TheWashCycle

Thursday Afternoon Commute - Distorted

Good afternoon

• 6 CaBi bike stations will have to be temporarily removed for the inauguration. "There were 199,127 trips and 221,809 miles traveled in October 2012. The number of trips decreased by 9.0% from September" But that's up from 123,497 trips and 140,402 miles a month in October 2011 - ~60% year-to-year increase in both.
• The DC Council Committee meeting on bicycle and pedestrian safety mentioned this morning has been postponed into the next year. No word on the topless bars hearing. 
• A utility pole was recently installed on the MacArthur Boulevard Trail in Montgomery County - and also, continuing coverage of the war on everyone else. (Photo by John Kelly)
• "Advocates for Holmes Run Park Trail are pushing to install mile markers along the West End greenway to quicken emergency response times." Rather than using posts, they might just paint the markers on the trail. It could help with emergency response or responding to assaults on the trail - of which there have been two this year. 
• Using recycled tires to make water pervious trails. Win win win.
• According to a recent study the risks of walking, biking and driving are about the same for men - except for young men. "risks were similar for men aged between 21 and 49 for all three modes of transport and for female pedestrians and drivers aged 21 and 69 years," said lead author Dr Jennifer Mindell (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health). "However, we found that for young male cyclists between 17 and 20 years of age, cycling was markedly safer than travelling by car....research regarding the safety of cycling tends to be distorted by a number of errors which are found repeatedly in published papers and policy documents, with many substantially overstating cycling injuries and under-reporting pedestrian injuries." I can't tell if cycling is safer for women than walking and driving or less safe. But my boys are not getting cars until they're 20 (at which point, they'll just get jetpacks instead). 
• Bike bays.

Related articles

Cycling is far safer than driving for men under 21

Tuesday Morning Commute - The American Way of Life

Good morning

• Reminder of the meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force for Bicycling and Active Transportation. Tomorrow night.
• And the DC BAC Facilities meeting. 
• Another letter asking why cyclists ride on MacArthur Blvd. Dr. Gridlock's response, while briefer than my own, is not bad. 
• More Agenda 21 opposition to bike lanes. 'The Republican National Committee resolution, passed without fanfare on Jan. 13, declared, “The United Nations Agenda 21 plan of radical so-called ‘sustainable development’ views the American way of life of private property ownership, single family homes, private car ownership and individual travel choices, and privately owned farms; all as destructive to the environment.”' I think we'd probably disagree on what defines "individual travel choices". But not all Republicans are against bike facilities. Check out Candace Miller in Michigan on this graphic. "Miller secured a $486,000 earmark in 2006 to help add a 14-foot-wide bike lane to a new bridge over the Clinton River, about 900 feet from her home. "People earmark for all kinds of things," Miller said. "I'm pretty proud of this; I think I did what my people wanted. Should I have told them, 'We can never have this bike path complete because I happen to live by one section of it'? They would have thrown me out of office."
• Demotivational

Thursday Morning Commute - She will miss the generous parking lot

Good morning [I realize it is not morning]

• Despite the hit the Met Branch Trail took in MoCo's latest budget, it is not all bad news "Leggett’s proposed budget calls for the continued pedestrian safety improvements and funding for projects such as $982,000 for the Frederick Road Bike Path, more than $8 million over several years for MacArthur Boulevard Bikeway improvements, and $3.4 million for sidewalks on Greentree Road and Md. 355 through fiscal 2014. It also advocates for inclusion of non-vehicular transportation elements, like sidewalks and mixed-use paths, whenever feasible for road improvements and new roads." The Gazette article doesn't even mention the MBT change.
• The Bethesda Post Office, which backs up to the Capital Crescent Trail, will soon be closed, probably sold and converted into housing. "the project will include 7,000 square feet of commercial space, [and] 145 housing units... after the Montgomery County Council approved a development plan amendment Tuesday.   The building will be set back 60 feet from the Capital Crescent Trail." Hopefully it will connect to and open up to the trail, instead of presenting a fenced off blank wall. 
• What Arlington can do to become a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community.
• Calvert County is working on a new Road Ordinance. The current one is 15 years old. '[Calvert County Commissioner Evan Slaughenhoupt (R)] also asked if DPW had a standard for developing bike paths. Right now, the county follows the State Highway Administration’s policy, Carlson said, but it is working on an exclusive bike path design. It will not be used for the Dowell Road widening project, however, “because it’ll come up to the front doors of the people,” Sharma said.....The ideal bike trail standard would be like the one in St. Mary’s County that runs by the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Carlson said. “That’s how it should look.”'

Gazette Letter-to-the-Editor fight, round 4

A June article on ... I don't even remember, had led to several rounds of letter-writing about cyclists on Mongomery County roads. 

The latest includes a letter from Kevin Bookman who writes

I’m an Army veteran who rides in Poolesville every weekend. Along with my cycling friends, we drop a significant amount of money at the Chevron gas station, Bob’s Bikes, and the local gym kitty corner from the Chevron. My group is riding as we ramp up to ride from Pittsburgh back to Gaithersburg in October to raise money for wounded Soldiers, Airmen, Seamen, and Marines. I’ve been hit by a car in Poolesville with no investigation done by the police (even given suspect description, partial plate, make and model of car).

And another from Paul Meloan, president of the Montgomery County Multisport Club

the last thing you want on the MacArthur Boulevard pathway is me or my cycling friends training at between 17 mph and 30 mph. Those paths are all mixed-use facilities, open to people walking their dogs, kids, rollerbladers, and other slower-moving traffic. Throw cyclists moving at high speed into the mix and watch the wreckage. That is why cyclists belong on the roadway, even in the presence of mixed-use paths.

And considering the recent fatal crash on the Rock Creek Trail, which may have been caused by poor design or maintenance, it isn't clear the trail is safer.

Ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy...oh my.

There has been quite a letter-to-the-editor fight going on in the pages of the Gazette lately, and it even includes local media personality and self-described hypocrit Chris Core.

It all started with the article "Cyclists ask for care from motorists at meeting with police in Rockville" from June 22 that covered the police's meeting with cyclists and drivers about MacArthur Blvd. 

Mark Scott found a request by cyclists that motorists give cyclists their share of the road too much to handle.

it will surprise you to learn that courtesy on the road is a two-way street

Which is, on it's face wrong. Cyclists weren't asking for courtesy, they were asking drivers to give them the space they're required to give by law. And then, in general it will be the wild west out there if people decide to drive unsafely around bad drivers. It'll be a race to the bottom. You're required to drive safely, regardless of what other people do. And other than yelling "look out" while passing, he never really identifies the discourteous behavior of cyclists. Even that isn't that discourteous depending on how it goes down.

He does pull out a lot of standard tropes. Cyclists don't pay for the roads they ride on (not true). He calls cyclists arrogant (without defining why. I guess riding in the road like a car makes them arrogant). They don't ride on the perfectly good trail right over there. He claims all cyclists are scofflaws.

when did you last see one of these law-abiding, courteous bicyclists actually come to a stop at a stop sign.

Last night, when I was on my way to dinner. I, and the lady in front of me, both did so.

He's also wrong about violations on bikes leading to points - you don't even need a driver's license to ride a bike. So he doesn't know what he's talking about.

So in order for cyclists to show respect they should: pay more taxes, stop at all stop signs, be more humble, and get out of the road and onto the trail. Once they're safely out of the road, he will give them respect on the road.

Chris Core continues his one-man war against cyclists by adding a letter of his own. This one with extra rules for cyclists to follow.

1. Obey the rules of the road: don't blow through stop signs and red lights.

This is against the law. But Mr. Core told me in an email once that when he's on a bike, he runs stop signs.

2. Don't zigzag in and out of traffic.

What does this even mean? Filtering? Legal. Passing slow vehicles? Legal.

3. Don't come up to cars on the right side and crowd to the front of the line at lights; wait your turn as we do.

Filtering, as I mentioned is legal. In some cases it's safer since it makes cyclists more visible - that's why cities are building bike boxes.

And if driver's truly waited their turn, they would sit behind a bicycle and wait just like they would a slower car. But they don't. They look for any opportunity - legal or not - to pass. So, in a sense, cyclists do wait their turn as driver's do - in that they don't.

4. Don't ride several abreast on the roads we share.

We've discussed this before. It's illegal in cases where a driver would legally be able to pass, but if not it's OK. And the alternative is to ride in a long unpassable line.

5. Don't ride on sidewalks, it is against the law.

Not in Montgomery County or any part of DC close to it it isn't. If I were going to write a letter to the editor, I'd look something like that up before including it, but that's me

So 3.5 of the 5 things he's identified aren't illegal. Having cyclists ask to be given the treatment they're legally entitled to and being told that they'll only get it if they adhere to a behavior standard that exceeds the law and, in at least one case, decreases safety is not a two-way street. It's one-sided.

And it always will be. When one person is driving a 2000 pound bullet and the other is on a bike, it's inherently one-sided. Driving a car means you have to show more courtesy to bikes and pedestrians - and the law even makes that clear.

A few weeks later, Jon Morrison wrote in to knock down the "cyclists don't pay for roads" canard. He also points out that Chris Core

contradicts himself, saying cyclists blow through stop signs and red lights, then complains cyclists crowd to the front to wait for red lights.

And makes several other good points.

Lew Baker echoes many of Morrison's points and adds that certainly cyclists are not alone in breaking the law.

Finally, Generosa Collins writes in to complain about sidewalk cyclists who pass from behind at great speed. There are jerks on bikes, and they should be ticketed appropriately.

Photo of Cyclists "Impeding" traffic

This is one of the photos sent around by an outraged citizen to demonstrate cyclists failing to share the road in Montgomery County. It's part of the reason there has been so much discussion about MacArthur Boulevard. I don't believe this is a photo on MacArthur, btw.

Anyway, two thoughts

1. It's entirely possible that the one cyclist who is not on the shoulder is passing the other cyclists or is drifting back after his turn in the front. Passing is an acceptable reason to be side by side, since it's very difficult to pass without doing so. I can bunny hop, but not enough to pass to another rider.

2. These cyclists are pretty close to the next car, so it isn't clear they're keeping anyone from getting anyhwere.

Friday Morning Commute - Brought to you by...

Good Morning

• Lydia DePillis discusses complete streets in DC and how to turn back some design mistakes from the past. Along with it this video which shows a close call for a salmoning cyclist.
• Poor discussion on mandatory helmet laws for adults at WUSA9 in the wake of this week's death. It even gets some of the facts wrong. It does not appear the victim was a teenager or there is no indication that a head injury was the cause of death.  I'm not sure he wasn't wearing a helmet, as this is so often mis-reported.
• The Gazette has an oped on sharing the road on MacArthur. Unfortunately it describes taking the lane, which is legal and safe, as "rude" - the same word it uses to describe drivers who speed past and potentially endanger cyclists, which is illegal and dangerous. It also incorrectly states that cyclists can "impede traffic" which they can not under the law -§ 21-804. Minimum speed regulation (a)  Slow speed impeding traffic prohibited.- Unless reduced speed is necessary for the safe operation of the vehicle or otherwise is in compliance with law, a person may not willfully drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic
• Lance Armstrong will participate in RAGBRAI this year. "The Des Moines Register newspaper, which sponsors the ride, says Armstrong likely will ride for two days with his Livestrong team through central Iowa."
• Virginia's law that allows cyclists to proceed through a red light after two minutes if it's safe goes into effect today.
• Yes, those are ads in the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes. No, they aren't supposed to be there.
• TIGER III gives another chance for super-bikeshare expansion.

Tense meeting with MCPD on Macarthur Blvd productive, though without complete agreement

By Rudi Riet of Potomac Pedalers

Attendance wasn't heavy - 14 or 15, at the most, with five Montgomery County Police Department officers, one National Park Police officer, and a MDOT representative also in the room. Most guests in attendance were cyclists, with few Potomac/Seneca area residents there (of these, all stated that they, too, ride bicycles). The forum was run by the MCPD, with one of their head traffic officers, Ofc. Edward Trybus, delivering a presentation on traffic laws and how they apply to cyclists and motorists.

The officer was stern (he's the head traffic rules instructor at the MoCo Police Training Academy), and he came off as a bit combative to many in the crowd. Much as the officer tried to convince the crowd that he "wasn't taking sides," the general feeling amongst the crowd was that cyclists were in his crosshairs. Case in point: the handout and presentation had a theme of "laws as they apply to cyclists, from a motorist-centric point-of-view." This was not lost on the audience on hand.

As the officer worked his way through his PowerPoint presentation (a summary of Maryland traffic laws), one slide caught a lot of attention: a snapshot of one of the big weekend rides (either the 7am or 10am ride, in all likelihood), which showed a peloton of fully law abiding riders: two abreast, not crossing the double-yellow center line, not impeding automobile traffic flow. [WC: the Gazette article covers similar territory]

The owner of The Bicycle Place was there, and took offense at some of the things that the officer said about group riding and its effect on the flow of traffic (note that his rides, the Saturday 7 and 10am rides and the Sunday 8:30am ride out of Silver Spring, are the ones that raise the most ire from motorists and residents of Potomac, Glen Echo, Cabin John and Seneca). Others in the audience raised similar objections, asking what, exactly, "impeding the flow of traffic" entailed. Ofc. Trybus offered nothing more than very vague answers to this, mostly clinging to the "anything less than the speed limit is impeding traffic" meme.

Once it was established that both vehicle operators and law enforcement can agree that enforcement of traffic laws - both for cyclists and motorists - is about *interpretation* of the law (and sometimes subjective interpretation), the discussion became somewhat more civil and productive, if not any less tense. And once the officer's commander took over the conversation, there was more constructive conversation about how to get cyclists to be better advocates for their cause.

The biggest take-away issues:

1. If there is a bike lane or bike path available, a cyclist, in most cases, is legally obligated to use said lane or path while riding in Maryland. However, the general sense is that most police officers will not enforce this rule if the cyclist is not impeding the overall flow of traffic, or if the cyclist is going close to the posted speed limit. Note that cyclists are NOT required to use the two-way, multi-use path on MacArthur due to its design flaws.

2. If a cyclist observes or experiences any problems with motorist interaction, get both the license plate number AND try to get a good look at the driver of the car (because car registration and driver are not necessarily the same). Call it in ASAP.

3. If a cyclist is cited by a police officer, don't fight the charges on the road - take it to court, and be prepared with witnesses and a good understanding of the law.

4. If you see any problem areas with road conditions, call 311 (or 240-777-0311 from a non-local cell phone) to report the conditions (e.g. potholes, glass fields, etc.).

5. It's still the law in Montgomery County that bicycles be registered with the local police department. I asked if the National Bicycle Registry would suffice, but none of the MCPD officers knew - they will get me the answer to this question soon. For folks who live in areas where bikes need not be registered (e.g. DC), no problem: the area of residence's law takes precedence.

I also met one of the two MCPD officers whose beat is MacArthur Blvd and River Road (from Seneca Road all the way to the 495 overpass - Cabin John/Glen Echo is Bethesda PD territory), and he is a very nice guy who is an open listener *and* happens to enjoy cycling, himself (though not at a brisk pace, just yet). Additionally, an officer from the National Park Police was there, and he welcomes dialogue and input from cyclists on matters of road access and consistent enforcement.

In the end, the cyclists and the officers mostly agreed to disagree on a few sticking points, but left with a better mutual understanding of where each party stands in terms of perceptions of the other - which is far better than things were before the forum. And as was the case before: all road users, both cyclists and motorists, can be their own best advocates and worst enemies.

Anybody wishing to contact the MCPD to further discuss these issues (preferably in a civil manner) may email Ofc. Edward Trybus at edward.trybus@montgomerycountymd.gov, the officer in charge of cyclist relations.

 

The Macarthur Boulevard Meeting

Someone is working on some notes for the Macarthur Blvd "Share the road" meeting for me, but in the meantime, WUSA was there and has some footage. They reported it as "heated".

The disagreement between the two essentially boils down to this: drivers say bike riders take up too much of the road on Macarthur Boulevard, while bike riders say drivers often drive too fast and are too close to them when passing.

One is an annoyance and the other is dangerous. That's not to say that one should be annoying if they can avoid it, but there really isn't room to move over safely in many cases, and moving into single file is not going to help.

They followed this with a "Let's Be Real" segment on the Macarthur Blvd with Derek McGinty. I'm mostly with him (except for the part about "not taking up a lane of traffic") right up to the part where he advises drivers to lightly honk when they come up behind a large group of cyclists. That is not going to help.

Public Forum Tonight: Sharing MacArthur Boulevard by Motorists and Cyclists

The County Police Department (MCPD) is sponsoring a Public Forum on sharing MacArthur Boulevard by motorists and bicyclists.  The meeting will be held at the Public Service Training Academy, 9710 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, Maryland 20850, on Monday, June 20, 2011, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.  Topics to be discussed will include the laws, safety, and specific educational pieces affecting motorists and cyclists sharing the roadways.  The sponsors plan to incorporate a question and answer session and time for attendees to air concerns and opinions in a structured and organized fashion.

Each year, MCPD's 1st District receives a large number of letters, emails, and phone calls regarding the sharing of the roadways between motorists and cyclists along MacArthur Boulevard.  MCPD staff respond to these and also brief the officers who patrol this area, especially during the busier times of the year when the cyclists are more abundant.

MCPD is now planning this public forum as an additional step to improve the safety and welfare of the users on our roadways.  For more information or if you would like to speak at the forum, contact Tammy M. Chaney, Montgomery County Department of Police, 1st District Station by phone at 240-773-6072, by cell at 240-793-2842, or by email at  tammy.chaney@montgomerycountymd.gov.