The heat of summer isn’t over yet, but fall isn’t too far away. The drop in temperatures brings a jump in organized rides in our area. Now’s the time to consider what you’ve still got left in your legs for 2012 — or, perhaps, to find out for the first time in 2012 what you’ve got in your legs. Read on to find out about some of my favorite organized rides – with all but one of them easily doable as a day trip from Arlington. Why pay for an organized ride when you can just roll out on your own for free? Organized rides are a great way for casual cyclists to try longer distances without the …

Arlington Public Schools recently announced changes to its student transportation plan that appeared to be aimed at reducing the number of students on its bus fleet. This means that more students will be expected to ride a bike or walk to school. This isn’t just a reasonable change — it’s a desirable one. However, given the pushback from some quarters, it’s clear that Arlington can do a better job in encouraging parents and students to ride a bike or walk to school. Under the school system's transportation plan, elementary school children who live less than a mile, and secondary school …

The Arlington County Fair is awesome. I used to say that with irony, but somewhere along the line it turned into a sincere statement. From the imported pig races to the locally grown prize pickles to the booth urging the preservation of teaching Latin in school, it’s a concentrated Arlington County experience. This extends to transportation, too. It’s doable by car, manageable by public transport – and easiest by bike. Based on a decade’s worth of attendance, I’d say that most people get there by car. This isn’t unreasonable, as the fairgrounds — at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center — …

New trail connections, more bike safety classes and improved bike parking in new developments: These aren’t happy accidents. Nor are they part of some secret plan to evict cars from the streets. Instead, they’re part of a rather public plan — Arlington County’s Master Transportation Plan, or MTP. The plan is a roadmap for Arlington’s transportation future, and it recognizes that cycling — along with public transportation, walking and, yes, even private vehicles — is going to help get us there. Arlington’s future will be filled with more density and more people, with no room for more roads. …

As I write this, there’s a flurry of activity in the Washington Area Bike Forum. Members from across the D.C. area are trying to figure out where to hold regular happy hours and it’s getting complicated. The problem is that there’s just so much demand, it’s tricky to satisfy it all.  Most of the participants have only joined the forum in the last year and very few knew each other from elsewhere. So what brought them together? Bikes. Like softball leagues and bar trivia, bikes are becoming a social catalyst in the Washington area. Bikes provide a common point of reference for a fairly diverse …

As this column has noted before, Arlington’s cycling and pedestrian infrastructure is lacking in good north-south connections. The completion of the Washington Boulevard Trail will provide an invaluable, mostly off-street connection between the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor and Columbia Pike. Misguided opposition should not derail forward movement on this project.  Right now, the Washington Boulevard Trail starts at Arlington Boulevard and ends at South Courthouse Road. At its northern terminus, it connects to the existing Arlington Boulevard Trail, as well as the smaller Fillmore Park Trail that…

Back in March, Arlington County started engaging the public on the question of how Capital Bikeshare, or CaBi, should grow in the long term. After months of public input and feasibility studies, we now have a draft Transit Development Plan for CaBi. The point of the plan, as Arlington County described it, is to “systematically plan for service expansion and improvements in a strategic and fiscally realistic fashion.” With this in mind, the draft plan describes two expansion scenarios. The first is the “constrained expansion,” in which the number of new stations are limited to existing funding…

Arlington’s trails are a welcome respite from the noise and traffic of the street. They draw thousands of daily users from the whole of Arlington’s citizenry. Unfortunately that includes some of its lesser element, who take advantage of Arlington’s open and engaging nature. While violent and serious crimes are incredibly rare on Arlington’s trails, this week brought us an awful reminder that it is possible. While this shouldn’t turn us away from our welcoming approach to our neighbors, we do need to stay alert. So in the spirit of expecting the best while preparing for the worst, trail users…

Transportation. Budgets. I’ve already lost half my readers, I expect. And really, I can’t blame them. It can be mind-numbingly dull stuff. Yet transportation budgets affect your everyday life greatly.  The ways we commute to work, get dinner with friends or head out to the gym – all happen on streets, public transportation and paths that resulted from choices made in transportation budgeting. While budget decisions are made at every level of government, the federal transportation budget plays the biggest role of all. Unfortunately, the process for setting the next federal transportation …

Bollards. You know, those posts they put in the middle of the trails, usually at entrances? In theory, they’re there to keep vehicles from entering the trails and endangering pedestrians and cyclists on the trails. But in practice? It seems, lately, that they’re there to create one more hazard for the users they’re supposed to protect. Arlington cycling advocates have been pushing Arlington County to remove a number of useless and/or dangerous bollards on Arlington’s trails for a while, but there seems to have been an uptick of bollard-related injuries this year. It’s time for the County to …

On Monday morning, Ita Lapina was out for a walk on Four Mile Run Trail. According to the police, a cyclist travelling in the same direction rang his bell and called out “to your left!” as he attempted to pass. Lapina stepped to the left as she turned towards the cyclist, who struck her. She fell, hitting her head on the trail. She succumbed to her injuries Monday evening.  This is my worst trail nightmare. Nobody seems to have done anything extraordinarily unreasonable, and yet someone died. We’ll likely never know with certainty all of the facts surrounding this collision, so I’m not …

As it has for the past 14 years, Arlington's Clarendon neighborhood will host another edition of Air Force Cycling Classic Clarendon Cup. This professional cycling race takes place on a tight and winding course threaded through Clarendon along Wilson, Washington and Clarendon boulevards. The short circuit is great for spectators, as the entire course is accessible in just a few steps. While the newcomer may see 150-plus cyclists all competing to be first across the line, this kind of racing is actually a team sport. Each team devotes its efforts to protecting one or two of its best riders …

The end of May brings the end of Bike Month, but the impact of Bike Month will be felt year-round. Bike Month events — Bike to School Day, Bike to Work Day and Bike DC — may seem to some like just another chance for cyclists to get out and enjoy what they’re already doing. But the real value of these events, in my view, comes from their efforts to reach beyond the existing pool of hardcore cyclists and into the minds of the occasional riders. Many, if not most, people simply haven’t thought about how a bike might meet the transportation needs of their own lives. The simple act of getting …

If you’ve ever been on Quincy Street in Ballston between 6:30 and 6:35 p.m. on a warm weather Tuesday, you’ve seen them. Anywhere from dozens to hundreds of cyclists on their way to put in some miles on the hills of North Arlington. It’s the Freshbikes Tuesday Night ride, and it’s a fantastic way to spend an hour on a week night. Group rides like this one attract riders for lots of reasons. Some find that riding with others motivates them more than riding alone. Others appreciate the safety-in-numbers quality of the rides. And most of the riders enjoy the social aspect of group rides. …

The first major Bike Month event in Arlington was Bike to School Day, which took place on Wednesday this year. Across Arlington County, some kids did what they do every day — they rode to school. Others joined with their peers to form bike trains to school. Arlington’s generally compact school districts and multiuse paths make getting to school by bike a smart option for lots of students. This Sunday, Bike DC will provide a chance for a car-free ride through both Washington and Arlington. Several thousand cyclists will roll along a closed circuit that starts near the National Mall, heads up …

Arlington is, like its neighbors, a relatively small jurisdiction with a population that constantly crosses borders. Some efforts to improve area cycling can take place wholly within a jurisdiction’s borders, such as getting the Columbia Pike Bike Boulevards in place. However, many of the most significant efforts benefit greatly from cross-jurisdictional cooperation between area counties, cities and the district. Arlington, by my experience, has expanded its cooperation with its neighbors over the years. The first Arlington Bike Map I ever saw (in the late 1990s) treated the other side of the…

Arlington’s cycling advocates frequently focus on things like infrastructure, bike sharing and enforcement. To be sure, these are all important parts of the larger picture, and deserve attention. But so do future cyclists, and there’s no better place to focus on them than in our schools. Right now, Arlington Public Schools provides a unit of cycling safety instruction through physical education classes at the high school level. The curriculum is part of a statewide effort called Bike Smart, and is taught by PE teachers who have attended a 12-hour training on cycling instruction. Getting every…

Last month, I wrote about the question of whether electric bikes were legal for use on Arlington’s trails. As a result of that piece, I heard from – and later met – the man behind E-Velo Electric Bicycles. The conversation we had helped me finally accept that there may be a bigger place for electric bikes in Arlington than I’d thought. My previous column’s question about e-bikes on Arlington’s trails was more academic than practical, really — I still haven’t heard of a single instance of anyone being hassled for riding one. But this academic question was a part of a very practical discussion …

It's an annual spring rite — move the boxes and shovels out of the way, pull the bike out of the pile, and take it for a ride. Whether your bike spent the winter in a heated garage or at the back of a dusty bike cage, you should give it a bit of attention before you head out on the road. The League of American Bicyclists recommends an "ABC Quick" check at the beginning of every ride, but it's especially important at the beginning of the season: A - check the Air in the tires; B - check the Brakes to make sure that they're working; C - check the Cranks, Chain and Cassette; Quick - make sure …

A while back, I had a quick trip leaving from National airport. It was over the weekend, so pretty much just me and a shoulder bag. The departure day’s schedule didn’t have me in too much of a rush, so I wondered – would it be possible to ride from home (near Clarendon) to the terminal at National? It wasn’t just possible – it’s rather easy. My door-to-door time was competitive with Metro on the weekends. I enjoyed a nice summer ride along the Potomac. Parking was free. No waiting for Metro or in the taxi line on the way home. In fact, it’s now my favorite way to get to National for short …