What if this was just a regular rider who stopped to chat with the people in the square? But that is not the same kind of screaming Fox News story as warning of the " hooliganism, anarchism and thuggishness" of which there has been very little in any event.

@Froggie: I lived in Old Town for a long time and still spend a good amount of time there. If the residents driving automobiles stopped "running red lights and stop signs without even bothering to look" we would have achieved a greatv safety goal. Stand on any corner in South east Old Town and observe. It's the same old song again. The scofflaw cyclist. blablabla

Interesting. Speaking of and BTW: What is going on at the Treasury Dept.? They closed the sidewalk and now the cycletrack is for all intents and purposes unusable b/ it somehow has become the official sidewalk. Pathetic. I'm back in the street where I obviously belong.

@Steven: Could be. But consider that the Smithsonian has been securing sponsorships for its exhibitions for a while and not only do people not object (much) but praise it as an example of private-public partnership. So this would be the angle to work on if there ever were corporate sponsorship.

Sorry to hear the Capital Criterium has been canceled. Last year, when it was in July, my family had a lot of fun and I had signed up the kids for the ride around the course again.

I met Nellie and Rootchopper this morning on the MVT. Nice chatting with you, Rootchopper!

If, like with ZipCar, I could have reserved a bike spot in the morning at L'Enfant Plaza, then everything would have been fine. So the comparison with ZipCar has an obvious shortcoming. In any event, like Christopher, I don't understand why people are defending CaBi's honor when they should just be looking at the facts of the situation: Unavailability of spots during non-rush hour and a van that drives by a full station without stopping. If this had been the first time for me experiencing load management issues I would not be as agitated. It just seems to happen to me very frequently to the point where I do not make trips anymore (even before this week's disappointment) because I cannot afford to risk the potential letdown.

Jonathan, oboe et al. I have been bike commuting year-round for years (on my own bike) but prefer not to use my bike for trips during the day. Lunch hour is not rush hour so I, as a CaBi member, should be able to use my membership to ride a CaBi bike to meet with my wife for lunch. Is that too much too ask? If I cannot use CaBi for a simple activity like this that otherwise either wouldn't happen (too far to walk) or would involve a cab, then what exactly is the allure for CaBi for me? Having premium memberships sounds like an interesting idea but I would need to make a lot of trips to make up for the $150 (assuming a 100% premium) that membership would cost. As it is, I joined CaBi when it opened mainly as a show of support and second as a a ready alternative if I wanted to meet people for lunch. That really doesn't work well for me as it turns out since load management is poor. Just as an observation on the CaBi commuter topic: I saw three or four CaBi bikes on the MVT trail this morning, presumabley going to Crystal City.

I am almost ready to send back my membership key to CaBi because of their inability to handles load management. It is just getting ridiculous. One recent example happened on Tuesday, when I had to stand up my wife for lunch because the docks at L'Enfant Plaza were full. While I was there I saw three more riders trying to dock. When I left, I saw the CaBi Sprinter van and turned around because I thought I would be able to dock a bike now. Guess what, the driver did not even stop to load up some bikes although he drove right past the full station. That is just an epic fail. So, yes the tome of the article may be negative but with good reason.

It seems to me that the driver in the car is not buckled up.

Terrific. Let's show those scofflaw walkers, runners and cyclists! Who do they think they are? The mind just boggles.

jason, did you just make this up or did it really happen? That is just amazing (but of course not surprising!). @Shawn: I had the same comment soemwhere else earlier today: This is the 19980s and early 1990s all over again. Just when you thought that DC was starting to get a little bit of grip.

dayglo beat me to it. Alexandria is a whore for development. But I see major impediments in cleaning up this site before anyone will consider building residential development there. Can you imagine what kind of contamination is present? That may limit the residential development substantially and maybe allow for some of the railyard usage except of course that this would mean a lot more train crossings on Washington Street which looks like it might be a tough sell. The main goal right now is to get the plant shut down. Then we want a better multi-purpose trail and after that is all done, they can finish the cleanup and build some houses.

Good for New Yorkers to have access to that funky new super-secret double jeopardy route through Central Park. But, seriously, 5mph? That's a 12 minute mile. Will they now also stop even average joggers for speeding?

Regarding the ads: What does DC usually do with people who deface property with grafitti? There is no reason to do anything less here. Actually it should be more since it is a commercial purpose.

I feel loved!

Amazing. It's one thing to park on the road where it says no parking but the driver might not see a hydrant or other reason for not parking there except for the sign. It is an entirely other thing to drive off the road, through a sign that says "no motorized vehicels" and park on a very busy mult-use trail, thereby creating a dangerous situation for probably hundreds of users who passed through during the hours the driver spent at the party.

While they are out there, they probably get a lot more money from stopping speeders exceeding the posted speed limits than from bicyclists riding two abreast. BTW, is passing a cyclist riding two abreast since there is a certain time where they are at the same level? Clearly, these guys have not looked around themselves enough to note that they are in a glass house and it is not advised to throw stones in that position.

My wife handed me the article this morning (shehad not read it yet) and said "Oh, an article for you." After the first paragraph and the really lame Farthing quote, I was already annoyed and was going on about how this was obviously a ridiculously biased piece. My wife regretted that she handed it to me. ;-) We should all send in letters every day about what we see in DC: Cars pushing pedestrians out of crosswalks, regular red light running, talking on a handheld phone and texting while driving, taking right on reds without slowing down at all and endangering pedestrians in the process, cars exceeding the speed limit, cars running stop signs, cars driving erratically. And this was just this morning on my way in.

@oboe: That's a good idea. Maybe I'll combine the heart rate monitor with the purchase of a PowerTap Pro + to make it worth my while. I just have to think about how I can come up with a good return-on-inestment story since my office building is converting the managed for-fee gym to an unmanaged free gym...

Riding a CaBi from 13th & NY Ave to the new Metro Center station or even to the Chinatown one without sweating is pretty much the limit for me. Anything further and nobody wants to talk to me for the rest of the day. My full admiration belongs to those people who do not sweat like it's their job (to borrow a phrase washcycle has used in the past) when they ride a bike but I am not one of them. I also freely admit that I always feel the urge to pedal hard when I am on the bike which inevitably leads to more sweating. What I find peculiar is that there is now apparently a cycling fashion police trying to dictate what is appropriate wear. Why don't we just decide as cyclists that it is OK to wear whatever the hell we want as long as the clothes don't get stuck in the spokes?

+1 on Jonathan's post. Since I started bike commuting I also reduced my total miles significantly. All while having more fun...

I already bike commute but want to use CaBi when I want to/ have to / or feel like it. That's why it is there, isn't it? Our building's gym is closed for renovation and we get to use a gym a couple of blocks away. I could easily walk there but it's a hassle on bike shoes. Ideal solution: Make use of the CaBi stations just outside my office and the building I need to go to. Today is the 8th day of doing this and since Friday, I have had four consecutive days where I could not find an open spot to drop the bike. Yesterday, I took a bike out of the full station on the return trip and was lucky to find the last open spot at the destination. That is just bad logistics. Disappointing. At that rate, it is not clear why I need this membership.

WABA says that at 7:45pm the bridge was almost finished. That was fast but I wonder how long this will last.

Please guys, be kind to contrarian. I think it's great that he actually keeps such good records. I wish I did. Most people would be appaled to find out that their car actually only gets 17 mpg or less but since they never bother to calculate gas mileage they are way too optimistic. They just know a ballpark figure for how much it cost them to fill up. @jodaeylan As I mention above, there are a lot of cheap and big SUVs that will easily come under the 17 mpg bar in our region's driving reality. Look at all the Explorers, Expeditions, Suburbans etc.