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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.
Please don't occupy CaBi
stolen bikeshare bike at OccupyDC? by Joe in DC "It was weird that it was just leaning against a pole, unattended."
@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
Alexandria votes to join Capital Bikeshare; Arlington to recieve funds for their expansion
Last night, in a close 7-0 vote the Alexandria City Council voted to join Capital Bikeshare. The city will install six stations, with 54 bikes, in the Old Town and Carlyle neighborhoods. If successful, the program would expand to Del Ray, Arlandria, Potomac Yard and the West End, later connect...
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.
Filming shuts down Penn Ave bike lanes
Photo by Read Scott Martin I can't remember which movie is filming in DC right now, but I'd know it if I heard it. Anyway they closed down a wide swath of Penn NW yesterday. Personally, this doesn't bother me too much. I think they have to pay for it, they provide work, and it's part of living...
@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.
New York Announces 10,000 bike bikeshare system - also Bixi/Alta
Here's streetsblog And the New York Observer Comprising roughly 600 stations with 10,000 bikes, the scheme will, according to two people briefed on the plans, stretch from the Upper East and Upper West sides down to the tip of Manhattan and over the bridges into Brownstone Brooklyn, reaching as ...
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.
Monday Morning Commute - Partial Plate
I hope everyone's favorite pro football team won yesterday. Mathematically impossible? Maybe. But, I'm an optimist. If you were hit on Friday afternoon on New York Ave. around 9 or 10th st. NW by a light blue cab that left the scene, another driver contacted me with a partial plate. I can put y...
I met Nellie and Rootchopper this morning on the MVT. Nice chatting with you, Rootchopper!
MVT Fixed and it only took 3 years.
Fixed - after 3 Years by Rootchopper He writes Several years ago a huge storm uprooted a tree alongside the Mount Vernon trail between Dyke Marsh and the stone bridge. The tree had torn a gash in the side of the trail. The tree was removed sometime in the last couple of weeks and the gash rep...
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.
Capital Bikeshare Expansion News Coverage, one station added yesterday
The Washington Times has the longest story. It's a multi-pager that covers the whole program from beginning to now. It has a somewhat negative tone in parts, focusing pretty heavily on dockblocking. This summer, the city’s innovative bike-sharing program has been crippled by its own success when...
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.
Capital Bikeshare Expansion News Coverage, one station added yesterday
The Washington Times has the longest story. It's a multi-pager that covers the whole program from beginning to now. It has a somewhat negative tone in parts, focusing pretty heavily on dockblocking. This summer, the city’s innovative bike-sharing program has been crippled by its own success when...
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.
Capital Bikeshare Expansion News Coverage, one station added yesterday
The Washington Times has the longest story. It's a multi-pager that covers the whole program from beginning to now. It has a somewhat negative tone in parts, focusing pretty heavily on dockblocking. This summer, the city’s innovative bike-sharing program has been crippled by its own success when...
It seems to me that the driver in the car is not buckled up.
White Nights Ride
Photo by M.V.Jantzen from last week's White Nights moonlight ride.
Terrific. Let's show those scofflaw walkers, runners and cyclists! Who do they think they are?
The mind just boggles.
Police Cruisers on MVT
Let's Park on the Mount Vernon Trail by Rootchopper "Here along the Mount Vernon Trail two Alexandria Police Department cruisers are parked on the trail. There was ample parking on the street directly behind these two cars. There was no hostile activity of any sort in the park. So other than b...
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.
Breaking News: Tommy Wells to lose chairmanship of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation today
GGW is reporting that Kwame Brown is stripping CM Tommy Wells of his chairmanship of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation today to punish him for investigating Brown's SUV scandal. Wells is far and away the strongest advocate of cycling in the District government and perhaps in the ...
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.
What if the Potomac River Generating Station closed?
The Sierra Club is pushing to have the Potomac River Generating Station in Alexandria closed. Now ignoring that whole fight, what if they succeeded? The Mount Vernon Trail runs completely around the plant - as it splits into two on both ends of the plant. And both of those sections of trail have...
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?
Tour de Links - Street gamins and corner loafers.
New York City - Men continue to make up the majority of cyclists in New York City - more so than in other cities. “Within the United States, New York is far behind in terms of the percentage of women cyclists compared to cities like Washington, D.C., and San Francisco,” said John Pucher, a profe...
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.
Friday Morning Commute - Brought to you by...
Good Morning Lydia DePillis discusses complete streets in DC and how to turn back some design mistakes from the past. Along with it this video which shows a close call for a salmoning cyclist. Poor discussion on mandatory helmet laws for adults at WUSA9 in the wake of this week's death. It even...
I feel loved!
Cupcakemaggedon
Membership has its privaledges Sprinkles Cupcakes in Georgetown will be giving one free cupcake to Capital Bikeshare members all next week. Members simply need to show their Capital Bikeshare key fob at Sprinkles' Georgetown bakery (3015 M Street, NW) June 20-24 and will receive one free cupcake...
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.
When drivers start following the law, then I'll share the trail with them
Photo by rootchopper who writes "This is the Mount Vernon Trail at the north end of Northdown Road. If you live on Northdown and want to entertain people, they have nowhere to park. So they park wherever they want. After all it's a multi-use trail."
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.
Tension on MacArthur Boulevard
Ronald Rust of Montgomery County has called on the county police to crackdown on cyclists riding two abreast. "They basically get in something that looks like the Tour de France peloton and basically take up the right side of the road," said Rust, 59, of Bethesda. Because of the complaint, offic...
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.
Post continues to push the "Follow the law too" line
Reread the Halsey article this morning, and combined with the John Kelly article, it seems the Washington Post is continuing to hit the "cyclists need to follow the law too" theme. Halsey's article breaks down like this: 4 paragraphs of drivers and pedestrians complaining about scofflow cyclis...
@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...
Wednesday Morning Commute - Silence
Rumor has it that Mayor Gray is announcing the new head of DDOT today. Crossing fingers for Conan O'Brien. Bixi almost went bankrupt. It's not because the business isn't solid, but because a loan from the city was held up pending approval from the Provincial government. The Ride of Silence is t...
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?
Wednesday Morning Commute - Silence
Rumor has it that Mayor Gray is announcing the new head of DDOT today. Crossing fingers for Conan O'Brien. Bixi almost went bankrupt. It's not because the business isn't solid, but because a loan from the city was held up pending approval from the Provincial government. The Ride of Silence is t...
+1 on Jonathan's post.
Since I started bike commuting I also reduced my total miles significantly. All while having more fun...
ICC to CaBi Comparison
An article in the Post recently mentioned that, when completed, the Intercounty Connector is expected to have 55,000 daily users. So let's compare ICC daily trips: 55,000 CaBi daily trips: 5000 ICC start-up cost: $2,566,000,000 CaBi start-up cost: $5,000,000 ICC start-up cost per daily trip: $46...
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.
Capital Bikeshare reliability has some annoyed, but the system is still a success
Over on PoP, several readers and PoP himself have complained that the system isn't reliable enough to call it a success. Personally I’ve also been frustrated with the system. Sometimes I feel like the people who run CaBi at DDOT are a little bit too self congratulatory. The idea of the system is...
WABA says that at 7:45pm the bridge was almost finished.
That was fast but I wonder how long this will last.
Maybe he was eating one of those really big burgers
Update: NPS is saying the trail will reopen by the evening commute This is on the MVT Photo by edcabic
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.
Capital Bikeshare Expansion, Data Dashboard, and 11,000+ members
At the Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting last night, Chris Holben with DDOT reported on the many changes coming to Capital Bikeshare. The biggest thing is the 25 station expansion. This is in addition to the handful of stations that still need to be rolled out from the initial 100. 5 stations w...
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