New water fountains are coming to the Mount Vernon Trail thanks to a $475,000 grant from the National Park Foundation. The new fountains will have water bottle fillers and remain operational year round. The Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail were able to offer $40,000 in matching funds to strengthen the grant proposal thanks to the investment of our donors. Installation is expected to occur in 2025 after NPS awards a contract.

The Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail will be working on more upgrades to rest areas in 2025 in addition to our weekly volunteer trail improvement events. If you'd like to support our efforts with a Giving Tuesday donation, it will be matched up to $7,600 thanks to six Mount Vernon Trail supporters.

Before and after of a water fountain replaced in fall of 2024 near the Old Stone Bridge. The new water fountain has a bottle filler, dog dish and two fountains.

WABA Advocacy has arranged a Zoom session on Thursday, December 5, 2024, 7:30 pm-8:30 pm to bring community members up to speed on WABA’s 2025 state legislative agenda and pro-cycling advocacy plans. Register at https://waba.org/event/waba-preview-of-the-2025-maryland-legislative-session/ .

We’ll be joined by a special guest, Senate Judicial Proceedings (JPR) Committee Chair Will Smith, who will join us to brief you on the 2025 legislative calendar, the state transportation budget outlook, and effective advocacy from a legislator’s point of view.

WABA's quarterly Prince George’s County Advocacy update covers events, advocacy opportunities, legislative and transportation priorities, and community activities, plus our 2024 Prince George's County WABA Award honorees: https://waba.org/2024/11/27/pgc-2024-advocacy-update-4/ .

They are more or less completed east of 18th St. Hopefully they will add some concrete, but the flex posts are in. I’m also looking forward to DC closing that one short block of Champlain St. Proof that we can still have nice things.

Hello, my fellow biking brethren.  My best friend and significant other, Tom Flournoy, died about a month ago in his sleep, and we are having a short 1-mile ride from his place at Hyde Park Condominiums to Lyon Park Community Center for his Celebration of Life service. If you are in the Ballston area tomorrow (Saturday, 11/23) at 12:45pm, come ride with us.

He was an avid cyclist and volunteered as a corker for DC Bike Party, lea rides at Phoenix Bikes for the kids, and on Friday mornings, he helped shuttle young elementary children bike safely to their school via Arlington’s Escuela Key Bicibús (bike bus).  Prior to his death, he was working with another organization to provide vouchers to low-income households for the purchase of eBikes.  He also left the majority of his estate (in the millions) to his Bonsource Cyclist Fund to provide support for bicycling and bicycling infrastructure.

You can read his obituary here if you are so inclined.  Thanks for listening.

-Mark

A Bianchi road bike without the wheels had been on the side of the street in Petworth for weeks unlocked. I picked it up in the rain today to try and find the owner. I searched bike index and 529 for the serial number to no avail. Let me know if it’s yours or you have tips to find the owner. If it’s yours, tell me some distinctive traits like size, componentry, or model or something.

Frankly, it’s pretty beat up and would need a lot of work to be rideable so it’s no prize. I think the rear triangle is out of alignment.

Thanks!

Coming to y’all with an urgent update on the 11th St bike lanes: the Mayor has gotten involved and the project is at risk of being Connecticut Avenue’d (sadly now a verb) but we can still do something about it.

Despite overwhelming public support and unanimous support from the ANC, I learned through the grapevine that the Mayor has gotten involved in the process after a few neighborhood cranks reached out to her office. She even granted said cranks a secret private in person meeting at the Wilson Building and is apparently going to meet with them again. They apparently falsely claimed that no one wants the project and used that as a way to get her to stop the project. The opposition also has its own very dumb petition they have started to flyer for which I am not gonna link because I don’t want to give them rent free attention.

This is bad news because it’s building the pattern that the Mayor will just override planners if a loud enough group of cranks complain. We should not give up and instead we should ramp up our outreach.

WABA has a petition out for the project (link below) which also lets you email them directly through the form. If you’d prefer to email the Council, DDOT, and the Mayor’s office through your own email, I listed the emails below. I’d suggest focusing on the Mayor’s office, DDOT, and the Ward 2 Councilmember because the Ward 1 Councilmember already wrote a letter in support.

https://waba.org/action-page/calling-for-a-protected-11th-street-nw-bike-corridor/

Emails:

DDOT:

christopher.berg@dc.gov  mike.goodno@dc.gov  sharon.kershbaum@dc.gov  matthew.marcou@dc.gov megan.kanagy@dc.gov sandra.marks@dc.gov

Ward 1 Council:

bnadeau@dccouncil.gov  dmeni@dccouncil.gov

Ward 2 Council:

bpinto@dccouncil.gov  ghulick@dccouncil.gov  bromanowski@dccouncil.gov

Mayor’s/City Administrator’s Office:

muriel.bowser@dc.gov lindsey@dc.gov kevin.donahue@dc.gov helder.gil@dc.gov

Guy photographing scenic wet leaves casually stepped into the cycletrack during peak morning commute. 3 cyclists ahead of me and maybe 6 behind me narrowly avoided a pileup as we braked hard. I'm amazed nobody was hurt, including the idiot who waltzed in. Hope everyone is feeling okay.

I have to get a minor outpatient surgery next month and would so much rather Cabi to Sibley than be nervous and lightly nauseous in the backseat of an uber.

I plan to ebike since I dont want to get my heart rate up too much. Is it paved the whole way from Georgetown? It's been a while since I've biked that far up the capital crescent and I've always done it with my own bike so it didn't matter. I would rather not CaBi on loose gravel.

Hello, I've been a proud owner of a C-Line Explore for the past year. Would love to connect with other Brompton folks, ride around town, socialize a bit. I can never seem to make the Brompton Junction meetups, so wondering if anyone was up for a casual meetup on a sunny weekend day? Happy riding!

WABA action: Ask the Maryland Department of Transportation to Fully Fund Bikeways and Complete Streets. https://waba.org/action-page/ask-mdot-to-fully-fund-bikeways-and-complete-streets

Hello! I recently added a milk crate to the back of my bike and the bus driver told me to put it in the in the second slot (farthest from bus). I think this was so the milk crate didn't block her view.

For anyone else with milk crates, is that the correct way to do it going forward? Have you had any issues where they told you to take off the crate?

New tag

Old tag
([The Gentleman's Closet by the convention center] (https://maps.app.goo.gl/pRCNu4Dpm8rVgPi16))
(Previous Post)

The rules

not going to say where to try to protect your bike but if this is your ride, you only locked it to itself, not to the actual corral to park it! anyone could come by and walk away with it.

hope you see this before it gets snatched up!

Heads up that there is a virtual meeting tonight at 7 PM of ANC 1B’s Transportation Committee where DDOT will be presenting updated near final plans for the Vermont Avenue protected bike lanes.

It’s a small segment of PBL (red coloring above) but it would connect the existing 9th St cycle track to the future 11th St PBLs (blue coloring). It would also connect a growing high density population center right by the 9:30 Club southwest. And to put a cherry on top, it would reduce a six lane road down to four and slow down speeding drivers who love to go crazy late at night.

For some reason despite it not taking away parking and only being three blocks it has drawn the immense ire of cranks in the area who are upset about among other things, the aesthetics of what flexiposts look like in a “historic neighborhood.”

Any support would be helpful!!

Link for the meeting and the project page below:

https://www.anc1b.org/upcoming-meetings/3wh7klxy3rb2w2n7wtg3e9lw2kbs2f-yt6wr-nj2x8

https://bikelanes.ddot.dc.gov/pages/abd060f40eca4e5a916aabe9ea5197a9

Last summer, I learned how to ride a bike and now addicted to riding, and I still can't believe I ride every day to go home from work just for fun and, on the weekends, even run errands. I have a helmet but need a helmet to put in my backpack and preferably with a light for nights. Thanks!

New tag (same day picture per the rules, it just got dark very quickly.

Old tag 400 Kennedy ST NW.

The mural painted by local artist u/flocherivs is in honor of a deported Maryland veteran, Laura Meza and all other deported veterans, as a part of the Leave No One Behind Mural Project. ✊✊✊✊✊✊✊✊

old post - A very appropriate post for the Veterans day.

Rules

Practically homicidal driving record. It’s unbelievable that people are allowed to keep their cars and licenses with driving records like this.

In the past year I have started cycling and I am looking for any excuse to go riding. Every year for Thanksgiving, my wife does a 5k. It's a fun tradition for her and I was thinking I could do the same but for biking. It's there an event like that for cycling in the area? I couldn't find anything with a general google search so I figured I would ask here. It's this even a thing for cycling? Thanks!

I had my bike lights stolen outside of the Eastern Market Metro. My bike was locked to a bike lock but my front and rear lights were taken off. Guessing there's nothing worth doing about it? But wanted to ask to make sure.