9th Street cycle-track pulled from long term plan

This year, the Transportation Planning Board received a dozen "significant changes" to the Long-Range Transportation Plan, a couple of which deal specifically with bike facilities. The comment period ended earlier this week, but the public comments will be presented at a meeting this evening. The two bike porjects included are

1. Lane Reductions in DC. - This is a whole series of lane reductions around DC, any one of which could include bike lanes (though they don't mention it specifically, so don't get too excited), but one subsection of it is to design and construct a paved bicycle and pedestrian trail along South Capitol St. and reduce the number of lanes from 5 to 4. This $5M project is scheduled for completion in 2015. It's also possible that the Eye Street NW Bus lane project might create Bus/Bike lanes or that the East Capitol Street Corridor Mobility & Safety Plan, which will design and construct pedestrian safety and traffic operations improvements will include a bike facility - it's being coordinated by Jim Sebastian after all. 
2. Bike Lane Pilot Study - For reasons not spelled out in the document, the 9th Street Cycle-track from Constitution Ave NW to K Street NW has been removed. This was originally presented in 2010 as a modification to the bike plan, as a replacement to a cycle-track on 17th. But it now appears that neither is going to happen. DDOT says the 9th Street cycle-track is still in their plans just not the CLRP. 

The other projects are all in Virginia and mostly deal with highway widening, but agressive advocacy could include bike facilities too. 

The TPB also released the Draft Scope of Work for the Air Quality Conformity Assessment. The 30-day public comment period closed at midnight on Saturday, February 16, 2013 (Whoops). At Tonight's meeting, the TPB will review the public comments and is asked to approved the project submissions and draft scope of work. Work will then begin on the CLRP and TIP Air Quality Conformity Analysis, which will be presented to the TPB in draft form at its June 19, 2013 meeting.

Comments

[Dan Malouff]

I've spoken with DDOT about 9th Street. It's not dead, it just doesn't need to be listed in the CLRP. I posted a quick explanation at http://beyonddc.com/log/?p=4576

[Greenbelt]

9th street could really use a cycletrack. Either that or switch to two-way! It's very hard to get to addresses on 9th by bike. The sidewalks are narrow and obstructed in places, the downstream traffic is fast, and since it's one-way, you can't really get upstream. I had a meeting last night at 750 9th street -- very difficult address to access by bike. (Though there is a new bike rack outside.)

[DaveS]

We already have bike/bus lanes on 7th & 9th. Is there any valid reason not to push for maintenance, education, and enforcement?

I had heard they were improperly established, but DDOT has them listed in the census of bike facilities - they count to our 62 or whatever miles, and will continue to bulk up the total until they're removed, replaced, or fixed.