As any touring cyclist can tell you, finding a place to pitch your tent is often the issue that drives your daily ride.  The distance between camping facilities may mean a forty mile day, or it may mean a hundred.  Finding  a safe place to camp is a major daily blessing — or curse.

There never seems to be enough places to camp along the Parkway.   With the constant climbing along the crest of the Blue Ridge, campsites always seem to be spread out farther than a rider would like.

Located at milepost 120, the Roanoke Mountain Campground has, for years, offered a respite to the tired cyclist.  In an area that has become more urbanized each year, camping options are scarce; and riding into Roanoke to find a hotel room can be treacherous on the busy urban roads.

The National Park Service is considering closing this camping facility, unless they receive input from citizens requesting it stay open.

The VBF recommends that that the Roanoke Mountain campground be maintained (option A) or upgraded (option C).

Please take a moment to ask that we not lose this facility, which is an oasis to cyclists and hikers.

Post your  comments at the NPS website or visit the ROANOKEOUTSIDE.COM blog and  ask  to keep the campground open.

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After years of outcry and controversy, Virginia Beach cyclists will finally get a bike lane on the four mile wooded section of Shore Dr. Construction of the eastbound lane should start in December, to be completed in March. Construction of the westbound lane should start in July. The Virginian-Pilot has the full story.

In April 2009, cyclist Dan Hersh was killed by an overtaking motorist on Shore Dr. No charges were filed against the motorist, who said she didn’t see him. Along with Dan’s family, we established the Daniel Wayne Hersh Memorial Fund to promote bike safety education for cyclists, motorists, and law enforcement officials.

Dear Amtrak: cyclists like us want to help you be successful – if you’d only let us!

For several years, the Virginia Bicycling Federation been asking Amtrak to make it easier to take our bikes on their trains.  We think its a win for Amtrak by increasing ridership, and a win for cyclists who would like to carry their bikes to destinations for touring, recreation, or making the final connection on their trips, excursions and vacations.

As things stand now, if a person wants to carry their bike on a train in Virginia, they must disassemble the bike and box it — a hassle at best, but a deal breaker for someone who isn’t handy with a wrench.   For someone not mechanically inclined, they would need to take a trip to a bike shop to break their bike down and box it –  which, of course, precludes riding your bike to the train station — and do the same at their destination.  A deal breaker for all but the most dedicated.

You then must pay a special handling fee to Amtrak to transport the bike.

Multiply all this by two for the return trip home.

I think most would agree this is a hassle.

We’ve asked Amtrak to reconsider their policy and carry unboxed bikes – heaven forbid – but have been told  they would need need new, high-tech baggage cars make this difficult situation work.

According to Jay McArthur,  Amtrak’s Principal Officer for Policy and Development:

Roll-on/roll-off bicycle carriage is not possible at this time on our Crescent and Silver Service routes which run through Virginia to and from New Orleans and Florida.  This service is provided on a small number of Amtrak services, primarily those where states have provided short-distance equipment that features low-level boarding and bicycle racks in cars that are accessible to passengers.  The equipment on these trains does not feature low-level boarding nor is there space for bicycles without taking away space already used for coach seats or racks for other passengers’ carry-on bags.  There is a baggage car, but the doors and floor of that car are three-to-four feet above platform level, the car is not accessible to passengers, and the car does not have bicycle racks

Fast forward to 1955.

(Go to 1:30 in the video for the innovative BTF bike storage solution.)

Adventure Cycling forwarded a link to an old British Rail Board video I had seen a while ago. Funny how British Rail solved this difficult problem 56 years ago.  What did these geniuses do to solve such a dilemma as carrying unboxed bikes?  As they tell us in their video, they put hooks in the baggage car:  

“A properly equipped touring cycle can be quite a bit of expensive machinery… and the owner of such a machine is inclined to be fussy about how it is carried.  So what do the railways  do?  They hang it on a rubber covered hook… Because after careful investigation the Cycle Touring Commission of the International Touring Alliance decided this was the way to carry cycles by train.

The cyclist hands his unboxed bike to the baggage handler

The handler gently places the front wheel on the hook

Note an entire baggage car filled with bikes? Does that help profits?

Voila: the BTF Bike Solution Circa 1955

A British Rail station filled with happy cyclists

Why, we ask, doesn’t Amtrak take a lesson from our British brethren in the fifties and make it easy to carry bikes on trains? Perhaps they would find, as in the BTF film, that their trains would be filled with happy, Sunday morning cyclists, enjoying a cup of tea and weekend excursion on Amtrak!

(l to r) George Homewood, Bud Vye, Champe Burnley, Stran Trout

The VA Bicycling Federation awarded New Kent County their Bike Friendly Community Award at the Richmond Metropolitan Planning Organization’s December meeting.   Accepting the award for  New Kent were George Homewood, Director of Economic Development and Supervisor Stran Trout.

The award acknowledges New Kent’s efforts to support cycling and creating six permanent cycling routes in the county.

The MPO approved the county’s application for a federal Transportation Enhancement grant application which helped pay for the routes.

New Kent has been a leader in Central Virginia for proactively including cycling as an integral part of their transportation infrastructure.

Capital Bikeshare opened for business today, with 1100 bikes at 114 stations throughout the DC metro area. 14 stations are in Arlington VA.

The New York Times covered the story, along with examiner.com, WashCycle, and Greater Greater Washington, who also suggested that even bike owners will benefit from joining Capital Bikeshare.

To use the bikes, riders join Capital Bikeshare for a day ($5), month ($25), or year ($75, with an introductory offer of $50). The first 30 minutes of use are free; the second, $1.50; the third, $3.00. Each additional 30 minutes is $6. So pricing encourages short trip use, which is what the system is intended for. Riders can take a bike from any of the 114 stations, and return it to any station.

Capital Bikeshare is the successor to SmartBike DC, a much smaller system operated by ClearChannel.

Getting around campus  has become much easier for students and staff at the University of Richmond.

In September, 35 green bikes were placed around campus for students to ride to class, the library, residence halls, or other destinations.

Students can pick up and leave the bikes at racks placed throughout the campus.

The bike program was the idea of students in the campus Sierra Club and RENEW (Richmond Environmental Network for Economic Willpower), which have merged to form Green UR. The group has been working with campus Recreation and Wellness to implement the bike program.

“The Richmond campus is very bikeable, and we just wanted to see more students out there on bikes, both for exercise and for the environment,” says Karen DeBonis, a member of Green UR.

“The bikes reduce traffic and minimize the University’s carbon footprint,” says Tom Roberts, director of recreation and wellness, “The program also supports the goals of the nationwide (college) Presidents’ Climate Commitment and encourages everyone in our campus community to live healthy, balanced lives.”

14 new, yellow bikes have been purchased to supplement the original 35 placed in service in the fall.

How is the program working?

“There used to be people who would make fun of the program, or be like, ‘Stupid green bike,’ and kick it, but now people are like, ‘Sweet, green bike,’ and jump on. It’s been great to see that happening over time,” said  sophomore Jerry Giordano, president of GreenUR, “It’s clear to anyone that has set foot outside campus in the last two weeks that the bikes have been generally well received. Every day I see members of the university community enjoying and taking advantage of the green bikes.”

According to bike mechanic Daniel Kinka, there have been some initial glitches and bikes were being treated roughly.  But things seem to be  going better.  Kinka said there hadn’t been any major damages to bikes so far this semester.  “The damages are all very minor, and only constitute 10 to 15 minute repairs on average,” he said, “However, what’s unsettling is the obvious fact that much of the damage is intentional, or at the very least, the result of flagrant neglect.”

In addition to Kinka, the university will be hiring one or two student mechanics from GreenUR, Giordano said. “Many students don’t know this, but they can take their own bikes and get free maintenance,” he added.

“Next year is the first year the bike program will be in full swing, with the maintenance shop, the store, the bike sale and the whole inventory,” Giordano said, “If the bike programs become popular enough, and this becomes more of a bike-oriented campus, we’re hoping especially the freshmen will catch on and maybe we can get more funding and nicer bikes.”

A new version of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices has been released, with a lot of new bike-specific signage and road markings — especially sharrows. Thanks to Elijah Sharp from the New River Valley Planning District Commission, we have the MUTCD bicycle section (PDF) available for download.

Rails with trails: San Francisco Bay Trail (photo: Rails to Trails Conservancy)

The Rails to Trails Conservancy has just released a new report, titled, “California Rails-with-Trails: A Survey of Trails Along Active Rail Lines.” This report was designed to update data collected for the RTC’s 2000 rail with trail report.

Some conclusions from the 2009 California survey:

• Safety:  there were no incidents between a trail user and a train.  In fact, using a rail-with-trail may well be significantly safer than walking or cycling next to a busy main road and it may serve to keep people from walking on active rail tracks.
• Growth:  California now has 21 RWT projects, up from 7 in the 2000 study.
• Dual benefit:  constructing a trail along an active railroad doubles the value a community derives from the rail corridor and provides citizens with an extra transportation choice.
• Liability: the survey revealed the vast majority of rails-with-trails are insured by existing city or transit district insurance coverage in a similar manner to other trails.

Despite opponents’ rhetoric against rails with trails, this study seems to reinforce what many already know: rails with trails make safe and practical bike and pedestrian trails, and communities across the United States should include rails with trails as part of their comprehensive transportation infrastructure.

A Sharrow - Shared Lane Arrow or Shared Lane Marking

The Federal Highway Administration has released the 2009 edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), the national standard for traffic signs and road markings.

Cyclists can rejoice at the inclusion of sharrows, or shared lane markings, along with “bikes may use full lane” signs. Now that they’re in the manual, local engineers can feel comfortable using them.

Cyclelicious has a great write-up, with pictures.

Establishing national standards is a slow process (nearly 10 years to get sharrows included). Many thanks to Richard Moeur for sticking with it, and advocating for cyclists in committee.

Update: more from BikePortland, with info and pictures about the new bike route signs. Also from Bike Pittsburgh, and BikingBis.

The much-ballyhooed Bikestation DC opens tomorrow, Friday October 2, with a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at 10:30am, in conjunction with the League of American Bicyclists. (Please RSVP to Steve Mathis at ((877) 572-2453.) Bikestation DC is at 50 Massachusetts Ave., appropriately at Union Station.

The concept, location, and design of Bikestation DC have generated a lot of discussion and press attention. Examiner.com has a great page of links to media highlights. This is a great addition to our nation’s capital — for the city itself, and as a nationwide example of how things can be done. Bikestation has been operating successfully in other cities for over a decade.