TheWashCycle

Ribbon Cut on Adams Morgan Streetscape

DC had a ribbon cutting ceremony on the completed Adams Morgan streetscape and much of the media reported the same things, except DCist which complained about the bike racks. 

Most news outlets wrote about all the new amenities, including new bike lanes. The problem is, there are no bike lanes. There are sharrows. Now I know the average person on the street (see what I did there) may not know the difference, but there is a difference.

I really wish they'd put the sharrows in the cener of the lane. The lanes here aren't wide enough to require riding to the right, and if I ride in the center of the sharrows, there isn't room for a car to pass, so I don't really know what the point is. I can hear cyclists being honked at from here. 

Going north from Florida Avenue the sharrows actually "suggest" that you move over to the right after a bus bulb, wand then moving to the left again once the parked cars get in the way. Most experts don't recommend that you do this and that instead you "maintain your line." I hate to ask them to grind this sharrow out, but they should really grind this sharrow out and replace it. 

DCist meanwhile complains about the bike racks. I've used these neighborhood branded ones often and I don't have any problem with them. Maybe I'm not drunk enough. I bet they work a lot better outside of bar districts. 

Tuesday Morning Commute - NHB

I noticed that this building along the Met Branch Trail between V and W was recently razed. Does anyone know what's going in it's place?

• There's going to be a ribbon cutting for the Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue Great Streets Project today at 1pm. DDOT doesn't have any new photos of it on Flickr, and I haven't been out there, but the project includes bike lanes and improvements to the Marvin Gaye Park Trail.
• Tonight, July 24, 2012 from 6:30-8:30pm GWMP will host an Open House informational meeting at Washington-Lee High School on the Arlington County and Vicinity Non-Motorized Boathouse Facility EIS process. A short group presentation will begin at 7:00pm, the remainder of the time be in an "Open House" format with staff available at presentation boards. This meeting is being held so that interested people can learn more about the EIS process, have an opportunity to view preliminary alternatives and submit written comments about these alternatives. All are welcome to attend.
• There will alsol be a pre-construction meeting to discuss upcoming construction work and construction hours for the Charles Barrett Safe Routes to School project on Tonight at 7pm at Charles Barrett Library located at 1115 Martha Custis Drive in Alexandria. The proposal includes "adding bicycle "sharrow" markings to mark on-road bikeways".
• There was an attempted robbery/assault on the Georgetown Branch Trail earlier this month. "Two male suspects assaulted the victim and unsuccessfully attempted to remove property from the victim. "

Wednesday Morning Commute - Southgate

Good morning

• Cyclist in Lapina fatality won't be charged. "The bicyclist was coming down a blind curve, so he didn't have a lot of time to react, Sternbeck said, and both the bicyclist and the victim could have delayed reaction times because of their ages." Both of which would be perfect reasons for slowing down. I'm sorry, but I would not let a car-bike fatality slide because it was an elderly driver and a blind curve, so I'm not going to agree with this either.
  
• Justice
• S. Joyce Street from Columbia Pike to Pentagon City gets " ten-foot wide shared use sidewalks on both sides" plus pedestrian-scale lighting. Which may or may not help cyclists. 
• ...which leads to the discovery that Southgate Road between Henderson Hall and Columbia Pike is going to be closed to make room for the expansion of Arlington National Cemetery. When I bike out Columbia Pike I go uphill on Southgate Road since gravity makes me go slow and there is less traffic on that road. In the same article they note that Columbia Pike is to be realligned to take it farther from the cemetery. Maybe this could include a climbing lane?
• Local poll done in conjunction with the Fairfax County Bike Plan shows reasons people don't bike more have a lot to do with a lack of facilities.
• The north section of the Bethesda Trolley Trail, which is in many places just sidewalk, needs work.
• Sharrows are nice, but they don't encourage more cycling like bike lanes and paths do. 
• Bike-sharing and smartphones are helping to drive VMT/capita down.
• A TRUE STORY OF WWII ITALY, THE NAZIS, AND THE CYCLIST WHO INSPIRED A NATION

• Local poll done in conjunction with the Fairfax County Bike Plan shows reasons people don't bike more have a lot to do with a lack of facilities.
• The north section of the Bethesda Trolley Trail, which is in many places just sidewalk, needs work.
• Sharrows are nice, but they don't encourage more cycling like bike lanes and paths do.
• A TRUE STORY OF WWII ITALY, THE NAZIS, AND THE CYCLIST WHO INSPIRED A NATION

Friday Afternoon Commute - TriBeM

I've seen so many more runners and cyclists on the triangle between the Anacostia, M Street SE and 11th Street SE or (TriBeM) since the Wetlands Bridge was finished. I'm actually kind of surprised.

• Wrong-way teen cyclist hit by police cruiser in MoCo. 
• How VDOT decides when to use sharrows and when to use BMUFL signs. 
• CaBi's Reverse Rider Rewards program last year may have worked a little, but not enough that anyone would have noticed. What we really need are more stations and more bikes - but CaBi has already adjusted things by changing the bike-to-dock ratio. 
• "As part of its counter-offer to the Senate in conference committee negotiations over the transportation bill, the House appears to be proposing the elimination of the Cardin-Cochran amendment, which would allow local jurisdictions to control funds for bike/ped projects. The House proposal, sent to the Senate yesterday, would effectively block access to bike/ped funding for many towns, cities, and regions located in states where the department of transportation places a low priority on street safety."
• The Walter Reed property will open up a little for cyclists trying to get across, but not as much as possible. It's not possible to continue 13th across the site without knocking down the historic main building, but there's no reason why 12th couldn't have been made to go straight across the site. And Main Drive could be straightened out as well.  

Tuesday Morning Commute - Bless you

Good morning

• I like this idea. It reminds me of the "Blessing of the Fleet". Dumbarton United Methodist Church will hold a “blessing of the bicycles” for all riders on May 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Fletcher’s Cove, where two bike paths intersect. Pedalers on a Saturday morning outing will be able to take their bikes to a quiet setting of trees and grass near Fletcher’s Boat House and receive a brief blessing from the church pastor, Rev. Mary Kay Totty.
• Georgetown's ANC is worried that it has given its blessing to too many bike rides and foot races. 
• Alexandria took out parking meters and replaced them with multispace meters, but failed to add bike parking in there place. Why does that sound so familiar..?
• Images of the new bridge Multi-Use Trap Road Bridge over Dulles Toll Road at Wolf Trap
• VDOT guidance on the use of sharrows. 
• NYC Bikeshare will be called Citibike by Citibank, which sets us up well for Capital One Capital Bikeshare - What's on your key chain?

Sharrows being painted on R St NW

share the road by feelsgoodlost

Tuesday Morning Commute - Takoma

Went for a run along the west side Anacostia Riverwalk Trail this evening to see if the light were on yet (for some reason the lights between Eastern Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue have never been on - and they still aren't, but I heard they might be soon) and I noticed that they've fenced off areas on both sides of the trail for construction. On the river side, just south Kingman Island, it looks like they're building something out over the river itself. I have no idea what.

• A new building will go up along the Met Branch Trail route in Takoma, DC but this article about the neighborhood doesn't mention it or bikes. 
• In College Park, a bicyclist was struck and injured by a Metro Bus. Injuries are non-life-threatening. No word on fault or cause.
• Bethesda considers sharrows.
• Bike lanes coming to Oxon Hill Road south of National Harbor.

Funhouse Sharrows

TPSharrows2012 by sockslessfox

Monday Afternoon Ride - Suspended

Why does everyone "suspend" their campaign? It's over. I didn't announce last week that I was suspending my NYE resolution to stop eating Popeye's Chicken. I just stopped. Is it some kind of legal thing so that they can keep fundraising to pay bills? Or are they just holding on to any sliver of hope like Jim Carrey's character in Dumb in Dumber. "So you're telling me there is a chance....yes."

• Careless cyclist almost hit by Obama motorcade.
• Metro GM Richard Sarles admits that the bike locker fee was set too high. "At $200 annually, the fee discouraged users. He would drop the charge to $120 a year."
• Sharrows come to Richmond and people want to know what they are. 
• Rockingham County, VA has a new Bicycle Advisory Committee. "The committee hopes to have a master bicycle plan to expand the city's trails, and to make dangerous intersections safer."

 

National Park Service Fellow studying Mount Vernon Trail

Tim Bevins, who's working under a National Park Service (NPS) Fellowship, attended a recent Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting where he discussed his plans for the 1-year fellowship. He will spend 7 months working with the FHWA on the Mount Vernon Trail looking for safety improvements, and 5 months looking at the rest of the National Capital Area. So far, he's been doing some counts along the trail to gather data, but he would like to update the 1990 Capital Area Bike Plan.

While at the meeting, he updated the status of several projects with some good news and some bad. The good news includes NPS plans to separate pedestrians and cyclists at Gravelly Point along the MVT and their consieration of CaBi stations near NPS trails. In additon, NPS is talking to WABA about bikes on the GW Parkway south of the Beltway.

As for bad news, the Environmental Assesment for the Long Bridge Connector to the MVT is inadequate and this is stalling the project and the MVT extension north has been stalled due to the alignment of the trail near the CIA Building.

In other news:

VDOT has stated that the State Bicycle Plan will be issued and that a state BAC will be reinstated.

Wayfinding signs for the Custis Trail and Rosslyn/Ballston corridor may already have been delivered and installed. More will follow for the W&OD Trail and Four Mile Run Trail.

Funding is available for the Army-Navy Road cycletrack; bike lanes will be installed on Lorcam Lane and Carlin Springs Road, and sharrows will go on George Mason Drive.

Arlington got a silver ranking from LAB on this year's Bicycle Friendly Community application.

At a more recent meeting, the BAC voted to write a letter suggesting that trail management be moved from the Parks Department to the Department of Environmental Services as cited in the County's Bicycle Master Plan.