Ten for Tuesday - Thor is 83rd

1. I went on a ride around the Anacostia recently, to see where the Riverwalk would go in. One part of the Riverwalk will go along the Navy Yard Promenade.  I took this photo of one end of the promenade (under the 11th Street Bridge). It'll be a real miracle if this opens to bike/ped uses. Since 9/11 everything has been closing (I used to run around the portico at the Capitol), and this will be first thing I can think of to really buck the trend.

2. DC is continuing its Street Smart campaign. This article (Taking Steps to a Pedestrian-Friendly D.C.) focused mostly on pedestrian issues, but it also discusses cycling safety.

Two years ago, the city launched Street Smart for Kids, which uses volunteers from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association to train schoolchildren in pedestrian and bicycle safety. Part of the training is done at intersections and sidewalks near schools, Branyan said.

3. This article (Rock Creek's Scenic Drive Battered) about how the July 3rd flooding impacted Rock Creek Park, features a quote from frequent Wash Cycle commenter - and fellow bike blogger - Joel Gwadz.

"Euphoric" is how Joel Gwadz described his Beach Drive bike commute this week. Gwadz, 39, lives in Mount Pleasant and works in the computer department at CBS News at 20th and M streets NW. The prospect of Beach Drive being closed to traffic was so alluring that he went north -- in the opposition direction of his downtown job -- to spend additional time on the road.

"Everyone was smiling and grinning," Gwadz recalled. "People were waving to each other. Everyone was really enjoying it."

The closure of the road offered a glimpse of what would happen if the National Park Service shut down segments of Beach Drive during off-peak weekday travel periods, as the Washington Area Bicyclist Association has been lobbying for it to do for years.

"I know the people who drive that road have been really ticked off, but I've loved it," said Samantha Smith, 38, who rode her bike this week between her Adams Morgan home and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, where she works as a psychologist.

"It's like a dream come true," she said, describing the joy of rolling down an empty exit ramp onto a vacant Beach Drive. "It is really like my fantasy world. No cars, no noise."

I was surprised to find that Gwadz could talk in normal sentences instead of his signature, stream-of-conciousness writing style.

4. Did you know that a bike trail caused Howard Dean to change religions?

In 1980, Dean, then a practicing doctor in Burlington, caught wind that a local real estate developer was planning to build a pair of high-rise condominiums on the shore of the lake. Along with a Burlington lawyer named Rick Sharp, Dean began to campaign against the project, proposing in its place a scenic nine-mile bike trail. "He became a crusader," says Sharp. Dean went door to door with leaflets; he stood in the street with petitions; he cleared brush and laid bricks. Then, the hard part began: getting the land for the bike trail--a fight that ultimately wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Part of the struggle involved convincing the local Episcopal diocese to cede ownership of a stretch of old railroad tracks that ran across their property. When the church first resisted, threatening to join a lawsuit, "Howard went to talk to them into it," says Sharp. Thanks to Dean's persistence, the Episcopalians eventually succumbed. But their initial resistance left a bad taste in Dean's mouth.

As Dean has described it in recent months, the dispute over the bike path caused him to break with the Episcopal Church and become a Congregationalist. It's hard to imagine this story will resonate with religious voters, because very few people would untether themselves from their spiritual home over a bike path. Indeed, when Dean first explained his denominational switch on ABC's "This Week," George Stephanopoulos was incredulous: "Over the bike path?"

5. For it's road trip feature, the post has been branching out from driving (maybe they saw An Inconvienent Truth) promoting bike rides, scooter trips, hikes and the like. Two weeks ago they did one entitled Bike the Mount Vernon Trail. It's a great ride, and once you get south of the Wilson Bridge the crowds thin out.

6. Everyone is crazy about pedicabs, from DCist to the Times.

7. Richard Layman makes the point that "bikes are better."

People would send me stuff about scooters, Segways, etc. and I would always respond, "a bike is better." Sure, a bike is better than a scooter or a Segway for most settings, but that isn't the point.

In a city, for a lot of things, a bike is better than a car. And, now that you can take a bike on buses, and on the subway except for certain times of the day, you get further enhanced mobility that is relatively time-efficient.

There is some discussion about the Smart Car, and the response from some is "a bike is better." But the Smart Car isn't about bicyclists. It's about people who already have cars.

Then he lists transportation options from best to worst (?) - if so, I'd move some things around.

walking
bicycling
Segways?
scooters/Vespas
transit
- bus
- rapid bus
- light rail/streetcar
- subway
driving
- car (usually big)
- cars (usually many in a household)
- shared cars
- Motorcycles
railroad

I've always recognized that not everyone is going to bike - just like not everyone is going to watch "Lost" - even though most should. A city full of smart cars would probably be good for cyclists. I mean, would they even knock you over if they hit you?

8. I went for a ride out the W&OD trail on June 9th, and was pleasantly surprised to see that in less than a week they had built a temporary bridge to serve as a bypass for the bridge damaged in the flood.

9. Maryland has free bike maps of the state. You can order them here.

10. The Tour de France is going on and my favorite, Thor Hushovd, is in a disappointing 83rd. (I have to root for someone named Thor). Lance Armstrong's old team is still sponsored by Discovery Channel, HQed in Maryland. In an article, Cycling Magnate, in the Post, they profile Discovery Networks president Billy Campbell.

What's it like riding with a cycling icon?

Well, it's humbling. . . . It is almost like I'm riding a tricycle and he's riding a bike. About a year ago in Austin, he took me out riding and we were coming down a hill, and I realized this might be my only time to ever pass Lance Armstrong. So he was kind of relaxing and I kind of zoomed by him. And within two cycle spins, he came up behind me, grabbed me by the jersey and said, "What do you think you're doing?" He showed me how quickly he could go right by me.

Also, I was curious as to why there was no "Women's Tour de France." The race does so much for tourism why not expand it? I found this.

Georgetown Waterfront Rebuild

Ground was recently broken (see photo at left) on the "largest park to be created in the Nation’s Capital...since Constitution Gardens was completed on the National Mall in 1976."  The Georgetown Waterfront Park project will completely reshape a very visible part of the city, and impact - hopefully in a positive way - both the CCT and the Rock Creek Trail.

The park will contain a promenade along the shoreline punctuated with three overlooks - with views of the Potomac River and recreational boaters - from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to Key Bridge. These overlooks will contain sculpted granite slabs etched with historic images of Georgetown’s maritime heritage, a separate bike trail to link the Capital Crescent Trail with the Rock Creek Trail (emphasis mine), a labyrinth containing intertwined pathways for contemplation, edges of native plants to replace aged concrete bulkheads, floral displays, shade and ornamental trees, rain gardens to retain storm water, lights for evening enjoyment, and benches to relax and enjoy the setting.

(I, for one, can't wait to start doing some contemplating). This area, though valuable, has been slow to develop. It was originally a rail yard (you can still see tracks bulging under the asphalt in some spots) used to transfer cargo between the Georgetown Branch railroad (now the CCT), the C&O canal and the Potomac. It was once scheduled to be a freeway. For a long time now, it's been a parking lot. The park is going to be a step up from any of these uses. The post does a good job of covering the history of the project and what it will include.

The third phase of construction would create two separate paths for bicycles and pedestrians, and would install trees and benches, from the Kennedy Center to about a half-mile upstream near Thompson boathouse, where visitors can rent kayaks, canoes and bikes and where many rowers keep their shells.

The work is going to be in three phases, moving gradually downstream.  Once the work is complete, it's hoped that a staircase connecting the Kennedy Center to the waterfront will be created (I'm always shocked that this wasn't built into the original design of the Kennedy Center). From what I understand a promenade will go along the waterfront in Phase One, with the bike trail along K Street/Water Street all the way to Rock Creek. There was hope that a bridge would be built across Rock Creek just south of K Street, (as part of the Swedish Embassy project, but that never materialized). So the bike path will then run south along the west side of Rock Creek to the improved Rock Creek Bridge and then along the Potomac on a separate path from one for runners.

The Swedish Embassy project is almost complete and the connecting space between the Thompson Boat Center and the Washington Harbour is now open (see photo at left).

One further change to the waterfront is being planned. As discussed before, there are plans to build a boat house at the Georgetown trail head of the CCT. WABA, after staying neutral on the subject has come out against THIS boathouse.

The integrity of the Capital Crescent Trail in DC is under threat from the construction of a large boathouse for the crew team of Georgetown University.  Access to the site would require construction equipment, boat trailers and delivery vehicles to share use of the Capital Crescent Trail for a distance of several hundred feet.  The user experience on the trail will be diminished by blocking the views of the river.  In addition, the sheer size of the structure will give the trail a "tunnel-like" feel and create shadows that will prevent the melting of ice during the winter.

The comment period for this project is over. Now we can only sit and wait for the Park Service's decision. That, and write editorials and letters to the editor about it. Harry Jaffe says it so well, that I'll just say I agree (rather than add my own opinion).

»  Georgetown’s proposed boathouse is enormous. At 50 feet high, it would dominate the shoreline from the river and block views from the trails behind.

» It would block parts of the Capital Crescent Trail and bring vehicular traffic onto a path that has been the domain of bikers, walkers and baby carriages for more than a decade.

» The dealings between the National Park Service and Georgetown University are starting to reek of the same scent that came from the NPS arrangements with Redskins owner Dan Snyder and also its plan to close parts of Beach Drive.

The Capital Crescent Trail has become a regular commuting route from Bethesda and a destination for travelers from around the world. It is one of the premier biking trails in the nation. It took years for community groups to negotiate with the Park Service to create the trail. Why obstruct it now?

“I don’t know why the needs of a university rowing program trumps the needs of everyone else,” says Eric Gilliland, executive director for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

Thousands of Washingtonians wrote letters to the Park Service opposing the boathouse in the public comment process that ended June 15. Hopefully, the Park Service will have the good sense to reduce the size of the building or move it to an alternative site.

But, to avoid confusion - I think the park is great, I think the boathouse is too big for that spot, and I like to contemplate. 

Rock Creek Flood of 2006

  Rock Creek Flood of 2006 
  Originally uploaded by maxedaperture.

From the comments "yes there was some serious damage to the creek and the trails of rock creek park total bummer an already hurting natural resourse is now hurting some more but there has already been some tree removal and some bridge repair the Park Service has been on it! credit to those that are out there doing their job rode the whole Capitol Crescent trail this am with only two obstacles and most of the sand, mud, and standing water had been cleared from the trail as well good work and thanks there are as well to any and all that are doing their job! oh ran into some Pedicabs the other day took some shots http://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/cab4-733455.jpg here is another http://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/cab-744922.jpg they were in town from NYC "

Ten For Tuesday- We differ on the definition of "perfectly lovely"

1. I did recently write that WABA is not technically an environmental group and then they went and joined the DC environmental network and made me look like a liar. Anyway the network is sponsoring a mayoral candidate forum this Thursday, so if you're a DC voter it's your chance to meet Michael Brown, Linda Cropp and Adrian Fenty.

Thursday June 29, 6:30-9:00pm
Cramton Auditorium, Howard University
2455 6th St. NW

2. In other WABA news, WABA's providing valet bike parking on the mall during the 4th of July. This should be similar to the Cherry Blossom festival parking. I didn't go to that but it looked a bit like triathlon parking with a secure area for bikes. I've gone to the mall for the fireworks a half dozen times and I have to say that biking is really the only way to go. Traffic is insane. Certain gates become overwhelmed and others are unused. On a bike you can ride to one of the unused ones. Last year we were with some people who decided to take the bus and it was an hour difference both ways.

3. Dr. Gridlock has retired (or more accurately Ron Shaffer, who created the Dr. Gridlock column two decades ago - he will probably be replaced much like James Bond). I know many complained about his column; that it was anti-transit or anti-bike, but it was always thought provoking. Maybe they'll hire Richard Layman to write the column from now on.

Speaking of Dr. Gridlock here's an exchange where his explanation of biking behavior, and law, is right on. Still I would like a Dr. Gridlock who, at least occasionally, rides a bike on the major commuter routes - so that they don't have to rely on what "bikers have told" them. 

Rockville, Md.: I drive along Beach Drive, and I am always vigilant for bike riders (I used to bike to work at the National Zoo years ago). Someone, please! explain to me WHY in the WORLD bike riders are insisting upon riding in the road when there is a perfectly lovely bike path provided. I mean, when it's part of the road--I understand--but this is SCARY. At 4 p.m. there are VERY VERY FEW pedestrians--I can SEE the open bike path!

I just do NOT get it.

Dr. Gridlock: Bikers have told me in the past that the bike path is in poor shape, with craters, and walkers/joggers/dogs so that they feel safer in the roadway, which they are entitled to use.

4. Mark McCormack, 35, became the first American since 2003 to win the CSC Invitational, the region's most prestigious cycling race.

5. I'm embarassed to admit that I don't know who Bill Rice is, but I feel like I should. Rice is running for the Ward 3 Council seat. Here's an article about him from the Examiner.

I first met Rice when he was covering D.C. politics for local weekly papers. Back in the 1980s, two men would arrive at political events on funky bicycles: Dave Clarke and Bill Rice. Both were a bit, ummm, shall we say, quirky.

Sounds like my kind of guy (this is not an endorsement - like I said I don't know him) the post said this

You can see him riding around town on his bicycle but [he] should be taken seriously.

What the ...? I don't like what they're insinuating.

6. Construction on the Bethesda Avenue/Woodmont Avenue bumpout started on April 20th and from what I saw last week it's basically complete (see photo)

7. Baltimore isn't the only city promoting a new bike plan. As RPUS pointed out, Chicago is too. Chicago is really becoming one of the great cycling cities in America. Here's the Chicago Times article.

From Geneva, Switzerland, they got the idea of raised bike lanes, a layer of pavement above street level and below the curb that would help dissuade motorists from veering into cycling territory. By 2010, the city hopes to experiment with raised lanes in a few locations.

In Copenhagen, Cambridge and other places, planners saw bicycle lanes colored a startling shade of teal green, thermoplastic markings they hope to duplicate at some Chicago intersections to try to warn right-turning cars to watch for bikes.

Of course, he said, cars are not the only deterrent: "Try to get a girl to go on a date with you on a bike."

Chicago has the new Millennium Park Bike Station - that's my model for the Dupont Circle Bike Station.

8. Arlington is looking to add bike rentals.

The new staff members also will help to set up kiosks in Rosslyn, Clarendon and Ballston to enliven the streets with such ventures as bike rentals and flower and ice cream sales.

9. $250,000 was set aside in the federal fiscal 2007 Transportation Budget for the Four Mile Run pedestrian and bike trail between Alexandria and Arlington

10. An essay in the Post on fixies.

Fixed-gear bikes, aka fixies, are those clean-looking city steeds you often see messengers riding, the ones without multiple gears or even, in some cases, brakes. The gear is "fixed," meaning that if the wheels are turning, so are the pedals -- no coasting allowed.

11. And finally there is this. I knew something had happened because so many people were googling my site looking for this.

Paul Gerard Rossmeissl, 54, an experimental psychologist who became a quality control expert, died June 7 at Inova Fairfax Hospital of injuries suffered three days earlier in a bicycle accident on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail.

A spokeswoman with the Fairfax County Police Department said Dr. Rossmeissl was biking near Hunter Mill Road when he hit a pedestrian, fell and struck his head.

There aren't any other details. It's unusual for a cyclist to die in a crash with a pedestrian. I'm curious as to how it happened. Was he wearing a helmet? How fast was he going? Regardless, I think this is the W&OD's fifth fatal accident.

Closing Streets to Cars

A controversy in San Francisco is brewing that sounds very familiar. Right now, the city closes part of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park to cars each Sunday. It appears that bicycle and pedestrian advocates have been successful in getting the closures extended to Saturday.

San Francisco voters rejected two ballot measures in 2000 that would have closed JFK to traffic on Saturdays. At the time, one of the main objections had been that an 800-space parking garage had not yet been built below the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park. Shahum said since that parking garage at the De Young is now functioning there should be enough parking in the area. Others said there are too few places to walk and bike in The City.

Not everyone is pleased. One of The Examiner's San Francisco columnists feels the advocates are trying to short circuit the democratic process.

voters in 2000 overwhelmingly rejected Saturday road closures not once, but twice. Yet the bikers and skaters who feel entitled to their favorite section of the park have once again gotten two supervisors, Jake McGoldrick and Ross Mirkarimi, to override history and political will in the most recent push to block cars from the park.

This is similar to, but not identical to, the controversy in DC over closing Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park. One difference is that DC citizens never got a chance to vote on extending the hours during which Beach Drive is closed. I don't know how that vote would turn out, but it's clear that Maryland's Congressional delegation has worked hard to keep it from closing.

Still, there seems to be a movement - nation wide and even world wide - toward closing more roads to car traffic to make them available for recreational uses. I found out about this article on Rebuilding Place (Peddling car free, bike-friendly days for Baltimore) about how American cities are starting to notice the Ciclovias of Bogota, Columbia.

Bogota has continued on the environmentally progressive course he and Peñalosa set. Indeed, the long-range goal - currently the subject of legal wrangling - is to ban virtually all cars within city limits during morning and evening peak hours by 2015.

No American city (or mayor) is ready to take that radical a quality-of-life step, but officials in Boston, Cleveland and Philadelphia reportedly are contemplating Ciclovia-inspired weekend road closures. Chicago, however, may be ready to roll this fall. Mayor Richard M. Daley has signed off on a "Sunday Parkways" program that would block off three to eight miles of city streets from noon to 5 p.m.

Cantori would love to have Baltimore be the second. He thinks Druid Hill Park might make a good focal point for a mini-Ciclovia.

If successful, it would be easy to expand the route to the Inner Harbor, then to east and west Baltimore and even Towson: "I can see people coming from Washington and Philadelphia to ride in Baltimore

It would be interesting to see how shutting down cars for a day, or even a few hours, might effect the environment. Remember after 9/11, when air travel was shut down, researchers discovered that the contrails created by airplanes decreased the variations in high and low temperatures by 1.1 degrees Celsius. I wonder if such a change would be visible in Bogota.

Connecting Towns with Bike Ways

The town of Kensington wants to connect its east and west sides with a pedestrian underpass under Connecticut Avenue.

‘‘One of the problems that we have in Kensington is that it’s very difficult to get from one side to another, whether you’re on foot or a bike or a car or whatever,” said Town Councilman Al Carr said. ‘‘It might be possible to connect the two sides of traffic [with] a pedestrian pathway and a bike way"

Lots of places are finding that their car-friendly designed cities are difficult to get around in by foot.

The bridge they plan to use for this is the Connecticut Avenue bridge over the Metropolitan Branch of the old B&O railroad (now CSX) - the same line the Met Branch Trail runs alongside. It's a good idea, but why stop there. With all of the low hanging fruit as regards to rails to trails opportunities already plucked (think CCT and W&OD), now's the time to look at "rails with trails."

Just north of this point, the rail line crosses Rock Creek Park and Beach Drive (and the Rock Creek Trail). Just south of it, it meets up with the Kensington Parkway. A small railside trail from one to the other would provide a shortcut for bike commuters using Rock Creek, a direct way to get to the Kensington MARC station, and a nice detour for weekend cyclists looking for a bite to eat.