Category: Cycling Page 3 of 34
The role of APS and cycling is something I’ve generally avoided touching on, mostly because I’ve had a hard time figuring out what, exactly, APS is actually doing in that arena.  But I’m pleased to say that there’s been some recent successes in engaging the folks at APS, and I’m learning a lot more.  So I suppose it’s probably not great form to immediately ask them for more, but that’s what I did here, in my latest Clarendon Cycles column.
My latest Clarendon Cycles piece is about e-bikes, prompted in part by my meeting with the Trans-America Electric Bike Tour crew. Â I’m being quite honest when I’m describing it as a *click* moment, where I finally move from e-bike skeptic to e-bike appreciator (if still not quite an outright embrace).
Boris and Anna’s tour covers all sorts of interesting things. Â Check ’em out.
New Clarendon Cycles piece up at the Clarendon Patch about getting to National airport on your bike. Â It really is a fantastic way to get there for weekend/quick trips. Â And so long as your return flight doesn’t drop you back at DCA in the middle of rush hour, you can always punk out and return via Metro if you find yourself not really feeling like riding home.
Started the week like this:
Finished it like this:
DC’s Dandies & Quaintrelles, in partnership with the Crystal City BID, held the Diamond Derby over the weekend. Â All I knew before I showed up was that it involved bikes, a parking garage, and a course set up by this guy. Â So this is what I learned on the first lap (motion starts at :40):
[vimeo width=”650″ height=”488″]http://vimeo.com/38326075[/vimeo]
That was fun. The idea was to earn a point for every lap completed and collect points along the way. The part I obviously didn’t get was how to collect points along the way, so I finished way down in the standings. I did, however, figure out that we got points for dismounting and carrying the bike through a VéloCity minivan. Hope we didn’t do too much damage to it.
There were several other races in the evening, ranging from a kid’s event to a real race with qualifying heats and everything. Â In between there was great food and drinks and people.
In any event, it was a great use of a parking garage that usually sits empty on a weekend. Â Lots of credit to D&Q and the forward-thinking folks at the Crystal City BID for making this happen.
(I’ve put up an unedited set of photos here, if you were there and looking for photos of you. Â I’ll get an edited slideshow up later this week. Â Sorry, I missed the kids’ race, so no photos of that.)
Here’s this week’s Clarendon Cycles column, in which I suggest that Arlington County could do a better job of integrating bikes into its own transportation strategy. At the very least, getting parking enforcement on bikes strikes me as a no-brainer.
Hey, look what else you can check out of the local library, now:
Are you as tired of talking about CaBi as I am? Â Even if you are, it’s still growing and will definitely be changing things in Arlington this year. That’s the subject of my new Clarendon Cycles piece.