TheWashCycle

Friday Afternoon Commute - Bridge to trail connection

Don't tease me with this Massachusetts!

• Zoning hearings are another opportunity to push for a bike friendly DC. 
• DDOT says that they will, in fact, connect the new 11th Street Bridge to the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. Hooray. "DDOT will build a temporary path connecting to the existing path (which links directly to Good Hope Rd and the Riverwalk Trail).  This is a temporary solution because DC Water will be working on the site long term as part of the Clean Rivers Project.  When finished, DC Water will build a permanent ADA-compliant trail in its place."
• A bike/ped bridge over the railroad tracks in Rockville may not be replaced due to high costs that designers blame on ADA compliance. The original bridge, built in 1973 had to be closed in 2010 and removed in 2011 because it failed a structural integrity inspection. Public officials say that the $1.19 million price tag, a budget shortfall and the limited use of the old bridge make it a poor use of money. "The bridge is about a quarter mile from two other railroad crossings, and it does not connect to bike lanes." A half mile is a long way to walk. 
• Which muscles do you use when biking?

Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Spinning

Good morning

• Braddock Road Metro CaBi Station installation. 
• BeyondDC tries to simplify the DC bike map. I would have included the Bluemont Junction Trail 
• An 8 year-old boy riding his bike was hit by an SUV and dragged for 50 feet. "Police say the boy will be okay because he was wearing his helmet." "Police say the boy was riding his bike near Old Mount Vernon Highway and Surrey Road about 6 p.m. Tuesday when the accident occurred. Authorities say the boy rode his bike into the street and the driver of the SUV was unable to avoid him....the driver stayed at the scene and has not been charged." I'm gald he was wearing a helmet, but clearly he's not "OK" since he was airlifted to a hospital, and they have no way of knowing what would've happened without a helmet. 
• Bikes are good for cross-training. 
• Another PR review.

Tuesday Morning Commute - Gordo

At the pool tonight there was an adult "learn to swim" class going on. Which got me thinking of the Times transportation reporter who was learning to bike. Brett Stewart - or someone like him - should find someone who doesn't know how to swim or bike (statistically, such people must exist, right?) and get them from there to the point where they can finish a sprint triathlon. It would make for a good story.

• The St. Elizabeths East Bike Carnival is on August 25th. 
• DC is among the least fat "states" in the USA where only slightly less than 1 in 4 residents are obese. Colorado is tops at 20.7%. "Partnerships with initiatives like Capital Bikeshare and the D.C. Healthy Corner Store Program, which promotes access to fresh produce and low-fat foods in needy neighborhoods, also play a role in the [Washington, DC's] efforts [to promote healthy living]."
• Montgomery County is worried that adding bike sharing risks increased crashing - because that is what has happened nowhere that similar programs have started. Still, it's hard to argue with the efforts that are planned. "as the county nears its program launch, Leggett said it will look at education and safety initiatives for cyclists, as well as motorist and pedestrians, to help mitigate safety concerns. He also said the county will look at where it can “engineer” the roads with features such as bike lanes to aid in safety....Montgomery County looks to place about 50 bikeshare stations along both legs of Metro’s Red Line starting around Silver Spring, Friendship Heights, Chevy Chase, Forest Glen, Takoma Park and Bethesda as the first two phases of the project, Esther Bowring, a county spokeswoman, said in an email. The first stations are expected to open in spring of 2013...Silver Spring, Bethesda, Forest Glen, Wheaton-Glenmont and Germantown were identified by police as the county’s “high-incident areas,” with nine crashes reported in Silver Spring, eight in Bethesda and six in Forest Glen, five in Germantown and four in Wheaton, according to the data."

Friday Afternoon Commute - It's French for "the mond"

Good afternoon.

• Frederick, MD will be hosting America's only Penny Farthing race.There is apparantly a pretty big one in Tasmania, and two in England: London and Knutsford, but this may be the only one in all of the Americas.  The race will start at 4 p.m. Aug. 18 in front of Brewer's Alley. If that doesn't entice you, Greg Lemond will be competing. 
• "let’s have an honest discussion about being the “fattest people in the world.” Every day, “decision makers” make transportation infrastructure and planning decisions that favor cars over people, decisions that make walking and biking—walking or biking to real public transit options, to work, to school, to the store—come to seem more and more…radical. It is indeed time we took responsibility for these and for the full range of consequences they entail. Let’s take some personal responsibility and make sure we as a society make the decisions that instead favor people over cars, favor transportation infrastructure built around the human scale."
• A response to Wiggins' claim that "Ultimately, if you get knocked off and you don’t have a helmet on, then you can’t argue...You can get killed if you don’t have a helmet on."

Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Cut the Waist

Good afternoon. I'm in Arizona, and the local PBS affliate had a half-hour show on biking in the Phoenix area last night. They showed the Tempe Transportation Center  (which has a bike station) and the downtown bike boulevard with green paint down the middle. That's a nice touch, it encourages cyclists to take the lane, but keeps paint away from car tires.

• It's OK for cyclists to use the W&OD bridle path, but it may require extra caution. 
• New CaBi stations at 21st and Penn NW and at 19th and K NW. 
• The new Staff Draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan includes several bicycle improvements, including trails that parallel and connect to the Capital Crescent Trail. It will also bring development right up to the trails edge. 
• One letter writer complains that in Alexandria "the Bike Share Program for Old Town produces a resoundingly negative result."
• Anti-cycling mayor of Toronto, fails to hit weight goal in Cut the Waist charity challenge. Perhaps bike commuting would help?

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Tourist-family trolleys

Good Afternoon

• Alexandria is converting its fleet of tourist-family trolleys to hybrid vehicles with bike racks on the front.
• NoVa is healthier than RoVa, and part of the reason is that "the construction of bike paths and sidewalks makes it easier to stay in shape"

Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Tracy Jordan would have made it funny

Good afternoon

• "Metro’s Plant Maintenance crews installed over 70 new racks, with space for 140 additional bikes at Braddock Road, Glenmont, Morgan Boulevard, Rockville, East Falls Church, Takoma, and Dupont Circle." See photos at the link.
• A comparison between Capital Bikeshare membership and personal bike ownership. I wonder, why not both?
• Driver in Charles County fatal hit-and-run arrested and indicted. "The crash occurred during the overnight hours of Sept. 1 - Sept. 2 on Chapel Point Road near Taurus Lane in Port Tobacco. A passerby found the victim, Thomas Mark Roepcke, 47, of Port Tobacco, unconscious on the side of the road  and called police. It was clear he had been struck by a car and the striking vehicle had fled the scene. Mr. Roepcke was transported to a hospital where he later died." 
• Women cyclists are also at risk for sexual problems. 
• A highway construction industry group thinks Maryland should widen the whole Beltway (surprise!) but it would include this. "Construction of the Route 97 [Georgia Ave] interchange would relieve congestion and provide bicycle and pedestrian facilities."
• Tracy Morgan has a point. But he could have probably been more careful. 

Wednesday Noon Ride - Employment

Happy lunchtime

• WABA is hiring a program manager for their East of the Anacostia 2012 Bicycle Outreach initiative.
• And The Daily Rider, the new bike shop on H Street NE, is hiring too.
• Maryland has announced the 2012 winners of the state's inaugural Bikeways Grants. Some of the nearby projects include
  • The largest award of $1 million was announced by Governor O’Malley in November for the missing trail link connecting Maryland’s Anacostia Tributary Trail to Washington, D.C.’s Riverwalk Trail.  The current plan is to break ground in 2012 on this final missing link.
  • the signed, on-road bike route connecting Bowie Town Center and local parks in Prince George’s County;
  • the signed bike route connecting Montgomery Mall and Naval Medical Center and Bethesda Metro stations to support new BRAC jobs in Montgomery County
  • the signed on-road bike route and striping from Columbia to Fort Meade to support new BRAC jobs in Howard and Anne Arundel counties;
  • the design of the north extension of the BWI Trail to the Nursery Road Light Rail Station;
• Take the Shirlington bike parking survey.
• DC BAC meeting is tonight at a new location. See video of the oversight hearing here.
• Don't just bike to work, bike at work.

Friday Morning Commute - stick with it

Good morning

• Mike Madden argues that Gray, policy-wise, isn't that different from Fenty and that includes bike lanes. That may be true, but when I look at what Gabe Klein is doing in Chicago, I sure miss him (and that is not a slam on Terry Bellamy, who seems to be doing a fine job). DeBonis quotes Gray saying about car/bike conflicts "We've got to recognize we're changing the culture in this city, and we have to stick with it."
• Bike share expansion (and small station movement) at 7th and Water St SW and 25th and Penn NW, 
• MoBike's Jake Cochrane sends a list of maintenance needs for Bradley Blvd to the SHA.
• 14 3 Bike Arlington employees  and 11 others spent the weekend earning their League Cycling Instructor certification.
• Indoor cycling studio coming to Clarendon.

Monday Morning Commute - Pathletes

Good morning. Baltimore kept me in my NFL pool last night. Now I just need Philadelphia to win and for the total score to be between 54 and 60 points.

• Coverage of WABA's Regional Call to Action, which included a few speakers on CaBi "An interesting but not surprising finding of Darren's was that proximity to bike lanes has a significant impact on use of CaBi in an area. The results of an extensive survey of CaBi users will be available in December." And more from Richard Layman "As long as transportation enhancement funding exists, WMATA is required to spend 1% of the funds they receive from the Federal Government on enhancements such as biking and pedestrian improvements, and while they cannot fund everything that they would like to do, this is a steady source of funding for bike improvements, so long as the enhancement program continues to exist."
• And also from Richard Layman in the same post "So effective in 2012, the Downtown Business Improvement District is taking over the management and staging of the Freedom Plaza Bike to Work Day event, which is the biggest and best true, but now WABA, which face it, has limited resources, can do more and better and other things..."
• Another story on how CaBi does rebalancing. Careful, that A to B song is catchy.
• Pathletes need to win.
• What can be done to create more bike parking in Arlington County.
• Calvert Investments gives employees who bike to work a one-time payment of $500 toward a bicycle
• Biking in Washington Heights and the search for bike storage space has pushed residential buildings to cull abandoned bikes.
• "$3.8 billion per year are saved in avoided mortality and reduced health care costs for obesity and heart disease by replacing half of the short journeys with bicycle trips during the warmest six months of the year."