D.C Bikeshare and its woes

Yeah, it has been freezing conditions lately and if you are among the religious commuters within the DMV area, you’d wish for quick arrival of buses or train with heater on full blast. Well, hang in there we are a couple of weeks away for some relief while walking in the cold. For D.C residents, It would be in your interest to invest in an affordable means that will improve your comment.

D.C’s  government move to open bike lanes, starting from the Northwest region is the significant attempt to make the city “cyclist conscious”. In a crowded city like D.C  where residents park several blocks away from their condos, and daily commutes during rush hour in almost stagnant movement, bike lanes look to be one of the solutions on this issue.

Consequently, this will make bike sharing programs much more relevant and increase ridership; thus most likely influence D.C residents to exercise the option of biking. But now, it appears neighboring cities also want the same. Alexandria and college park of Virginia and Maryland respectively are pursuing bike-share program. The perceived success is driving this initiative for their residents and visitors to enjoy.

However it may seem like there is more concern than content towards this effort. Though it is on the matter of rejection for change, it is a matter of well thought out designs for bikes. It appears the bike paths are actually contributing to D.C traffic than reducing it. Some of the lanes are places in between opposite traffic while some are at the far end – to the curb. I can understand that wrong placement of these lanes will actually be an impediment to the cause of increased biking and will also threaten rider safety.

On the other hand, motorists are constant violators by parking on cycle-tracks. They have often forced cyclist to leave their assigned lanes onto the rest of the roads or sometimes the sidewalk. This is very particular along the 15th Street as well as Pennsylvania Avenue.
It may be that the position of the lanes do interfere much. But in a city such as D.C, there is only very little room that could accommodate bike lanes. Such would be enough to allow cyclist travel several blocks without disruption. Of course new laws and applications will help manage and control issues relating to bike safety and violations. In the end this is an agenda towards a clean energy environment for D.C and smart living.

Given the circumstance, this may be the least of interested topic but as we look onto warmer weather, when better would it be to discuss alternative clean practices than now?

Let us hope that D.C officials correct or address provision for parking, bike safety and interference and efficient regulations that will make bike ridership a much popular and preferred means.This will be a lesson both cities will learn when designing bike lanes surrounding the vicinity of the bike stations.

Tags: bike sharing, bike-sharing program, clean energy

This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Environment, Featured Content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

via sobuka.com

Posted via email from simplelivinggreen's posterous