CommuterPageBlog

America's Fittest Cities: How You Get To Work Can Make a Difference; DC Area #1

From Forbes Magazine we find that the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area is America's fittest (America's Fittest Cities, May 26, 3009, by Rebecca Ruiz). According to Forbes the America's FIttest Cities List is sponsored by the WellPoint Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the health benefits company WellPoint. The index ranks 45 MSAs that include the city and surrounding suburban area on 30 indicators including parkland, death rate from cardiovascular disease, the number of primary care physicians per capita, health insurance coverage, smoking and diabetes rates and the percent of residents who bike or walk to work.

According to the American Fitness Index website, the Washington, D.C. region scores great on 24 of the 30 indicators compared to other cities including a "higher percent using public transportation to work" and a "higher percent bicycling and walking to work." While I realize that Washington would do good on this kind of scale because of it's great economy it is interesting to note that the AFI index takes how people get to work into account in its index and that of course our region scores well on these. It's also interesting to compare the top cities, where there is good public transit, versus the bottom of the list where driving seems to predominate.

There's certainly been an emerging consensus in recent scientific literature that correlates health and fitness with the use of public transit, biking and walking as a transportation mode. And this should be another incentive for people who drive alone to try something different for some of their trips. Want to find out yourself how many additional calories you can burn by switching drive alone trips to bike, walk or transit? Try the Calculator at CarFreeDiet.com.

America's Fittest Cities List

1. Washington, D.C.

2. Minneapolis-St. Paul

3. Denver

4. Boston

5. San Francisco

6. Seattle

7. Portland, OR

8. San Diego

9. Austin

10. Virginia Beach

...

19. Baltimore

...

41. Houston

42. Las Vegas

43. Birmingham

44. Detroit

45. Oklahoma City

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter ServicesChief for Arlington County in the Transportation Division of the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a Metro/biking commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Dinner With Family Made Possible By Slugging

According to our good friend David LeBlanc who runs the the wonderful, citizen-operated slug-lines.com web site, he gets emails like this all the time but this one stood out. I thought I'd share it here:

David:

Just a follow-up to let you know I started slugging on Tuesday and absolutely love it. I have met some really nice people. I can't believe I didn't switch to this mode of transportation sooner.

I now have a 25 minute commute instead of 60-90 minutes and I have much more time with my family. I actually ate dinner with them every night this week instead of a warmed up plate they left me in the oven. I will recommend this to everyone I know.

Thank you,
Melissa

Melissa had driven by a slug line and seen people holding up signs that said "610" or "17." She figured they were destinations but wasn't sure so wrote to David. He helped her out by pointing to more specific information on their web site and she tried it. Obviously from her follow-up email she's a convert. Her example shows how wonderfully the I-95/395 HOV lanes work and how how slugging is one way to utilize them. 

There are many different free carpool services that can match you up with others and many commuter buses also speed along the HOV lanes into Arlington and DC. Whichever option to driving alone, using the HOV lanes can give you more time with your family, and that's a good thing. 

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter ServicesChief for Arlington County in the Transportation Division of the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a Metro/biking commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Weekend Cycling Events

In case you haven't paid attention to all the brightly colored posters in the Metro stations over the past three months, here's a last reminder: this weekend is the Air Force Cycling Classic, two days full of biking events.  The twelfth year of the Clarendon Cup is on Saturday in Clarendon, and the non-competitive Crystal Ride and the Air Force Cycling Classic Men's Pro Race are on Sunday in Crystal City. 

There will be a kids' race on both days, which is free and open to kids ages 9 and under.  It's also free to watch all the events and enjoy the beautiful Arlington days!

Check out the start times at their website and plan to Metro there early to get a good viewing spot.  Have fun!

Melissa Esposito is the Car-Sharing and Bike-Sharing Program Coordinator for Arlington County.

Biking to Tyson's via W&OD Link

Many people would consider trying to bike to Tyson's Corner to be a fool's errand. A couple of years ago, though, I discovered an unmarked, unpaved little trail through the woods from the W&OD trail to the residential areas south of Tyson's Corner that made it easy to ride to Tyson's without dealing with much traffic. I was out on the trail this morning and noticed that this link is now paved and connects directly, making this link to Tyson's no longer an insider's secret.

The link is about 100 yards west of milepost 10 on the W&OD, which is a little after crossing Cedar Lane when traveling westward on the trail. Here's a map of the route (starting at the Beltway) I would generally take to get to the Eastern part of Tyson's Corner (click here). During less trafficked times I'm liable to take Gallows Road, because it's a little shorter, but this route is more pleasant.

Here are some photos of the new link (click to enlarge):

Milepost 10 on the W&OD looking westward

Approaching the link, which can be seen going off to the right. 

The link connecting with Malraux Drive

The link looking towards the W&OD

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Steve Offutt, Arlington

Arlington's First Bike Shelter is Born

Ever striving to become more bike-friendly, the Arlington County Division of Transportation is nearing completion on a bike shelter at the Shirlington Transit Station. This shelter will provide parking for 28 bikes in a space that could park only two motor vehicles. The design of the shelter echoes the adjacent Shirlington Transit Station with its arched roof, materials, and color.

Why shelter bikes? Returning to one's bike after a storm and finding a dry seat is an encouragement to bicycling. Conversely, when the day is hot and the sun is pounding down on a dark leather bike seat, the shelter will ensure the seat does not overheat your rump. This type of amenity is a small and relatively inexpensive thing that really makes the cycling experience better.

Construction should be complete tomorrow and the shelter open for use. Once complete, the new shelter will encourage cycling to Shirlington and greater intermodality between bike and bus.

by Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

Now is the Time

This is one of my favorite times of the year; the trees have all greened up, the lawns and grassy spaces have not yet turned brown under the heat of the summer sun and the annual lack of rainfall, the queues are shorter for the trains and there are fewer tie-ups on the roads and highways. It will be interesting how big an impact the economy will have on the summer vacation season this year. I wonder if more people will just stay here instead of leaving for a week or two.

In the meantime, most of the local schools are still in session. Buses continue through the neighborhoods during the morning and afternoon hours and there are still groups of children who are walking to and from school. Many of us may be getting into a summer vacation frame of mind but stay alert. Soon we can start worrying about those walking to and from swimming pools and shopping malls and other gathering places.

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Congratulations to Metro General Manager Metro General Manager John Catoe for being named the nation's 2009 top public transportation manager by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). The annual Outstanding Public Transportation Manager Award goes to the top manager in North America who has made outstanding contributions to the public transportation industry.

In giving the award, APTA cited changes Catoe has made in Metro's internal culture and management including the consolidation of departments and his work on Capitol Hill to get funding potentially lost because of the collapse of AIG put back into transit agencies across the country.

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I saw a Next Bus sign posted at a Metro stop the other day. It's a reminder that the bus arrival time announcement system is supposed to be up and running on July 1. My only complaint is very nit picky but: couldn't the signs be made a little more modern? They look like something out of the 1970's and really don't give a clue as to how high-tech and how cool the Next Bus system is (when it's working).

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I'm really not sure what to think about the issue of food and drink in the Metro system. The overwhelming thought is that we have gone without for decades and have one of the nation's cleanest systems as a result. On the other hand, is this the revenue-generator that the system has been looking for to get it back on the right track (sorry)? In the case of the latter I'm certain an economic input case can be made but what about the costs related? What about the extra costs to clean the floors on the platforms and in the trains? What about the added cost of removing the extra paper and other packaging from trash receptacles? What about the risk of someone falling after somebody spills an ice cream on those tile floors? No, in the end I think that things are better just left the way that they are. So many of the stations have coffee shops once you get to street level and there are restaurants and cafes all over the place. We don't need to keep eating inside the system.

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Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.

Alexandria Earns Bicycle Friendly Community Award

The City of Alexandria was awarded a Bicycle Friendly Community award by the League of American Bicyclists, a national cycling advocacy organization. The award is to highlight the efforts communities take to make themselves more bike-friendly, such as by constructing bike lanes and bike parking, educating and enforcing bike safety, promoting cycling through events like Bike to Work Day, and evaluating their progress. The award is a "bronze"-level award which recognizes the accomplishes the City has taken and encourages Alexandria to become even more bike-friendly, thereby earning a silver, gold, and then platinum-level award. Places like Portland, OR, which is known for being a cyclist's paradise in the U.S., has a platinum Bicycle Friendly Community award.

Alexandria bike advocates, City staff, and elected officials celebrated their award at the recent Bike to Work Day pit stop at City Hall on May 15. Alexandria becomes the third jurisdiction in the Metropolitan Washington region to earn this award. The other communities are Arlington which has a silver award and Washington, D.C. which has bronze.

by Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

image credit: Bruce Dwyer

The Bike is King (and Queen) in The Netherlands

Following up on my earlier post "Making Cycling Easy - the Dutch Experience", I wanted to share more of my experience biking in The Netherlands. The Dutch have created their bike-friendly culture through years of prioritization of the bicycle as a mode of transport and accordingly have invested time and funding in this philosophy to make it a reality. The same can happen here in Arlington. Building the cycle tracks, bike lanes, 4-story bike parking garages, etc. is the easy part. The hard part is changing the mindset to allow it to exist.

The street scene below of a typical rural neighborhood in The Netherlands depicts this philosophy quite well. The street is narrow so it's designed to allow for bike lanes (in red and striped) on the outer portions of the street with one lane in the center for motor vehicle traffic. With the two bike lanes and one motor vehicle lane, it's a strong statement towards who gets priority on this street.

When two motor vehicles approach each other, they pass each other by both driving with half their vehicle in the center lane and the other half in the bike lane on their side of the street. However, when a cyclist is in a bike lane and two motor vehicles are approaching each other, the motorist moving in the same direction as the cyclist must wait behind the cyclist until the other motor vehicle has passed. Then the motorist may pass the cyclist in the center lane.

The suburban street below is wider and has more traffic of both motor vehicles and cyclists. By separating the cyclists from the motorists with a green buffer, it's creating an environment that most individuals on a bike would feel comfortable with as they don't have the noise, heat, dust, and fear of a motorist passing close to them at 30 mph. Below, cyclists are protected from motor vehicles with a soft buffer filled with trees and grasses.

We can learn a lot about how to recreate our transport networks in our cities, suburbs, and rural areas from the Dutch. We can also create healthier communities, limit obesity, and decrease carbon emissions at the same time.

Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

Montreal Shows Bike-Sharing Can Go Big Time in North America

Montreal launched North America's most ambitious bikesharing project to-date on May 12. It's called Bixi. According to the New York Times (Montreal Inaugurates Continent's Most Ambitious Bike-Sharing Program, by Ian Austen, May 13, 2009) the $13 million project was inspired by Velibe in Paris, has 3,000 bikes and 300 closely-spaced stations. This dwarfs anything yet tried on this side of the pond.

The Times says there are a couple of big differences between this system and most of their European counterparts. That includes the City's decision to operate the system itself and to fund it with user fees rather than advertising. From the Times "André Lavallée, the municipal politician who championed the Bixi, said that the advertising opportunities are more limited in Montreal, while city ownership allowed greater coordination with the city’s bus and subway system."

Local International bike-sharing expert Paul DeMaio, also did a post on Bixi (Bixi - The First Large Scale BikeSharing Program In North America, May 11, 2009). Paul reports that you can join for $5 a day (great for tourists), $28 a month or $78 a year. Whichever plan you choose the first 30 minutes of your ride are always free. For sure you'll want to check out this video about Bixi that Paul found too. Montreal is one of my favorite cities and now I have another excuse to go back.

Chris Hamilton is the Commuter ServicesChief for Arlington County in the Transportation Division of the Department of Environmental Services, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a Metro/biking commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Making Cycling Easy - the Dutch Experience

The saying goes, "If you build it, they will come." They come because it's built. The same is true where cycling for transportation is common - in The Netherlands. Having just returned from a 250 mile ride through this beautiful country, I became familiar with the great bike facilities the Dutch have created. Riding through cities, suburbs, and the countryside, it was rare when I rode in a location where no cycle facility was present. This is why the Dutch ride everywhere - because it's easy. They come because it's built.

But it's not only the bike facilities that make bicycling easy, it's the bikes too. The Dutch ride proper city bikes where one sits fully upright, not hunched over like Quasimodo - a posture that most American bikes convey (see below). Also, most Dutch bicycles come with a chainguard, so no pantclip or rolling of your right pantleg is necessary to prevent the chain from soiling or shredding it. Fenders are commonplace to prevent a rat tail of mud on your back when its damp outside. Lights are usually built-in, rather than requiring them to be purchased separately or removed at your destination to prevent theft. Reflective sidewalls of the tires are mandatory to keep you visible to broadside traffic at night. The bike is "fully-equipped" as the car industry would say.

 

Americans too will ride more often if it were easy to do so with safer places to ride and a better interconnected network of bike facilities. While facilities are important, we also need bikes which don't require special clothing, like spandex, to ride. With these two complementary components, bicycling will go far in the U.S.

by Paul DeMaio, BikeArlington

photos credit: Paul DeMaio
illustration credit: Gazelle Cycle Imports Australia