Behold: RackSpotter – A crowdsourced bike parking tool!

[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 127030 wrote:

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

And when are you going to get to 2,000 racks spotted? We keep rooting for you!

[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 127030 wrote:

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

And when are you going to get to 2,000 racks spotted? We keep rooting for you!

[PotomacCyclist]

I slowed down a bit in August and September when I thought I might actually do some real training instead. That didn’t quite work out. (I would run for a week, then stop running for 7-10 days, then run a week, and so on. So I didn’t get into peak form at all. Not even mediocre form.)

I already covered the densest areas in terms of bike racks, which is in central DC. The other neighborhoods do not have as many bike racks so closely placed together over such a large area as central DC has. I’m starting to fill in a few areas now but it’s only 5-10 racks here and there. I stopped by one of the new buildings in the Mt Vernon Triangle neighborhood to map those racks recently.

Most of the large construction projects will add bike racks upon completion. It’s pretty insane just how much construction is taking place in NoMa, Mt Vernon Triangle, downtown DC, Gallery Place, Foggy Bottom, Capitol Riverfront and the SW Waterfront. I count at least 80-85 projects of medium to large scale in central DC, including The Wharf, the new DC United soccer stadium, Capitol Crossing over I-395 and the REI Uline arena flagship store. The Wharf, which won’t open for a few years, by itself will add hundreds or possibly thousands of new bike racks to DC. The total number of medium/large projects is probably well over 100.

Then there’s all the new construction in Arlington, both current and planned for the near future. More than a dozen large buildings in the pipeline just in Pentagon City/Crystal City/Potomac Yard, all of which should have new bike racks. Plus many new buildings on the way in Alexandria, in Potomac Yard, North Old Town, Old Town and elsewhere.

I doubt I’ll do any long RackSpotter runs over the winter, but you never know. I think 1800 might be a reasonable target by the end of the winter. 2000 will be tougher.

Whenever I read about local stories and development updates now, chances are that I now know the exact block that they show in the photo. It’s interesting to get to know the area in such depth, something I wouldn’t have done without this mapping project. It gives me a different perspective on development, local history and all the changes in this area, particularly the rapid changes over the past 10-15 years. I’m still thinking about using this info for a fictional work someday. Even if I don’t use any places by name, I can still get ideas about what various urban and suburban neighborhoods are like in terms of physical infrastructure, transportation networks, local flavor and oddities (like some of the off-the-wall murals and statues I’ve seen in DC), and the various characters I see, both good, bad and neutral.

I also see this as my big contribution to Arlington/DC cycling, bike planning and information sharing. Got to make my mark somehow, and it’s not going to be through winning any races (unless every other contestant drops out before the start, or if they all run over a pile of broken glass and I don’t).

[PotomacCyclist]

@PotomacCyclist 127018 wrote:

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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I’m not sure if cyclists know about the bike racks and lockers on the top level of the transit center. As you can see in the photo, there isn’t a single bike at those bike racks. The transit center itself was very busy. Nearly 50 bus routes and services now have stops at the center and there are the convenient connections to the MARC trains and the Metro Red Line.

The bike racks at ground level were in use, although the set of racks alongside the Transit Center only had a couple bikes locked there. The racks in/under the Metro station had more bikes.

The top-level racks and lockers would actually be more convenient for cyclists arriving from the east of the Transit Center. But it wouldn’t make sense for people traveling to the Metro station, because those upper racks are two levels away from the Metro. Or maybe not as many people bike then transfer to a bus.

[Steve O]

@PotomacCyclist 127018 wrote:

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.

It’s on the ground level (street view).
The street view shows the “public” facility that anyone can ride up to and park in. It’s indoors and covered. The reserved area is farther inside and very spacious.
It’s a very nice facility, including two (yes, two) bike repair stands with tools. My only improvement suggestion would be water. There is no water fountain to fill a bottle or wet a rag to wipe your hands after working on your bike.

I visited at the grand opening but haven’t been back since, so I’d be curious to hear how many people are using it and how it’s holding up.

GB? Visited recently?

[PotomacCyclist]

I added all the bike racks and bike lockers at the Metro stations in the Tysons area (which will no longer be referred to as Tysons Corner, officially). I saw some bikes locked at the racks. There might be more on weekdays.

It’s going to be a while before Fairfax transforms Tysons into a true walkable/bikeable urban center. I can only go from what I observed around the Metro stations but also from other reports and also the video that someone posted on the forum a few months ago. But I did see several new construction projects very close to the Metro stations. I’ve read about those projects too.

If Fairfax follows through on plans to join Capital Bikeshare (first in Reston, and possibly in Tysons and Mosaic District later on), they need to continue to work at improving bike and pedestrian infrastructure there. Since I don’t work or live in Tysons, I don’t think I’ll be biking around there anytime soon.

Are there many bike racks at all in Tysons, apart from the Metro stations? It doesn’t seem likely but maybe there are.

[Rockford10]

@PotomacCyclist 128033 wrote:

Are there many bike racks at all in Tysons, apart from the Metro stations? It doesn’t seem likely but maybe there are.

It depends. I haven’t had trouble finding a rack near the malls or near an office building, but at the older strip mall with Performance Bikes and the Chinese place, there are no racks. Most office buildings have some form of rack in their garage, I haven’t seen any really nice facilities like “bike rooms” in Tysons.

[PotomacCyclist]

I found several bike racks around Tysons Corner Center. I added them to the map.

I also found new candidates for highest bike rack in the DC region:

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These are on the small observation decks along the Wilson Bridge Trail, about 80 feet above the Potomac River. That’s far higher than the Silver Spring Transit Center bike racks, compared to the adjacent ground or water level. (It’s still possible that the Silver Spring bike racks are higher when compared to river level because the close-in MD suburbs are uphill from downtown DC and the Potomac River level.)

I’m not sure who would ever use those bike racks though. There are two of them at each of the three observation decks. Is someone actually going to say, hey, it’s a good day to park my bike here and wander around on foot? It’s not as though there are restaurants, bars or restrooms up there. There is a bench and a set of binoculars. Maybe someone would be worried about being distracted while looking through the binoculars? They were being bike-friendly with the construction of the trail and the decks, so I won’t complain too much. Just wondering about the utility of racks in those locations.

I’ve been across the bridge several times, but this was the first time I stopped multiple times. I’ve taken photos of National Harbor, Old Town and DC from the bridge before. But for some reason, I noticed the shaking a lot more. That is, the heavy rumbling and shaking that occurs each time a large truck or bus passes by in the adjacent road lanes. Maybe I was tired. Whatever it was, I got dizzy and nervous when I felt that rumbling. Since the decks have been there for a few years and nothing has happened, I assume it’s all safe. But that doesn’t counter the instinctive worry that I felt, 80 feet above the water, with not much I could do if the deck were somehow to tumble and collapse.

I noticed a heavy police presence. Probably part of stepped-up security after the California shooting. Officers were driving a police car along the bike trail itself, across the bridge and on the Maryland side. Not a complaint. I understand the need for security measures. But perhaps a motorized (and armored) police bike would be better on narrow trails, with a patrol car nearby as backup.

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Many of you may have crossed the bridge as well. But did you know that the boundaries of VA, DC and MD are all marked on the trail. The bridge crosses from VA through the southern tip of DC before reaching MD. There are brass lines embedded in the trail showing the exact locations of the boundaries. The photo shows the DC/MD boundary line.

The trail passes from VA to DC, then from DC to MD in the space of about 300 ft. It’s the only location where you can travel among all three jurisdictions in under a minute. The other location is at Little Falls, north of Chain Bridge. It’s probably not advisable to be swimming or biking around in those rapids…

[PotomacCyclist]

In other news, National Harbor seems to have joined the bike-friendly community, sort of. I rode over there for the first time in a year or two. I knew they had bike racks at the point where the crushed shell path leads up to the main NH waterfront area. The expectation is that cyclists would lock up their bikes at those racks and proceed ahead on foot only. Or perhaps cut over into the parking lot and ride on the regular streets.

That’s what I did, half-expecting a security guard to tell me that bikes were not allowed at the NH complex. But then I saw another bike rack in the main NH area. And another. And another. The entire area now has bike rack coverage. At least the restaurant and bar area. Every single corner of the two main streets has a bike rack now, except one quieter corner next to a parking garage.

The convention center doesn’t seem to have any bike racks though. I think they should consider adding some there too.

As posted in another thread, the spokesperson at NH recently spoke favorably about adding bikeshare stations at NH as well as at the future MGM casino and the Tanger Outlet mall.

I wasn’t expecting any of this, not after the initial hostility toward cycling that the NH management displayed in their first year. I guess they read and heard all the complaints from people. I emailed them one of those complaints myself.

They still need to do something about that crushed shell path, especially if they want to bring Capital Bikeshare to NH in the near future. The path from the Wilson Bridge is smooth, paved asphalt. But once you approach NH, you run into a poorly maintained parking lot, with a lot of gravel and small potholes. That leads to the crushed shell path. While it’s possible to ride over it, I would be concerned about riding on skinny road tires on a regular basis.

Now that NH is more accommodating to cyclists, I will probably head over there more frequently than before. I went there a few times a couple years ago, maybe around 2011-2013. But zero times over the past year or two, until now.

The MGM Casino is across the street from the Harborview Ave bike path, so it will be possible to bike there when that opens next year (if they hold to the announced schedule). The Tanger Outlet mall has a couple bike racks at the southern end. I think they could use a few more bike racks, including some on the north end of the complex.

[PotomacCyclist]

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[PotomacCyclist]

I accidentally placed a pin at the wrong location for a bike rack, at 1900 Anacostia Fwy, Washington, DC 20020, USA. That pin should be removed, if possible. I added a note to indicate that the pin placement is incorrect.

I added a 2nd pin in the correct location, to the southwest of that location.

[PotomacCyclist]

I saw that the RackSpotter website was updated today. The pins now have a shaded look (dark green on the bottom fading to light green and a white highlight on top).

A big change is that we can now add photos to existing pin placements. This will let me address my oversight in not adding any photos to the early racks I posted, mostly in Pentagon City and Crystal City.

Map navigation seems to be smoother. In recent months, the display would be sluggish when trying to browse around the map. There’s less of a lag now. I’m no longer accidentally selecting individual racks while scrolling now, which was becoming a major annoyance for me. (When I would select a spot on the map and scroll, I would often select a rack unintentionally. Then the info for that rack would pop-up.)

I added photos to most of the Pentagon City racks today, so that part of the map no longer has pop-ups that look like a bunch of generic U rack images. I’m holding off on one rack until construction is finished there. Then I can include the new structure in the RackSpotter photo.

– There is one display glitch, on the desktop website. For rack pins where the photos were added before today, in the pop-up box, the generic black-and-white rack drawing image appears. The only way to see the photo is to hover over the comment line at the bottom of the box. The images are still there, but you have to take an extra step to view the images. This is cumbersome.

This doesn’t happen with rack pins and photos that I added today. For the new pins — and for existing pins with new photos added today — the photo appears in the pop-up box automatically, without having to hover the cursor over the comment line.

[PotomacCyclist]

@PotomacCyclist 127035 wrote:

I doubt I’ll do any long RackSpotter runs over the winter, but you never know. I think 1800 might be a reasonable target by the end of the winter. 2000 will be tougher.

— Oct. 30, 2015

I posted that almost exactly three months ago. I thought that there weren’t too many bike racks remaining to be mapped in the DC region. I was kind of wrong about that. I was also wrong about how many more racks I would map. I think I was around 1650 back then and I thought 150 more racks would be possible, while 350 would be a stretch goal for the winter.

So much for that. I reached 1700 quickly. Then 1800. Then 1900. Then 2000. 2100. 2200. And now over 2300. Nearly 700 new pins, double my stretch goal and the winter isn’t finished.

I saw that there were very few racks mapped in Maryland. So I filled in a lot of those gaps. I also filled in a lot of the blank areas East of the River in DC. I had said that I wanted to ensure that EOTR didn’t get ignored. There aren’t as many racks in those neighborhoods, but there are some. I located most of them in advance through Google Maps, library websites and Yelp. (Many Yelp pages indicate whether there is Bike Parking at a destination, although they don’t provide any details. Just Yes or No.) There are many run-down buildings in some of those areas, but I’ve also come across a lot of interesting places like the Anacostia Arts Center, the DC neighborhood libraries (which have been renovated and rebuilt with modern designs), the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, the Frederick Douglass Historic Site, THEARC, some new bars and restaurants, and the underutilized Gateway DC Pavilion at St. Elizabeths East.

I also decided to expand the coverage of the map and tie it in with the racks that others had mapped in Anne Arundel County. Adding racks in Laurel and Bowie helps to connect the DC region with Anne Arundel and the Baltimore metro area on the map. While there are gaps in the bike infrastructure between DC and Baltimore, the current bike map shows how interconnected the two cities are, and can be. I didn’t think it was practical to bike out to Laurel and Bowie (too far from Arlington and poor bike infrastructure in some places). So I took MetroRail and Metrobus most of the way there. It’s really convenient to bring your bike on the bus, using the bike racks on the front. It lets me cover a broad area without grinding myself down with long bike trips through some bike-hostile areas.

Maybe one day, a true bike route and network will be completed, connecting DC with Anne Arundel and Baltimore on comfortable, convenient and safe bike trails or separated bike paths. From what I’ve read here and elsewhere, that route does not exist today. Biking from DC to Baltimore means riding on some high-speed roads, something I’m not interested in doing.

I think I’ll continue to make a push to map racks, at least when the temperature is above 40F. Occasionally on days below 40F but not too much below. I’d like to finish most of what I want to do by mid-spring. After that point, when the weather gets hot, the mosquitoes will start to come out again. Mapping racks means stopping and starting a lot, not steady riding or running. This made me a very easy target for mosquitoes last summer. I’d like to avoid that this year. I tried insect repellent but that stuff is terrible to breathe in. It can’t be great for the skin either. I’ll take another break from RackSpotting over the summer, except the occasional session here and there. Then I could pick it up again in the late fall.

There will always be more racks to map, partly because of all the new construction, and also because of the bike rack programs from various business improvement districts, neighborhoods, cities, towns and counties. I’ve gone back to several areas that I had covered and found new bike racks. They’re multiplying like rabbits.

[chris_s]

So it turns out rackspotter.com has a “Download Data” button hidden away in the “More Info” page…

so dcbikemap.com now includes bike rack locations (if you zoom in).

[Judd]

I have a dude crush on chris_s. This is awesome.

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