Dupont Trolley Station Bike Parking - the dream lives on.

GGW has the story of the ongoing saga of the coalition of arts groups who are trying to acquire the Dupont Trolley Station for arts exhibition and performance space. Critical for those who like to see a bike station down there is that, like an ex-spouse, they only want half.

There are actually two tunnels, one on each side of the circle. The group currently proposed to use the western tunnel, which is closer to more of the existing galleries and the P Street commercial area. The tunnels are also much longer than just surrounding the circle, though all of the entrances are on the circle; they include long, straight segments along Connecticut from R nearly to N Streets. The coalition would use the circular section for programming and small pieces of the straight portions for storage. Conceivably, the eastern tunnel could go to another use, if another company or organization were interested enough and could afford to renovate that space.

Another company or organization? Y'mean like BikeStation?

Looking at this concept plan from Hunt Laudi Studio (we would use the east side so you have to turn it a little in your mind) and these pictures of the station now it's easy to imagine how to use it for a bike station.

In the long tunnel, north place the actual bike parking with a key swipe secure door. It's two blocks long, with double stack parking, that's a lot of bikes. (you could also put a key swipe door opening up to the street at Connecticut and R - which may be needed for fire code reasons). Heck that might be all you would need.

But to make it better, in the curve (the blue part), place the store, mechanic area, coffee/snack shop and tool rental areas.

Showers, changing rooms, lockers, a bike wash and office space go in the south tunnel.

Comments

[Eric_W.]

That would be a great way to boost bicycle commuting in the Dupont Circle area. I remember that old post from a couple of years back and it is not very encouraging that absolutely nothing has happened since then...

But there is always hope.