[lordofthemark]

@chris_s 226147 wrote:

I’d use the heck out of a connection that just got me from the bridge to Valley Drive without dealing with that West Glebe Traffic.

The proposed trail would miss Valley. We have noted low volumes on that part of W Glebe, which would make it suitable for a road diet. But that did not make it into the new Arlandria/Chirilagua plan, and is not in the current 5 year work plan. There are three work plan items open for comment now, more on that very soon.

[lordofthemark]

@Steve O 226097 wrote:

I believe the consensus is to go with the swarm of bees.
We know who the queen is.

This will enable some of us who have various issues with making costumes to actually ride wearing an appropriate costume!

[lordofthemark]

The project is done. The underpass is now permanently (?) back open, and the bike lanes on the bridge are quite good, and are being fairly heavily used.

[lordofthemark]

Technically they aren’t bike lanes, right? They are a road level shared use path – providing a place for pedestrians, because most of the nominal ped path is underwater. Which is why sharrows are painted in the general travel lanes. I rode it the other day and cyclists were using either the path or the general travel as needed, it seemed fine. Of course this was a weekday afternoon in August, not a weekend during cherry blossom time.

[lordofthemark]

@LhasaCM 226087 wrote:

Some recent DC developments that are either completed or nearly so:

1. Almost a mile of protected bike lanes on Pennsylvania Ave SE (between 2nd and 13th) have opened.
2. DDOT is wrapping up installation of protected bike lanes on 8th NE to close the gap in the MBT between Franklin and Monroe. The lanes are a two-way cycletrack on the west side of 8th, with general traffic now being one-way until Lawrence.
3. DDOT has started construction of a south side two-way protected cycletrack on M Street SE between 1st and 11th as part of a broader bus priority project there.

I rode on Penn months ago, when it was still incomplete and not officially opened – good excuse to go back

I was on 8th a week and a half ago – a delight to see that after all these years.

Somehow I missed M Street despite riding across several times a week at NJ (assuming you mean more than the bus lanes themselves) I will probably check it out tomorrow.

[lordofthemark]

@accordioneur 225950 wrote:

Early on, Henry investigated the proper process to apply for naming. You can see the information near the top of this thread. In post #18 on that thread, Henry provided more detail after speaking with NVRPA.

Apparently, someone came to the conclusion (or, perhaps given post #8 on that thread, it was a foregone conclusion) that the defined process was too burdensome or might not provide the outcome our community desired, and took matters into their own hands instead.

I’m with Imacynic – the guerilla naming was a fun and clever thing to have done, but we shouldn’t have expected it to have lasted forever. Be careful advocating for ignoring rules and regulations – unless you’re willing to sacrifice the “bureaucracy” you like as well as the parts you don’t like.

As anyone who has worked in a bureaucracy knows, sometimes bureaucrats themselves do work arounds when bureaucracy is too burdensome, and that does not necessarily mean dispensing with the valuable parts. It is in fact what keeps bureaucracies working. I believe perhaps it was Harvey Mansfield either quoting or paraphrasing Machivelli “a conspiracy against the law to save the law” Pardon if I misrember, this was 1977.

I would say one next step might be finding out which agency removed the signs? Another would be informal outreach to some friendly folks at NVRPA or elsewhere.

[lordofthemark]

@chris_s 225901 wrote:

I think BTWD really needs a re-work for next year in the facing of our changing transportation landscape:
– Rename it to Bike to Anywhere Day or Ride Your Bike Day or something. The 9-5 commute paradigm is broken.
– Move it off of Friday, the day of least in-person office attendance.

I would hope it remains biking for transportation focused.

As for changing the day of the week I guess that makes sense? Though we might lose the end of the week party atmosphere. Ah, the world we have lost.

[lordofthemark]

@jrenaut 225866 wrote:

I’ts not so much size/attendance. The Freedom Plaza -> Franklin Square stops have the VIPs come out and talk about how great cycling is (as they allow construction to destroy cycletracks all over the city). It’s meant to be the premier stop in DC. I can’t speak to the Alexandria ones, I’ve never ventured further from DC than Rosslyn for BTWD.

Folks in DC and Arlington “Our PBLs are often out of commission due to construction”

Folks in Alexandria and Fairfax “Wait, you have PBLs?”

[lordofthemark]

@ImaCynic 225900 wrote:

Just responding to your comments on the prospect of cycling as a form of transportation. The sad reality is that drivers WILL do whatever they want – Lane markings? yield/stop signs? traffic lights? speed limit? bike lanes? Meaningless. Why are there so many speed, red light, and stop sign cameras in DC? Certainly not because everyone is a model driver.

Expecting traffic laws to protect and others to obey is the most dangerous thing a cyclist can do. Should he report this experience? Well, what’s the crime? The driver *almost* hit him?

In fact there are studies showing speed limit changes do lower average speeds, even in the absence of accompanying changes to infrastructure. Certainly traffic signals make a difference. There are lots of scofflaw drivers, but also many who are not. When counseling someone on how to ride, I’d suggest caution, and assuming drivers will break the law. When advocating for policy change, I would not assume that changes to speed limits and traffic signals don’t matter. (I won’t get into the paint only bike lane debate – probably will save that for my substack)

As for reporting, there are close calls reporting sites for bike/ped, which operate on the same idea as close calls reporting for other modes, like aviation. Added data helps policy makers consider priorities for solutions.

[lordofthemark]

@ImaCynic 225896 wrote:

Yes, and a “cycling as a transportation option” really only applies in the context of urban mobility and going beyond this is simply not an option for majority of the population. Furthermore, I’d argue that most sees cycling as an activity, not a mean of transportation.

A. It’s certainly a transportation option in many inner suburbs, and some urbanist islands in the suburbs, especially combined with transit

B. Doesn’t have to be the majority. If you go from 9% to 18%, say, that’s a huge change, especially if combined with changes that increase walking and transit (and changes to urban form that shorten car trips, changes to road pricing and parking policy that encourage car pooling, etc)

[lordofthemark]

Thursday Coffee Club

The coffee club once known as Whole Thursday Foods Coffee Club, which has been held at Westpost (formerly known as Pentagon Row) in good weather, will experimentally be held at Metropolitan Park (the park behind the new Amazon HQ2 building, between Eads and Fern, south of 12th Street) tomorrow. Look for updates here. Note, all three locations are near each other, so you can always ride from one to the other in search of bike people drinking coffee

Tuesday Coffee Club

Tuesday CC in Crystal City (CC) is now at Mah-Ze-Dar, on Crystal Drive, rain or shine. Indoors or out front, depending.

Friday Coffee Club

Friday Coffee Club in NoVa will be back at the Old Town ALX waterfront – the park near Misha’s.(In the winter it was held at the new St Elmo’s near Quaker Lane – what happens when we get inclement weather in the summer, I am not quite sure) Of course the original Friday Coffee Club remains at Swings in DC

[lordofthemark]

@loki 225876 wrote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]30796[/ATTACH]

Thanks. Bottom line, I might as well do other “bucket list” rides, and wait for more progress before exploring this trail.

[lordofthemark]

@huskerdont 225870 wrote:

Yes, the trail underpass is open, yet every day I see people still queued up at the light. It’s like the cage door is open now and people don’t notice it.

Tuesday on the way home from work, I went (westbound) to the light then realized what I was doing and doubled back to take the trail. Sometimes we get in our zone and ride by habit, doncha know. “the horse knows the way” as my dad (zichron le bracha) would say (when driving a car)

[lordofthemark]

@jrenaut 225862 wrote:

Rather than listing the pit stops in order, I would have featured the big ones (Rosslyn, Franklin Sq, etc). And I would have put in big letters that Freedom Plaza isn’t the big stop any more. Had a chat with a cyclist in the PA Ave cycletrack who had been looking for it and was confused. Luckily I passed another stop and one of the volunteers there sent me to the right place, just in time to hear DDOT Dir Lott pretend he knows what a bike is

To be fair the hierarchy of stops has been kind of unstable as we (emerge? kind of emerge? think we have emerged? I’m not touching that one) from he pandemic. Market Square was in the past the big one in Alexandria, last year there was no pitstop at Market Square and Carlyle was the big one. As noted, this year Market Square was back – it seemed big to me (I have never done Freedom Plaza, and have only done Rosslyn once, last year) but Carlyle may still have been busier.

[lordofthemark]

The trail underpass is open!

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