Archive for the ‘VA’ Category

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Can you survive with only one car?

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

The choice to have a car is personal one,  I grew up in a two car family, but do you really need a two huge cars? I know people who have gone out and bought a new SUV because they were having a baby, on pressing a little more, it turned out the the stroller wouldn’t fit in the old car, which seems a little odd to me. For our family the only reason we have two cars, is that both are paid off and not costing us anything other than fuel and insurance, but we have made the commitment to walk and bike more. This year I have biked over 1400 miles while commuting to work and I intend on continuing that trend.

Faab recently posted a story about one less car in Virginia and how Paul  made the choice to sell the family’s second car which echos the bike manufacture Trek’s message of biking any trip under 2 miles with their 1 world 2 wheels program. They hope to increase the number of trips taken in the U.S. by bike from the current 1% to 5% by 2017.

When we look at other reasons why people have two cars, a common reason is to ferry their children back and forward to school.  20%  to 25&%  of morning rush hour traffic is attributable to parents driving their children to school. We should be looking at is how to create safe routes to our schools, especially for those living within two miles of their school where bike trains or creating a walking school bus is possible. This would also reduce our reliance on the need for the 1700 school buses in Fairfax county which is facing painful choices on how to cut it’s budget.

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Posted in Bicycling, Dundee, Metro, Scotland, VA, WMATA, bus | No Comments »

CVS to sell Metro Smartrip Cards

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

As of the 23rd of December you will be able to buy a SmarTrip card from 190 CVS locations in the DC, MD, and Washington area. The cards will be available for $10 which include $5 which can be used for fares for Bus and Metro Trips as well as Metro parking. You can also purchase the cards at Metro Stations and select Giant Stores.

You can add value to the card at either a fare machine at a Metro station or using the fare box on a Metrobus. I am assuming that you can also add money to you card using the fareboxes on the regional buses that accept SmarTrip.

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Posted in DC, MD, Metro, VA, WMATA, bus | No Comments »

Should we have rapid bus lanes?

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Greater Greater Washington has an article up on why we should add rapid transit bus lanes.

WMATA believes that the future of Greater Washington’s transportation rests on priority bus corridors throughout the region, like the MetroExtra (#79) bus from Silver Spring to downtown DC. With Metrorail running out of capacity by 2030 and serious core expansion costing billions, Metro sees rapid buses as the best chance for a real capacity boost.

This has been adopted in many countries include the UK where I grew up, and if the DC area can move away from a car focused transport policy, then rapid bus lanes might actually become a reality.

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Posted in DC, MD, VA, WMATA, bus | No Comments »

Silver line passes another hurdle

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

The Dulles Rail Silver Line extenstion passes another hurdle by getting the sign off from the FTA for the federal contribution of 900 million to the $1.63 billion needed to build the first stage of the Metro rail extension out to Dulles Airport.

Metro has also started procurement of 64 new 7000 series metro rail cars that will look significantly different from the existing fleet. The rail cars would have a stainless steel exterior. The exterior brown paint and stripes would be gone. The Fiberglass seats would be replaced with stainless steel ones and carpet would be eliminated. They are also considering interactive linear maps, and automated announcements stating the station names. While I am all for the automated announcements, I remember the 6000’s doing it when they first started rolling out, so why don’t they do it now?

With the silver line looking like it might actually be built Track Twenty Nine has some very interesting diagrams on the capacity issues the Silver line will create at Rosslyn Station.

Metro is considering routing some blue line trans across the bridge to DC rather than going to Rosslyn as they currently do. When you add the silver line in the rosslyn tunnel it doesn’t look like metro will have any other choice than to reduce the blue line service to the station unless they expand or build another tunnel into DC.

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Posted in DC, Metro, Uncategorized, VA, bus | No Comments »

DC Metro affected by AIG Collapse

Friday, October 31st, 2008

It seems that DC Metro may have been affected by the collapse of AIG. StreetBlog looks at the affect of AIG on transit leasing, they quote the Philly Inquirer

The trouble stems from leasing arrangements made years ago between transit agencies and lenders in which the banks bought transit equipment and facilities, such as railcars and stations, and leased them back to the agencies.

The transit agencies got much-needed cash, and the banks got tax benefits. In 2003, the tax benefits from those kinds of transactions were prohibited by the IRS.

AIG served as the insurer of many of those deals. The collapse of AIG downgraded its credit rating, allowing the lenders to demand full payment from the transit agencies if the agencies did not quickly find other insurers.

The Washington Post says the Washington Metro needs to pay back 43 Million.

In Metro’s case, the regional transit agency could face up to $400 million in payments, the system’s chief financial officer, Carol Kissal, said in an interview yesterday. One bank, KBC Group of Belgium, has told Metro that it needs to pay $43 million by next week. Metro officials confirmed the details but declined to name the bank.

This is a sad time when public transit is at a all time high.

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Posted in DC, MD, VA, WMATA | No Comments »

Looking for a new commute

Monday, October 27th, 2008

While working in DC I was able to to put my bike on the 980 bus in Herndon and then bike from West Falls Church to DC. While traveling in China last month my contract came to an unexpected screeching halt. So I now find my self looking for a new job and as a byproduct a new commute.

The Strongest contender at the moment is in Tysons Corner, but they don’t have shower facilities which will officially suck in the summer.

So now I am looking for the best way to get there by bike. My first thought was W&OD trail from Herndon to Gallows Road, then up Gallows to International Drive. Another option might be to hit 123 north. On looking at the Fairfax bike map more closely I came up with a third plan but I don’t really know the roads so not sure if there are any gotchas that I am missing.

Also if anyone has any leads on shower facilities near Tyson’s Mall please let me know, I checked with fitness first, but they don’t offer a shower and locker only plan.

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Posted in Bicycling, VA, bus | 4 Comments »

Bike Racks in Herndon

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Since we have an offer from Councilman Hursh to install bike racks in Herndon I thought I would go out and map the ones I have found. You can see my results below.


View Larger Map

If you know of any other locations please let me know.

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Posted in Bicycling, VA | No Comments »

Councilman Husch’s poposal to confiscate bikes in Herndon

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

In response to Councilman Husch’s proposal to confiscate all bicycles that are chained, tied to trees or road sign posts in the public right-of-ways, I decided to take a trip out to Historic Herndon and see who would be affected by his proposal.

I saw a lot of bikers, most of them were using the trail to travel through Herndon. Other were stopping to buy drinks or ice cream. Two bikes were locked outside Jimmy’s Tavern. Another outside the bread shop.

What I didn’t find were any people who would fit the profile of an illegal, instead I found mostly white Americans.

As a biked a little further along the trail I spotted this couple locking up their bikes to a street sign next to an open house.

The couple had biked to Herndon and were looking to buy a town house in Herndon specifically because it was close to the trail. They chose to lock up their bike to the street sign at Branch Drive because it was close to their destination and was a solid secure object.

If Councilman Husch’s proposal becomes law, I wonder what their reaction would have been to coming back to find their bikes had been confiscated?

Councilman Husch said that a Virginia Law already prohibits bicycles from being chained to signposts or left in the public right of way. I searched the Virginia law and didn’t find anything that would appear to give them the authority to confiscate bikes parked in the public right of way. So I would ask Mr Husch to let us know the section of the code he is referring to so we can review it.

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Posted in Bicycling, VA | No Comments »

More on Herndon wanting to confiscate bikes

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

The Washington Post has picked up on a memo from Dennis D. Husch on his proposal to confiscate bikes in Herndon.

Town officials want to step up police activity and zoning enforcement where the workers gather, ban carryout alcoholic beverage sales downtown and remove the pay phones that the workers use to call their home countries. They want to institute a permitting process for homeowners to rent out rooms, in hopes of reducing the number of workers living in crowded conditions. They also want to confiscate bicycles — a common mode of transport for the workers — that are parked illegally in public places. Dennis D. Husch

I wrote an email to Mr Husch, which he hasn’t taken the time to reply to yet. I did get an email from Connie Hutchinson the Vice Mayor of Herndon saying the Council, as a whole, has not discussed Councilman Husch’s proposal yet and she is against the proposal of confiscating bikes in the public right of way.

I also had a lengthy emails conversation with Bill Tirrell who is on the Herndon Council. Although he has been supportive of installation of the traffic signal at W&OD and Elden and agrees that we need more bike racks in Herndon, he is siding with Mr Husch and feels that confiscating bikes in the public right of way is an appropriate response to illegal residents in the Town of Herndon even though it will also be targeting legal residents.

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Posted in Bicycling, VA | No Comments »

Town of Herndon’s Dennis Husch proposes conficating locked bikes

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Faab, set out an email alert on a story in the Fairfax Times which talks about Dennis Husch’s proposal to confiscate all bicycles that are chained or tied to trees or sign posts in public rights-of-way. I sent an email to the Mr. Husch and the Town of Herndon Mayor and Council.

Dear Mr. Husch

I am a home owner in the town of Herndon and I bike over 100 miles a week.

I was alerted to an article in fairfaxtimes.com by Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling which talks about your short sighted comments on confiscating bikes locked up in the Town of Herndon.

Bicycling is a critical component to making a livable community. With gas prices hovering around $4, bikes are a truly viable alternative to cars for short trips under two miles for almost everyone. We need to be putting in more bike racks, improving Bike facilities on roads, and encouraging more biking not making a Herndon a biking no go Black Zone that confiscates bikes.

Bikes are not just used by illegals, they are used by low income families, through high incoming families as a vital transportation link. Many people use bikes for commuting to there jobs and are forced to lock their bikes to a tree or sign post because there are no secure alternatives. I challenge you to walk on the W&OD trail and you will see huge diversity of people using bikes, not just illegals.

I regularly bike in Herndon and lock my bike to a bike rack or to any solid secure object if a bike rack is not available. In fact parking meters and parking signs are my favorite if a bike rack is not available.

By proposing

“establishing a town policy to confiscate all bicycles that are chained or tied to trees or sign posts in public rights-of-way; and removing pay phones along a section of Elden Street and other areas.”

You are directly targeting my bike, a legal, tax paying town of Herndon Resident.

The Town of Herndon should be doing everything in it’s power to encourage biking within the town limits. We need to be introducing legislation that mandates good quality reverse U style bike racks at ever business. If they are mandated to put in a certain number of car parking spaces then they should be mandated to put in a certain number of bike racks. Arlington County which is highly rated as a livable community has a website at http://www.bikearlington.com/ and have published some excellent guidelines on which bikes parking that I suggest you review at http://www.bikearlington.com/parking.cfm

If you have any questions about bike related issues in the Town of Herndon area please feel free to contact me. I regularly attend the Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling meetings and I am a Washington Area Bicycle Association member, and I have been biking and commuting by bike for over 25 years.

We will see what kind of response I get.

Update:

Here is a link to the FAAB blog post, it has an interesting comment from the user CouncilmanHusch. I think we have a challenge, document every location in Herndon that needs a bike rack and see if he lives up to his promise. My wife’s response is that the Walgreens at 603 Elden St. Herndon, VA 20170 needs a bike rack. She had to lock her bike to the no parking sign at that location.

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Posted in Bicycling, VA | No Comments »

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