Ten for Tuesday - Nice Rack

1. Some projects restored to the Montgomery County Budget - $145k has been added to repair the E/W highway trail and $160k added to the overall bikeways budge and other projects proposed

• Repair and resurfacing of .5 miles of the Capital Crescent Trail
• Adding One Half of a Full Time Staffer to MNCPPC
• Increased funding for bikeways maintenance, including snow removal
• Adding One Full Time Staff to DPTW Bikeways Program
• Installation of Bikeway Signage

2. Silver Spring Transit Center does not properly address bike access issues. It has inadequate bike racks and lockers, poor connections to streets and no bike station.

3. Fairfax County is considering funding several major bicycle initiatives in its upcoming budget.

• Hiring a full-time bicycle coordinator.
• Producing a county-wide bicycle map.
• Creating on-road bike routes.
• A bicycle pilot program. 

4. Abandoned parking meter poles turned into bike racks in Arlington.

5. The Nation's Triathlon is coming this fall. DC finally gets its own triathlon (if they can get permission to swim in the Potomac, otherwise it will be a duathlon).

6. Local Eagle Scout is collecting bikes for Pedals for Progress (similar to Bike for the World) May 6 and 7. It's a good cause.

7. I couldn't find anything else about this beyond the email (couldn't find Joe Goddard or his thesis, but it's interesting)

I looked into comparative bicycle usage since 1945 in the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark in a 1995 Masters' thesis. At the time my naïve hope was that if bicycle infrastructure was provided, people would ride. By the time I had completed it seemed a reasonable proposition that researchers would have to look beyond structural explanations for why people choose certain modes of transport. Broadly comparable cities within and between the countries studied exhibited increasingly different transport mixes during the half-century to 1995, even where their cycle infrastructures (bike-paths, lights etc), topography, size, and climatic conditions were similar and governments often supportive. Consequently,cultural factors would have to be factored in. Moreover, countries and cities with still-high levels of bike usage may well show internal differences in transport choices among and between different demographic groups.

Joe Goddard
University of Copenhagen

8. A couple dozen injured veterans are scheduled to make a 110-mile bike ride from Gettysburg, Pa., to Washington April 29 and 30th. For a $75 entry fee and a minimum fundraising effort of $600, you can join them.

9. Is Chicago a bicycling haven? This article covers a lot about what they're doing there and includes good photos of the bike station, a bicycle trough and a trail that has the right of way over a road.

10. There was a ribbon cutting at Tryst this past Saturday to celebrate the installation of over 40 bike racks in Adams Morgan. I had intended to go and provide photos, but...you saw the weather.