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.

Storm Damage

I was thinking we'd gotten away with only minor damage like silt deposits and mudslides, but it appears a bridge on the W&OD trail has been damaged enough to be closed pending repairs.

Fairfax Station, VA (June 26, 2006) – The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority closed a section of the W&OD Trail (Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park) today due to significant damage to the bridge over Piney Branch between Hunter Mill Road and the Town of Vienna.As a result of the flood conditions over the last 24 hours, the stone embankment that supports this bridge has been significantly eroded and has lost much of the stone work that held it in place. This stone work was part of the original railroad construction in the 1850s. The Regional Park Authority has closed the bridge until the bridge embankment can be rebuilt.“We are already working with engineers to assess the damage and repair the bridge as soon as possible. Until it can be repaired, it is vital that pedestrians and cyclist not use this crossing,” stated Paul Gilbert, Executive Director of NVRPA.

Addendum: And from the W&OD site

A detour will be put in place after the rains cease, but apparently a few weeks will be needed to arrange this temporary installation. While plans to repair/replace the stonework are already being made, complete restoration of the bridge (and elimination of the detour) will clearly take several months.

More trail conditions are in the comments of this post and at WABA's website.

Monroe Avenue Bridge

Construction began on February 16th on the new Monroe Avenue Bridge (according to reports, I actually haven't been out there lately). The present bridge has two sharp turns, so even though it was only built in 1986, it's being replaced largely, officials claim, for safety reasons.

Officials believe that removing the curve and straightening the bridge will improve safety, allow for an expansion of nearby baseball fields and parkland, and allow easier access to the shopping center for nearby residents. The developer, Potomac Yard Development LLC, will pay for the new bridge. Some proposed changes, such as a pedestrian ramp, will be paid for by the city.

It's not without controversy. Alexandria City Council member Andrew H. Macdonald wrote an op-ed arguing that the new bridge shouldn't be built until how best to increase bus, train and Metro ridership can be determined or until there is agreement on if the forecasted reduction in traffic will be large enough to offset many of the quality-of-life concerns expressed by residents. He dedicates an entire paragraph to cycling concerns in the area

Residents east and west of the tracks want to be able to bike and walk safely between George Washington Memorial Parkway, Del Ray and the Braddock Street Metro station. But now, instead of following a fairly direct east-west route, cyclists and walkers would have to follow a serpentine course to cross the new bridge. According to a bicycle and pedestrian watchdog group, many of the new intersections that will accompany this grid of new streets would be unsafe to cross; some trails would be too narrow, and crossing times would be much longer. So it's no wonder that there is still no consensus about how best to incorporate this important community benefit into the project. Advocates of biking and walking have asked the city to hire a firm that specializes in the design of such trails to ensure that both the disabled and able-bodied can navigate easily and safely.

The potomoc yard trail, a rail trail since it runs along an abandoned line of the old Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, dead-ends just north of the site at Howell avenue. Any plans to build in this area should include a trail that continues along the rail line all the way to Braddock avenue. In addtion, a bike/ped bridge (built on the site of the old railroad trestle) should connect the trail to the W&OD railbed that still exists between Route 1 and Commonwealth Avenue.

The unfortunate thing about this bridge is that it's being built by the Potomac Yard Development Company. I would suspect that their first allegiance is to their investors so the bridge will serve Potomac Yard's interests and not the community's. Serving the community's needs is why - in theory - we have government in the first place.

The new bridge will have pedestrian walkways on both sides like the present bridge, but a little nicer.

The Potomac Yard Development site says of the park.

Potomac Yard Park will be a 24-acre linear park that will run parallel to the property between Potomac Avenue and the railroad corridor. This park will offer an ideal venue for the public to stroll along its paths or perhaps have picnics on its beautifully landscaped grounds.

The slideshow is particularly informative.

W&OD, Power lines and Battlefield Parkway

The W&OD trail attracts "3 million people a year--more than any such trail in the country" (though I've also heard the CCT referred to as the most popular in the country) and so it's no surprise that it excites a lot of passion. Earlier I wrote about how it was in danger of having power lines built along it - lines that would require the removal of the tree canopy. The power lines would require

82 towers, 110-feet tall, posted along an 11-mile stretch of the trail from east of Leesburg to Purceville.

The public hearings related to this began recently and

State Corporation Commission hearing officer Howard P. Anderson proposed a last-minute compromise route that would follow the Rt. 7 Bypass for much of the way. It would also use the W&OD Trail west of Leesburg, but be located far enough to the north so that trees on that side of the trail could be spared.

People who lived near either of the two alignments showed up to argue that the lines should be built away from their homes (classic NIMBY-ism). Everyone argued the lines should be buried (I agree). And

Stephen H. Axeman, chairman of the Leesburg Airport Commission, highlighted concerns about aviation safety, both at the airport itself and for pilots having to fly through a narrower envelope over the ridge west of the airport if the 120-foot towers carrying the transmission cable are erected there. Axeman, a longtime licensed pilot and operations supervisor for the Federal Aviation Authority, said there could be problems either to the south or the north. Noting past accidents, Axeman said the 120-foot towers could impact landings at the airport.

Finally,

A Virginia Department of Transportation engineer said the agency did not support using either the shoulders or median of Rt. 7 for installation of the line, as the county originally requested. VDOT is planning to widen the Bypass to ease congestion from traffic flowing west from the Dulles Greenway.

Then, the hearings were postponed until May or June when it was pointed out to Anderson that his proposed route might require the purchase and condemnation of up to 12 homes.

By seeking to preserve wooded sections of the trail, Anderson’s plan would move the power lines closer to homes in the upscale Shenstone subdivision north of the trail. Homes in the community are assessed at $1 million and up.

Leesburg2day weighed in with an editorial that included this piece

Another attorney advocating that the utility use its W&OD Trail easement told the hearing officer that virtually all bike trails have power lines along them. Listening to his comment one got the impression that power lines and recreational trails go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Exsqueeze me? Even if that were true, the BEST trails do not have power lines along them. Cyclists need our shade, we have sensitive skin.

There are also plans to build the Battlefield Parkway, which will necessitate an easement from the park authority to cross the W&OD Trail.

VDOT’s link has three distinct sections, the outer two will have a 40-foot grass median and the inner section will be side-by-side bridges with a 38-foot open-air median to allow light to reach the W&OD and Tuscarora Creek below, Folse said.

A shared-use path for pedestrians will run the length of the roadway and tie into the future Russell Branch Parkway to lead users across the future interchange at River Creek Parkway and Rt. 7, Folse said.

So it's hard to say how much it will impact the trail, and if that impact will be balanced out by the addition of the shared use trail.

Finally, while this isn't related and it's a bit far from DC, I found it researching this and found it compelling.

David Brickley, who was a delegate from 1976-98 and served as director of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation from 1998-2002, said he "acquired the rights" to the 16-mile right of way [of the Dahlgren Railroad Heritage Trail] in December from former King George Planning Commissioner Joseph Williams. He hopes to open it to the public by June.

Which is downright inspiring. One guy fighting to make a public space - with his own money. I might cry. And then in the same article you get this

But John LoBuglio, who lives near the site, said county residents "overwhelmingly" oppose the trail because of potential side effects such as crime, pollution and noise.

Those noisy, pollution toting, criminally minded trail users ruin it every time or...

The rail bed cuts through land owned by the Northern Virginia Shooting Facility, and the club's 325 members are concerned, said LoBuglio, the gun club's president.

That's awful suspicious. It seems Prince George County In 2000 agreed to delete all "rails-to-trails" references from the county's comprehensive plan. Thats's too bad. Best of luck David Brickley (pictured walking along his right-of-way.