TheWashCycle

Palisades Neighborhood Trail Meeting Reminder II

Remember, this is Tomorrow

Saturday, December 1st, 11:00am
Georgetown Starbucks
3122 M Street NW

Email me at dcwashcycle[at]gmail.com if you're planning to come. I'll be wearing an "I bike DC" T-shirt.

11 Most Bike Friendly Cities

CommuterPageBlog points us to Virgin Vacations list of the 11 Most Bicycle friendly cities in the World. Here's the list:

1. Amsterdam, Netherlands
2. Portland, Oregon
3. Copenhagen, Denmark
4. Boulder, Colorado
5. Davis, California
6. Sandnes, Norway
7. Trondheim, Norway
8. San Francisco, California
9. Berlin, Germany
10. Barcelona, Spain
11. Basel, Switzerland

You'll note that 4 of the 11 are American Cities. So I don't want to hear anymore of that "Americans are too _____ to adopt good biking policy" stuff.  We can run with the big boys.

CPB also has a post in response to an article in the Arlington Connection entitled Nirvana on Wheels about whether or not Arlington is a bicycle friendly city.

ASK NEARLY ANY county official whether Arlington is a bike-friendly community and they’ll respond in the affirmative.

They’ll cite the county’s 24 miles of on-street bike lanes, 46 miles of off-street trails and 43 miles of signed bike routes. They’ll point to the numerous county-funded programs that seek to encourage bike use and the multitude of resources Arlington offers to its cyclists.

Cycling PSAs

I've seen quite a few cycling Public Service Announcements (PSA) lately. These from San Luis Obispo are OK, but sort of vanilla. Gwadzilla likes these print PSAs from New York City. Here's one from Sonoma. Some are pretty good, like these (1 and 2) from SharetheRoad. But others seem concerned about creating controversy and so don't say much of anything at all.

Outpace

Outpace
Originally uploaded by krisetya

On K Street.

Humpback Bridge Reconstruction to start in January 2008

Jeff beat me to this, but I'd already written it, so...

The National Park Service recently announced that they would begin reconstruction of the George Washington Memorial Parkway's Humpback Bridge.

Construction improvements, slated to begin in January and end by spring 2010, include widening the bridge, adding barriers to better separate pedestrians from traffic and building tunnels under the bridge so that people can get to both sides without walking through traffic.

Although many of the improvements are aimed at helping motorists, a number of additions will aide pedestrians, Snyder said. She cites the example of a sidewalk that currently runs alongside the roadway, noting that a person riding a bike on that path risks falling into traffic.

"The need is great to eliminate the danger there," said Bill Line, a spokesman for the National Park Service. A waist-high, stone-faced barrier will be erected to better separate the roadway from pedestrians, bikers and joggers.

The pedestrian crosswalk will be replaced with two tunnels to keep visitors from having to walk through traffic to get from the Potomac shoreline side of the parkway to the Columbia Island Marina side, Line said.

"It will eliminate the need for any human being on foot or bicycle or whatever to risk getting hit by a car and risk a fatality," Line said. "Our concern is safety first and foremost, with those two tunnels underneath and obviously placing those barriers."

This project made up part of one of my 2005 Christmas Wish List items - a few of which are finally starting to happen.

Though they don't mention it, and the drawing of the cross-section (above) doesn't show it, it appears the sidepath will be widened - if the drawing is to scale, which it may not be. I love the odd choice of cars.

In addition to widening the path, the bridge will do much more for cyclists. It will trade out a dangerous at grade crossing for two grade separated crossings - one on the D.C. side and one on the Virginia side. It will reroute the trail, so that riders going north won't have to take a sharp right turn and then go around the Memorial. Instead they'll continue in a straighter, flatter path between the road and the memorial. New trails will be built along the Boundary Channel, both of which will provide better access to the Pentagon.

As Jeff stated, it's unclear how much the trail will be impacted during construction.

Antique Bicycle

  Antique Bicycle 
  Originally uploaded by Mr. T in DC

At the College Park Aviation Museum. It's not a Wright Brother's bicycle, but just a prop to "help fix the time of the events firmly in the visitor's mind."

Free Movie and donate your car to WABA

Zipcar and CarFreeDC write:

Want to get rid of your gas guzzler and start living car-free in DC? Now's the time to do it!
Zipcar is partnering with the Washington Area Bicycling Association (WABA) to encourage you to take that plunge. If you donate your car to WABA before December 15, you'll not only receive a tax deduction equal to the auction sales price of your vehicle, but you'll receive a FREE lifetime Zipcar membership plus $100 in driving credit.  And if you donate before this Thursday, November 29, you'll actually get $500 in driving credit!  Proceeds will benefit WABA, which promotes clean transportation by making cycling safer for cyclists and motorists in the DC area.  For more information or arrange a donation, simply call 888-ZIP-GIVE.

If you don't have a car to donate but want to help us celebrate our car donation drive, please join us for a FREE screening of National Geographic's feature film Arctic Tale at Landmark's E Street Cinema this Thursday, November 29.  From the same people who brought you March of the Penguins, Arctic Tale is a real-life adventure in the frozen Arctic wilderness, following Nanu, the polar bear cub, and Seela, the walrus pup, through harrowing struggles for survival. Once a perpetual wonderland of snow and ice, the filmmakers capture how the Arctic animals are losing their beautiful icebound world. 

This is the last time Arctic Tale will be on the big screen in this area before the DVD is released on December 4, so now's the time to see it.  You can get your photo taken on the green carpet, and we'll have door prizes from Zipcar and National Geographic on hand.  To RSVP for this event, please send an e-mail to rsvpdc@zipcar.com. (Please note that admission is limited to theater capacity.)  Doors open at 6:30 pm, and we'll start with a short ceremony honoring those who have donated their cars at 7 pm. 

Humpback Bridge Construction

WTOP reports construction will begin on the Humpback Bridge along the George Washington Parkway in early January to be completed in the spring of 2010. You would be hard pressed to find someone who has used the parallel Mt. Vernon Trail that doesn't think this is long over due.

Once the work is completed, bikers, runners and walkers on the Mount Vernon Trail will have an easier time getting across the bridge. The renovation plans call for a stone wall to safely separate pedestrians and traffic. Now pedestrians come very close to cars and trucks.

There are also plans for a tunnel under the bridge to make safer crossing of the parkway at the Columbia Island Marina entrance. I've never tried to cross the Parkway that far south, and hadn't realized it was a problem there.

There was no mention of potential closures or detours of the trail for the construction. While I'm sure when all is said in done the work will be an improvement, 2010 is a long way off to deal with limited or closed access along this popular trail. 

Purple Line alignment meetings

MTA is hosting a series of open houses in December to discuss the Purple Line alignment. This could impact the CCT, Met Branch and the Silver Spring Green Trail.

Monday, December 3, 2007
East Silver Spring Elementary School
631 Silver Spring Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Wednesday, December 5, 2007
College Park City Hall
4500 Knox Road
College Park, MD 20740

Monday, December 10, 2007
Langley Park Community Center
1500 Merrimac Drive
Hyattsville, MD 20783

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Cafeteria
4301 East-West Highway
Bethesda, MD 20814

Thursday, December 13, 2007
(Snow Date: Tuesday, December 18, 2007)
West Lanham Hills Recreation Center
7700 Decatur Road
Landover Hills, MD 20784

Rock Creek Park Along Oregon Avenue

  Rock Creek Park Along Oregon Avenue 
  Originally uploaded by jvonr