[scorchedearth]

The meeting last night was well attended by people on both sides of the debate with the bike lane proponents armed with facts and cogent anecdotes about their experiences riding in the city. The meeting began with the city attorney explaining the reasons for the second hearing and a presentation by Rich Baier, the Director of Transportation and Environmental Services Department explaining the project and how it was thought out. His presentation was excellent and dismissed many of the myths of the opponents of the plan. After Mr Baier’s presentation, the public hearing began. I felt that the people in favor of the lanes had the most cogent arguments and gave some colorful anecdotes and personal experiences.

The board voted against the plan 5-2 however we did manage to convince one additional board members of its merits so that was hopeful.

The final meeting in this debate will be on March 15, 2014 at 9:30am in city council chambers. You can sign up to speak now by calling the clerk of the council. If you are a resident of the City, we encourage you to speak. If not, please come down to give a show of support for this plan. We’ll ask the people in the room to stand up and be counted in front of the council.

[scorchedearth]

The path under the bridges was open as of yesterday evening.

[scorchedearth]

@dasgeh 78167 wrote:

Awesome. Where are you from?

Toronto.

[scorchedearth]

@consularrider 78153 wrote:

Actually no drivers ed is required in APS, it is a summer elective that families pay extra for (hope I didn’t snip too much out of your post). I would love to see learning to ride a bike be part of the grade school curriculum. I think it would be much more useful than the Wednesday early release.

Cycling education was provided at my elementary school in my hometown as it should be everywhere.

[scorchedearth]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to remind anyone interested in having bike lanes installed on King Street that the hearing with the Traffic and Parking Board will be held in City Council Chambers tomorrow,February 24, 2014, at 7:30pm. We are hoping for a good turnout to support this project and aim to have a lot of people speaking in favor of installing the bike lanes. If you plan on speaking during the meeting, a form needs to be filled out and handed to the Chairman before the meeting begins. No speaker form will be accepted after 7:45 P.M. Staff will have speaker forms available at the meeting. Here is a link to the form:

http://www.alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/tes/info/Speaker%20Form.pdf

Let’s make this a good turnout and get this bike infrastructure installed!

[scorchedearth]

Here is one photo of me riding around in the snow/rain yesteday:

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[scorchedearth]

@cyclingfool 77011 wrote:

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This is approximately .002 mpg, 10.5 feet per gallon, or 120,000 liters per 100 km.

[scorchedearth]

The path under the bridges was still open as of yesterday evening.

[scorchedearth]

You: Motorist driving down Holmes Run Parkway in Alexandria

Me: Cyclist about 100 metres from a left turn to get out of your way

Passing me dangerously along a narrow road fully crossing a double yellow approaching a speed bump wasn’t the wisest move. I would have been out of your way 10 seconds later. I hope your suspension holds up after you hit that speed bump at 20mph where ironically enough, I caught up with you. Try to mellow out next time, OK?

[scorchedearth]

In Alexandria last year, we did a bike-to-work train where all of the commuters gathered at one of the BTWD meeting points and rode to DC together. You could act as a guide for those less experienced.

[scorchedearth]

@CaseyKane50 76622 wrote:

The Holmes Run Trail also suffers from way too much traffic. Police cars travel on the trail between Eisenhower and South Jenkins, A small trash truck goes along the trail emptying the trash cans and maintenance trucks travel along the trail (including the one’s below, clearing the trail of ice). Yesterday, as a change of pace, an officer on a motorcycle came through.

There are a couple of stretches along the trail where the asphalt is clearly deteriorating under the weight of the vehicles and they routinely kick up gravel onto the trail. That of course requires a crew in a truck to come along and clean up the gravel.

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That is appalling. I’ll bring it up with my city staff contacts at the next BPAC meeting to see how this works and what can be done to prevent this damage.

@rcannon100 76622 wrote:

Have they removed that large, um, obstruction, from the Holmes Run Trail (the above ground sewage pipe)?

Yes, that project has been completed.

[scorchedearth]

@ShawnoftheDread 75534 wrote:

Have you heard or seen the bike lane opponents complaining about bureaucracy, or are you just making assumptions?

I’ll admit to making an assumption here.

[scorchedearth]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/king-street-bike-lanes-brake-for-an-appeal/2014/01/23/57b7adfa-83b7-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html

The King Street project opponents are wielding a 50 year old law to force the bike lane proposal to go to additional hearings and come up for a vote at a city council meeting in March. There’s nothing like using bureaucracy to stymie a project you don’t like while complaining about it in reference to others.

There will be two additional hearings. One will be in front of the Traffic and Parking Board on February 24, 2014 and the other will be at a City Council meeting on March 15, 2014. Let’s aim for a solid turnout for both so that we can finalize this and get a new bike lane.

[scorchedearth]

I have Time ATACs on my mtb and my commuter. Both pedals are solid. If you want something durable (if a bit heavy), get some Time Alium ATACs. Those should serve you just fine.

To be fair, these are the only clipless pedals I’ve used so my experience is limited however the pedals I am using are great and I would recommend them to anyone looking for such.

[scorchedearth]

The gates were open as of yesterday evening.

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