Behold: RackSpotter – A crowdsourced bike parking tool!

[PotomacCyclist]

Potentially some interesting new bike rack locations this week on the RackSpotter map. Details to follow…

[PotomacCyclist]

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What is the significance of this bike rack? It’s just another bike rack in Washington. Only this time it’s Washington state. Seattle-Tacoma Airport, to be specific.

It’s the first bike rack on the RackSpotter map west of the Mississippi. RackSpotter and BikeArlington are taking over the world!

Actually, Seattle has Arlington beat as far as bike facilities at the airport are concerned. They have bike racks at two ends of the parking garage. They have bike racks outside. They also have some indoor racks plus a tire pump, bike tools and a repair stand, all inside next to the baggage claim area.

Moreover, all of these are clearly marked on many of the airport maps. National Airport has some bike racks, but no bike repair area. And no public maps of the bike facilities. Their website has a map but it’s not clear where the racks are, and the map is incomplete and inaccurate.

I think the Sea-Tac Airport is close to a gold standard for bike facilities at an airport. However, I don’t know about the bike paths and bike lanes leading up to those racks. I do know that cyclists are allowed to bring bikes on trains. I saw pamphlets describing this in detail.

[PotomacCyclist]

Just found more new bike racks near Farragut Square. I’ve looked at that block several times before and didn’t see those racks. They also look brand new. I hope the Golden Triangle BID is taking advantage of the RackSpotter map for locating gaps in rack coverage. I’ve mapped all the area in downtown over to New Hampshire Ave plus much of Foggy Bottom and Dupont Circle. I’ve looked at part of the West End but there’s still a section that I need to survey. Maybe I’ll get to that by the end of the week.

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[PotomacCyclist]

Another new set of bike racks near Farragut North. I’ve passed by this spot at least a few times in the recent past, while mapping bike racks. This group was just added within the past few weeks.

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[PotomacCyclist]

I’m rethinking the phone case. I’ve been using it for a couple months, but I’ve noticed that the phone gets very hot. When I had the screen replaced, the repair tech said that I needed to replace the battery. He showed me how it was puffed up. He could spin it on the countertop, which meant that the sides were no longer flat. He said it was a safety hazard.

When I asked about the cause, he said it usually happens if you leave the phone in a car on a hot summer day. But I don’t have a car. I do have a phone case.

Perhaps the problem was worse when I put the phone in a running belt and brought it while running. The heat transferred from me to the phone. I can’t think of any other situation that would have heated the phone so much.

I started carrying the phone in a sling backpack instead of a running belt. Sometimes I hold it in my hand. (Not because I’m listening to music. I never listen to music while running or cycling. (Occasionally on a spin bike, but that’s it.)

My phone is already water-resistant. I don’t need the case for that. I only need to protect the screen. I may have to get an open case or a screen protector and forget about using the completely sealed case. I don’t want to start buying new phone batteries every other month, and I don’t want a lithium phone battery to catch fire.

[PotomacCyclist]

The Leaderboard has been displaying the following error message recently:

Fatal error: Call to a member function fetch_assoc() on a non-object in /var/www/rackspotter.com/htdocs/leaderContent.php on line 24

[PotomacCyclist]

@PotomacCyclist 124097 wrote:

The Leaderboard has been displaying the following error message recently:

Fatal error: Call to a member function fetch_assoc() on a non-object in /var/www/rackspotter.com/htdocs/leaderContent.php on line 24

It only occurs on my computer: Google Chrome. It displays properly on the Android mobile browser.

[PotomacCyclist]

I mapped a few bike racks at Camden Yards.

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[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 125028 wrote:

It only occurs on my computer: Google Chrome. It displays properly on the Android mobile browser.

I’ll pass it along.

[PotomacCyclist]

I added more bike racks in central Baltimore, mostly on Charles St. near Penn Station, and around the convention center. Someone had already mapped two bike rack locations next to Penn Station. Other people have added a lot of bike racks at Fort Meade, Odenton and Anne Arundel Community College. And bike racks from Annapolis to BWI. We’re gradually filling in more of the Mid-Atlantic areas on the map, outside of the immediate DC suburbs.

I found it easier to take photos (on a camera or phone), then type out brief notes about the bike racks on my note-taking phone app. Then I mapped the locations on RackSpotter back on my home computer. It’s difficult to map bike racks outside of the immediate DC area on a phone. The map will re-set frequently, centering the screen back on Arlington, instead of on the other city or area. Since the map started in Arlington and is primarily used by Arlington/DC-area residents, this makes sense. But if the goal is to have the map become a national tool, it would be useful to have the option to set a home area in the Settings.

Perhaps the user can type in the home city and save it. Then when the map resets, the home city appears, not Arlington VA. The default setting could be Arlington, But it would be nice to have the option to change the setting. This might be a better approach than setting up a GPS-based location service. Some of us turn off GPS on our phones because it can drain the battery charge rapidly.

[PotomacCyclist]

After mapping a lot of racks in Arlington and DC over the summer, I took a break for a while, to focus on other activities. I also thought it would be a good idea to avoid certain neighborhoods during the summertime crime wave. Some of the victims were random targets, not those involved in criminal activity already or acting aggressively. It didn’t seem smart for me to spend a lot of time riding or walking around in the hot spot zones multiple times a week.

Now that school has started and the weather is cooling down, the crime rate is likely to fall, as it usually does (whether it’s a bad year for crime or not). I might go on some RackSpotter runs again shortly. I still have a set of notes about which neighborhoods to cover, and which streets in those areas that I’ve visited before.

[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 125028 wrote:

It only occurs on my computer: Google Chrome. It displays properly on the Android mobile browser.

This has been resolved.

[PotomacCyclist]

Are these the highest bike racks and bike lockers in the DC region, compared to ground level?

This is on the top (3rd) level of the new Sarbanes Transit Center in Silver Spring, adjacent to the MARC station and the Metro station. There are bike racks and bike lockers at ground level at the Metro station, on both sides of Colesville Rd. (bike lockers only on the north side). More bike racks between the Metro station and the MARC station, along what is marked on Google Maps as the Metropolitan Branch Trail although the small spur hits a dead end, several blocks away from the rest of the MBT.

Then there is a large set of U racks on the top (3rd) level of the Transit Center, near the entrance from Bonifant St. and Ripley St. At the far end of the level, overlooking Colesville Rd. below, is a set of 20 bike lockers.

I don’t recall any other bike racks or lockers being located so far above ground in the greater DC region. I’ve mapped a lot of bike racks this year and none of them were located above ground level, I believe. Bike racks in parking garages are usually located on the ground or basement levels. There is a new bike parking room at the Reston-Wiehle Ave. Metro station. Someone added it to RackSpotter but I haven’t been there myself. On Street View/Google Maps, the structure appears to be a two-story building. I’m not sure if the bike room is on the ground level or the 2nd level. If it’s on the 2nd level, it would be one of the few above-ground bike parking areas in the region, along with the Silver Spring Transit Center.

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[Tim Kelley]

The attachments didn’t attach.

[PotomacCyclist]

I can see them. But I’ll try it again and edit the previous post.

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