Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Interview with FABB chairman
I was interviewed recently by Kate Ryan of WTOP News. Kate was at the Reston Town Center covering the two rides that were held there on Thanksgiving morning. We discussed bicycling in Reston and Tysons and the bicycle master plan. Note the sign in the background that states No Bicycling along with No Roller Skating, Soliciting, Trespassing or Loitering. Initially I thought the sign referred to activities banned on the sidewalk but lumping it in with Trespassing, Loitering, and Soliciting doesn't make sense. I'll check on it. Here's a link to the interview:
Kate writes the bike blog Lane Change. According to Kate, she is "a DC-based reporter shifting from the driver's seat to the bike lane. And you can come along for the ride."
Labels: bruce wright, kate ryan, reston town center
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Covering the Sanity Rally for WTOP by bike
Now that I live where I work, and have gone carless, I proposed covering the event by bike. My boss, Jim Farley, who's embraced the changes in our industry and put us way ahead of the curve in so many ways, gave me the thumbs up. And hey, he knows an opportunity to cut fleet costs when he sees it.
I had some scrambling to do throughout the day. Getting cell service was a challenge, so we figured the bike would allow me to hightail it off the Mall and better my chances of being able to file electronically.
The bike valets were not available on the Mall, though WABA did make the pitch to Comedy Central, so finding bike parking was actually, a bit of a challenge. Good news in a way--a signal that many folks are indeed finding bikes a viable form of transportation.
It's unfortunate that the event organizers couldn't come up with the money to have bike valet parking. WABA offerred to provide it, but as they say in their blog entry The Economics of the Bike Valet, bike parking isn't free: "It takes time. It takes coordination. And it takes money."I had some scrambling to do throughout the day. Getting cell service was a challenge, so we figured the bike would allow me to hightail it off the Mall and better my chances of being able to file electronically.
The bike valets were not available on the Mall, though WABA did make the pitch to Comedy Central, so finding bike parking was actually, a bit of a challenge. Good news in a way--a signal that many folks are indeed finding bikes a viable form of transportation.
Labels: bike valet, kate ryan, waba
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Kate Ryan, WTOP reporter, writes bike blog
We also recently rode our first Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) bike in Crystal City during Car Free Day. The bikes look very sturdy and are great for getting around town. The density of stations in Crystal City seemed very good and it looks like the system there will be a success. It's a great accomplishment to have a system that's compatible in two different states (oops... a state and the District of Columbia).
Here's our latest CaBi story: When we had a meeting downtown this week we took Metro and wanted to test out the bikes again. We exited the Orange line at Foggy Bottom and planned to ride the bike to the McPherson Square area (don't tell anyone I didn't have a helmet with me). At home I had looked at the map of current stations and saw there was one near the Foggy Bottom Metro station. When I arrived, I whipped out my iPhone, pulled up the map from the CaBi site and .... couldn't see a thing. Well, I could see a few streets and what looked like station symbols but couldn't read the street names and the map navigation was very hard to control.
I ended up walking from Foggy Bottom, along K Street, all the way to 16th St and saw no stations; no CaBi stations that is. There were two SmartBike stations but they didn't do me any good. I was told there is an iPhone app for finding stations, and after some searching just came across iFindBikes, a free (for now) app: "iFindBikes is the ideal tool for users of city bike rental around the world. iFindBikes shows you where are the bike stations around you and how many bikes and docks (parking slots) are available." Guess I'll study the online map a little more closely before heading out next time. I'll also check out iFindBikes.
Labels: capital bikeshare, kate ryan
