DC's Bicycle Master Plan - half way check

DC's Bicycle Master Plan is a ten year plan for bike facilities, policies, education, promotion and enforcement in the District of Columbia that was completed in April of 2005, putting us roughly half way in. Recently the BAC's facility committee met to discuss how well the goals were being met. Here are some of the vital statistics [subject - goal actual]

1. Signed bike routes - 100 miles 64 miles
2. Bicycle lanes - 50 miles 49.1 miles
3. Met Branch Trail - 100% complete 50% complete
4. Anacostia Riverwalk - 100% complete 25% complete
5. Improved bridge access - 5 bridges improved 6 bridges improved (7 if you count Wilson)
6. Bike parking - 1000 spaces 1450 spaces (less if you subtract the 3800 removed parking meters, which is not entirely DDOT's fault)
7. Bike parking in public space - all garages in compliance survey not completed
8. Update DC policy to accommodate cyclists - Ensure inclusion of bikes in comp plan, long range transportation plan, and roadway design guide Done, except for courier licensing
9. Train DDOT staff - train staff on bike planning Done
10. Education - Educate motorists and cyclists Biannual Street Smart Campaign
11. Youth Education - Conduct bike/ped education in schools WABA contracted to perform this
12. Bike Map - Distribute 100,000 bike maps 75,000 maps distributed
    

It looks a little spotty. Some items have been successful. Some haven't been because the goal was a bit high - DDOT has given a bike map to everyone who wants one and their neighbor, so I'm not going to criticize them for not giving away 100,000 of them yet. The MBT has had some bad luck. DDOT could have put in 100 miles of signed bike route, but it wouldn't be very good, so they've been putting real time into it. I'd rather have 64 good miles than 100 bad ones. The part that is really unfortunate is that they haven't done the survey of parking garages yet.

They are hitting their milestones.

Milestones for Implementation

   1. 50 miles of DC streets will have better Bicycle Level of Service ratings by 2010 and 100 miles will have better Bicycle Level of Service ratings by 2015.

Yes, DDOT has improved over 50 miles of streets:  34 miles of bike lanes and 22 miles of signed routes since 2005.  In addition, over the last five years, numerous road reconstruction and resurfacing projects have also improved the city’s bicycling environment even though they may not include specific bicycle facilities such as bike lanes or signed bicycle routes.

      2)  The proportion of bicycle trips will increase from about 1 percent of all trips in 2000 to at least 3 percent in 2010 and 5 percent of all trips in the District of Columbia by 2015.

Yes, according to the 2008 American Community Survey (the latest census data available), bicycles represent 2.3% of commuting trips.  However, the Washington Council of Governments 2007/2008 Household Travel Survey found that 3.3% of DC residents commute on bicycles.

   3. The rate of bicycle collisions with motor vehicles will decrease from 26 reported bike crashes per 1 million bike trips in 2000 to 20 per 1 million in 2010 to 15 per 1 million in 2020.

Study not performed yet.

So, it's not a homerun, but they didn't hit into a double play either. Steady modest progress (though more will be needed to achive the goals in the action agenda).

On the subject of bike lanes, DDOT has added 3.46 miles of bike lanes this year. The longest is the Penn Ave bike lanes. But, they have another 8.41 miles they hope to complete by the end of autumn. The longest of these are

• 15th Street from E to Massachusetts NW
• 34th Street from M to Wisconsin NW
• 4th Street from Pennsylvania to I St NW/SW
• New Mexico from Nebraska to 39th NW
• Upshur from Rock Creek Church to Georgia Ave NW
• Columbia from Connecticutt to 16th NW
• Eye from 7th to New Jersey SW/SE



Comments

[Brian]

Where did you find the information about the lanes that DDOT hopes to install before the end of the year? Two of them would really help my daily commute and I'd really like to know about their progress.

[washcycle]

It's from a DDOT presentation to the BAC facilities committee.

[Robert Mandle]

On Milestone #2 - The goal was for 3% of trips to be by bicycle. The ACS and the COG data only count commute trips. If the goal was for 3% of all trips, then they have no doubt met this goal with non-commute bicycle trips.

[Allen Muchnick]

The Street Smart public awareness campaign is conducted twice each year, so it's semiannual, not biannual. Street Smart's primary focus, however, is walking, not bicycling. More importantly, DDOT hires WABA to conduct bicyclist education for adults (Confident City Cycling).

[washcycle]

Allen, my memory from middle school grammar is that biannual means either twice a year or two times a year; which I remember solely because it seemed really stupid.