Weekend links: Bike on

by David Alpert and David Edmondson • May 19, 2012 10:39 am

Photo by katypearce on Flickr.

Many biked to work: Bike to Work Day by the numbers was a smashing success with 12,700 registered commuters. The FCC is also the most bike-friendly federal agency, followed by State, NOAA, Interior, and the Navy engineers. (TBD, WABA)

Mixing cars created problem?: Metro suspects coupling 1000 and 5000 series cars, originally done for safety after the Red Line crash, contributed to doors recently opening on a moving train. They will now inspect all 5000 series cars. (Examiner)

Divorce case increases marriage: Maryland now recognizes out-of-state same-sex marriages, the state's high court ruled after a California-married couple sought divorce in Maryland. This means the coming referendum may be more about whether most wedding money will go to DC than whether Maryland gay couples can wed. (Baltimore Sun, Maryland Juice)

Tech jobs growing: The DC area had the most job growth in high tech, math and science of any region. We now have the 2nd highest percentage of such jobs. (WBJ)

What billions buys: Arlington's manager wants $2.45 billion for the next decade's worth of capital projects, including road repair, the Columbia Pike streetcar, an aquatic center, and a host of other community upgrades and repairs. (Post)

Pay camera tickets: If a car owner gets a DC traffic camera ticket today, they can tell the DMV who was driving, and DC has to collect from that person. A bill would end this practice, and also reduce penalties for not paying camera tickets. (Examiner)

Pop under in Dupont: The Dupont Underground has languished so long without a major financial backer that the steering board is considering short-term leases of the space. Such pop-ups would raise visibility, but the board fears it would poorly brand the project and make it less attractive to institutional investment. (City Paper)

Studies say: The Arizona DOT found that denser, mixed-use areas have lower traffic, fewer cars per person, and shorter trips for errands. (Streetsblog) ... Walk Score correlates with higher housing prices. (Market Urbanism)

Parking's blight: Downtown Philadelphia is a bustling, walkable urban center thanks in part to transit-oriented development in years past. Alas, with more parking coming to the city center, the neighborhood's charms are threatened. (Philly.com)

And...: An artist makes portraits of subway riders using only paper and scissors. (NYT) ... Montgomery gets an interim planning head, Rose Krasnow. (Gazette) ... One resident is unhappy with the choice of BRT for the the Corridor Cities Transitway. (Patch)

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David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

David Edmondson is a transportation and urban affairs enthusiast living in Mount Vernon Square. He blogs about Marin County, California, at The Greater Marin.

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Many of the "someone else was driving" tickets are for rental cars. Hope Cheh considered this and it's impact.

by Tom Coumaris on May 19, 2012 10:53 am • link • report

It seems it's even more impt to fix this for rental cars. The rental agency can charge the driver for a ticket since they have their credit card and a contract which says the driver is responsible for tickets. But if it's an out of state driver from far away, they could never pay and never face consequences.

by David Alpert on May 19, 2012 11:02 am • link • report

Problem there Dave is if the rental agency can automatically charge your ticket your right to protest the ticket could be infringed. OTOH if it takes a while for a rental agency to notify the renter of the ticket the fine could have already doubled under the present system and the time to protest might have expired.

Under the present system I don't think DC is very good at going after the "someone else", and this excuse is probably abused.

In closing the abuse loophole (which I'm sure is necessary) I just hope the consequence for renters is well thought out.

by Tom Coumaris on May 19, 2012 11:31 am • link • report

Hm, the press release calls out the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. It's a bit misleading to call them "the Navy engineers" because NAVFAC definitely does not employ only engineers. Not to mention the fact that there are plenty of Navy engineers in other commands.

by SF on May 19, 2012 11:36 am • link • report

Could the WTA railcar couplers be responsible for other chronic WMATA problems? PA systems not working on anything except the first car? Wrong or dark last-station signs on the trailing cars? Impossibly short train lengths on PIDS signs? Herky jerky train rides especially at the back of the train?

by BO on May 19, 2012 11:50 am • link • report

You have the right to protest a fee or charge the rental company charges you if it goes against the terms of the contract. If the terms say you have to reimburse the rental agency for any validly issued tickets, you have the right to dispute the validity with the rental company. If the contract says you have to reimburse the company regardless of the validity of the ticket, that's a bad contract and an unsavory business practice. I would hope that practice is illegal but if it's not, that's a totally different issue. You could also potentially dispute the charge through your credit card company if the ticket is not valid because then it's an invalid charge.

Also, if the rental agency is negligent in their responsibility to pay the ticket on time, you would have a great case for disputing reimbursement of the late penalties to the rental company. The ticket is charged to the company, it's their responsibility to pay it on time.

by Falls Church on May 19, 2012 12:02 pm • link • report

I'm skeptical of any ranking system methodology that puts Baltimore as the 5th best place in the country for tech jobs and puts Jacksonville ahead of Silicon Valley.

by Falls Church on May 19, 2012 12:05 pm • link • report

Just to be clear, the Interagency Task Force did NOT say the FCC is the most bike friendly agency. The Interagency Task Force said it was their champion for the year, in other words - a model for other agencies. The Interagency Task Force was quick to point out that there are MANY agencies doing incredible things. The FCC has had a GOOD year with great support from management, and has seen expansion of its program. But there is no doubt there are other agencies doing great work. The Interagency Task Force acknowledged the FCC as a model, not as the best.

by Wilbur on May 19, 2012 3:16 pm • link • report

RE: CCT

I wish the CCT would be treated alongside the rest of the BRT systems being planned throughout MoCo, especially considering that now they'll all be the same mode. The CCT is too redundant with other proposed BRT lines and is far more meandering... I still think in its end it's just going to be a local bus line with fancy livery.

by Bossi on May 19, 2012 4:41 pm • link • report

I'm a smidge surprised that DOC didn't make the FedBike list of mentions. We're adjacent to the 15th St. and Penn Ave cycletracks, and have secure, indoor parking and a locker/shower facility for bikers. Plus, since we're split between the HCHB and RRB, we have a CaBi station at (both of) our doorsteps. Perhaps we were doing so well that we don't have any room for improvement. ;)

by Ms. D on May 19, 2012 11:28 pm • link • report

FC- The problem is you cannot protest a ticket that is not issued to you.

I recently got a ticket notification from Hertz less than a week before the fine would have doubled. The notification was just that they were notifying Hertz I had the car then and charging a $30 processing fee to notify me. I went online with DC and paid the ticket. I couldn't have protested the ticket since it wasn't written to me. I could have chanced that DC would never come after me but if DC did the fine would have doubled.

Renters need to have a mechanism to protest camera tickets.

by Tom Coumaris on May 19, 2012 11:38 pm • link • report

@Tom

Let me get this straight. Hertz wanted you to pay a ticket that wasn't issued to you but rather to them while you were driving their car. Then don't lay DC for the ticket because there's nothing DC can do to collect from ypu since they're not charging the ticket to you. If Hertz tries to charge your credit card for the ticket, provide them whatever evidence you have showing it was an invalid ticket, hence an invalid fee for them to charge you. If Hertz won't listen, dispute the charge with Visa/Mastercard as you have evidence of an invalid and unauthorized charge to your card.

by Falls Church on May 20, 2012 4:54 pm • link • report

FC- I'm not concerned about the fine etc. or the fee; just the rights of everyone in the future renting cars.

But Hertz charges you $30 as a fee to notify you that a ticket was incurred while you had the car. They say they are notifying DC you had the car and to shift responsibility to you. They tell you the ticket number. They do not pay the ticket for you-- you have to go online and pay it to DC yourself. By the time this is done it's close to fine-doubling time. You can't protest as it's not your ticket (yet). There's no way any credit card company is going to charge back a ticket on a rental car.

In this aspect the Cheh plan is better in that the rental company will have to pay the ticket and then charge your credit card promptly before a fine could double.

However, it still effectively takes away the right of the driver to protest the ticket. There needs to be a provision that in case of a rental car the driver can protest the ticket.

by Tom Coumaris on May 20, 2012 8:43 pm • link • report

@BO

I don't think the couplers have anything to do with most of that. If there were problems with the electronic connectors on the couplers, I'd imagine that we'd be seeing much more severe problems.

It's more likely that the electronics on board each car are not properly relaying their signals to the trailing cars. This wouldn't be first major software glitch to be discovered in the 5000 series.

by andrew on May 21, 2012 10:49 am • link • report

Dulles Rail Board scandal widens after withering Federal audit:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/virginia-news/2012/05/dulles-rail-board-spends-nearly-1m-studying-itself/633536

by Pelham1861 on May 21, 2012 1:21 pm • link • report