DC-area bike history: BikeArlington Forum, Freezing Saddles, blogs, etc.

[PotomacCyclist]

DC-AREA BIKE TRAILS AND BIKE-RELATED INFRASTRUCTURE
To be updated.

Mount Vernon Trail

Washington & Old Dominion Trail

Capital Crescent Trail

Custis Trail

Rte. 110 Trail

Metropolitan Branch Trail

Rock Creek Trail

14th Street Cycletrack (protected bikeway)

Woodrow Wilson Bridge trail

George Mason/14th Street Bridge path

[PotomacCyclist]

UNKNOWN START DATES

BikeArlington is a program of Arlington County Commuter Services (ACCS), a bureau of Arlington’s Department of Environmental Services.

http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/about/

When did they create their first website? When was the first Arlington bike map published? When was the digital Arlington bike map first published?

goDCgo is an initiative of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT). The goDCgo program focuses on the reduction of single-occupant vehicle travel and promotes the use of more sustainable modes of transportation, such as bicycling, walking, carpooling, vanpooling and using public transit.

http://www.godcgo.com/about-us.aspx

– When was goDCgo created? First website, DC bike map and digital DC bike map?

The District of Columbia Bicycle Advisory Council (BAC) is a body established by law (DC Code sec. 50-1604) to advise the Mayor and District agencies on matters pertaining to bicycling in the District, and to make recommendations to the District’s Bicycle Coordinator on the budget and focus and implementation of the District’s Comprehensive Bicycle Transportation and Safety Program.

http://dcbac.blogspot.com/p/about-bac.html
http://dccode.org/simple/sections/50-1604.html

– When was the DC BAC created? First website?

Freezing Saddles

– Freezing Saddles began… when? The earliest thread I can find is dated Dec. 4, 2012, for the 2013 contest. But it’s clear that this was not the first year of the contest. I think it started in 2010, 2011 or 2012. The forum didn’t start up until late 2009 with a formal launch in Jan. 2010.
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?3500-Freezing-Saddles-Winter-Bike-Challenge-(sign-up-open)

OTHER SOURCE MATERIAL

Active Living and Biking: Tracing the Evolution of a Biking System in Arlington, Virginia
Royce Hanson & Garry Young, George Washington Institute of Public Policy (March 2006)
http://www.gwu.edu/~gwipp/papers/wp024.pdf

Additional contributors: chris_s, Tim Kelley, 5555624

[Megabeth]

Great stuff! The Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee has actually been around much longer than 2012…we can probably find some back history on that. (I know because my first Monday of the month has been occupied by the BAC meetings much longer than since 2012.)

[Crickey7]

It’s also the 50th anniversary of the Schwinn Stingray, the coolest bike ever made (according to my 10-year-old self).

[chris_s]

December 2009 is probably about right. The forum’s first entry in the Way Back Machine is from February 2010. Here’s how it looked then:

[chris_s]

Found this nugget in the County Board Meeting Minutes archive:

Arlington County has been selected to receive the first Annual BikeWalk Virginia Community Champion Award on
April 8, 2002, at the Virginia BikeWalk Conference in Blacksburg, Virginia. The award is a result of the County’s
adoption of a Bicycle Plan and establishment of a Bicycle Advisory Committee in the mid-1970’s; adoption of a
Pedestrian Plan and the establishment of a Pedestrian Advisory Committee in the mid-1990’s; establishment of a fulltime
bicycle/pedestrian coordinator; investments of $15 million over 35 years to build a bikeway system of 90 miles;
inclusion of pedestrian accommodations in Metro and commercial developments; and creation of a Safe Routes to
School program.

[chris_s]

There’s a wealth of history on Biking in Arlington in this paper.

[dasgeh]

This is really awesome. Thanks.

If you don’t mind me asking, can you put the 110 Trail on the list of trails to figure out the history of? That little stretch of pavement is so very useful, and seems so different than other trails we have, I’d love to know how it got there.

[PotomacCyclist]

I scanned through the paper quickly. Looks like some good info there, up through 2006.

I found another source (on my home computer), which I will incorporate into the timeline. I discovered the character limit per post. The system wouldn’t let me add more than 10,000(?) characters to the 1st message. I moved some text to the 3rd message. I have reserved the 1st three posts on the thread for additional items for the timeline. That should be enough space.

Re the start-up date for this forum, I looked at the registration dates for the administrators. Even with the turnover at BikeArlington, I figured that some of them were around for the launch of the forum. Some of them, including Tim Kelley, have Join Dates in early Dec. 2009. A search for “2009” turns up a few threads from Dec. 2009 but it also brings up a lot of threads from later years about bikes and events from 2009. Interesting to see that unregistered visitors seem to have been allowed to post on threads back then. I guess this was before the spammers found out about the forum, and the administrators began to require that people register before posting. (Some spammers got around that obstacle, but other anti-spam measures were put in place. Those have been successful, for the most part.)

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?28-snow-removal-from-bike-paths
– That was the infamous winter with the three major snowstorms, which were given names like Snowpocalypse and Snowmageddon. Maybe those storms deserve a mention in the timeline. I didn’t bike that day, but I was forced to walk. Metro shut down all above-ground trains that afternoon, which meant no service to Arlington other than the Orange Line. There were no taxis available either, so the only way back was to walk, on top of the thick snowpack. Walking across the 14th Street Bridge trail/path on top of all that snow put me very close to the top of the fence. One slip and boom, into the water.

[PotomacCyclist]

@dasgeh 104989 wrote:

This is really awesome. Thanks.

If you don’t mind me asking, can you put the 110 Trail on the list of trails to figure out the history of? That little stretch of pavement is so very useful, and seems so different than other trails we have, I’d love to know how it got there.

Sure. The Rte. 110 trail has always been confusing to me, since I’ve never taken that exact route. I’ve ridden on the Washington Blvd. trail/sidewalk over Rte. 110, but never along Rte. 110 itself. (Like many others here, I’ve ridden on the Rte. 110 car lanes during the Air Force (Association) Cycling Classic challenge rides, but not on any trail.) What is the exact location of the trail? Is it on the west or east side of the road? Between which cross streets or roads? I know that there are plans for a complete Rte. 110 trail in the near future, but I’m not sure where the exact location is. When I look at the area on Google Maps, I see a few road/ramp crossings that seem to be tricky, like the grade crossings south of Memorial Bridge.

[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 104931 wrote:

– When was BikeArlington created? When did they create their first website? When was the first Arlington bike map published? When was the digital Arlington bike map first published?

Trails were first included on the Arlington County master transportation plan going back to 1974.

I have in my possession an “Arlington Bikeways” map put out by the Department of Public Works from 1979.

I also have a map that is similar to the current “Arlington Bike Map” from 2006, which was revamped in 2009/2010.

BikeArlington has existed as a program within Arlington County Commuter Services since the early to mid 2000s with a couple part time employees. It was more fully funded in 2009 with two full time employees and then in 2011 expanded to 3 employees.

The stand alone website, in its current form began in 2009. The earliest digital map files I have are from then too, but some may have existed before I started here.

[chris_s]

110 Today:

110 Future Addition:

[chris_s]

If you’d like to understand why people groan and sigh anytime NPS is involved in a bike project, enjoy the dates in this article on the 110 trail construction. The Environmental Assessment still hasn’t even started yet, by the way.

[PotomacCyclist]

The other day, I was looking at the announcements for the 14th Street Bridge trail widening project, between the bridge and East Basin Drive, near the Jefferson Memorial. At the time, I thought, Wow, this is great!

But that was in July 2013:

http://www.waba.org/blog/2013/07/national-mall-wins-grant-for-14th-street-bridge-path/

NPS/DDOT were awarded a Transportation Alternatives Program grant for reconstruction and improvements to the trail. But I don’t think anything has happened yet. Part of the path was marked out with temporary orange traffic cones last summer. I thought that was a signal that the reconstruction was about to start. Then the traffic cones disappeared and nothing else happened on the trail. I’m not even sure if there is an online project page. If there is, I can’t find it.

Anyway, the timeline will help to remind everyone that there has been a lot of progress over the decades, even if the improvements sometimes take a long, long time.

[chris_s]

Also the 110 trail has been in official Arlington Master Plans since at least 1994.

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