November 2009 DC BAC Meeting Notes

Met Branch Trail (south to north)- The New York Avenue to R Street section has found itself in the middle of a bureaucratic nightmare.  DDOT is awaiting the permit needed for the drainage ditch on WMATA property. They are not seeking to acquire the property or an easement, just a permit to use it, but they have to follow the same process as a developer trying to buy a large piece of property. They've submitted an application and non-trivial application fee, completed a survey for metes and bounds, had the property appraised and compared that value to the value the trail would bring to WMATA (the trail is worth more, fyi), gotten WMATA's engineers to sign off, and purchased insurance for WMATA. The last part is a bit sticky as the lawyers need to deal with issues related to the ownership of the policy. Even WMATA says the process wasn't meant to deal with this kind of project and that small pieces of property of little value should not trigger this kind of paperwork. It wastes money for DC and WMATA. One of the problems is that WMATA is a regional entity, so this process works as a safeguard to prevent one jurisdiction from taking advantage of the others. In addition, WMATA is dependent on federal aid and so there are additional safeguards to make sure that federal money isn't misspent. Finally, if WMATA has other issues with DC than something like this can become a bargaining tool. Still, DDOT is hopeful and once they have the permit, they can begin work on that section. Since they have no idea when the permit will be issued, they have no idea when that section can be completed.

From R to Franklin, DDOT is completing the construction of the retaining walls needed to allow the trail to pass through the area around the Rhode Island Avenue overpass. They hope to begin paving the last piece of this section in the next couple of weeks and to complete the section in the next couple of months. The mural in the shopping center north of Rhode Island is complete and visible from the trail [WC: though maybe they should remove the fence between the trail and the shopping center to make it even more visible.] The Rails to Trails Conservancy donated 40 Kona Bicycles to kids at Beacon House and they've been riding the bikes like it was there job. You may see some kids in the neighborhood or on the trail riding them.

The Rhode Island Ave Metro bridge is also dependent on WMATA as DDOT had always planned to use WMATA land on the east side of the tracks to do work on the bridge. But WMATA has changed course and said they will no longer allow DDOT to access the building site from their side. With the design finished, DDOT isn't sure that it's possible to build the bridge they've designed without the access they were counting on. WMATA suggested that DDOT redesign the bridge so that they could build without access.  If WMATA doesn't change its mind, this would result in a major delay.

The section between Michigan Avenue & Monroe is also hoping for some help from WMATA. WMATA owns the land, but is selling it to Abdo Development. Abdo isn't ready to build on the site yet - and may not be for some time, but the design leaves space for the trail. DDOT will ask WMATA if they can build the trail before development of that property begins. DDOT is considering building a tunnel under Monroe, and so they'll be working with WMATA and Abdo on that too.

Conceptual designs for South Capitol Street and Oxon Run Trails. The designs are processing as expected. Work on Oxon Run will probably start first. It's being designed across the District line into Maryland and DDOT is looking into whether or not they will legally be able to spend their money to pay for improvements in Maryland. They have talked with NPS officials at Oxon Hill Farm about the project and they seem interested. The South Capitol Street Trail will be difficult because it will require moving roads and more work in general.

Rescission The BAC wanted to know why the TE, CMAQ and Recreational Trails money was rescinded at the maximum rate and why it wasn't obligated, especially the Rec trails money which requires no match? DDOT says that they don't have enough staff to spend more money, and the money they have is more than adequate to meet their needs. The TE and CMAQ money requires a 20% match, so money may not have been available to get the match. Everyone agreed that money should not be left on the table and the BAC resolved to write Director Klein to ask about this decision.
 

Bike share expansion - DDOT is still planning to increase to 100 stations. They're working with following Arlington who is rolling out a program soon and will almost surely go with the same system Arlington chooses. SmartBike is done (it was nice knowing you). Clear Channel is just not offering a very good deal. The new system is likely to roll out in spring or summer 2010. There are a lot of questions to resolve with SmartBike. Is their membership list proprietary? How to switch systems? Will Clear Channel just get a windfall or will they have to hand the bikes or some money over? DDOT could make them continue to operate SmartBike if Clear Channel doesn't offer a good enough "severance package".

DDOT's official position is:

1. They plan to expand the bike sharing program, hopefully by summer 2010
2. They are exploring all of their options in terms of technology and vendors.  
3. They are following the Arlington procurement process closely (since they put out an RFP last spring and we want to have a regional system)

Rock Creek Park Trail - NPS is working on a trail along Broad Branch/Blagden Road from Rock Creek to Matthewson Drive.

Bike lanes  - DDOT has only completed five miles of bike lane this year and might get to six by the end of the year. The goal in the bike plan is 10 miles per year. Some of the reasons for the slow down are that Mike Goodno keeps getting pulled off bike lanes to work on other projects and the line painting crew has been cut down to just three people.

15th street contraflow lane - Much ado was made yesterday about the unplanned extension of the 15th street contraflow bike lane to V Street NW from U Street. It seems that wasn't in the plan but the crew started to add it in anyway. CM Jim Graham interceded and asked DDOT to stop work on that block, until the neighborhood could review the extension. The BAC thinks extending it to V and on to W makes a lot of sense, and Jim Graham reportedly supports extending it too, but wants DDOT to follow the proper process. Some in the neighborhood seemed concerned that parking spaces were removed. The whole project from Mass to U removes 6 spaces, it's unclear how many spaces the U to W extension might remove. The lane should be completed and operational by the end of the week. The northbound shared lane will take longer.

WABA is seeking a grant extension from DDOT to pay for a part-time bike ambassador to start in March or April. The current bike ambassador is a volunteer. 

Legislative Committee report - There has been no movement on the Contributory to Comparative Negligence law. Comparative Negligence is going to be tough to get passed, but if it were limited to incidents involving pedestrians and/or cyclists it might gain more support. The Idaho stop also has some council support (though, oddly, not so much from the BAC) and there may be energy for either it or Comparative Negligence, but not both. Most seemed to agree that Comparative Negligence was more important, and had more BAC support, but both should be pursued for now.

A draft of The Bicycle Access to Building Law modeled on the NYC law is ready for the BAC to review. There is some hope that the principles of the law can be added to the new zoning proposal as that would be faster than passing a law, but the BAC is willing to go through the legislative process if needed. Colleen Mitchel, OPM transportation planner, said it might be possible to include it in the zoning regulations, but that those have gone through a long review process and changes might not be allowed.

Complete Streets legislation language has been approved by the BAC legislative committee, the law seems to have strong support from the District Council.

It was also decided that the BAC should look through recently passed bicycle laws for elements that are not being met. This includes the requirement from the Bicycle Commuter and Parking Expansion Act of 2007 that the Mayor publish a study on the parking availability at all buildings occupied by the District Government, for which it was determined that there were insufficient funds and that 90 days was insufficient time; and the provisions from the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act of 2008 for safety upgrades to District owned trucks for which no funding was available.

The DC BAC website is here.

Comments

[Froggie]

Are the conceptual designs for the South Capitol St/Oxon Run trails available online (or even in person) anywhere? I'd like to view them.

[Washcycle]

Not that I know of.