Comments on: Biking Friday

By: ty

ty — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:07:18 +0000

Good lord. You live right down the road from me. Welcome to the neighborhood, neighbor! You’ll occasionally see Cambridge bike cops riding side by side in the middle of car lanes on Mass Ave, slowing traffic. It’s a sight that should warm the heart of any biker.

By: Rory Finneren

Rory Finneren — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:08:23 +0000

Congrats on biking to work Rob! And congrats to Libby for getting accepted to Harvard Law School! You guys will have a great time in Boston. Good luck!

By: Maia M

Maia M — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:06:25 +0000

DDOT needs to transform the way the are evaluating and measuring traffic. The IPMA is still using the car-centric metrics of intersection efficiency per volume rather than considering cyclist, pedestrian and other factors.

Until the Director and the Mayor get a handle on this, all of DDOTs actions will be stuck in the 1950′s.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:06:59 +0000

Ancient buses or not. It’s not that unusual in places with surface transit for walking or biking to be faster. Those cars and all the stops and badly timed lights are a mess on transit. All those beautiful (newish) streetcars in San Francisco take forever and a day to get most places. When I lived there, I regularly walked home (or wherever, taxis are hard to come by as well). DC, like SF, is small enough that walking often makes the most sense. Last summer when I was interning at the Smithsonian, I used to walk home to Petworth from the National Mall. Not a bad walk at all. And only took me a little bit longer than riding Metro and then taking the bus.

Back when I lived and worked in Charlottesville, I would ride my bike when I was late for work. It was always faster than driving and looking for parking at that point.

I wish I could say the same for now, but working near Tysons pretty much negates getting there by any other way than a car. Unless I wanted to spend 3-4 hours a day commuting, instead of the 1.5 hours it takes me now.

By: Rob Goodspeed

Rob Goodspeed — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:14:49 +0000

2.6 miles and I may have exaggerated, I think it's 30 on average, 20-40 the 95% range with the upper end only when I miss the bus and the next one is late. D.C. public bus service is mediocre with ancient buses that often run off-schedule. I walk home daily.

By: Beige Alert

Beige Alert — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:07:41 +0000

You have a two mile commute that takes 30 to 45 minutes???? 3.2 km divided by 6 km/hr walking speed is just over 30 minutes. My 14 km commute normally takes under 40 minutes by bicycle. Surely it’s not really just two miles, right? I know buses are slow, my GPS measurements are hardly faster than bicycle speed even not counting wait times, but, really.

By: EP

EP — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:57:55 +0000

“Transportation planners regularly record automobile traffic volumes on city streets using automated devices, often reporting the results on maps. I�ve never heard of something similar for biking . . .”

Now you have: Minneapolis uses them. See the city’s report for more than you could possibly want to know about bike traffic density on the Midtown Greenway, the largest trail: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/MidtownCount.pdf