Bicycle stuff

1.  Bike shops are closing in DC.

According to one proprietor I talked with, generally, sales are down (nationally) but revenue is flat, because shops are selling more expensive bikes.


Bicycle-based tour group in front of the Newseum.

In DC, with bike sharing, e-scooters, and ride hailing, there is a decline in sales of bikes.

People are perhaps most inclined to take up bicycling in the core, and there the network of bike share stations is pretty complete (whereas outside of the core, it is many many blocks between stations), so having your own bike for point-to-point travel isn't an imperative.

This company closed stores in Adams Morgan -- losing out to a Wawa -- and just a couple weeks ago in Downtown, because the rent was so high ($20,000/month).

A few months ago, the bike shop in Brookland on the Metropolitan Branch Trail also closed, likely due to a mismatch between rent and sales also, along with still, relatively low regular biking for transportation numbers outside of the city's core.

2.  I do think there is an argument to be made for providing subsidies to bike shops as part of a broader program of transportation demand management and shifting more people out of the car.  But if people aren't biking, subsidizing a shop doesn't make sense.

So an active slate of programming aiming to shift people to the bike is a must.  As I mention frequently, many UK cities have either free or low cost programs where people can borrow a bike with helmet and lock, for periods of up to a month, to test out switching to biking as transportation.

-- Cycle training for adults and children, London Borough of Hounslow

From "Hounslow scoops award for cycling success":

Hounslow Council has picked up the 2019 London Road Safety Award for their pioneering cycle training scheme that has raised the profile of adult cycle training in the borough while increasing participation.

The scheme has seen a significant increase in the number of participants on their adult cycle training sessions over the last three years.

In 2016 the council changed the way people accessed the training, which helped not only to increase participation but more importantly, its reach to communities that are underrepresented in cycling. Adult participation numbers went from just under 100 adults in 2016/17 to 1,686 in 2018/19.

TravelSmart programs aren't bike-specific, delivered either at the neighborhood scale or at the workplace.

3.  Bike wash stations.  A bike mechanic working on my bike this past week admonished me for not keeping my bike (chain etc.) clean.  How about public bike wash stations?

I remember thinking having a bike wash station in the apartment building that opened up at 1st and M Streets NE in NoMA many years ago was an unnecessary amenity.  Now I am not so sure.

There are a number of options ("A Carwash For Bikes Means It's Ok To Ride Through That Mud Puddle," Gizmodo).


4.  The semi-abandoned BikeStation at Union Station is slated to become a bike hub run by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.  I was always skeptical of the Bike Station at Union Station.  It was very expensive, about $4.5 million, ugly (modern weird thing on the grounds of a Beaux Arts masterpiece), and didn't provide much value -- about 125 spaces for bikes and a repair station which also served as a staging point for bike rental by Bike and Roll.

Last year, Bike and Roll stopped running the facility, or at least, the repair and rental part of the operation.

Yesterday, WABA had an outreach table adjacent to it, and I was told that WABA will be taking it over, but the bike parking won't be retained.

Among activities they plan are using the station as a staging point for bike rides and tours.  Why didn't I think of that?

In my comments to the Federal Railroad Administration planning process for Union Station expansion I did make extensive points about making Union Station a model for bike-related services and programs.

Except for Union Station in Los Angeles, no train station in the US really does a good job at this.  It's opposite in Europe and Asia, and even the UK, which is a laggard in biking (like the US) compared to Continental European, where countries like the Netherlands and Denmark do way better than the US.  But the bike facilities at LA Union Station, while good, pale compared to say, the Cambridge station in the UK, which has space for 3,000 bikes -- of course, they also have the demand for it!

5.  Bike sharing operation and bike advocacy organization to have joint space in Buffalo, New York ("Doughnuts, comic books – and records – coming to former Record Theatre," Buffalo News).  In the bike sharing bids I worked on years ago, we also proposed putting a bike hub on as the front end of the back end repair operations of the program. From the article:

We're excited about the emerging tenant mix," said Jason Yots, president of Common Bond Real Estate. "We hoped to attract community-focused organizations to this site. GObike and Reddy Bikeshare fit that bill perfectly, given their neighborhood-building activities on both sides of Main Street."

GObike and Reddy will collaborate to provide retail, office, classroom and workshop spaces oriented toward bicycles. Officials from the two organizations said the "new location will bridge the gap between educational and cultural institutions throughout the city," as well as between various communities, the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, the Northland Corridor, University Heights and University at Buffalo.

“Our organizations’ shared space will foster better collaborations, allowing both of our organizations to improve access and reach new audiences throughout the region," said Justin Booth, executive director for GObike. “A dedicated educational space will allow expansions in GObike’s programming such as Recycle a Bicycle and adult education to help all road users interact in a safe manner.”

Community members and students will also have better access to the combined space. “This evolution of our partnership with GObike means an enhancement of support and encouragement for biking and bike sharing as a form of transportation, recreation and fitness in the city of Buffalo,” said Jennifer White, marketing and communications director for Reddy Bikeshare.

The model I developed was based in part on the headquarters of VeloQuebec in Montreal (pictured at right).

It's on a major cycletrack, has a cafe, bike tourism operation, and sells bike-related merchandise (no repair or sales) including books, like their own published Planning and Design for Pedestrians and Cyclists: A Technical Guide, which when I bought it in 2010, was still an early example of best practice (a lot of books and plans on the topic have been published since). 

Our idea was to go beyond this, more like the bike shop + cafe concept + sales, with a heavy focus on bicycling from a transportation demand standpoint, but also to promote urban bicycle-oriented tourism.

6.  Can't Adopt a Road programs be extended to bicycle paths, routes, and trails?  Of course, they are in some places.  But the idea of sponsorship for me is more about "reference groups" and reinforcing the idea that biking is not merely for recreation and that bikes are practical tools, not merely toys.

7.  Presidential candidate Cory Booker introduces "Transit to Trails Act" (via Cape May County Record).  It's not enough to make me want to vote for him, and what is more damning is that there used to be a program promoting and funding better mobility connections to National Parks, but it was dropped in the most recent federal transportation bill. Still, it's always good to be promoting better ways to connect to park assets. From the article:

According to a release, the Transit to Trails Act creates a grant program to fund projects that make transportation to green spaces and public lands more accessible for critically under served communities.

Representatives Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) and Steve Stivers (R-OH) introduced a companion measure in the U.S. House of Representatives.

A lack of transportation options often excludes those in under served communities from accessing our public lands, which are a national resource that should be readily available to all Americans. The Transit to Trails Act focuses on the areas of the country with the highest need for better transportation options and makes access to these public lands more equitable and convenient for all.

In DC, we could do a lot better ("A gap in planning across agencies: Prioritizing park access for pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users compared to motor vehicle access," 2015). But likely that is a problem not exclusive to DC.

8.  You're not helping: is this supposed to be a bike parking aid?  One of the problems of the conversion of public parking on the streets to digital systems is the removal of parking meters, the stanchions for which are used by many to park their bikes.  Contraptions have been created to bolt on to stanchions so they can still be used for bike parking.

I don't know if that is the purpose for this thing on the 700 block of 7th Street NW in DC.  The holes are too low to be able to use them to lock a bike frame to it/through it.

Maybe it was installed upside down?

In any case, not only have they removed parking meters, they removed the bike rack that was proximate to the Bed, Bath and Beyond store on this block, which I regularly frequent for "health and beauty products" and the store brand olive oil, which we like.

9.  Bike co-ops should be given space in recreation centers, etc.  The Velocity Bicycle Cooperative has space on Mount Vernon Avenue in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, which is awesome.  But most such co-ops around DC (Gearing Up Cycles in DC, Mount Rainier Bike Co-op in Maryland) have marginal spaces even if they are decently located.

Shouldn't these kinds of operations be supported by access to space in recreation centers?

(I've made this point many times but it's always worth repeating.)