Five items about biking as transportation
1. I love the Christmas tree made up of bikes at the plaza on Ellsworth Avenue in Downtown Silver Spring. Bike share bikes are at the base, and are rideable.
2. In the context of "maintenance of way" writings as it relates to winter weather (I will be re-writing reposting that entry soon enough for the 2017-2018 winter season) it occurs to me that the stairway connecting to the Metropolitan Branch Trail from L Street NW should be heated so that snow and ice stays melted.
In rebuilding it for that purpose, the "bike gutter" could be switched to the center of the stairwell, like in Bethesda, on the Capital Crescent Trail.
(Since many people carry their bikes up and down the stairs, they must not recognize the boardways on the side are for rolling your bike up or down the stairs.)
3. Color coordinated litter on the Second Avenue Cycletrack in Silver Spring.
4. Cargo bike duded up for Christmas, as seen on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. (It even has lights. I'd love to see it at night.)
5. Melbourne and Sydney are seeing huge issues with dockless bicycle sharing services ("Melbourne and Sydney are seeing huge issues with dockless bicycle sharing services," News.com) and Seattle ("Hey, you can't park there! Dockless bike-share bikes ending up in inappropriate locations," Washington Post) with people vandalizing the bikes. In Melbourne, dozens were combined into a mural ("Workers clean up Fitzroy mural built from abandoned oBikes," Victoria Herald-Sun).
Although so far, one was thrown on the Metrorail tracks ("After fare evading, man throws LimeBike onto tracks, sets fire to box on train platform," WMATA).
Labels: bicycle and pedestrian planning, sustainable mobility platform, urban design/placemaking
posted by Richard Layman @ 11:01 AM&Permanent Link
4 Comments:
(Since many people carry their bikes up and down the stairs, they must not recognize the boardways on the side are for rolling your bike up or down the stairs.)
That kinda insults the intelligence and experience of the users, doesn't it? Many probably recognize what the boards are for just fine, but they realize that they don't actually work very well.
I know I've tried to use those boards and it's frankly a lot easier to just carry your bike.
I guess I could look at it as a form of weightlifting.
I still think a lot of people don't know...
Regardless of the reality that they don't work that well, and should the stairwell be replaced, a move to the center gutter trough should be in order.
The bike gutter on RI Ave. up to the Metro station isn't very good either. Nor is the one from the MBT to that charter school. Clearly, better requirements for this type of infrastructure are in order.
I think it’s less “don’t know” than “assume it’s just a weird design because it’s clearly too narrow for a bike”. A racing bike with no bags works but if that’s what you’re riding you also need the assist the least.
I strongly agree on needing better requirements. I stopped using the stairs entirely since it’s easier and faster just to roll around the block rather than dismounting and lugging.
(I am weird about riding on switchbacks. You're right though it's faster to just do the switchback at M Street.)
one of my many unfinished blog entries is a follow up piece on better "horizontal and vertical access planning" around transit stations.
I've written about this more broadly concerning this station already, but I didn't mention this particular element.
http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2016/05/in-many-places-public-improvement.html
I will, in an omnibus entry, along with some other examples, at Rhode Island Metro, an example in Paris, one from NYC, etc.
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