6/6/11

Ride Home 6/6

Wonderful ride home. Little traffic, car or pedestrian, no real blockages and no weirdos doing weird stuff. Doesn't make for good blog copy, but it makes for a nice bike trip.
I pretty much just allowed my mind to wander and the most profound idea I came up with is about allowing mail carriers to enforce parking violations. Why not multi-task?  If postmen and women don't have as much mail to deliver these, couldn't they pick up the slack by checking meters? And maybe if you don't pay, then you don't get your Christmas cards? Or your birthday money from Grandma? Would this create some sort of furious right-wing backlash about the federal government usurping local authority? Probably. But what doesn't?
I don't break a lot of news on this blog, but I think I'm the first to report that the bike lane on Wilson that used to start after the underground Safeway (1501/0815 Wilson) has been extended all of the way to Oak Street. This makes a pretty big difference and is a minor but welcome addition to the bike infrastructure in Arlington. I look forward to the report of this achievement from a county representative tonight at the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting. The bike lane is solid striped for about 10m (let's use metric for the international readers) and then dashed on account of the entrance to the Safeway parking garage. This is good. I just wish that there was a bicycle picture in the dashed area to yet again remind drivers that they're crossing a dashed bicycle lane and not just some random stripes in the road. In any case, then lane provides some nice clarity on a stretch of road that can be quite confusing for cyclists and drivers.

4 comments:

  1. Federal employees constitutionally can't enforce local laws.

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  2. I just got lawyered. Parking amendment to the Constitution?

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  3. What if the Post Office won a bid for a municipal parking enforcement contract?

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  4. I work in the building above the Safeway, and it's pretty significant how much safer that lane has made me feel as I struggle up the hill in the mornings. I hope it got appropriate accolades at the Arlington BAC meeting.

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