Advocacy Action on Pa Ave

What: Safety awareness bike ride
Where: The Pennsylvania Ave bike lanes at and around Freedom Plaza.
When: 7:00 AM - 9:00 AM on Friday, 26 October 2012
Who: Anyone

The D.C. Civic Cycling Assembly (aka The Assembly, an advocacy outreach program of the local bike shop BicycleSPACE) has coordinated with concerned local cyclists, cycling advocacy organizations, and members of the city council to hold an Advocacy Action event on Friday October 26, 2012 from 7AM-9AM.  We plan to gather at Freedom Plaza and safely and legally ride the bike lanes up and down Penn. Ave. to give visibility to the issue, distribute safety information geared at both motorists and non-motorized users of the roadway, and collect signatures on a petition requesting action on the above goals.  Monitors will be stationed at key intersections to encourage safe behavior from the cycling public and to hand out the safety information sheets.  If anyone would like to be a part of this Advocacy Action event, they may come join us at Freedom Plaza that morning; those willing to be part of the group riding in the lanes just need to come with a bike and we will coordinate the timing of the riders and provide printed collateral highlighting the issue for individuals to attach to their bike &/or person.  We look forward to a FUN & SAFE morning creating a better understanding of the genuine safety concerns on this important stretch of the “nation’s Main Street”- hope to see YOU there!!

Close call

Standing in front of JAWB today to document the promised additional police presence. I heard skidding bike tires and a shout of "hey, no, stop stop stop!" so I swung my camera over just in time to see what had happened. Nobody was hit, thank goodness, but it was a close call for four cyclists. I jogged over to document the car's license plate as he parked.

He came to me to apologize, and we had a nice chat. He seemed truly surprised when I showed him this picture - he hadn't noticed ANY cyclists were so close, let alone four.

Again, I saw no MPD presence in 30 minutes.

Pennsylvania Avenue WITHOUT U-turns

One less minivan.

Pennsylvania Avenue U-turns

On 10/16, starting at 8:30 AM, I stood on the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 12th and 13th streets to count illegal U-turns, and to capture some in pictures. I stayed in the same half-block, but had to move a bit to see around buses and trucks.

By the time I left just after 9 AM, I had witnessed 25 U-turns from this block. About 80% were executed by taxis. I also was harassed by one person, a passenger in one of the U-turning vehicles, and further harassed by a security guard from the passenger's office over the legality of the pictures I was taking. Those pictures, and a bit more commentary, after the jump...