McBAG meeting minutes

DC, Arlington, Montgomery County and PG County all have citizen advisory boards for bicycling issues. If Alexandria has one they keep it a secret. I'm not sure if the PG County board - the Bicycle and Trails Advisory Group (BTAG) - still meets as they haven't updated their site in over a year. DC and Arlington call theirs the BAC - Bicycle Advisory Committee/Council. Montgomery County calls theirs the McBAG which sounds like the McDonald's Happy Meal for adults, but isn't.
The McBAG's last meeting for which notes are up was in January. They talked about priorities for the next year, the state bicycle symposium and Metro station design rules. Metro needs a lot of work to make the subway more bike friendly (the buses are fine except for the drivers). Covered parking, which McBAG mentions is one part - bike stations at most major stops would be great. Better security is needed - Metro stations are one of the most common places from which bikes are stolen. Even where bike stations are impractical, cameras would be useful. Improved access and design is key as well. It would be nice if stations had a way for bikes to get in other than elevators. On BART, some stations have stairs (They're like escalators, but they don't move) with stair channels to allow cyclists to wheel their bikes up and down. We need those where possible.

National Bike Summit

The National Bike Summit is going on in DC this week. Today they're meeting with Legislators and while a lot of what is on the agenda is suppose to be national bike advocacy, it's sure to include some local initiatives as well. I suspect WABA will be pushing on Rock Creek Park and the Met Branch Trail. I heard the Virginia delegation was working to open up the Pentagon area.

On Friday there's a session on on-line route mapping that I'd like to go to. I need all the help I can get with my map. [Just yesterday I realized it doesn't work with IE so I had to get that fixed, but thanks to help from commenters I'm able to get the geocode from trails much faster and hope to have it finished by the end of March]; and there's also a caucus bike ride from 2:30 to 5:00.