TheWashCycle

July 2009 DC BAC Meeting Notes

Legislative Committee - The legislative committee has deemed Complete Streets legislation their top priority. There are many examples of this available, so they're going to work on pulling together a best practices proposal. There's no update on the change from contributory negligence to comparative negligence. they also want to see a Bicycles in Buildings ordinance similar to the one proposed in NYC. This would do more to guarantee an employee's right to bring a bike into their building (with exceptions).

They discussed the bicycle-mounted DDOT traffic enforcement program. While they're for more enforcement, there is concern that an unarmed, bicycle-mounted force will overly target cyclists and pedestrians (who will be easier to pull over) and under target drivers. They also feel that if traffic enforcement is to be increased, it's the MPD that should do it and that having the MPD enforce more traffic violations will help create more arrests for felonious crimes (many times they catch people with warrants out or who are breaking other laws at the time). They'd like to see the enforcement focus on: for drivers - 3ft. violations, failures to yield right of way, u-turns and speeding; for cyclists - wrong-way riding, riding without lights at night and red-light running.

DDOT has had their first meeting with the Traffic Control Officers (TCO) and several have expressed interest in being part of the bicycle mounted (BM) force. Some laws DDOT sees them enforcing are bike lane violations, blocking crosswalks and blocking the box. They've done 3 hour training sessions with all TCOs as part of StreetSmart. All BMTCO's would need to take the Confident City Cycling course, be issued bikes, etc... so it's still a ways off. They won't have guns.


Facilities Committee and News - The facilities committee focused on the South Capitol Street Trail. DDOT has hired Toole Design to study a lane closure along South Capitol and the installation of a bike trail in its place as well as studying the intersection changes needed. The recent opening of the Wilson Bridge has moved this to the foreground (The Post wrote about it this week), with DDOT director Klein asking about it. DDOT, NPS and PG County Parks are discussing how to create better connectivity on the MD/DC side of the bridge.

Some residents and riders who have used the newly opened Woodrow Wilson Bridge Trail, which connects pedestrians and cyclists on both sides of the Potomac River between Prince George's County and Alexandria, say that despite the hype, planners still have a ways to go to fully integrate the bridge trail into other trail networks and sites in the county.
 
"People coming across from Virginia are, like, 'Where do we go?,' " said Mark Holt of Fort Washington, coordinator of the Southern Prince George's Trails Coalition, a group advocating for bike and hiking trail expansion in south county. [WC: If you're looking for someone to talk to about this, this would be a good place to start]

Riders also say they are miffed that the 1.1-mile trail ends when approaching the National Harbor development. The asphalt pavement gives way to a seashell road covering that riders say is difficult to ride, and the path dead-ends. Cyclists are not allowed to ride along the shoreline in the development.

Rocell Viniard, a National Harbor spokeswoman, said the seashell trail was designed for pedestrians, not bikes, because of the residents and hotels on the site. Cyclists are allowed to ride along the streets at National Harbor, Viniard said.

"For a lot of cyclists, it's unpleasant" to ride, said Jim Hudnall of Fort Washington, a member of the Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club. "I'd like to see it have better connections to other trails in the area."

Holt said he and other cyclists hope to see better signage that would direct riders from the bridge to historic sites and parks in Oxon Hill and Fort Washington. The trail points only to National Harbor, he said, leaving visitors crossing the bridge with few options.

The county plans to make a stronger connection between the bridge trail and the Potomac Heritage Trail, the Department of Public Works and Transportation said. The added trail section eventually would include a dedicated bike lane on Oxon Hill Road, but funding for the project has not materialized.

Laura Connelly, a planner for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, said the newly installed 700-foot-long stone dust path that runs adjacent to National Harbor's portion of the bridge trail would be easier for cyclists to ride.

DDOT also mentioned that they're in talks with NPS about putting bike parking and bike lanes on Pennsylvania Ave NW. The street belongs to NPS and so DDOT can't do it on their own. Also, DDOT believes there will be more artistic bike racks next year.

The Met Branch Trail section between NY Avenue and Franklin is underway and an update to the website is forthcoming.  The preliminary design for the next section of the trail in the queue has been sent to the FHWA for review.

[Meanwhile in Montgomery County officials are pushing for funding for the long delayed MoCo section of the Met Branch in next year's budget. The Post article has the Georgetown Branch and Metropolitan Branch Trail confused. The Georgetown Branch is the future CCT.

After preliminary designs for the Metropolitan Branch Trail, also known as the Georgetown Branch Trail, were completed three years ago, transportation officials said the project came to a halt to await a decision on the different proposed alignments for the Purple Line, a planned rapid-transit route between New Carrollton and Bethesda.

Now, with Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) set to decide soon on a Purple Line alignment and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) taking suggestions through December for the county's Capital Improvements Program for fiscal 2011-12, officials are looking to move forward.

"Now's the time to finish this while all these things are being done," said County Council member Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring), who sent a letter to the transportation department in April urging progress on the trail.]

DDOT is looking at 13 miles of possible bike lanes with the goal to get in 5 this year. Some places where lanes are being added include 11th Street NW, Eckington Place and the cycletrack on 15th St NW. WABA submitted a list of gaps in the bike lane network that they'd like to see created. DDOT usually adds bike lanes in conjunction with road repairs, but WABA feels they now need to do more 'retrofits' - adding a bike lane in without any repair. This is more expensive. Sherman Avenue will be dieted from four lanes down to 2 with a turning lane. The outside lanes will be 14 feet wide with sharrows and the sidewalks will be widened. The sharrows wil be placed outside the door zone, but away from the center of the lane.

The Bike Station RFP closes out this week. DDOT had a few parties at the pre-bid meeting (a good sign). The goal is to finish the Station by the end of August and have it occupied by the operator sometime in September. Because the door will be keycard protected, it could open for bike parking before the operator moves in - and of course the outside parking will not need an operator. You can see progress on the station here.

DDOT is still talking to Clear Channel about smartbike expansion. They also sent some of the bike team to Montreal to look at Bixi (and are considering still other options). Bixi has the advantage of being solar powerd (so no PEPCO problems) and not permanently installed. So stations could be moved around if they aren't used enough or if seasonal changes (such as one near the baseball stadium during the baseball season) warranted it, and installation is quicker. On the downside the bikes are heavier and the stations are less streamlined. Arlington is reviewing it's RFP and DDOT could just go with what they choose - saving the time and cost of doing its own. They have some sort of regional agreement on this. Arlington is pursuing $10M in federal money for regional bike share and DC would be entitled to some of that too. DDOT has several years before they need to spend the federal stimulus money they obligated for this.

After shopping around for a summer streets location (K Street, East Capitol, Kansas Avenue) DDOT, with support from NPS, is planning to do it in Fort Dupont Park. Both Fort Dupont Drive and Fort Davis Drive would be closed for one day in August. Think of it as an East of the River Beach Drive. NPS's new lead in the area is eager to find ways to get people into the parks. They'll do more than close the streets, they'll have rental bikes and maybe free pedicabs available too, for example. DDOT is hoping to do more locations next year.

Photo by Leah L. Jones -- The Gazette

Smartbike Expansion Pauses

GGW via Georgetown Metropolitan has an update on the SmartBike expansion that was to happen this summer.

Clear Channel is not a bike sharing company. They're an advertising company that runs a bike sharing program on the side. That means they're never going to really put a lot of effort into the program. They got their ad contract, and will do the minimum necessary to keep it. And, as we're seeing with Arlington, even if a jurisdiction wants to pay for stations, they won't be interested. Getting money in exchange for running bike stations doesn't enhance their core business, and good companies avoid having a lot of peripheral businesses that don't contribute to their central mission.

Meanwhile, DDOT has released results from a recent survey of users.  The Bike-Sharing Blog has it's analysis here. 

Most people (62%) use SmartBike less than once a week. 41% ride it to work. Only a few trips would have been done by car (plus more by taxi) - and it largely replaces walking and Metro trips. Only 23% of users always wear a helmet. The top places where users would like to see a new kiosk - in order:

Georgetown
Adams Morgan
Union Station
Columbia Heights
Takoma

When asked how to improve SmartBike, most people asked for more stations (and bike locks were heavily desired too).

And The City Fix has a SmartBike video

SmartBike DC from EMBARQ Network on Vimeo.

Lunch Break Bike Ride

The Post recommends a bike ride as a DC lunch hour activity

Relax: You don't have to ride 35 miles like D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty does during his midday training rides; getting on your bicycle for even a tenth of that distance is a great way to spend your lunch hour.

Don't cycle to work? Borrow a SmartBike (a $40 annual membership provides unlimited rides; smartbikedc.com) from one of the city's 10 bike-sharing stations and you're ready to go.

New York to New Amsterdam

New York City continues on the bike friendly path. From their monthly newsletter:

Bicycle traffic on the East River Bridges is at an all time high. But for newbie cyclists, it's not always easy to find them. Most New Yorkers are far more accustomed to seeing the bridges from subway windows instead of bike seats. That is why over the past two years DOT has installed 619 signs guiding people to the four East River bridges. These signs also help cyclists make links between popular cycling facilities such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Hudson River Greenway.

And from an article in CoolTownStudios, via GGW,

New York City’s Department of City Planning produced Bike-Share: Opportunities in New York City, which details not just a vision, but a business plan for what would be one of the most extensive in the world. The plan calls for 10,500 bicycles to start, with expansion plans to 49,000, which is feasible given that 50% of New York’s workforce (pop. 8.3 million) lives within 5 miles of their workplace.
The first phase (see picture) would be run by the City, primarily because the sheer population density will allow the program to be funded by memberships alone.  Subsequent phases would need subsidies, such as public space advertising, and best left to franchised partners, as is the case in most bike sharing systems around the world.

Public Bicycle Growing Pains

Issues with funding and infrastructure are starting to pop up in various bike sharing systems and it's even being seen in DC and Arlington, where both are working to find a way that a regional system can be built and expanded.

Most of the damage [to Velib] is shouldered by JCDecaux, the advertising company responsible for keeping the system up and running in exchange for a 10-year license to exploit 1,600 citywide outdoor displays. Meanwhile, the City of Paris keeps the revenue from Vélib user fees.

This initial agreement has resulted in ongoing disputes over who should assume financial responsibility for the vandalism and theft of abused bicycles.

DeMaio calls this conflict of interests, characteristic of the advertising model of bike-share funding, a "moral hazard."

"The advertising company does not benefit from revenues generated by the system as the jurisdiction does, so the advertising company does not have the same incentive to keep the bikes maintained as the jurisdiction would if it were operating the system," he reasons.

"In fact, the better the advertising company has the bikes maintained, the more expensive it would be, and the less profit they would keep from the advertising contract."

Clear Channel Outdoor is also the first outdoor-advertising sponsor to break into the U.S. bike-sharing market with its SmartBike DC program, which has been operating up to 120 bicycles in Washington D.C. since 2008.

After the city spent the past seven years installing 48 kilometers of bike lanes, the company chose to charge users an annual fee of $40 for unlimited use of bikes, up to three hours per journey.

"The advertising-company model can be improved," says DeMaio, "but I think long-term sustainability would lend itself to the government, quasi-governmental transport provider, university, non-profit, and for-profit models."

Fenty announces Smartbike Super-Expansion

Yesterday, Mayor Fenty announced plans to expand SmartBike to 100 stations with 1000 bicycles. This was already the plan that Jim Sebastian presented in February (he called a system of this size the full build-out). At the same presentation, Mr. Sebastian said the goal was to expand to 50 stations and 600 bikes by 2016 and at an unnamed date to 100 stations and 1200 bikes. A few weeks later at the BAC meeting they said they were going to expand to 50 stations this year. Then WTOP reported in March that it would be twice that and would happen this summer (I was skeptical). Yesterday Chris Holen confirmed the size, though they won't be finished for two years

Chris Holden, a bike program specialist for the District Department of Transportation, said that the expansion - which could begin as soon as this summer - is a direct result of the program's initial success.

"It's wildly successful, both with the 10 locations we have, but then also people are requesting them in other parts of the city," he said, adding that the first 10 locations were built as something of a trial to gauge the success of the program. When it became clear that SmartBike was a hit after only a few months, Holden said expansion discussions began immediately.

Holden said the DDOT hopes to begin construction on the stations this summer, but that it might take up to two years to install all 90 units.

So in two month we've gone from 50 stations/600 bikes by 2016 to 100 station/1000 bikes by 2011. That's quite a change. Could that be the influence of new DDOT Director and former Zipcar employee Gabe Klein, or is it a result of stimulus funding and system popularity? Jim Sebastian said he'd gotten a lot of interest in the program and would tell businesses and institutions that if they would pay for their kiosks and/or bikes they would move up in line. If enough places bought into that, it could provide the money needed.

Update: George Hawkins, Director of the District Department of the Environment, talked about this some in his chat with GGW, where he said

We have talked with Arlington -- and there certainly is good reason to make the [Public Bicycle] programs compatible. Gabe Klein, the exciting new Director at DDOT, is in the lead.

And he referred readers to the green agenda site which transit and mobility under the six goals.

Current Successes

• Installed the first 10 SmartBike DC stations with 100 shared bicycles to promote bicycling and reduce car use. 
• Installed more than 40 miles of designated bike lanes and 1,000 bicycle racks on public space across the District. 
• Developed the Watts Branch, Anacostia, and Metropolitan Branch bicycle trails to promote bicycle recreation and commuting

Key Commitments

• Construct a bike station at Union Station to provide bicycle parking, rentals, retail, and repairs—opening July 2009. 
• Expand SmartBike DC to 100 stations with 1,000 shared bicycles.

The Met Branch Trail and, to a lesser extent the Anacostia, should probably be under Key Commitments since they aren't done, but why quibble. And that's the first opening date for the Union Station Bike Station I've seen.

Smartbike Super-Expansion

I'm still trying to catch up from my vacation and so I'm just now getting around to this article from street smart.

D.C. Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein says every biker is at risk every time they hit the road.

"Just three weeks ago, our associate director for urban forestry was hit on his bike on his way to work."

There was one fatal bicycle accident in D.C. in 2008, three fatal bicycle accidents in 2007.

There were actually two in 2008. I hope the associate director is OK.

The big news in the story is about Smartbike

About 90 Smartbike racks and an army of 1,000 Smartbikes are expected to be on the city's roads this summer.

I don't know how they'll get that done in such a short time or what WTOP's source is. That's much more than Jim Sebastian reported in February (50 stations by 2010).

Crystal City Multimodal Transportation Study

I got excerpts of the bike-related sections of the Crystal City Multimodal Transportation Study. The purpose of the study is to take advantage of the opportunity the BRAC process will have to reinvent the area. The vision created is one with more transit and more geared toward pedestrian and cyclists. The district is already served by the Mt Vernon Trail, the Four Mile Run Trail and a handful of connectors, bike lanes and routes. The plan, adapted from the Master Transportation plan invovles the following:

1. Complete Streets - including 5-foot bike lanes on Crystal Drive, 18th Street S, 12th Street S, 23rd Street S and Potomac Avenue.
2. A trail connection from Crystal Drive to Long Bridge Park
3. Improvement of the Crystal City Connector to improve visibility, aesthetics, lighting and width.
4. Direct trail connection from the MVT to Terminal A of National Airport
5. Direct trail connection from the MVT to Terminal C of National Airport
6. Route 233 (Airport Viaduct) sidepath from Crystal City to National Airport with a connection to the MVT
7. Better bike access across Jefferson Davis Highway to S Eads at Route 233
8. Trail connection from the FMR Trail to Potomac Yard/Crystal City
9. Adequate bike parking and upgraded parking at the Metro Station
10 Share the Road signage
11. Possible Crystal City Bike Station
12 A bike sharing system funded by a Virginia Dept of Rail and Public Transportation grant - the study says this is going to be Nextbike, but I've read elsewhere that that isn't yet settled. It also says DC is planning to make SmartBike available with the SmartTrip card system. They suggest stations be located at the VRE, Metro station and along Crystal Drive.

Jessica Alba on a Velib

Jessica Alba on a Velib
Originally uploaded by rllayman

Actress Jessica Alba goes for a bike ride around Paris.

I have a joke with my wife about how I love Jessica Alba and how she probably cries all the time because I didn't marry her. And then my wife pretends not to know which TV show she was on that I used to watch (a show on which she played a bike messenger no less, often unintentionally comically. For example, on one episode she goes to a particularly dangerous neighborhood and before going inside to see "the Bad Guys" leaves her bike outside leaned up against the building without locking it).

I got this photo from a post by Richard Layman on Car-culture vs bike culture, a subject Adam Voiland coincidentally wrote about as well.

SmartBike Expansion

I got a chance to see the map the Office of Planning put together for the SmartBike expansion. They broke them out into Round 2 and Round 3 expansions but since only 28 of the 40 kiosks are shown I think all of them will be done this summer with the $3M in stimulus money. Here is what I got from it. I should note that it is not official or complete.

There will be kiosks all over the District, from the Capitol Heights Metro on the eastern edge to Friendship Heights on the west, and from Takoma Metro to Congress Heights.  As you may have figured out, most of the kiosks appear tied to Metro stations. Some exceptions include Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Georgetown and H Street. [Update: I had these last two sentences reversed, changing the meaning.]

Some of the distances seem long and there aren't any shown on the Mall or in Arlington on the other side of the Key Bridge, but like I said there are 12 more that weren't on it and some of these (especially Takoma - for which the next nearest kiosk is in Petworth) may not happen.

It appears OPM used a combination of employment density, population density, shopping density and bike to work rates from the 2000 census to define the new locations.