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Planning Board fails to fix the ICC Trail

From our good friends at WashCycle:
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Marc Fischer starts it off

Nay to Maryland's builders of the Intercounty Connector, who have bizarrely decided that while a massive highway is no threat to the environment, a little separate bike path alongside the new highway would be, and therefore the bike path--long promised as a sop to those who were appalled by the prospect of the new highway--must die.

a 10-foot wide bike path is a menace to the critters, but a six-lane superhighway is man's latest gift to nature.
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So, there wasn't $10 million in the budget for the trail, but there was $100 million for the overrun? Oh yeah, that was just one segment too. But I'm sure they can recapture the overrun in other segments.
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The testimony to the Planning Board (emails and letters) in June was overwhelmingly pro-bike trail. There were around 100 pro-trail emails sent, but I saw only one against the trail. The writer of that letter supported "trees over trails" which at first I took literally ["I too enjoy a good tree canopy over my trail" I thought] but then realized he meant "don't cut down trees to build trails". But all the others I skimmed seemed to be in favor of not changing the plans.
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So they decided to go with the alignment no one wanted except for that guy who prefers trees to trails [I need to reread that letter, it must've been very convincing].
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The last time the planning board submitted a substandard plan to the county council, MoBike fought it and won

we went to the County Council in 2005 and they unanimously overruled the Planning Board decision and said the trail should be built within the ICC right-of-way from Needwood Road to the county line. So we'll do that again if we have to.

It looks like they will.

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A whole summer of bike commuting

[From the Bike Washington list:]
Last year I bought a bike to help lose weight and get back into shape. I rode bike trails all summer, sometimes riding 80 miles a week. By the time 2008 came around I was 60 pounds lighter than I was when 2007 started.

So when spring of 2008 came I was working long hours and needed a way to keep the weight off. By April, gas was hitting $4 a gallon. The choice was clear, it was time to start bike commuting. Thanks to the folks on this list I figured out a route and my first day for bike commuting was April 16th. I started out riding two days a week but after about a month I went to riding three days a week, and taking Metro on Monday and Friday to stage my clothes.

So I'd like to point out some observations about my summer spent commuting:

- I only drove to work four or five times, and only once because it was raining. A couple of times I drove in because I overslept and was running late.

- Riding in street traffic isn't half as bad as it looks.

- I saved enough money on gas to buy myself a brand new 17" laptop from Best Buy.

- Despite all the horror stories, I found out that the drivers in this city are remarkably tolerant of cyclists.

- I only had someone come up behind me on the street and lay on the horn one time. Happened on M. St SE on my way home. The driver never even passed me because they wound up taking a right turn while I was still in front.

- The only other negative experience was when some jerk decided to blast me with his horn while I was using the pedestrian crossing over Washington Blvd coming off Memorial Bridge. I hate this crossing with a passion. Half of the time you have to play "chicken" with the cars to get them to stop.

- I only had two close calls. Once, a tourist did a 270-degree turn at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery and almost hit me. It was slow speed so I think it only would have wound up with a crunched bike rather than a crunched cyclist. I think I scared him more than he scared me because I was yelling WHOA like a maniac.

- The other close call was with a pedestrian on that narrow sidewalk on 50. She was coming right at me and I was sure she would see me. Wrong. At 7AM, pedestrians are looking at their feet, sleepwalking. They will not notice the 200LB cyclist bearing down on them, even though they are facing you.

- I learned to ring my bike bell. A lot. Pedestrians sleepwalk. A lot.

- Sometimes you will see other bike commuters do things you should not attempt. Like, riding on 50 where the Glebe Road overpass is. I decided to try it myself the next day. And as soon as I was on the other side I decided to never try it again.

- I really, really, miss the cutoff in Fort Myer. That hill is nasty.

- The Maine Ave fish market stinks in the morning. In the afternoon it smells like french fries and Old Bay.

- Riding in the rain isn't so bad when it's warm. One morning I showed up at work, sopping wet and covered with mud from the construction site in Fort Myer. Kevin the security guard took one look at me and said "Cyrus, you crazy!"

All in all it was a very positive experience. I kept in shape, learned a lot about riding bikes, and had fun.

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Bicycle Friendly America - Maryland

State Rank: 35 out of 50.

Reasons for Ranking: Maryland has a signed and mapped route network. They also have a discriminatory mandatory bike lane law and no cell phone use restrictions.

Maryland's Bicycle Friendly Communities
Currently there are no cities in Maryland that have been designated as bicycle friendly communities.

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The Beauty of Bikes -- Even Ugly Ones

By John Kelly - Washington Post
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Not so good is the news that the intercounty connector might not have a continuous bike path along its 19-mile route in Montgomery County. Bad for the environment, planners say. As opposed to, say, the six-lane highway itself and the thousands of vehicles that will travel on it?

Let's see: There's too much traffic. There's too much pollution. There's too much fat. It seems to me that every new road that's built around here -- and plenty of old ones -- should include dedicated bike lanes.

Of course, riding a bike in our area can get you killed. Car plus bike often equals disaster. If you'll excuse an Oxonian memory, I never felt nervous cycling in Oxford, even when I was pedaling on a narrow, rain-slicked road with a double-decker bus looming inches from my right elbow.

The reason I didn't feel nervous is because I knew the bus driver had been in my shoes before, maybe when he was a kid, maybe on his commute to work that very morning. When you've ridden a bike regularly, you look out for bikes.

That's not the case here. We've severed our relationship with these sublime machines. Making it easier to cycle -- by building bike lanes and bike paths -- will help us reestablish it.

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Eldridge mention of ICC bikeway

[From MoBike-]

Here's a bit from Steve Eldridge's "Sprawl and Crawl" blog about the ICC bike path:

<a href="http://www.commuterpageblog.com/2008/08/getting-it-wron.html">http://www.commuterpageblog.com/2008/08/getting-it-wron.html</a>;

I think he misses the mark in putting all the blame on county planners when the state's original plan didn't include the bikeway except for 7 miles. If there was a bait &amp; switch, it was 3 years ago by the state. But the sentiment is absolutely correct.

Here's the relevant part:

&lt;&lt;The latest travesty involves a road or a highway that has been on the planning books for something like 50 years and construction on it just recently got underway. Anyone living in this region would have to be hiding under a rock to have not heard about all of the controversy the Intercounty Connector (ICC) has brought. State officials say they went above and beyond to make sure that the highway used all of the latest construction innovations to minimize the impact on the surrounding environment. Yet, the current group of planners and elected nincompoops is now planning to eliminate the hiker/biker trail that was one of the centerpieces of the &quot;green&quot; aspect of this highway. They now say that the inclusion of six to eight feet of hiker/biker path will require them to do bad things to the environment. What a crock of box turtle dung. They can build a highway that is 75 or so feet wide but can't build an extra couple feet of paved space for self-powered, two-wheeled vehicles we tend to call &quot;bicycles?&quot; Talk about another bait and switch.

I have supported the building of the ICC because the county and the region just don't have enough east/west arteries. I felt like the state had done a good job to mitigate many if not every single one of the environmental concerns. I also felt like they were using many of the new construction techniques in areas of environmental concern. But actions such as the proposal to eliminate promised accoutrements make me very suspicious about the sincerity of the intentions from the start.&gt;&gt;
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Anti-cyclist bias admitted by Post's Ombudsman

[From the Bike Washington DC list:]

Please take action!

I wrote the ombudsman of the Washington Post to complain about the anti-cyclist bias apparent in its titling of the original letter to the editor [&quot;Why Do Bicyclists Dice With Death?&quot;] and this is the answer I received. Everything makes sense now. Poor little Deborah Howell drives on MacArthur Blvd ever morning and also feels victimized by nasty cyclists who won't get out of the way. Quote:

&quot;Ms. Taylor, I drive daily on MacArthur Blvd. and it happens to me all the time. I don't disagree with Mr. Arundel. Deborah

Deborah Howell
Washington Post Ombudsman&quot;

Below is the complaint I wrote to Ms. Howell:

&quot;I am writing specifically about a letter to the editor titled &quot;Why Do Bicyclists Dice With Death?&quot; published on August 15. The author of this letter complains about bicyclists riding on MacArthur Blvd instead of on the [very terrible] side path. In my opinion, the author is an ignorant bully, but his attitude is unfortunately all too common amongst DC area drivers. However, my complaint tonight is not about this man's opinion so much as it is about the title given to his letter. By asserting that cyclists are doing something risky [when they are not], the _Post_ gives undue weight to this man's view and essentially blames the victim.

Mr. Arundel seems to assert that cyclists _force_ him to drive in an unsafe manner, when the responsibility is Mr. Arundel's alone. The inflammatory title to the letter endorses Mr. Arundel's absurd point of view.

Please try to tone down the anti-cyclist rhetoric.

Nancy Taylor&quot;

I urge every one of you to write Ms. Howell [ombudsman AT washpost DOT com] and complain about her using her position as a soapbox for her own opinions.

In a follow up to Ms. Howell I asked her to explain exactly what IT is that happens to her and how it harms her. [She sees cyclists?]

--Nancy

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24 Hours of Booty

24 Hours of Booty, Inc., which runs the Official 24-Hour Cycling Event of the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the only 24-hour road cycling charity event in the country, will be hosting the 24 Hours of Booty of Columbia, Md. on the “Booty Loop” at the Gateway Business Park from Noon, Saturday, Sept. 6 to Noon, Sunday, Sept. 7.

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Mid Session Bicycle Forum 10-06-08 in Laurel

From Bill Kelly -
Hi Bicyclists, , Greetings from the Bicycle Folks of Maryland. Hope all is well with you. We are working with several of the Bicycle Groups in Md. to have a Fall Mid Session Bicycle Forum on Monday October 6, 2008 at 6:00PM to 9:00PM at the Applied Physics Lab-APL in Laurel, Md. We would like to invite you to attend. We have held these Forums before in College Park and Annapolis and have found that this format is a great way to bring all players up to speed on how to make and keep Maryland Transportation in the for-front of better and safer Bicycle transportation. Hopefully you will be available on Monday evening 10-06-08 and can attend, Please mark your calendars now, plan to attend and invite your friends. Thanks, Bill Kelly

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Announcing Development of a Strategic Trail Plan for Maryland by MDOT

Dear Friends and Supporters of Trails in Maryland,

I am very excited to let you know that MDOT is leading a strategic planning effort to guide development of a bicycle and pedestrian trail network that connects people to the places in which they live, work, and play. The plan will chart a course for Maryland’s state and local agencies to implement a seamless, multi-use trail system that can be used for transportation by bicyclists, pedestrians, runners and others. MDOT is committed to continue working with our local and state partners in this effort and we want your input in the plan development process to ensure that your plans, perspectives, needs and visions are included.

We have created two easy ways for you to provide input:

First, I invite you to complete a simple online survey. Click on the following link, which will take you to directly to the survey at the SurveyMonkey website. It will take just a few minutes to fill out.

<a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=aFsezUukX8MtDQEpOXS3_2fQ_3d_3d">http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=aFsezUukX8MtDQEpOXS3_2fQ_3d_3d</a>;

Second, through our project website, we provide an opportunity to use Google Maps to give us geographic information about where trail improvements and linkages are needed. Go to the website using the link below. You will find instructions there and a link to the Maryland Trails Google Map.

<a href="http://www.mdot.state.md.us/Planning/TSIP/trails.html">http://www.mdot.state.md.us/Planning/TSIP/trails.html</a>;

In addition to completing the survey yourself (and giving us ideas on a map), I want to encourage you to forward this invitation (by email or in newsletters) to your friends, colleagues and fellow members of bicycle, pedestrian or trail interest groups in which you are involved. The survey and map will remain open from now through September 30, 2008.

For more information about the project, I have attached a project announcement flyer that explains this exciting effort. You can also visit our project homepage at <a href="http://www.mdot.state.md.us/Planning/TSIP/index.html">http://www.mdot.state.md.us/Planning/TSIP/index.html</a>;.

Sincerely,

Sylvia Ramsey

Manager Community Enhancements Programs
Office of Planning and Capital Programs
Maryland Department of Transportation
Sramsey1 &quot;at&quot; mdot.state.md.us
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