[mattotoole]

This area is one of my biggest peeves about cycling around DC. Pedestrians have it worse, as doing it “properly” is like an extra half mile of walking! Most just run across traffic.

The whole area should be reworked, but a few signs showing how to get from one path to the other would surely help.

I’ve been through there countless times, but before seeing the map linked to above, I still couldn’t tell you how.

[mattotoole]

@cvcalhoun 92363 wrote:

Just to clarify, the eBay ad says it is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Is that temporary (so someone could pick it up in Alexandria instead of Myrtle Beach), or permanent?

Thanks for your interest. No, the bike is with me in Myrtle Beach. (Sold now anyway.) I hope to be home in Alexandria in a couple of months, with a hankering for a 29er.

[mattotoole]

PotomacCyclist,

The Virginia Bicycling Federation should definitely be spreading the word about stuff like this. I wish I were more on top of things, but I’m out of state and working insane hours. So thanks for posting this. I couldn’t have done a better job, so I hope you don’t mind I used your alert: http://www.vabike.org/vtrans-2040-intermodal-transportation-survey/

BTW I did complete the survey.

[mattotoole]

Henry,

Glad I checked the forum today. Congrats, and big thanks to you (and all the Phoenix kids) for what you do!

[mattotoole]

Thanks Robert. What was the upshot, if anything?

[mattotoole]

culimerc,

As you may know, the Virginia Bicycling Federation has been deeply involved with this issue. While others played a big part too, I give Champe the most credit for leadership and getting Amtrak to the table.

Anyway, the upshot is, Amtrak has a task force working to hammer out all the details. Champe is a member along with some other bike advocates, Amtrak engineers and operations people. Issues like trains having to make double stops at short platforms, station dwell time, and impact on train staff and other passengers, all have to be worked out, along with myriad other things that might not be apparent. The task force will probably take rest of this year if not longer. If Amtrak is satisfied and it’s a “go,” then we’ll probably get bike racks on the Capitol Limited soon after. Other trains serving the region will take longer.

Until then you’ll need a bike box, to check your bike as baggage. Amtrak sells the boxes and they’re full-sized for minimum disassembly. Still, no bikes at stations without baggage service — like Harpers Ferry, and a lot of other biking destinations. This is a big reason to have roll-on service, which is pretty much self-serve.

A guide to writing to government officials about this issue is on my to-do list, but I’ve been too busy. Let us know if you’d like to help.

[mattotoole]

^^^A mounted cyclist is a lot narrower than a dismounted one, which/who might block a whole path without any easy way to let another slip by.

But it’s as if a person on a bike is inherently unstable and precarious, about to run over or crash into anyone or anything around them. So the only “safe” thing is to make them get off — ridiculous.

[mattotoole]

Yup, the good ol’ National Park Service – harping on relatively minor hazards, while totally ignoring a lot of very dangerous situations in their jurisdiction.

It’s as if they’re trying to advertise being all about safety and order, while totally incompetent at providing it.

[mattotoole]

A clear north-south route through Old Town would be great for cyclists in a hurry, but Union St. will still have plenty of cyclists, and congestion. The only way to solve that is to remake Union St. into something else. I’m all for a ped-priority, woonerf-type zone — like Granville Island in Vancouver BC — which Union St. is already a lot like.

Anyway, Yes on the Royal St. bike boulevard.

[mattotoole]

Looks like we won! Thanks to everyone who wrote.

http://www.vabike.org/alexandria-city-council-unanimously-approves-king-st-bike-lanes/

Thanks especially to the Alexandria BPAC crew, WABA and Greg Billing for working overtime.

[mattotoole]

I finally blogged about it yesterday and I’m working on a statement from VBF. There’s all kinds of last minute action on Twitter and Facebook to get everyone to sign, and/or come to the meeting tomorrow.

So please sign if you haven’t already. And come to the meeting. My real motive for commenting here is to bump this thread back up!

[mattotoole]

It’s easy enough to create a collective blog, w/ RSS feeds, etc. it would also help elevate the best local blogging to sites like GGW and Streetsblog, as one unified feed would be so much easier for their editors to follow.

To ensure the original author and blog get full credit and Google juice, rel=”canonical” tags really do work.

Anyway I’d love to see this happen, but personally I’m out of bandwidth.

[mattotoole]

Frankly we’re thrilled about winning “three foot passing” (finally!). We got the news during a busy Bike Summit in the midst of congressional meetings (you can thank us for those, too).

Here’s the latest:

• From Bud
• From Champe
• From WashCycle

Note: we need Gov. McAuliffe to sign SB97 “three foot passing.”

Though “following too closely” and “doorong” weren’t successful, it wasn’t for lack of trying by their patrons. Thank-you notes to Del. Comstock and Sen. Petersen are definitely in order.

[mattotoole]

@mstone 78531 wrote:

It’s inconceivable that they would go for the three foot passing bill and shoot down a one word change that makes it just as illegal to follow a bike too closely as it already is to tailgate a car.

SB97 also changes just one word, from “two” to “three”!

[mattotoole]

Heading south from the parking lot, the wayfinding sign where the boardwalk splits off left is important, but useless because:

• Through traffic splits off left vs. continuing straight, counterintuitive to begin with
• The sign is obscured by the guardrail/chain/post/whatever
• Like all signs on the MVT, it’s too small to be read at 12+ MPH
• The sign cannot be read at night as it’s not reflective

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