Why not bike to the Ox Hill Battlefield Park event on Saturday

Fairfax County is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the only major Civil War battle in the County, the Battle of Ox Hill, on Saturday between the hours of 10am and 5pm.

Ox Hill Battlefield Park is located at 4134 West Ox Road, Fairfax, not far from the county government center and Fair Oaks Mall. Bike access isn't great but there is a paved trail in front of the park on West Ox Rd that extends south to the Fairfax County Parkway Trail and north to the relatively new paved trail along West Ox Rd. Activities include:

• 10:00 AM - Presentation of 16 state flags and speeches by local officials
• 1:00 PM Federal City Brass Band concert, musket and cannon firings
• 4:00 PM Battle of Ox Hill speeches, wreath laying at the Monuments

There is bike parking at the park, thanks in part to a FABB member who, a while back, worked with Park Authority officials to ensure that those people who do travel to the park by bike have a place to park.

WMATA releases 2012 bike parking survey data

WMATA just released 2012 data on bike parking at Metro stations across the region. Vienna was third in two categories, Total Bikes Parked and Greatest Rack Capacity. Franconia-Springfield has the fourth most Total Bikes Parked but there's a definite shortage of racks at the Franconia-Springfield VRE entrance, with 35 bikes parked, 19 of which are not parked in racks.

WMATA has been doing a good job recently of adding bike parking capacity.

These counts show that we are moving in the right direction, but more work remains. We generally have enough bike parking capacity at nearly all stations, but not all stations see equal usage. One missing piece could be bike-friendly infrastructure around the stations to allow bike-to-rail customers to comfortably and safely access stations. So, we’ll work with our jurisdictions to improve paths, crossings, and other infrastructure outside Metro’s immediate property. But you tell us – what do you see as obstacles to biking to your Metrorail station?

Here is a summary of the overall findings:

• Bike parking usage in 2012 is up 3% from last year
• Bike parking capacity is up significantly, thanks to newly-installed bike racks near Metrorail station, including racks with capacity for over 300 installed by Metro staff.
• Now, 85 of 86 stations (all but Arlington Cemetery) have bike racks available.
• We now count over 4,000 bike parking spaces near Metrorail stations.
• Many stations where we recently added new racks saw some uptick in usage (e.g., Braddock Road 19% increase in usage, Takoma 24%, West Hyattsville 13%) over last year, but some did not.Generally, there may be enough year-to-year variability with these "snapshot" data that it can be difficult to identify detailed trends.
• Parking near downtown stations may have declined somewhat versus last year.This might be one impact of Capital Bikeshare.
• We found six stations where total bikes parked exceeded 100% of rack capacity.Metro staff will take action at these stations where we can, but in other situations where we do not own the land or the racks, we will work actively with our station-area partners.
• Twenty-five stations had at least 3 bikes secured/locked to things other than racks.Securing a bike to a railing can obstruct those who need the railing — or can block an accessible path — and is strongly discouraged or even illegal in some jurisdictions. Securing a bike to a tree can damage or kill it. At station areas where cyclists are securing bikes to objects other than racks because of inadequate bike parking capacity, Metro staff will take action to increase capacity where it can.

Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike

We've recently finished reading Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike by Grant Petersen. Grant is the founder of Rivendell Bicycle Works, makers of fine lugged steel bicycles. Grant is a bit of an iconoclast. Just Ride is a reflection of his belief that people don't need special bikes or gear just to ride their bikes. From the Introduction: "My main goal of this book is to point out what I see as bike racing's bad influence on bicycles, equipment, and attitudes, and undo it."

People should be able to just get on their bike, a practical, functional bike, and ride. In the book Grant tries to debunk many accepted beliefs about riding a bicycle. We agree with most of them. The book is comprised of 212 pages with 89 one- or two-page chapters, most containing interesting tidbits about riding, gear, safety, food, accessories, maintenance, bike fit and frame geometry, and "velosophy," his contrarian views and opinions about biking.

Here are a few example chapter headings from the book:

Don't count miles - "It is discouraging, adds pressure, and takes away fun."
You have way too many gears - "For all-around riding over a variety of surfaces and terrain, you need eight gears."
No ride too shore (one of my favorites) - "One of the problems with becoming a serious bike rider is that you stop going for short rides because somewhere along the line it sinks in - falsely - that a ride you don't have to suit up for doesn't count. That's your inner racer talking and you need to shut it up." I've often heard from cyclists that they don't bike commute because the ride is too short. What they mean is it's too short to suit up; so don't suit up. In that case maybe you need two bikes, your fast recreational bike and your "just hop on" utility bike.
Paddling beats pedaling - "Training wheels are bad because they teach your child to turn a bike by turning the handlebars. Get your child a tiny bike designed to paddle, not pedal."
Don't overthink your underwear - "When the bike is a good and friendly part of your everyday life, you shouldn't have to change your underwear before riding." He includes a caveat about rides longer than 4 hours.
Racers don't ride bike paths. More room for you. - "Racers avoid bike paths because they have too many joggers, slow riders, dog walkers, and baby strollers." I wish this one were true; anyone riding on the W&OD Trail on a weekend knows there are many racer-wannabes out there using pedestrians as slalom poles and refusing to slow down when passing. Maybe they should turn off their power meters when they enter the trail.
Be saintlike on the bike path - "You are the predator so ride slowly and defer to everyone." Yes.
Hi-vis beats high risk - "When I was a racer, I thought that the hi-vis look, with reflectors up the wazoo, was for timid riders unsure of their bike skills - usually tourists and commuters."
Riding is lousy all-around exercise - "If you want to be healthy and achieve all-around fitness, you have to do other things."
Drink when you're thirsty, not before - "How many times have you been told to 'eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty'? Eating before you're hungry will make you fat - no surprise there. Drinking before you're thirsty will make you pee a lot. It's unnatural, too."

That gives you a flavor of what's in the book. You won't agree with everything but it's definitely thought-provoking and mostly practical advice. I especially like the four chapters about bags, fenders, baskets, and kickstands; definitely "unracer" gear.

For those of us who like bike touring but can't always find the time for multi-day rides, Grant recommends the S240. "The most fun I have on my bike is during overnight bike-camping trips in the local hills. I call them Sub 24-hour Overnights and mine average sixteen hours, typically from 5:30 in the evening to 9:30 the next morning."

I highly recommend the book. I've seen copies in some local bike shops including bikes@vienna (full disclosure, I know they carry the book because I work there).

Bike crash on Mt. Vernon Highway

Bike Helmet May Have Saved Child's Life is a report at wusa9.com about a crash on Mt. Vernon Highway:

The life of an 8-year-old boy on a bicycle may have been saved by his bike helmet, according to Fairfax County Police.

On Tuesday at about 6 p.m., police responded to a report of a crash on Mount Vernon Highway near Surrey Drive. A child riding his bike had veered into the path of an SUV. The driver was not able to avoid the boy, who was hit and injured. He was flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.

The medics who responded to the accident as well as the officers on the scene credited the child's bike helmet as a key factor in helping to save his life. In Fairfax County, bicycle helmets are required by law.

The boy is recovering from a number of injuries; the photo of his mangled helmet was provided by those who responded to the scene of the accident.

In Fairfax County helmets are only required on children under the age of 15.

An Advocate’s Guide to Elections

The Alliance for Biking and Walking just published An Advocate’s Guide to Elections: Making Campaigns Work for Bicycling & Walking. There are very few local elections this year, but the guide will be an excellent resource in upcoming elections.

For the 2007 Board of Supervisors election we conducted a survey of the Board of Supervisor candidates that provided good information to voters. As a non-profit we have to be careful not to support or favor specific candidates but we can provide voters with information. The guide will be very useful for figuring out what can be done under current 501(c)3 guidelines.

Organizations with 501(c)(3) nonprofit status are prohibited from engaging in political activity in support of or in opposition to any particular political candidate. However, 501(c)(3)s can engage in nonpartisan voter education activity and a limited amount of lobbying.

These guidelines relate to the organization itself, and do not prohibit officers, individual members, or employees from participating, as long as they are acting as private citizens and not as spokespersons for the organization or while using the organization’s resources. If you choose to identify yourself with the organization, you must make it plain that you are speaking solely for yourself and not for the organization. If members do not identify themselves with the organization, but a media outlet does, the members have done nothing wrong.

Here are some guidelines for how bike clubs and advocacy organizations with 501(c)(3) status can (and cannot) get involved in election activities.

Herndon approves bike plan

The Herndon Town Council approved the bicycle facility recommendations of their Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee. Those recommendations were based on the county bicycle master plan:

The Herndon Town Council approved bicycle facilities for inclusion in the Fairfax County Bicycle Plan by a five to two vote at their Aug. 14 meeting. Fairfax County commenced planning for bicycle facilities in the comprehensive plan about a year ago. They included incorporated towns Herndon, Vienna and Clifton so there would not be gaps in the network of trails.

"I think we have an opportunity here to be forward thinking and move forward with multi-modal [transportation] options, we’ve got Metro coming, we want our downtown more walkable," Mayor Lisa Merkel said. "Now is the time to plan for the very long term, for 20 years with Metro here and more and more of people moving here, maybe with one car or even no car, that we’re ready for that."

See our report on the earlier public hearing. Voting in opposition were Councilmember Charlie Waddell and Vice Mayor Connie Hutchinson. The term "sharrows" was removed from the recommendation which is probably OK:

"[The facilities] might be a sharrow, it might be a sign that says bicyclists can use a full lane, or, since this will be active at some point in the future, might be additional devices or signs to raise awareness or show changes," Gilleran said. "We’re leaving it open, because it’s long range items. A sharrow does not provide any changes to laws on the books, does not add additional rights, it is just a sign to increase awareness of cycles."

Sharrows are more than "a sign to increase awareness of cycles." They also indicate where cyclists should ride to avoid the door zone and other hazards. Other treatments are possible, including bike lanes or lane or road diets.

This is a first, major step toward Herndon becoming a bicycle-friendly community.

Loudoun Police ticket Reston Century cyclists

We heard from a Reston Century cyclist yesterday who was ticketed by Loudoun Sheriff's deputies at the intersection of Harmony Church Rd and Route 7 in Hamilton. The police were basically conducting a sting operation. See the Washcyle report for details:

Reportedly, several cyclists were ticketed during last weekend's Reston Century by the Loudoun County sheriff’s office for failure to stop at a stop sign.

The officers positioned themselves such that they would maximize their opportunity to ticket cyclists and were ticketing as many as possible for minor infractions. One rider reports that as they wrote his ticket they made comments indicating that they were irritated that the ride organizers did not hire them to manage event safety. They reported having requested that the ride organizers route the entire event on the bike trail (which ride organizers deemed far too narrow and dangerous given the number of participants). Their ticket-writing campaign appeared to have been a vendetta against the ride organizers for utilizing the roads.

So, if all of this is accurate, then it appears that the Loudoun County’s sheriff’s office decided that keeping bikes off the road was more important than public safety; they were willing to bully cyclists as payback for the event organizers, and they would target cyclists for a technicality rather than watching for cyclists and drivers who are actually operating their vehicles unsafely.

Why does this sound so familiar.

Loudoun's finest

The police were heard repeatedly referred to the ride as a race, which could explain why they expected people to be running the stop sign. Obviously cyclists should obey traffic signals, but they shouldn't be held to a higher standard than motorists, most of whom roll through stop signs. I wonder if police ticketed those motorists.

Loudoun County benefits greatly from cyclists who visit the county. Ask the owners of Magnolias at the Mill in Purcellville, the owners of Carolina Brothers Pit Barbecue (formerly Partlow's Store) in Ashburn, or the many shop owners in Leesburg if they benefit from cyclists. And yet some in the county seem to being doing what they can to discourage cyclists from visiting and spending money there. You might remember Suzanne Volpe, who incorrectly stated that thousands of dollars were being spent to promote cycling in the county, bad-mouthing cyclists during her campaign. Is it time for a boycott?