Wednesday Afternoon Commute -

Good afternoon

• Pennsylvania Avenue repaving has begun - but that hasn't stopped taxis from making quasi-illegal U-turns across the bike lanes and hitting cyclists. It appears that bollards will not be replaced in January instead of at the end of snow-plow season. 
• One reader is concerned that the L Street cycle-track will be unsafe. Others have suggested improvements.
• The M Street SE/SW Draft Report was released for public comment through 5 p.m. on Friday, November 30, 2012. The near term improvements are more of the same - bike parking, education, etc...The mid-term changes include cycle-tracks on M Street with bike lanes on Eye. 
• Montgomery County passed two laws to help with Capital Bikeshare. One which removes some red tape for siting stations on property without approved site plans and the other which adds CaBi to a list of transportation projects eligible for certain transportation funding. "During the run-up to yesterday's decision, many council members said the county has a long way to go in making roads safe for bikers. The number of bike-vehicle collisions is on the rise in the county, and that's even before this new bikesharing program, which will likely add many new cyclists on county roads."

Comments

[RL]

As usual, I passed along the entire length of the Penn Ave lanes last night. The repaving could have been a complete shit-show, with cars routed through the bike lanes for some portions, lots of weaving around cones all around, and some equipment parked in the lanes. But there were also workers directing traffic and monitoring each affected intersection and doing a great job at it. Struck me that DDOT deserves praise for this one.

[Greenbelt]

Struck cyclist should sue the Fine Arts Commission and the DMV. Might be impossible to win anything, but would get their attention maybe.

[SJE]

While the DMV does not enforce the no U-turns, the signs still say it is illegal, so anyone injured should be able to sue for a clear breach of the law. Even under DC's contributory negligence standard, a bike in a bike lane vs taxi breaking the law should be a winning case.