DDOT, with the help of Toole Design, has put together a pretty aggressive design for protected bike lanes in downtown. The 2005 Bike Plan included bike lanes on the old city portions of 17th, 15th and M NW/NE. DDOT's new plan changes and doubles that plan, by replacing M with Eye and L, and replacing 17th with 9th and Pennsylvania. Combined with existing and planned bike lanes, it will be hard to get around downtown without having a bike facility nearby. One thing that might bother some people is that the design changes block by block - with mixing zones, bike boxes, contraflow bike lanes, center bike lanes, turning lanes to the left or right of bike lanes, bicycle only lights, sharrows, chevrons, driveway markings and two-stage crosswalk cycle track turns... it is all kind of complex. It will require some education to say the least.
There was a discussion on here last week about the purpose of these and DDOT provided that. Cycletracks increase ridership by 18-20% compared to 5-7% for bike lanes. In NYC, the cycletracks increased safety, with all injuries down 56%, crashes down 48%, injuries to pedestrians down 29% and injuries to cyclists down 57%. So it appears to have some real safety benefits.
Pennsylvania Avenue NW
This project will probably come first and they'd like it done by the end of May. The bike lanes will go down the center and will be painted (green was what they used) if the various other stakeholders agree. This is the section that uses the two-stage crosswalk cycle track turns. What that means is that the bike lane splits into two lanes near the intersection - a turn lane and a through lane. A left turn only arrow will allow cars to turn left while cyclists are stopped. Then a through only light allows all vehicles to go forward and cyclists going left stop in the opposite crosswalk. When the ped light changes to go across Penn, the cyclist then proceeds with cross traffic. It's not as complicated as it sounds, and many cyclists do a similar maneuver already.
15th Street NW
North of I, the cycle tracks are on the right hand sides with no parking and a buffer. On the block immediately south of I the lanes are between the angled in parking and the all-traffic lanes - but these may be sharrows instead, since traffic is so light. A bike route (signed?) will then connect along Madison and the closed part of Penn to 15th. On the section of 15th from Penn to Constitution, a two-way cycletrack will take up the west side of the road and separate phase turnings will allow southbound cyclists to make left turns. Vendor parking will be allowed west of the cycletrack on the section south of E street.
Bike lanes were shown on New York Avenue and will tie in to these.
Eye and L
These are pretty similar to each other, with the cycletrack on the right left hand side most of the way. The Eye lane will go east and the L lane will go west. Occasionally cyclists will move over a lane, allowing for a right left hand turn lane on their right left. There will be a dashed mixing zone area that will allow drivers to cross the bike lane and enter the turning lane.
9th Street NW
9th will have a bike lane next to parking going south and a protected contraflow cycletrack (like on 15th now) going north. The hand out I have shows the cycletracks going all the way from Mt. Vernon Square to Constitution, but I remember several comments about how wrong it was to stop them at Pennsylvania. Anyone have any photos of this?
With the exception of Penn (TBD), it's pretty set that all the lanes will be painted. The work will be done in stages and it could be finished by the end of summer.
Are there plans to extend the 15th street cycletrack a couple blocks north. I just started riding to work again, and I take 11th down to V, then hang a right and take V to 15th, and then I have to go on the sidewalk for a block to get to the cycletrack. It would be nice if it went up to W just to connect all those bike lanes!
Posted by: MLD | March 19, 2010 at 09:12 AM
DDOT was actually about to build the contraflow lane up to at least V st, but Councilmember Graham and/or residents of the block made them stop at the last minute. I heard two different versions - one that DDOT crews 'misread' the plans and extended it too far north, and the other that DDOT didn't get Graham's 'permission' to extend the lanes into Ward 1. Not sure what the story was, but the lanes between U and V were preliminarily marked off, parking restrictions in place, and it seemed like they were going to continue.
Posted by: ontarioroader | March 19, 2010 at 09:40 AM
You mean "left" side of the street for I & L.
Posted by: Liz P | March 19, 2010 at 09:47 AM
The crew misread the plans is what I heard and I think it's correct. But yeah, they plan to extend in North. I don't know if it is part of this or not, but that is the plan.
Posted by: washcycle | March 19, 2010 at 09:47 AM
Yes. The left...Thanks.
Posted by: washcycle | March 19, 2010 at 09:57 AM
I inquired about the schedule...end of the summer might be too ambitious, but before the end of the year is well within the realm of reality.
BTW, completely off-topic, I know Catherine (from Old Town) reads this blog...please E-mail me at your earliest convenience. It regards a comment you made on GGW about the King St Metro station.
Posted by: Froggie | March 19, 2010 at 10:10 AM
This is great!!!
Posted by: Just161 | March 19, 2010 at 10:53 AM
Here's a pic of 9th & Penn. The cycle lane (SB) and cycletrack (NB) do not go south of Penn right now.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39017545@N02/4443945891/in/set-72157623523725275/
Other pics on GGW: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=5238
Posted by: Matt Johnson | March 19, 2010 at 11:09 AM
interesting to read the statistics on increased safety of bike tracks as opposed to bike lanes in NYC. Im sure it is even more of a difference when comparing it to having no bike lanes or tracks- that is - in places where cyclists are forced to "share the road" with auto traffic.... Of course- all of this flies in the face of the crap I have read/ heard from the road biking /racer / athletic cycler set on this very blog for the past 5 years.
In every country on earth protected bike ways make it safer to bicycle. There is absolutely no disputing this- and yet the athletic road warrior racer set seems to persist in the opinion that this is not true.
Go figure.....
Posted by: w | March 19, 2010 at 12:40 PM
Any news for how the E-W connections on I and L will work to the east of Mt. Vernon Sq? That is a messy little area that can make crossing from the Mass Ave developments and NoMa headed to downtown a little tricky.
Posted by: mhoek | March 19, 2010 at 03:56 PM
Ah, w is back and bashing "athletic road warriors" again. Good stuff. (Not.)
wash-, nice report. I'll look forward to seeing some of these new lanes, cycle tracks soon.
Posted by: Michael H. | March 19, 2010 at 09:10 PM
I'm looking forward to using them!
Posted by: Lee | March 22, 2010 at 07:37 AM
anyone know what material they're using for the green paint?
Posted by: lee | April 16, 2010 at 10:06 AM