TheWashCycle

Saturday Morning Ride (11/7/09)

Streetsblog DC has a slideshow of working bikes. Many are outside the U.S.

A guest columnist to the Richmond BizSense writes about how his bike commuting helps drivers.

Think of it this way — you may get frustrated if you have to veer around me in your rush to the next stoplight (where I will probably catch up to you waiting for the green). But ask yourself — would you rather veer around my bike or be stuck behind my Grand Cherokee? When you are looking for a parking space, isn’t it nice to know that there is at least one more out there — the one that I would have used if I had driven? And when you go to the gas pump, think of the 7.5 million gallons of gas that we bike commuters didn’t buy last week. That has to help keep prices down for drivers.

Richard Layman writes about trails

For years, I've been freely expressing my biases in favor of street riding as opposed to separated riding on trails, and my bias towards transportation/utilitarian bicycling as opposed to recreational riding.

But guess what, planning isn't about your biases, it's about being expansive, thorough, complete, and structured--it's about serving everyone, not just people like yourself.

you have to find ways to make bicycling comfortable and safe for the 59% of people who are willing to ride transportationally, but aren't ready to mix with serious traffic.

Earl Blumenauer rides in NYC, and mentions DC as one city that is making positive strides towards a bikeable city.

The Giro d'Italia in DC? Maybe. Maybe Not. In fact, probably not.

How will the Met Branch Trail get through the Silver Spring Transit Center? It will run under the elevated Purple Line.

November Metropolitan Branch Trail Update

A lot of the Met Branch Trail status was covered in yesterday's post, but there are some things that were missed. In addition to the paving and retaining walls, they've also made progress on the fence between the trail and the railroad tracks, and they've installed more solar powered lights.

The 40 bikes given by RTC were made possible by Coca-Cola.

Directional trail signs have been installed along the interim trail route near Takoma and along sections near Union Station, the NY Ave Metro Stations, and John McCormack Ave and more will go up in the spring.

Learn more about the MBT and how you can help.
Attend the next MBT Coalition meeting:

When: Thursday, Nov. 12th @ 6:30pm
Where: Colonel Brooks Tavern, 901 Monroe St., NE

(between N. 10th St. & N. 9th St.)

One thing that needs some attention is graffiti. I noticed when I was out there that every light and every retaining wall already had tags on them.

Photo by Eric Gilliland

November 2009 DC BAC Meeting Notes

Met Branch Trail (south to north)- The New York Avenue to R Street section has found itself in the middle of a bureaucratic nightmare.  DDOT is awaiting the permit needed for the drainage ditch on WMATA property. They are not seeking to acquire the property or an easement, just a permit to use it, but they have to follow the same process as a developer trying to buy a large piece of property. They've submitted an application and non-trivial application fee, completed a survey for metes and bounds, had the property appraised and compared that value to the value the trail would bring to WMATA (the trail is worth more, fyi), gotten WMATA's engineers to sign off, and purchased insurance for WMATA. The last part is a bit sticky as the lawyers need to deal with issues related to the ownership of the policy. Even WMATA says the process wasn't meant to deal with this kind of project and that small pieces of property of little value should not trigger this kind of paperwork. It wastes money for DC and WMATA. One of the problems is that WMATA is a regional entity, so this process works as a safeguard to prevent one jurisdiction from taking advantage of the others. In addition, WMATA is dependent on federal aid and so there are additional safeguards to make sure that federal money isn't misspent. Finally, if WMATA has other issues with DC than something like this can become a bargaining tool. Still, DDOT is hopeful and once they have the permit, they can begin work on that section. Since they have no idea when the permit will be issued, they have no idea when that section can be completed.

From R to Franklin, DDOT is completing the construction of the retaining walls needed to allow the trail to pass through the area around the Rhode Island Avenue overpass. They hope to begin paving the last piece of this section in the next couple of weeks and to complete the section in the next couple of months. The mural in the shopping center north of Rhode Island is complete and visible from the trail [WC: though maybe they should remove the fence between the trail and the shopping center to make it even more visible.] The Rails to Trails Conservancy donated 40 Kona Bicycles to kids at Beacon House and they've been riding the bikes like it was there job. You may see some kids in the neighborhood or on the trail riding them.

The Rhode Island Ave Metro bridge is also dependent on WMATA as DDOT had always planned to use WMATA land on the east side of the tracks to do work on the bridge. But WMATA has changed course and said they will no longer allow DDOT to access the building site from their side. With the design finished, DDOT isn't sure that it's possible to build the bridge they've designed without the access they were counting on. WMATA suggested that DDOT redesign the bridge so that they could build without access.  If WMATA doesn't change its mind, this would result in a major delay.

The section between Michigan Avenue & Monroe is also hoping for some help from WMATA. WMATA owns the land, but is selling it to Abdo Development. Abdo isn't ready to build on the site yet - and may not be for some time, but the design leaves space for the trail. DDOT will ask WMATA if they can build the trail before development of that property begins. DDOT is considering building a tunnel under Monroe, and so they'll be working with WMATA and Abdo on that too.

Conceptual designs for South Capitol Street and Oxon Run Trails. The designs are processing as expected. Work on Oxon Run will probably start first. It's being designed across the District line into Maryland and DDOT is looking into whether or not they will legally be able to spend their money to pay for improvements in Maryland. They have talked with NPS officials at Oxon Hill Farm about the project and they seem interested. The South Capitol Street Trail will be difficult because it will require moving roads and more work in general.

Rescission The BAC wanted to know why the TE, CMAQ and Recreational Trails money was rescinded at the maximum rate and why it wasn't obligated, especially the Rec trails money which requires no match? DDOT says that they don't have enough staff to spend more money, and the money they have is more than adequate to meet their needs. The TE and CMAQ money requires a 20% match, so money may not have been available to get the match. Everyone agreed that money should not be left on the table and the BAC resolved to write Director Klein to ask about this decision.
 
Bike share expansion - DDOT is still planning to increase to 100 stations. They're working with Arlington who is rolling out a program soon and will almost surely go with the same system Arlington chooses. SmartBike is done (it was nice knowing you). Clear Channel is just not offering a very good deal. The new system is likely to roll out in spring or summer 2010. There are a lot of questions to resolve with SmartBike. Is their membership list proprietary? How to switch systems? Will Clear Channel just get a windfall or will they have to hand the bikes or some money over? DDOT could make them continue to operate SmartBike if Clear Channel doesn't offer a good enough "severance package".

Rock Creek Park Trail - NPS is working on a trail along Broad Branch/Blagden Road from Rock Creek to Matthewson Drive.

Bike lanes  - DDOT has only completed five miles of bike lane this year and might get to six by the end of the year. The goal in the bike plan is 10 miles per year. Some of the reasons for the slow down are that Mike Goodno keeps getting pulled off bike lanes to work on other projects and the line painting crew has been cut down to just three people.

15th street contraflow lane - Much ado was made yesterday about the unplanned extension of the 15th street contraflow bike lane to V Street NW from U Street. It seems that wasn't in the plan but the crew started to add it in anyway. CM Jim Graham interceded and asked DDOT to stop work on that block, until the neighborhood could review the extension. The BAC thinks extending it to V and on to W makes a lot of sense, and Jim Graham reportedly supports extending it too, but wants DDOT to follow the proper process. Some in the neighborhood seemed concerned that parking spaces were removed. The whole project from Mass to U removes 6 spaces, it's unclear how many spaces the U to W extension might remove. The lane should be completed and operational by the end of the week. The northbound shared lane will take longer.

WABA is seeking a grant extension from DDOT to pay for a part-time bike ambassador to start in March or April. The current bike ambassador is a volunteer. 

Legislative Committee report - There has been no movement on the Contributory to Comparative Negligence law. Comparative Negligence is going to be tough to get passed, but if it were limited to incidents involving pedestrians and/or cyclists it might gain more support. The Idaho stop also has some council support (though, oddly, not so much from the BAC) and there may be energy for either it or Comparative Negligence, but not both. Most seemed to agree that Comparative Negligence was more important, and had more BAC support, but both should be pursued for now.

A draft of The Bicycle Access to Building Law modeled on the NYC law is ready for the BAC to review. There is some hope that the principles of the law can be added to the new zoning proposal as that would be faster than passing a law, but the BAC is willing to go through the legislative process if needed. Colleen Mitchel, OPM transportation planner, said it might be possible to include it in the zoning regulations, but that those have gone through a long review process and changes might not be allowed.

Complete Streets legislation language has been approved by the BAC legislative committee, the law seems to have strong support from the District Council.

It was also decided that the BAC should look through recently passed bicycle laws for elements that are not being met. This includes the requirement from the Bicycle Commuter and Parking Expansion Act of 2007 that the Mayor publish a study on the parking availability at all buildings occupied by the District Government, for which it was determined that there were insufficient funds and that 90 days was insufficient time; and the provisions from the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act of 2008 for safety upgrades to District owned trucks for which no funding was available.

The DC BAC website is here.

Interim route sign, Metropolitan Branch Trail, east side, 6100 block of 3rd Street NW, DC

Interim route sign, Metropolitan Branch Trail, east side, 6100 block of 3rd Street NW, DC, originally uploaded by rllayman.

MoCo's Met Branch Trail Could Get Funding in Next Year's Budget

The Met Branch Trail in MoCo has been delayed while decisions were made about the Purple Line, but it now appears that it could begin moving forward soon.

"If we didn't have an exact [Purple Line] alignment, we couldn't create the concepts," said Gail Tait-Nouri, the Montgomery County bicycle coordinator with the Department of Transportation.

The uncertainty with the Purple Line also put negotiations for property acquisition along the trail on hold, Tait-Nouri said. Montgomery County owns rights of way from Bethesda to Stewart Avenue in Lyttonsville. But from there, CSX owns the right of way to the 16th Street bridge and WMATA and private landowners own property along the proposed trail as well.

"Now's the time to finish this while all these things are being done," said Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring, who sent a letter to DOT in April urging progress on the trail. "… The county has waited too long on this."

Some residents in the Woodside neighborhood of Silver Spring couldn't wait for the county to build a trail and marked off their own pathway from Third Avenue and Noyes Lane to Spring Street, parallel to the proposed route for the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

Silver Spring resident Casey Anderson bikes down Georgia Avenue daily to his job in downtown Washington. He said he is an experienced cyclist but still "it's a harrowing experience."

Anderson, a board member of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, said the District has begun construction on its portion of the trail. And with Leggett and the Montgomery County Council already agreeing on an alignment for the Purple Line earlier this year, it's "intensely frustrating" that design on the project won't resume until fiscal 2011, Anderson said.

"It's not like this is an obscure project. … This is arguably one of the two or three most important bike projects in entire D.C. region," said Anderson, who suggested DOT begin work on portions of the trail not affected by CSX or the Purple Line.

Capital Space Plan

The DC BAC's facilities committee had a whole meeting this year on working with the National Parks System on updating the decades old National Capital Parks Bicycle Plan (that may not be the actual name. As near as I can tell only one paper copy survives). That may have been prophetic as the long-time Superintendent of Rock Creek Park, Adrienne Coleman, will reportedly be retiring in January. She's overseen several policies and decision that were in contrast to the wishes of bike advocates (the reversal of the test closure of Beach Drive during midday hours, pushing for a narrow trail in RCP, disagreement on the Met Branch Trail alignment in Ft. Totten and the PG County Connector Trail in the same area, and recently denying Bike DC's permit to use the Rock Creek Parkway to name a few). This alone might be reason for hope, but now it appears that NPS, in conjunction with NCPC and the DC government, is working on Capital Space designed to ensure that Washington’s parks reach their full potential. (via Richard Layman)

The Draft Plan is now available. It focuses on Six Big Ideas. The first one is "Linking the Fort Circle Parks". The McMillan plan called for making the forts into parks and linking them with a Parkway called the Fort Drive. In 1930, the Capper-Cramton Act turned this part of the plan into policy and NCPC set out acquiring the land needed for the Circle Parks and Fort Drive. Parts of Fort Drive (in Fort Dupont and Fort Reno, and Military Road in RCP) were built but the road began to be seen as expensive, impractical and a cause of traffic. So in 1965 it was shelved in favor of a 23 mile greenway trail connecting the forts.

So, 44 years later, surely that 23 mile long trail exists today and is enjoyed by millions, right?

No? Oh, right, only a short piece was built between forts Stanton and Mahan. Well, they're hoping to remedy that. Part of this idea is to

• Design and build the entire greenway trail to link all of the fort parks.
• Improve existing trails, including the hiker-biker trail, with increased maintenance, signage, and interpretation.
• Strengthen connections from the greenway to transit, schools, and other parks with improved streetscape conditions, street crossings, on-road bike lanes, and signage.

While that is the biggest bike element is isn't the only one.

Under the "Enhancing Urban Natural Areas" idea, they use the Oxon Run Stream Corridor as their model and they include:

• Define a loop trail system with a series of bike lanes and off-street trails that provide connections through Oxon Run to Oxon Hill Farm and across the Suitland Parkway and the proposed Fort Circle Park hiker-biker trail.
• Introduce a signage system for the multi-use loop trail system, such as mile markers and other directional and informational signage that are provided within the park and at key intersections, to direct trail users to nearby destinations
• Improve sidewalk connections and safe connections that encourage kids to walk or
  bike to school through the park.

For the "Enhancing Center City Parks"  idea they state as one goal

Enhance connections between parks with improved green streetscapes that include pedestrian and bicycle facilities

And they write about the possibility of a NOMA First Street, NE Linear Park

The First Street, NE, network of open space is one component of a park and open-space strategy for the emerging NoMA area. The open spaces, most of which are yet to be constructed, will be created in the existing street right-of-way and along the Metropolitan Branch Trail in an area that lacks park and open-space amenities.

And for "Transforming Small Parks" a goal is to

Improve pedestrian and bicycle safety along all the streets adjacent to small parks to improve park access.

They're having a public meeting on all of this on Oct 27th. 5:30-7:30pm at MLK Library. Now if only we could get Rock Creek Park back on the agenda.

Monday Don't Sweat It Commuter Rides continue on MBT

They took Columbus Day off, but for anyone thinking of using the MBT to commute to work (or if you know of someone who is) RTC is continuing their Monday rides all month.

We'll show you how easy it can be to commute by bike to work downtown, and you'll get to see the Metropolitan Branch Trail as a crucial section is completed between Franklin Street and New York Avenue, creating a safe connection between Brookland, Edgewood, Eckington, NoMa and downtown! With pick-up points near the Takoma and Brookland-CUA Metro stations, our convoy will arrive at Big Bear Coffee at 8:30 AM, located at 1st and R Streets NW. From there, we will split into groups heading for our final destinations.

For all the details and a route map, take a look at the latest Metropolitan Branch Trail update. Be sure to sign up, too - registration is required!

Met Branch Trail with Riders

_DSC0379, originally uploaded by Eric Gilliland.

Met Branch Trail lights, pavement, action...

_DSC0375, originally uploaded by Eric Gilliland.

Mt. Vernon Trail detour

Someone asked me for a route to used when the Mt Vernon Trail under the 14th Street Bridge is closed and so I threw this together. It should be possible to reverse it for those heading south. There may be a better, faster or safer route, but it's how I would do it.