D.C. Bicycle Advisory Council

As a companion to the the details of the Tommy Wells ride, below are pictures from the Thursday, July  28, 2011 Council Member Tommy Wells' Bike Ride for Better Connections on South Capitol Street.  The pictures highlight some of the issues with the corridor and well as shows the potential for the development of better cycling and pedestrian facilities.

The DCBAC Facilities Committee and its Chair, Jeanie Osburn (Ward 5 Rep.), will hold its August rolling meeting this Monday, August 8, 2011 beginning at the Benning Road Metrorail Station at 6PM. DCBAC appreciates your comments regarding bicycling in the area and invite residents and bicyclists to attend. The ride will explore the proposed bicycle improvements listed in the Far Northeast Livability Study and allow DCBAC to provide feedback to the District Department of Transportation.  This will give riders a first-hand view of the bicycling conditions in areas such as Deanwood, Benning, Benning Heights and Marshall Heights.

Council member Tommy Wells, District Department of Transportation (DDOT) officials, Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) staff, representatives of DCBAC and the public toured South Capitol Street and the surrounding corridor.  At least 20 people were in attendance, along with representatives of the media ( Fox 5 and WAMU ) who reported on parts of the ride. DCBAC would like to hear what the public has to say about this project and how bicycle access to this area can improve. The purpose of the ride was to highlight some of the planned changes to this area which is anchored by the redesign of South Capitol Street and the replacement of the Frederick Douglass Bridge as recommended in the recently completed Final Environmental Impact Assessment .  The ride also provided an opportunity for the DDOT project director to view the sight for himself to see the current impediments and listen to the concerns of the bicycling public. Along with WABA, DCBAC drafted a letter in ...

Below is a Google map showing 32 new Capital Bikeshare locations ( Blue pins ) and 18 current stations that will see expansion ( red pins ), most of which should be installed by the fall of 2011.  According to a press release issued by goDCgo , the District Department of Transportation Director Terry Bellamy states that, " With this expansion we will not only increase the overall reach of the system, but we will expand the program’s capacity by 22 percent in the downtown area, by 80 percent in our East of the River operations and by an average of 38 percent throughout each of the additional Wards .” Most of the new locations add capacity in the system's core but CaBi appears to also expanded east of the Anacostia River in the neighborhoods of Fairfax Village, Benning Ridge, Congress Heights and downtown Anacostia. Areas not receiving new or expanded stations include upper regions of Ward 3,  4, and 5. View New (Blue) and Expanded (Red) CaBi Bike Stations in a l...

Picture This , a photo by uno000 on Flickr. Via Flickr: The WMATA reminder, no bikes at the center doors!

DCBAC is would like to here your comments and suggestions with regard to altercations between the District's Pedicab operators and the National Park Service Police (NPS) on or in the vicinity of the National Mall.  Also, DCBAC is interested in the public's thoughts on the proposed pedicabs operator regulations. DCBAC plans to gather this information and will likely present it to local and federal authorities. DCBAC would especially like to hear comments from actual pedicab operators.  Comments can be left below or you can send an email to dcbac@dcbac.org. As reported by various news outlets including Patrick Madden of WAMU radio and David Schultz of Transportation Nation , the District's pedicab operators have been targeted by the NPS Park Police as part of its “education campaign” designed to remind pedicab operators of the laws they have to follow.  According to some Pedicab operators, however, the Park Police have been targeting them unfairly for tickets and ar...

As a public service, below are bicycle-related comments/questions issued to Robert Thomson on his Monday midday Dr. Gridlock chat on the Washington Post website, unedited. This week, two comments were posted on the discussion site regarding bicycling - comments about bike lanes and the improvements to Virginia trails. Regarding these issues, the washcycle recent observations about the 15th street Cycletrack and the South Capital Street Trail. Bike lanes Q. How are the comments running about the bike lanes? A. Robert Thomson - Not too much lately. Cyclists seem pretty happy with them, including the new lanes on 15th Street NW in DC. Drivers never like sharing the road with cyclists. They tend to object either to setting aside space for cyclists or to having the cyclists in the regular travel lanes. Further Bike/Running Trail Evolution Q. The recently completed links connecting Eisenhower valley through the Wilson Bridge are wonderful. There's now a "missing link...