Washcycle

At the moment, the Washcycle blog (now with a redesign and sponsorship by the Washington Area Bicyclists Association) has some particularly excellent articles (it's always! a very good read):

1. That Copenhagen now has more bicycles coming into the city than cars. This piece, based on a ULI publication, quotes Jan Gehl stating:

The amount of bicycling in the city has doubled since 1990, with about 36 percent of commuters traveling to work by bicycle, 23 percent by car, and the majority of others using public transport or walking.

There are now more bicycles going into the city than cars, which the city considers a major achievement. “We have people coming from other cities and asking, ‘Where is all the traffic?’ ” says local architect Jan Gehl. “A major problem now is congestion in the bicycling lanes.”

All the public squares are now car free. “It is gradually getting harder to get into the city by car. If people can’t park, they won’t drive,” he says. “People will gradually find other ways to travel. This will create a higher-quality environment that will entice more people to visit the city.”

2. Points out that Duncan Spencer and myself are wrong, that there are bicycle racks at RFK Stadium.

3. Makes an excellent point about the logic of connecting DC's Anacostia Riverwalk Trail to the Marvin Gaye (Watts Branch) Trail. While Washcycle focuses on how the ART isn't really a "commuting trail," in some respects that misses the point, as with transit, this is about connectedness--connecting allows one access to a farther range.

(One of these days, Ken Firestone and I are going to do some biking along the PG County Anacostia Trail.)

4. Shows analytic beauty in discussing the incongruity of spending say $2.5 billion on the Wilson Bridge--for cars--and then stating that spending a little more money for accommodating bicycles is too expensive and degrades the environment.

(Note that this is similar to my use of the "subsidy" of the amount not paid by drivers allocated to the Wilson Bridge and the Springfield Mixing Bowl--$1.2 Billion--and my question to Ronald Utt of the Heritage Foundation--where is your outrage over this subsidy in comparison to your calling a $1.5 Billion contribution to WMATA by the Federal Government, "History's Largest Earmark"?)

5. Washcycle susses out equivalent hypocrisy by the Citizens for Government Waste, and their thinking it's wasteful for WMATA to spend money on articulation between pedestrian and bicycling modes--but evidently not cars--which is a sidebar mention in a piece about a workshop held by WMATA on improving bicycle access. In the context of this, Washcycle suggests that the hour restrictions for bicycle use be reconsidered. (And DC1974 made a similar point in a comment to one of the entries on this blog, that bicycle users can be accommodated in different ways during rush hours.)

Index Keywords: mobility