Last May, when the Penn Avenue bike lanes were installed, not opened, and then changed, Gabe Klein claimed that changing them was all his idea.
Did the mayor make him do it? Did AAA? No, he says, put it on him.
But David Alpert interviewed Mayor Fenty about it, and it sounds like the Mayor was more involved than Klein makes it sound.
But then what about the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes, where the experts designed an arrangement which the traffic analysis backed up, but then DDOT ripped it out before even launching it? Well, that time, Fenty did intervene in engineering, but that's because the first draft hadn't taken everything into account, he explained.
I wonder what the professional traffic engineers hadn't taken into account that the amateur traffic engineer mayor saw.
Posted by: Contrarian | August 27, 2010 at 12:33 PM
One must wonder what it was that was not considered that after months and months of planning, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, and after all the paint was already laid down to cause Fenty to tear up the plans and substitute some etch-a-sketch revision in its place.
Posted by: JeffB | August 27, 2010 at 12:39 PM
As Klein has said a few times, when they implemented it, it didn't work on the ground, wasnt safe. If they both saw the same thing, so be it.
Posted by: buzzb | August 27, 2010 at 12:49 PM
@buzzb,
Well that is what Klein said but is it what Fenty is saying now? Because the whole "it's for your own good" kind of smelled at the time like a throw away excuse.
Anyway - I've ridden the lanes both before and after and I would be hard put to find any safety enhancement post design.
On the other hand - I do believe the post design lanes created a very real safety degradation.
i've said it before - in the space of a few short weeks, following sharp criticism by the AAA, we went from a world class city with a world class bike boulevard to a world class city with a bike path that runs through it.
Posted by: JeffB | August 27, 2010 at 01:03 PM
Well, part of Klein's job is to agree with Fenty. So one has to be suspect as to whether they saw the same thing (and I've heard rumors they did not). Klein's not going to publicly disagree with Fenty.
As to whether it is unsafe, either of them actually thought that or either of them is qualified to be the judge of that, is another set of issues.
Posted by: washcycle | August 27, 2010 at 01:04 PM
Did the city contract with a traffic planning company to design the bike lanes? Anyone know their take on the whole process?
Posted by: ontarioroader | August 27, 2010 at 04:08 PM
Can anyone question the Fenty administration's commitment to public and alternative transportation? How many bike lanes have been created in the four years since he took office? How many existed before it? How many bike-centric programs has he instituted? Gray has been in DC government in one form or another for 20 years. What did he do during that tenure to promote bicycle use? What has he been insinuating about the Mayor's attention to bike agendas (hint: he cynically uses them to fuel his race-bating campaigns in Wards 7 and 8)? Lets not lose site of the big picture.
Posted by: asuka | August 27, 2010 at 04:13 PM