GGW has an image of the new design of the New Hampshire Ave/U Street/16the St intersection. The previous design from this summer had no facilities specifically for cyclists and no contra-flow bike lanes. But after the police sting that came shortly after the first plan was released and involvement by WABA they've done a lot of what Jeff Peel asked for
Is this redesign a done deal? This would be a great place to experiment with either a cycletrack of bicycle boulevard in this city.
Limit through traffic on New Hampshire Ave. on either side of U St., allow bikes to travel both directions and install special bike-only signals at the intersection. This would build out what many cyclists already do at this spot and prove to be a better linkage from the New Hampshire bike lanes to access Florida and 14th or 11th St. lanes
Eric Gililand of WABA wrote
The city transportation department recognizes the popularity of the route you describe and is taking steps to convert two one-way segments of New Hampshire Ave (one north of U, one south of U) to two way streets for cyclists only.
And so they have the new design includes bike boxes at all streets and sharrows and contra-flow lanes on New Hampshire Ave.
When cyclists in the contraflow lane approach the intersection, they will see a special signal to wait until traffic is stopped on 16th. Then, they can proceed across 16th into the bike box area. When the light turns green for traffic on 16th, they can cross the intersection and re-enter New Hampshire, with the "sharrow" telling cyclists and motorists to share the lanes. We'll also get bike boxes on U.
I think this is vastly improved design (and better for pedestrians too for reasons GGW makes on its post)
Picture via GGW
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