PSA: Bike parking at NY Ave. Station is not safe—avoid if possible

Three bikes: two vandalized, one attempted.

Examine the photograph at the right. Is it an art installation, or is it vandalized private property? If you guessed the latter, you're right.

These are the bike racks near the northern entrance to the New York Avenue/Florida Avenue/Gallaudet University metro station. I've written before about bicycle parking at this station, and I've noted that bicycles get stolen (or at least have parts stolen off them) with alarming frequency here.

On my way home from work Tuesday, I found that someone had attempted to steal my bicycle. I had a rear wheel stolen here in the spring, and since then I've taken the time to make sure that my front and rear wheels are locked, in addition to the bicycle frame. This time, they got far enough to remove the rear axle before realizing they weren't going to be able to get anything of value. The axle was left on the ground, and the the wheel had been pulled from the frame, but the U-lock prevented its removal.

Previously, I had asked the station manager how to get abandoned bicycle frames removed. I also asked whether there was any regular patrol of this area, which is somewhat hidden from sight. To say that he was unhelpful would be too kind and diplomatic. My experience with metro station managers leads me to believe that many of them serve little more purpose than filling the empty space inside a reflective vest.

Earlier this month, when parts were stolen from the bike on the left, I reported it to the Metro Transit Police. Nothing happened. This time, I called again and complained about the lack of action, noted a clear pattern, and asked that something be done. I finally saw some action on Wednesday morning.

First two images: removal notice from MTPD. The third is from DDOT.

The Metro Transit Police placed the orange notice on the latest vandalized bike. It is now considered abandoned property and will be removed by the end of next week. The other bike has a removal notice from DDOT. I'm not sure why there are two different agencies responding to the same situation, but I'll be happy to see these bikes removed. Leaving them there is a prime example of broken windows theory. Thieves can see that the area is not cared for, which does nothing to discourage criminal behavior.

Metro vehicles serve as a virtual wall,
shielding criminals from the eyes of the public.

The fact remains that this is currently a dangerous place to park a bicycle. To the best of my knowledge, there are no regular patrols here. The bike racks are out of the sight of most foot traffic—you can't really see them from the cafe and coffee shop around the corner. The biggest problem is that Metro employees still park their cars on the sidewalk, creating a wall that hides criminal activity.

Until Metro gets on the ball and actually enforces common-sense rules, like requiring its employees to park cars in real parking spaces, this isn't a smart place to park a bicycle. If you are going to park here, ABSOLUTELY make sure you use both a cable lock and a U-lock AT THE MINIMUM to secure your bike. Lock up your seat and remove any accessories. There is a professional bike thief at work here, and he knows that he can act with impunity (the thefts I've seen have all happened sometime between noon and 6 pm—broad daylight).

Is the owner coming back for this bicycle?

Take a look at this bike. It's missing its handlebars, seat, front wheel, brake and shifting cables, front- and rear-brakes, and chain, while the back wheel has been stomped into a useless mess. It sure doesn't appear to be wanted by anyone at this point.

This is at the New York Avenue Metro station, where the bike racks are not up to code anyway, and they often fill up. Parking is at a premium here, but this mangled used-to-be-a-bike has been here for a couple weeks now.

Wednesday evening, I spoke with a station manager, asking if he knew what to do to get the bike removed. First, he told me that he, as a station manager, has nothing to do with the bike racks (they are on WMATA property—whose job is it to "manage" them?). He said I should find a member of the Metro Transit Police Department to speak with. As I walked away, he claimed that, no matter what, if the frame is locked to the rack, WMATA will consider the bike "in use," and they won't be able to touch it.

That's clearly ridiculous. The lock should be cut and the frame should be donated to a group like Phoenix Bikes or someone else who can turn this into something useful again.

I put a call in to the MTPD as I left the station, and was told that an officer would stop by to assess the situation. As of Thursday morning, nothing has happened. We'll see how long this takes to be removed.

Parking is a mess at the New York Avenue Metro station

The bicycle parking at the New York Avenue Metro station is substandard, and every day automobiles are spread all around the pedestrian areas.

I take the Red Line to and from work every day, entering the system at the New York Avenue Metro station. I bike there from our house in Trinidad, parking my bicycle at the racks near the northern entrance to the station. Those racks, as well as the small plaza they are located on, should be a safe place to park a bicycle, but in my experience, they've proven to be anything but.

The area around the station is currently a massive construction zone. Constitution Square, an enormous mixed-use building with over 2.5 million square feet of office, retail, and residential space is nearing completion on the block bordered by M, N, and 1st Streets NE and the Metro station. The angle of the Metro tracks in relation to the city's street grid creates the equivalent of a pocket park here. You can see it on this map. This plaza contains a sculpture of a leaf of the state tree of DC, the scarlet oak. Once all the surrounding construction is complete, it has the potential of being a nice little gathering place.

Currently, though, that's not possible. Why? Because construction crews park their personal vehicles in the plaza, WMATA employees (including station managers) use it as a private parking lot, and workers at the ATF building across the street park their motorcycles there.

Motorcycles blocking bicycle parking.

More motorcycles blocking bicycles (as you can see, it's often the same ones).


A minivan block the bike racks on Monday morning.


Turns out that minivan belongs to station manager Dana Buckner.


Ms. Buckner had moved her van away from the bikes, but still on the plaza, by Monday evening.

Aside from the inability to safely get to the bicycle racks in the morning, there is the problem of the location of the racks themselves. They were installed too close to the wall to properly lock a bicycle.

The pertinent code is located here:

2119.5     An aisle five feet (5 ft.) in width shall be provided between rows of bicycle parking spaces and the perimeter of the area devoted to bicycle parking.

As you can see in the photo below, the racks are just over one foot from the wall. There isn't enough room to properly lock up a bicycle without turning the front wheel to the side.

Example of a bicycle with enough space to park properly (Photo: Greg Nissen).

When the construction next to the station is complete, some of these parking issues should resolve themselves. There's still no reason that a plan couldn't have been in place already to ensure that people like WMATA employees (who will continue to be here every day once the construction is complete) don't park their cars where cars don't belong.

The bicycle parking is another issue that could be solved easily, but it would likely involve finding the right contact within WMATA's vast bureaucracy, and I don't know who that person would be.

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.

They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot?

While parking lots are on the wane in some parts of town, that's not the case everywhere. Houses in Truxton Circle have been torn down at a notable rate recently, and some of those have simply been turned into expanses of asphalt to house cars instead of people.

Parking lots draw the ire of many who live in DC. They're not the best use for limited city land and they're often ugly in appearance. Close to downtown in recent years, though, they have been replaced by buildings that increase the city's tax base by providing more space for residents and businesses. Often, these new buildings increase the amount of parking in the city, as there are more spaces in two or three levels of underground parking than there are at one level on the surface.

A couple weeks ago, at the Other 35 Percent, Cary Silverman mentioned a proposed change in Baltimore's zoning code that would require that vacant lots be used for parkland or green space instead of parking lots after buildings are torn down.

This isn't the rule in DC. Temporary parking lots proliferate in places where buildings have been recently torn down. All over Near Southeast and Southwest near the Nationals ballpark, parking lots were built on land that is intended to be developed, once the economy turns a corner and demand for new construction increases. Another recent example of a new parking lot can be found just east of North Capitol Street on the unit block of P Street.

(This isn't the beautiful Hawaiian landscape that inspired the line from Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" in the title, but please indulge me.)

At my old blog, bloomingdale (for now), I noted a garish pop-up that was being constructed on the unit block of P Street NE. Next door to that abomination were the burned-out shells of rowhouses that had existed on the site for a century. Those shells used to house people, but they had become vacant and neglected. There are and have been many more houses similar to those that have been successfully been turned back into nice houses lived in by people who pay taxes and contribute to city life.

Eventually, the news came that these houses were to be torn down instead of being renovated for some contributing use. I documented the demolition of those houses, asking the construction crew what use was intended for the property. At the time, I was told it would become an apartment building.

In the meantime, the local real estate market tanked, especially in sub-markets that would be considered "marginal." Truxton Circle, (especially along North Capitol Street) could certainly be considered one of those marginal markets. Whether an apartment building was ever really intended for those lots we'll likely never know. (I checked DCRA's PIVS website for construction permits at these properties, and found nothing.)

So, what became of that empty land? A parking lot:

Granted, it wasn't all buildings beforehand. There was a used tire store there as well (see what it looked like in 2004 here), so one could argue an empty lot isn't the ugliest thing possible on this space. Today, though, what good is a parking lot on that land? There is plenty of parking nearby for those who might be driving to the their jobs across the street at DDOT's offices:

Other new office space built nearby has plenty of underground parking, and is within a very short walk of the New York Avenue Metro station.

Would a nice temporary green space have worked here? It's hard to say, but that part of the city and Ward 5 certainly has very little green space, and could use every little bit it can get. Look at this map (it's a PDF) from  the Capital Space plan, and note that there is a area devoid of large parks centered on the Eckington and Truxton Circle neighborhoods.

I don't see how an empty parking lot (since it doesn't appear to be attracting a lot of business) could possibly pay the bills.

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.