St. Elizabeths Rail Spur

In an earlier post I mentioned that, in DC, there were only a few miles of abandoned rail bed available for trail conversion. One of those pieces is the St. Elizabeths rail spur in SE. It's only 0.65 miles long, but it would still make a useful trail connection should the Shepard Industrial Spur (Pictured is the last train to travel the spur) ever be made into a bike trail, which is why it was added to the DC Bicycle Master Plan. Now, according to an article in the post:

President Bush's 2007 budget proposal calls for allocating $306 million for the [new Coast Guard] headquarters, a three-year project that would involve constructing and rehabilitating buildings on the hospital's 176-acre west campus, according to a spokesman for the General Services Administration, which is managing the project. The total project would cost $330 million, and groundbreaking is expected to take place next year, he said.

This could be good news in that converting the rail bed to a trail could be added to the project. The Coast Guard should be interested in providing its employees with an option to easily bike to work.

But it's probably bad news since the Coast Guard will most likely want a wide security perimeter that would preclude the construction of a trail. With emphasis on security we've had lately, I would not be surprised it the trail were deemed a security threat.

Perils for Pedestrians

Bethesda resident John Z. Wetmore creates a show called "Perils for Pedestrians" that addresses bicycle and pedestrian safety issues. I've only seen one episode, and that was a "special" episode involving a walk through New Orleans with Dan Burden, but it was interesting and I know others who swear by the program. My television tastes are a little more pedestrian (sorry, so sorry). Anyway the show was picked up by the DISH network so now people all over the world can learn about sidewalk design. Watch out Grey's Anatomy, you've got a ratings war.

The official website has a massive amount of information - when you're done reading about Survivor. This cartoon, which I got off the site, could easily apply to cyclists.

Bicycle Safety Booklets

Arlington is planning to put out a bicycle safety booklet and a brochure. The brochure will cover bike lane safety and be geared toward both cyclists and motorists. The booklet will be pretty extensive and be based on the award winning publication Safe Bicycling in Chicago. The money to pay for it comes from various federal grants.

In general I think a booklet is a good idea, but I do have some changes. I think the DC area (DC and the surrounding jurisdictions) should get together and make one booklet for the whole metropolitan area. How many cyclists do all of their rides in one county? And honestly, I feel like a paper book is so 20th Century (but then again I do write a blog). A website would be much better and cheaper - but i recognize that both can be useful and complimentary even.

The brochure, I'm not sure about. Will drivers (ones who aren't cyclists) ever read it? Ever care? The downside of bike lanes is that drivers see them and think "that area is yours. Everything else is mine." which just isn't the case. The brochure is probably a waste of money. Better to get local news to report on it I think.

Bikes are not the problem.

This article in the Washington Times was supposed to be clever, but the title is a bit annoying. It's short so here it is.

  A gentleman riding a bicycle, briefcase in its basket, huffed and puffed while pedaling up the right-hand lane of 18th Street Northwest near the White House, the gradual incline making his commute home rather difficult, while causing cars directly behind him to creep along in the evening rush.
    We're not certain whether those drivers who sounded their horns were sending a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to the cyclist after reading what was printed on the back of his shirt: "One Less Car."

Above it is written "Buy a Hybrid." Yes. It's bikes that make the evening commute so bad. It's bikes that cause cars to creep along in rush hour traffic. Bikes are the problem, not all the people driving cars by themselves, but bikes. If we could just somehow convince these bike commuters to drive a hybrid we could fix the whole thing.

OT:So I grab a lot of my photos off of flickr. I learned that people leave photos for DCist on flickr labeled "DCist." That got my wheels spinning. If you'd like to have a photo on TheWashCycle, just put it on flickr with the label "washcycle."

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.

Custis Trail Tunnel

There's a proposal before the Arlington County Board to build a 10-story, 43-unit residential building (for now called 1101 Lee Hwy) on the .61 acre site located east of North Lynn Street, between

the I-66 ramp and Martha Custis Bike and Pedestrian Trail to the south and the Key

Bridge/George Washington Memorial Parkway ramp to the north. The building would involve construction of a driveway across the Custis Trail. In order to mitigate the impact of the driveway on the trail, the building applicant has proposed modifying the intersection traffic lights to "signalize" the driveway.

But, in 2000, Rosslyn performed the Rosslyn Circle Crossing Study. It recommended that a tunnel be built under Lynn Street. The building is being scaled back considerably in height, density and access by the council and they've stated that the tunnel should be a part of it. The applicant's engineer did a preliminary study and determined that a tunnel with an alternative alignment would be possible but the suggested alignment has a curve that some feel might be dangerous.

At the December 2005 meeting they were still waiting on a response and deferred the subject to 2006. A bike/ped tunnel under Lynn would be a big improvement to a dangerous intersection.

Addendum: Please read the first comment to this post as it is very useful. I think I got some facts wrong. In my own defense they came from my own hazy memory and what I could glean from county council notes. If you can get through one page of those without falling asleep on your keyboard you are a better person than I.

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