TheWashCycle

1949 Schwinn Panther

1949 Schwinn Panther by kingpinphoto

Capital Bikeshare has happy customers and plans to expand

The Post has a series of  stories and polls on Capital Bikeshare out today. The first is about CaBi's planned and proposed expansions.

By summertime, the bikes should be rolling through the streets of Rockville and Alexandria as the popular Capital Bikeshare program expands into several outer Washington communities. If grant applications come through, they might also appear in the inner-ring areas of Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Friendship Heights and Forest Glen. The development of White Flint and Wheaton make those neighborhoods likely candidates as well. College Park, with thousands of students looking for cheap transportation, is also a tempting location. Greenbelt is in the mix, as are Frederick, Howard and Prince George’s counties.

The Arlington GOP must be so upset, all four of them.

Shane Farthing of WABA makes the point that you can't just plop bikes down anywhere and expect people to ride. You need to make roads and facilities that are attractive to cyclists.

“I don’t think that other jurisdictions can just assume that that groundwork was unimportant. There needs to be some intensive investment accompanying bike share that will bring things up to a standard [in which] people will feel comfortable biking. It’s all about the comfort and the ease.”

For farther out communities, connecting to Metro and commuter rail is the key

Because a Bikeshare membership is good throughout the region, planners expect that many Bikeshare riders will use a commuting combination that even includes two bike trips.

A second article is about customer thoughts on the system and mostly it sounds like people are satisfied (even if the title doesn't make it sound that way).

Bikeshare members mostly extolled the service, listing many more positives than negatives. Michelle Terry, who used to take the bus to the Metro, said she came to Washington not even considering biking as an option.

The only cons mentioned were that sometimes Spotcycle doesn't work, it used to be hard to get a bike and things that have to do with biking in general.

The poll asks "If Capital Bikeshare moves to your neighborhood, would you use the service to commute?"

Thursday Morning Commute - Runnel

Happy Groundhog Day

• New stairs at the Rhode Island Avenue Metro Station include a bike channel or a runnel (new term for me). This staircase is external to Metro, but I think cyclists are banned from using stairs in Metro. "The staircase reopens a pedestrian connection from the station to the south side of Rhode Island Avenue, and makes it easier for customers to bring a bicycle as well."
• CaBi's website has a new look. The station map now has a yellow icon for new stations.
• 14th Street could get better defined bike lanes and more CaBi.
• Phoenix bikes is hiring a new Executive Director.
• Not to get too excited, but US DOT announced a $500M fourth round of TIGER funding. In the past three rounds, the DC area has sought money for bike projects and each time been rejected. Perhaps we should zag when they zig and not ask for any money so that then they'll give it to us? No word on whether or not MWCOG will be submitting a proposal and if so what for. 
• The Streetcar Land Use Study (page 38) includes some consideration of bicyclists and the conflict between them and the streetcars as well as the tracks. "Several options are available to mitigate potential conflict. One-way streets can accommodate bicycle lanes on one side of the street and streetcar tracks on the other. Alternately, bike routes can be designated on streets parallel to streetcar routes. In addition, several cities have developed coordinated lane markings for bikes and streetcars that could serve as models for the District."
• Critical vote today could preserve the main source federal funding for biking and walking (though the idea that it will "save biking and walking" is perhaps a bit overstated. Win or lose, people will still bike and walk).

Rhode Island Avenue staircase with Runnel

Photo by PlanitMetro

B&O station managers say they welcome the Met Branch Trail

After being accused of being the reason for the rerouting of the Met Branch Trail, Judy Christensen, Executive Director of Montgomery Preservation, Inc. which manages the historic B&O train station says that it is not them.

MPI welcomed the Metropolitan Trail as a way to showcase the historic B&O Station to trail users. Last spring DOT presented MPI with a trail alignment through our property that far better accommodates our programs, and MPI thought we were all going forth with this design. MPI asked several times to meet and address implementation issues such as the loss of parking, liability and compensation but DOT did not meet with us again.

So then who, Silver Spring Trails asks, is the true culprit?

Wednesday Morning Commute - Bikes and cupcakes

Good morning

• WABA thanks the 60 riders who showed up to their Ride for Responsibility.
• You could probably find a map of bike shops or one of cupcake shops, but now you can find both in the same place. [They actually match up in an eerie fashion]
• DC BAC's fiscal oversight hearing is scheduled for Texas Independence Day (That's Friday, March 2nd)
• Maryland's Pro-Bike lobby night is February 6th. "Pro-Bike Lobby Night is an opportunity for you to discuss the importance of bicycling with your state legislator. We will guide you through the process of making your voice, in support of bicycling, heard!"

Tuesday Morning Commute - King James

Yes, this is again late...

Is "Lockdown" a remake of "Escape from New York" or just a ripoff? Either way, it's nice to see Maggie Grace working again.

• WTOP covers WABA's Resolve to Ride Responsibly.
• River Road bike path hearing this Wednesday. "The path would only be 5′ wide. That’s not a bike path. That’s a sidewalk."
• Arlington is studying redesign concepts for the interesection of Washington Blvd, Wilson Blvd and Clarendon (aka Clarendon Circle), with a target for work to start in 2014. It looks like it has painted bike lanes and a bike box, but the bike lanes look to be in weird places.
• Howard County and Columbia, MD are exploring bike sharing. They've applied for a grant to fund a feasibility study on a system. “We have 94 miles of pathways that are separated from our roadways. Major cities don’t have that many,” Dembner says. “Washington [D.C.] doesn’t have that many pathways.”...Howard County Council Chair Mary Kay Sigaty says the county, which is in charge of road improvements in Columbia, will have to invest in better on-road bike lanes to make bike sharing work.
• The Virginia legislature considers bills on following a cyclist too closely, statewide helmet law for riders under 14, and allowing Sunday hunting on private land (which matters to mountain bikers).
• Criminals really do ride on the sidewalk.  
• If LeBron James is capable of biking 3 miles to work, so can you. Of course, he has someone to wash his clothes while he works. 

Tuesday Afternoon Commute - Mulch

Good afternoon. I once again left the morning linkdump finished on my computer at home. I can assure you it is awesome. Sorry.

• According to the East Coast Greenway "DDOT will be signing the East Coast Greenway throughout the District this year."
• DDOT has selected a new head of the Progressive Transportation Services Administration which administers Capital Bikeshare, among other things. "District Department of Transportation announced today that it had passed over interim PTSA director Aaron Overman for a total outsider: Carl Jackson, who most recently served as head of the city of Greenville, South Carolina's transportation agency."
• The state of Baltimore's trails is strong. "Extending the Jones Falls Trail 2.5 miles from the Inner Harbor to Pennsylvania Station continues on time, as does planning for the $5.9 million segment that will connect Cylburn Arboretum to Mount Washington. Within two years, the trail is expected to be 10 miles long. Also in the design pipeline is the $4.1 million Herring Run Greenway Trail that will connect Morgan State University and nine neighborhoods. Construction is expected to begin in early 2013 and conclude before the year is out." Bike commuting has also doubled over last year. 
• "The report, “Active Transportation Beyond Urban Centers,” shows that in large and small “rural cores” of 2,500 to 50,000 residents, the share of total trips made on foot or by bike is only 20 percent below the rate for larger urban cores. Furthermore, when it comes to work trips, rural areas fall right in line with the national rates of biking and walking to work." The report was written by occasional Washcycle contributer Tracy Hadden Loh.
• Stealing someon's bike from a mulch bed is not burglary. It is still douchy. 

Proposed transportation bill ends funding for Safe Routes to School and Railbanking

From American trails

At 3:00 PM, Tuesday, January 31, House Transportation Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-FL) and Committee Members will release the "American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act" (H.R. 7). According to the Rails to Trails Conservancy, who obtained a copy of the bill, the Recreational Trails Program would be authorized at $85 million for FY 2013-16, but the Safe Routes to School program would be eliminated along with dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements. Eligibility for preserving abandoned railway corridors, including trail conversion, is specifically eliminated.

Advocates are working with a House member to propose an amendment that would protect funding for TE and other bike/ped programs. We'll let you know more as soon as we hear details.

See more information on the process and background at:
http://www.americantrails.org/reauth.html

American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012
(Summary from Rails to Trails Conservancy, Jan. 30, 2012)

The bill contains changes to two of the three core programs for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure; one program remains intact:
1)    The Recreational Trails program is consistent with the structure under SAFETEA-LU. Funding is established at $85 million for each of fiscal years 2013 – 2016.

2)    The Safe Routes to School Program is eliminated in its entirety.
Eliminating the SRtS program means the loss of $180 million per fiscal year for infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects to support walking and bicycling as modes of transportation for children to school, as well as the established institutional support of the SRtS coordinators at each state DOT.

3)    The Transportation Enhancement activities remain eligible under the Surface Transportation Program, but the 10 percent set-aside of apportioned funds is stricken.

Eliminating dedicated funding for transportation enhancement activities means these projects will have to “compete” for prioritization with all other surface transportation projects in regional and state planning processes. In addition, the following activities which were eligible under SAFETEA-LU are eliminated:
a.    Acquisition of scenic or historic easements, including battlefields
b.    Historic preservation
c.    Rehabilitation and operation of historic transportation facilities
d.    Preservation of abandoned railway corridors
e.    Establishment of transportation museums
These five categories combined comprise 24% of all state DOT project programming of TE activities since 1992. Eliminating these activities will significantly restrict the flexibility state DOTs have relied upon in the past to enhance the nation’s surface transportation system. This is especially true for the two most popular activities of these five singled out for elimination, rehabilitation and operation of historic transportation facilities (9.4% of all TE activity) and preservation of abandoned railway corridors (7.2%).

Outside of the three core programs, there are two other noticeable provisions of this bill for pedestrian, bicycle and trail interests:
1)    Funding for the CMAQ program is moved to the new “Alternative Transportation Account,” which was previously the Mass Transit Account.
2)    The ability of state DOTs to use CMAQ or STP apportionments to fund bicycle and pedestrian coordinator positions is stricken.
Eliminating the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator positions represents a huge step backward for state DOTs. It passes more of the burden of administering federal-aid highway programs directly to them.

I believe DC's coordinator is paid for with CMAQ money, but I may be mistaken.

CITATIONS p. 10 line (17): Authorizes $85 million for each of 4 fiscal years for Recreational Trails.
p. 64 line (11) Renames the Mass Transit account the Alternative Transportation Account of the Highway Trust Fund, and puts CMAQ (@ $2 billion per year) under it (p. 11 line (5)).
p. 33 line (1), stricken from the STP:

(1) Construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, resurfacing, restoration, and operational improvements for highways (including Interstate highways) and bridges (including bridges on public roads of all functional classifications), including any such construction or reconstruction necessary to accommodate
other transportation modes, and including the seismic retrofit and painting of
and application of calcium magnesium acetate, sodium acetate/formate, or other environmentally acceptable, minimally corrosive anti-icing and de-icing compositions on bridges and approaches thereto and other elevated structures, mitigation of damage to wildlife, habitat, and ecosystems caused by a transportation project funded under this title.
p. 34, line (17): TE remains eligible under the STP. But set-aside is repealed...

(2) For transportation enhancement activities. - In a fiscal year, the greater of 10 percent of the funds apportioned to a State under section 104(b)(3) for such fiscal year, or the amount set aside under this paragraph with respect to the State for fiscal year 2005, shall only be available for transportation enhancement activities.
p. 174 line (10): Stricken from Sec. 217, Bicycle transportation and pedestrian walkways:
(d) State Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinators. - Each State receiving an apportionment under sections 104(b)(2) and 104(b)(3) of this title shall use such amount of the apportionment as may be necessary to fund in the State department of transportation a position of bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for promoting and facilitating the increased use of nonmotorized modes of transportation, including developing facilities for the use of pedestrians and bicyclists and public education, promotional, and safety programs for using such facilities.
P. 177: Safe Routes to School Program is repealed in its entirety
The following TE activities are stricken on p. 179 line (10) beginning:
(C) Acquisition of scenic easements and scenic or historic sites (including historic battlefields). (F) Historic preservation. (G) Rehabilitation and operation of historic transportation buildings, structures, or facilities (including historic railroad facilities and canals). (H) Preservation of abandoned railway corridors (including the conversion and use of the corridors for pedestrian or bicycle trails).
(L) Establishment of transportation museums.

 

This tunnel is a zoo

Photo by jaymallinphotos