July 2009 DC BAC Meeting Notes

Legislative Committee - The legislative committee has deemed Complete Streets legislation their top priority. There are many examples of this available, so they're going to work on pulling together a best practices proposal. There's no update on the change from contributory negligence to comparative negligence. they also want to see a Bicycles in Buildings ordinance similar to the one proposed in NYC. This would do more to guarantee an employee's right to bring a bike into their building (with exceptions).

They discussed the bicycle-mounted DDOT traffic enforcement program. While they're for more enforcement, there is concern that an unarmed, bicycle-mounted force will overly target cyclists and pedestrians (who will be easier to pull over) and under target drivers. They also feel that if traffic enforcement is to be increased, it's the MPD that should do it and that having the MPD enforce more traffic violations will help create more arrests for felonious crimes (many times they catch people with warrants out or who are breaking other laws at the time). They'd like to see the enforcement focus on: for drivers - 3ft. violations, failures to yield right of way, u-turns and speeding; for cyclists - wrong-way riding, riding without lights at night and red-light running.

DDOT has had their first meeting with the Traffic Control Officers (TCO) and several have expressed interest in being part of the bicycle mounted (BM) force. Some laws DDOT sees them enforcing are bike lane violations, blocking crosswalks and blocking the box. They've done 3 hour training sessions with all TCOs as part of StreetSmart. All BMTCO's would need to take the Confident City Cycling course, be issued bikes, etc... so it's still a ways off. They won't have guns.


Facilities Committee and News - The facilities committee focused on the South Capitol Street Trail. DDOT has hired Toole Design to study a lane closure along South Capitol and the installation of a bike trail in its place as well as studying the intersection changes needed. The recent opening of the Wilson Bridge has moved this to the foreground (The Post wrote about it this week), with DDOT director Klein asking about it. DDOT, NPS and PG County Parks are discussing how to create better connectivity on the MD/DC side of the bridge.

Some residents and riders who have used the newly opened Woodrow Wilson Bridge Trail, which connects pedestrians and cyclists on both sides of the Potomac River between Prince George's County and Alexandria, say that despite the hype, planners still have a ways to go to fully integrate the bridge trail into other trail networks and sites in the county.
 
"People coming across from Virginia are, like, 'Where do we go?,' " said Mark Holt of Fort Washington, coordinator of the Southern Prince George's Trails Coalition, a group advocating for bike and hiking trail expansion in south county. [WC: If you're looking for someone to talk to about this, this would be a good place to start]

Riders also say they are miffed that the 1.1-mile trail ends when approaching the National Harbor development. The asphalt pavement gives way to a seashell road covering that riders say is difficult to ride, and the path dead-ends. Cyclists are not allowed to ride along the shoreline in the development.

Rocell Viniard, a National Harbor spokeswoman, said the seashell trail was designed for pedestrians, not bikes, because of the residents and hotels on the site. Cyclists are allowed to ride along the streets at National Harbor, Viniard said.

"For a lot of cyclists, it's unpleasant" to ride, said Jim Hudnall of Fort Washington, a member of the Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club. "I'd like to see it have better connections to other trails in the area."

Holt said he and other cyclists hope to see better signage that would direct riders from the bridge to historic sites and parks in Oxon Hill and Fort Washington. The trail points only to National Harbor, he said, leaving visitors crossing the bridge with few options.

The county plans to make a stronger connection between the bridge trail and the Potomac Heritage Trail, the Department of Public Works and Transportation said. The added trail section eventually would include a dedicated bike lane on Oxon Hill Road, but funding for the project has not materialized.

Laura Connelly, a planner for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, said the newly installed 700-foot-long stone dust path that runs adjacent to National Harbor's portion of the bridge trail would be easier for cyclists to ride.

DDOT also mentioned that they're in talks with NPS about putting bike parking and bike lanes on Pennsylvania Ave NW. The street belongs to NPS and so DDOT can't do it on their own. Also, DDOT believes there will be more artistic bike racks next year.

The Met Branch Trail section between NY Avenue and Franklin is underway and an update to the website is forthcoming.  The preliminary design for the next section of the trail in the queue has been sent to the FHWA for review.

[Meanwhile in Montgomery County officials are pushing for funding for the long delayed MoCo section of the Met Branch in next year's budget. The Post article has the Georgetown Branch and Metropolitan Branch Trail confused. The Georgetown Branch is the future CCT.

After preliminary designs for the Metropolitan Branch Trail, also known as the Georgetown Branch Trail, were completed three years ago, transportation officials said the project came to a halt to await a decision on the different proposed alignments for the Purple Line, a planned rapid-transit route between New Carrollton and Bethesda.

Now, with Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) set to decide soon on a Purple Line alignment and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) taking suggestions through December for the county's Capital Improvements Program for fiscal 2011-12, officials are looking to move forward.

"Now's the time to finish this while all these things are being done," said County Council member Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring), who sent a letter to the transportation department in April urging progress on the trail.]

DDOT is looking at 13 miles of possible bike lanes with the goal to get in 5 this year. Some places where lanes are being added include 11th Street NW, Eckington Place and the cycletrack on 15th St NW. WABA submitted a list of gaps in the bike lane network that they'd like to see created. DDOT usually adds bike lanes in conjunction with road repairs, but WABA feels they now need to do more 'retrofits' - adding a bike lane in without any repair. This is more expensive. Sherman Avenue will be dieted from four lanes down to 2 with a turning lane. The outside lanes will be 14 feet wide with sharrows and the sidewalks will be widened. The sharrows wil be placed outside the door zone, but away from the center of the lane.

The Bike Station RFP closes out this week. DDOT had a few parties at the pre-bid meeting (a good sign). The goal is to finish the Station by the end of August and have it occupied by the operator sometime in September. Because the door will be keycard protected, it could open for bike parking before the operator moves in - and of course the outside parking will not need an operator. You can see progress on the station here.

DDOT is still talking to Clear Channel about smartbike expansion. They also sent some of the bike team to Montreal to look at Bixi (and are considering still other options). Bixi has the advantage of being solar powerd (so no PEPCO problems) and not permanently installed. So stations could be moved around if they aren't used enough or if seasonal changes (such as one near the baseball stadium during the baseball season) warranted it, and installation is quicker. On the downside the bikes are heavier and the stations are less streamlined. Arlington is reviewing it's RFP and DDOT could just go with what they choose - saving the time and cost of doing its own. They have some sort of regional agreement on this. Arlington is pursuing $10M in federal money for regional bike share and DC would be entitled to some of that too. DDOT has several years before they need to spend the federal stimulus money they obligated for this.

After shopping around for a summer streets location (K Street, East Capitol, Kansas Avenue) DDOT, with support from NPS, is planning to do it in Fort Dupont Park. Both Fort Dupont Drive and Fort Davis Drive would be closed for one day in August. Think of it as an East of the River Beach Drive. NPS's new lead in the area is eager to find ways to get people into the parks. They'll do more than close the streets, they'll have rental bikes and maybe free pedicabs available too, for example. DDOT is hoping to do more locations next year.

Photo by Leah L. Jones -- The Gazette

Comments

[Brendan]

Pennsylvania Ave NW belongs to NPS? That doesn't make any sense. Which part belongs to NPS? Because you have to go to DC to get permits if you want to to shut down Pennsylvania Ave and use it for an event, which implies that DC owns it. NPS owns all the triangular parks at intersections, but they don't own city roadways AFAIK.

[Washcycle]

It's Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site.

[Brendan]

The Pennsylvania Avenue NHS is its honorific listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It's basically treated as a historic district. It has no bearing on ownership.

The National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts, and the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation all have some say in what gets done in the Pennsylvania Avenue NHS, but it's the city that owns it and ultimately issues permits.

I work at the DC Historic Preservation Office, so I'm pretty sure about this, but I'll ask around the office to make sure.

[Washcycle]

The permitting might be different, and ownership may not be the right word, but the point is that DDOT feels they can't install bike racks or lanes without NPS permission.

[Froggie]

As nice as a bike connection on the east side of the WWB up to DC would be, I don't think removing a lane from South Capital is the way to do it, for two reasons. First, traffic volumes on South Capital are well beyond the threshold at which you need to maintain 4 lanes on an urban corridor. Second, South Capitol becomes Indian Head Hwy in Maryland, which is a route not exactly configured for bicycles (and IIRC bikes are actually prohibited south of the Beltway).

IMO, a good way to go, at least in the interim, would be for an improved connection along or on the west side of Oxon Hill Rd from the WWB trail connection up to the bridge to Oxon Hill Farm. Then follow the trail through the farm, which has a bridge across Oxon Run to get to Blue Plains/DC Village. Run a bike route through that area, then up Overlook Ave SW from NRL up to Bolling. Then north of Bolling, run a trail up the west side of South Capitol to connect to the Frederick Douglass Bridge and the planned Anacostia River trails.

Hopefully this works, but here's my idea as displayed in Google Maps:

http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=111425893282050424005.00046dd6f19ccd171f0c5&z=13

[Washcycle]

I don't think it's a lane off S. Cap all the way to Southern Avenue.

You're route is the same as what exists now. It's very circuitous, and involves climbing Oxon Hill only to ride back down it.

[Froggie]

Doesn't matter where you take a lane off South Cap. Traffic's too heavy to go with less than 4 lanes. And doing it north of the Anacostia (in front of Nat's stadium) is pointless if the intention is a connection to the WWB, which the discussion you mention in the article suggests...you tied the South Capitol study in with the need for connections to the WWB.

My route doesn't completely exist...at least not in a bicycle capacity. Unless you're military and can go through Bolling, there's a gap between Overland Ave and Firth Stirling. Also note that I suggest this as an interim solution, until a more direct routing can be pursued.

Regarding Oxon Hill, short of building something new on the west side of 295 between the Beltway and Blue Plains (which IMO is the "permanent solution"), you're never going to avoid that hill climb.

[Washcycle]

I didn't do a very good job of explaining where this project is. It's from the south side of the South Cap Bridge to at least where South Cap splits off with Overlook.

You can now ride south on the route you drew - I've done it, but not north.

Every time I've been on this stretch of South Cap it has been sparsely used so I'd be interested in how much it is beyond the threshold. Nonetheless, I doubt DDOT will remove a lane if the extra capacity isn't there.

[Froggie]

Ok. That's the section where they could fairly easily add a trail along the west side, as I noted in my proposal.

My own experience is different from yours...every time I go to Bolling (usually mid/late-afternoons, before rush hour), that stretch of South Cap is pretty busy, especially southbound. Also, looking at DDOT's traffic counts, that stretch is still well above the threshold where 4 lanes are needed.

On a related note, I've conceptualized a plan to simplify the I-295 and South Cap interchanges at Malcom X/Bolling there...but that would require a good bit of coinage.