I had a great ride today, and was thrilled to see so many of my fellow Washington area cyclists out for an easy spin on a beautiful Mother’s Day Sunday. There was definitely a hitch or two, but I’m confident in reporting that thousands of us finished the ride with giant smiles on our faces. So I thought I’d share my experience of the day.  Hit the jump for more.

It started out rather well. We made it to the line just in time to zip-tie on a registration placard, and off we went. The roll up Pennsylvania Avenue was familiar, but there were still some Bike DC benefits on offer – no U-turning taxis and no cars parked in the bike lanes. We passed north of the White House (pleased to report that everyone I saw successfully negotiated the bollards) and tic-tac’d our way up Pennsylvania Ave. and K St. to Rock Creek Parkway.

Rock Creek Parkway. First, I’ll admit it – I’m one of those cyclists. Yes, I’ve ridden Rock Creek Parkway on my own before, and I’ll do it again. But I’ve never done it with as much comfort and company as I did today. Bike DC and its staff deserves much credit for securing and maintaining the closure for this ride. It was one of the course improvements that I really enjoyed this year.

After Rock Creek Parkway, we wound our way through Foggy Bottom and west over the Roosevelt Bridge. As a frequent user of that bridge’s substandard side path, I quite enjoyed the freedom of a full lane or three. But the real fun started when we turned onto the George Washington Parkway.

The George Washington Parkway is just about the only non-interstate road in the area that’s closed to cycling. Except for today. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was looking forward to taking in the parkway’s scenery at a human speed.  I certainly wasn’t disappointed – the hills and views were spectacular. Seems a shame the Mount Vernon Trail ends at Roosevelt Island, doesn’t it?

After the parkway turnaround, we headed south towards the Iwo Jima memorial. As we worked our way around toward the memorial, I saw that recent road work on Marshall Drive (a sewer project, I believe) had resulted in the entire eastbound lane being taken up by very bike-unfriendly steel plates. As a result, the organizers had squeezed us into one lane (to avoid the plates). For my cohort, this wasn’t too much of a problem – we were pretty strung out by this point, and the ride leaders hadn’t yet made their way back.

So we went around the Iwo Jima memorial then down to 110. It was a straight shot over toward the Pentagon, as this year’s route skipped the George Washington Parkway detour. I very graciously (heh) pulled a paceline on the flat and windy stretch of road all the way to the beginning of the climb to the Air Force Memorial. Then it was a quick stomp up to the top, where I took my reward in the form of several handfuls of Twizzlers from the food station. I apologize to anyone who came after me who didn’t get any Twizzlers. Sometimes I can’t help myself.

The next part of the plan involved a fun descent – at speed – down from the Air Force Memorial. The reality, well, not so much. We pulled out behind a couple of National Park Service motorcycle police, and they decided it was going to be a leisurely roll down the hill. I apologize to the riders who stacked up behind us, but there was just no safely passing them. And speaking of safely passing: please, NPS motorcycle police working rides, don’t zip past cyclists on both sides, like this:

Thanks!

To head back to DC, the course sent us back towards the Iwo Jima memorial. Here’s where I realized that was lucky to be near the front of the ride, and not in the middle. By the time I was heading up Marshall Drive, lots of cyclists (mostly Family Ride cyclists) were trying to come down. This resulted in . . . not a lot of fun. Folks signed up for Bike DC, not Walk DC, and there was more than a little frustration as most were forced to dismount. I’ve been around enough bike events to know that organizers have little to no control over things like street construction, but the solution to the problem here could definitely have been handled better.

Navigating past the walking masses (and, eventually, the 10mph NPS motorcycle police), we started back toward the Roosevelt Bridge. Note to organizers for next year: more traffic help here, please! Lots of events like these rely on volunteer help, and that’s great. But sometimes you need to do whatever you can to ensure that someone with an authoritative presence is around to control critical intersections like this.

As I emerged onto the Roosevelt Bridge, I was looking forward to another speedy dash across the span and then the finish. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite go according to expectation. I stopped to assist some riders who’d had a minor mishap (well, minor is relative – one friend crashed into and broke another friend’s bike frame – oops). Just after I got going again, I saw this coming at me:

Whaaa? It’s only 9:15, right? (NB: This was after I’d gotten out of the way and onto the sidepath. I’m no fool.)

Yep, that’s a phalanx of MPD trucks with a full I-66′s worth of traffic behind them, speakers blaring “Turn around and go back the way you came!” over and over. They certainly weren’t interested in discussing the matter. Not cool. Most people slowly turned around and started salmoning back (the tide eventually shifting, I presume). Since the rider with the broken frame was now walking, I went back to put her on the Roosevelt Bridge side path and direct her to walk to the finish. I biked on ahead on the path (east into DC) to catch up with my friends at the finish.

When I got there, I realized that no one was getting to the finish from the planned route. While I’m still not entirely clear on what happened, my cobbled-together understanding (which may yet turn out to be wrong) was that the Roosevelt Bridge was erroneously closed early by MPD, causing a . . . well, let’s put it kindly – a big mess in communications and logistics.

Honestly, this put a real damper on things for the folks who were finishing around the same time as me. I was bummed for them, as this is really DC’s best-known closed-course ride, and they had every right to expect a clear and open course the whole way. But some of us were turned around, some pushed onto the side path, and yet others directed onto Constitution Avenue to find our way to the finish. I don’t think there were any real consequences beyond annoyance, but still, it was unfortunate.

Eventually – and again, I don’t know the exact details – the mistake was corrected, and people started getting to the finish line along the expected route. As more time passed between the confused arrival of folks like me and the smooth arrival of those that skipped the mess, faces got happier.

And really, that’s what today was about – happy people on bikes. Was it perfect? Definitely not. But it was a day with thousands and thousands of happy cyclists winding their way through DC and Arlington. I watched the broad spectrum of Washington area cyclists – kids with boundless energy, tandem couples with well-worn habits, disabled vets on hand cycles, and people who’d clearly been pulled into this by friends the night before. In other words – everyone.

Everyone in DC got out for a bike ride today, and – hitches aside — it was good.

These are positive steps, but there is much more to be done.

Often, when there is a major crash or a cyclist is cited for an infraction that he or she feels is undeserved, that cyclist or a family member calls WABA for advice. And often, when a WABA staffer or an attorney for the cyclist/family follows up on the facts of the case, we find that the story is quite different than the one contained in the police reports. In some cases, the facts presented in the reports or the citations issued simply do not match the stories of those on the scene.  In other cases, even as presented, the facts do not justify the conclusion drawn or the citation issued.

We have been working to make the case that as cycling grows in the District with the support of District programs and infrastructure, the District also has a responsibility to educate police officers on the application of traffic laws to bicyclists. Absent the physical protection of an automobile surrounding us, we rely on the protection of the law.

Unfortunately, we tend to encounter these enforcement errors on an individual basis, one at a time, as impacted cyclists contact us. We have worked to systematize this and get better data through the creation of our crash tracker survey, and it has been useful in getting more information on more crashes. But we are still working to show that the issue is not an occasional error by an occasional officer who misunderstands a provision. Rather, it is a systemic lack of appropriate training for all officers that needs to be rectified by a significant training effort.

Lacking the resources to launch a full analysis of every crash report related to bicycling, we recently chose to focus on a single regulation and review every citation for a violation. We submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to MPD and the DC Department of Motor Vehicles. Because the names and contact information of the cited party are not disclosed through the FOIA process, we attempted to select a provision in which we would not need to contact the cited party or follow up with witnesses to show errors. For this reason we selected the District’s “riding abreast” regulation, 18 DCMR 1201.7:

Persons riding upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast except on paths or part of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles. Persons riding two abreast shall not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic and, on a lane roadway, shall ride within a single lane.

Note that this law:

1. Cannot apply to a bicyclist riding alone;
2. Does not relate to the relationship between any bicycle and any non-bicycle vehicle.

We submitted our request seeking information on citations for violation of the “riding abreast” regulation on March 16. The statutory period for acknowledgment passed without response from MPD. On April 9, we followed up with MPD, noting the delay beyond the statutory limit, and also submitted an identical request with the District’s DMV, which oversees adjudication services. On April 19, we did receive acknowledgement of the initial request from MPD but have received no substantive response to date.

DMV, however, has provided both an initial response with overview data of the citation history in its records, as well as a more detailed supplemental response including individual Notices of Infraction. Both responses are below.

Dmv Foia Riding Abreast 1 of 2

Dmv Foia Riding Abreast 2 of 2

A very quick analysis reveals that not a single citation is supported by the officer’s description. In many cases no description is provided, so one cannot conclude whether the citation was justified. But in every case in which a description was provided, a violation of 18 DCMR 1201.7 is not described. Also, notably, there was no instance of two citations being issued at the same location, as might be expected for a law requiring two bicycles.

We continue to be concerned that officers entrusted with enforcing the laws that we need to help keep us safe on the roadways are not adequately trained on those laws or the application to cyclists. Wrongful citations have ramifications, and those ramifications can go well beyond the $25 fine or the frustration of being ticketed when the other party committed the unlawful act. Under the District’s contributory negligence system, insurers will frequently rely on a citation to deny coverage for injuries in a crash, forcing the cyclist who acted entirely within the law to run a complicated legal gauntlet of contesting the wrongful citation and winning, then taking legal action to compel the insurer to provide compensation for any injuries.

In short, bicyclists need MPD to get these citations right. We have seen recent cases in which the intervention of the officers appointed to act as liaisons to the cycling community–Lt. Breul and Commander Crane–have led to the withdrawal of improper citations. The documents provided reveal another such instance. But this sort of intervention is only available in the rare and clear-cut cases in which the officer’s description fails to match the citation as a matter of law. Intervention of this sort is unavailable when the dispute is a factual matter, such as which party has the duty to yield. In any event, the District cannot rely on one or two individual officers to catch the mistakes of many. MPD needs to improve its understanding and application of laws as applied to bicyclists, and that requires a real, robust, and funded training effort.

We hope that the District’s leadership will view this analysis broadly and conclude that we have a real, systemic problem with MPD training that needs a solution. In the absence of that, we hope that this law–which seems to do nothing but provide an invitation to wrongly cite bicyclists–will be amended or repealed to ensure that the wrongful application stops.

And finally, we hope that this analysis will spur others to help us to evaluate the application of laws to bicyclists and push for improvements. We focused on a single, seldom-used citation in this analysis. There are many other provisions that need exploration, but that will generate much more data and, potentially, require much more investigation and follow-up. If you are interested in focusing on these issues, WABA has applied for and received a $3,000 Advocacy Advance Rapid Response Grant to provide stipend(s) to support this campaign and our efforts to show the need for better training of law enforcement officers in the District.

If you are interested in helping WABA make our streets safer by helping us in this manner, send an email to advocacy@waba.org explaining the approach you would take or provisions of law of interest to you.

And please mark your calendar for the next hearing on bicyclist and pedestrian safety and enforcement before the DC Council Committee on the Judiciary: May 30th at 10am. It is important that as these hearings continue bicyclists continue to show up, tell their stories, and ensure that the Committee and the Council takes bicyclist safety seriously. To sign up to testify, contact Jessica Jacobs at jjacobs@dccouncil.us.

• From the ever-growing network of bike lanes and trails throughout the region.
• From the recently-installed bike racks outside your favorite businesses.
• From the Metro cars and buses that you can take your bike on (on those days you and your bike just need a lift).
• From the cyclist-protective laws now on the books.
• From the fast-expanding network of Bikeshare stations.
• From the  increased number of confident city cyclists on area streets and trails.

By being a WABA member, by supporting our advocacy efforts, you are helping to bring about better bicycling in the region, and thereby, creating the ultimate member benefit: a bicycle-friendly community!

Amazingly though, your member benefits don’t end there. A number of partner businesses, as a thank you for your support of WABA’s work for better bicycling, have kindly extended special benefits to you, our members. We want to let you know more about these additional benefits. Each month we will highlight a different member benefit. Because May is Bike Month, what better member benefit to first highlight than a local bike business:

Bike and Roll

Friends or family in town for the weekend? Wanting to take them out on a trail ride or cruise around the city for an afternoon? Don’t have enough bikes (or the right size or style) to accommodate everyone? Bike and Roll is the answer!  Rent a Bike and Roll bike and explore the Nation’s Capitol. Even better, try out one (or all) of their bike tours, combining history, sites, and/or politics with biking! What could be better than that?  A DISCOUNT! WABA members receive $10 off bike rentals and $10 off bike tours!

Yet, that’s not all. Bike and Roll also regularly partners with WABA to provide free bikes for our Learn to Ride classes.  They truly are a bike-friendly business helping to make the Washington area more bikeable.  Now that’s a member benefit!

An incredible raffle and silent auction lineup at BikeFest, INCLUDING 8 BIKES!

So we encourage you to take a moment and browse through our list of the silent auction packages, and raffle items before the big show.

And THIS JUST IN. BicycleSPACE donated 2 custom Tweed Cruisers to the Silent Auction. No words can describe these bikes, so you’ll just have to check them out in person.

If you haven’t purchased tickets yet- get to it! The odds are in your favor- you’re going to have a great time and possibly walk away with some cool prizes!

If you’ve seen information about BikeFest on the web or on the streets, then you probably have the basics down. For instance, the event details, a sneak peek of the jazz acts, suggestions on the laid back, incentivized and dapper dress code, a glimpse of the BikeBuild bikes and the bikes we’re auctioning off, and perhaps you’ve checked out our most romantic silent auction package.

That’s lovely, and all that jazz… but we’re going to take our promotion a step further. We encourage you to purchase tickets soon and attend BikeFest for the following reasons:

This event is your ticket to a roaring good time. For you will enjoy an evening of:
-Free catered appetizers all evening long by Occasions Catering
-2 free alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages
-1 free raffle ticket
-A vote in the BikeBuild Contest
-Some of the best live jazz in the region
-Local bike art
-An extensive Silent Auction and Raffle line-up
-Some surprise on-stage and off-stage performances
-Mingling with 400 other bike-loving, WABA supporters. The people you share the lanes with everyday .

This event is your ticket to growing bike advocacy because:
-100% of the proceeds from registration, and 100% of the contributions made throughout the evening,  directly fund WABA’s mission of transforming the greater Washington area into a more bicycle-friendly community. In other words, it’s going to be a fun night and lots of cool people will be there. But more importantly, you will be supporting an incredible local non-profit that has…dare I say…changed your life in the region.

For those of you on the edge of your seats to purchase tickets now, WABA members receive a $10 discount on tickets with the discount code “Speakeasy”.

A new national poll by Princeton Survey found that the overwhelming majority of Americans want to maintain or increase federal funding for sidewalks, bike lanes, and bike paths. These results add a critical perspective to a pressing national debate about transportation, as lawmakers conference to develop a new transportation bill that will affect bike infrastructure funding in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

The press conference is open to all and will take place from 9:30 until 10:15 AM on Wednesday, May 9 at the House Triangle on Capitol Hill.

Speakers will include Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, a statement from Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Angela Fox of the Crystal City Business Improvement District.

The press event at the House Triangle follows a National Bike to School Day celebration in Lincoln Park. From 7:30 – 8:30 a.m., school children will gather in Lincoln Park and ride in bike trains to nearby Capitol Hill public schools.

Sandra Moscoso, a lead organizer of the Capitol Hill Bike to School Day event, will also speak at the America Bikes press conference. As a parent who enjoys biking with her kids to school, Sandra is glad that federal bike funding has benefitted her neighborhood.

“My best days are the ones when I bike to school with the children,” says Sandra. “It’s really fun, biking to school. We have this time together on the road, not plugged into a cell phone or reading in the back seat.”

Sandra appreciates the bike lanes in her neighborhood and the educational programs that make biking more accessible. Sandra’s family recently took WABA’s ABCs of Family Biking class, and her kids have participated in bike education offered through DDOT’s Safe Routes to School, a federally funded program for students.

Federal funding had provided education and infrastructure to make biking safer and more accessible for her family, says Sandra.

“There are mental barriers to biking, and there are physical barriers. We need federal funding to address both.”

This post was written by WABA Member and America Bikes Communications Coordinator Mary Lauran Hall.

From the MDOT release:

The grant-winning projects include both feasibility studies for several jurisdictions and actual implementation and opening of bikeshare stations for others that are further along in the planning and design process.  The winners are divided into two categories – funding to implement a bikeshare facility and funding for a feasibility study to determine potential bikeshare station locations.  The Bikeshare Grant Program is funded through the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Program and will cover 80 percent of the total project cost.  Local jurisdictions are required to pay a 20 percent match.

The winners of grants to implement bikesharing systems are:  Baltimore City, Montgomery County and joint partners with University of Maryland at College Park and the City of College Park.  The winners of grants for feasibility studies of potential bikeshare stations are:  Frederick City, Howard County and joint partners with Prince George’s County and the City of Greenbelt.

We’re raising money for Team WABA and the 2012 Climate Riders and need your help! We’ve raised an impressive $29,758.53 of our $38,400 goal so far! However, we have $8,641.47 to go and less than two weeks to do it!

Sidebar has been generous enough to offer us 10% of the night’s sales. So bring your friends, co-workers, family, and significant others. Munch, mingle, and have a beverage. You’ll be helping us move closer to our fundraising goal with each sip or nibble, but you’ll be doing it while getting to know our 2012 Climate Riders, WABA members and other fellow cyclists!

This is a free event.  However, we strongly encourage you to make a donation of $5 or more to support Team WABA. Register here or just show up!

EVENT DETAILS

When: Wed., 5/9, 6-8pm

Where: Sidebar
8081 Georgia Ave.
(enter on Sligo Ave.)
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Can’t make the happy hour? Consider making a donation online. From the “Team WABA” page, pick any of our team members or choose “general team donation” to benefit the entire team.

This is giant step forward for Prince George’s County. The County has one of the highest rates of pedestrian deaths in the Maryland and has recently been dangerous and deadly for bicyclists too. The County Council, under the leadership of Councilmembers Olsen and Franklin, has made a statement about a future vision for the county and has recognized the need to begin building safe, connected and protected places to walk and bike.

WABA staff testified several times in support of this initiative and we are pleased with the unanimous result.  We would like to thank the Prince George’s County Council for providing county residents with expanded transportation choices. We would also like to thank our friends at the Coalition for Smarter Growth for their dedication to this initiative and their work in Prince George’s County.

On Saturday, WABA provided our first mobile bike repair clinic of the season alongside the Anacostia River & Jazz Festival at the Anacostia Park skating rink.  We made lots of friends, gave out nearly 100 DC bike maps, and fixed dozens of bikes.  Thanks to all who came out, and especially to our volunteer mechanics.