Cheh promotes Conn Ave cycle-tracks at hearing

I testified yesterday at a hearing of the DC Council's Committee on Transportation & the Environment. The hearing was on Pedestrian And Bicycle Infrastructure and Safety and on the Bicycle Safety Amendment Act of 2013.

All the speakers I heard from either completely supported the bill, had no opinion on it or supported everything but the removal of the bell mandate, though in most cases they didn't really seem to have heard about that part until the hearing, so I wouldn't say they were passionate about it. I didn't stay for the whole hearing, but of the last three speakers I didn't hear from, I was sure that two would support it. 

You can read WABA's testimony here. An eventually you'll be able to watch the whole hearing here. 

Mary Cheh, the Chair of the committee, was the only CM in attendance (though Grosso sent a staffer), and I was pretty enthused about her comments on biking and walking. It's pretty clear that she bikes frequently, a fact I already knew, but one that came though clearly in her questions and comments. She talked about biking from the District Building to Sibley, which is no short haul. And I think the personal experience informed some of her opinions.

The biggest piece of news to me, though apparently it had been discussed at a previous hearing, is that Cheh wants DDOT to put in cycle-tracks on Connecticut Avenue. I think she said "down the middle" like on Pennsylvania Avenue, but I may have heard wrong. As the Chair of the committee with oversight of DDOT, that's more than just a casual request. WABA clearly supports cycle-tracks there and on other major arterials as well. 

She also took the opportunity several times to call on DDOT to repave the 15th Street cycletrack which she said was starting to require a mountain bike.

She asked questions about the Idaho Stop, and seemed open to the idea, though I know WABA wants to see contributory negligence fixed first.

There was a lot of discussion about sidewalk cycling. Several speakers after me were concerned about the issue, with one wanting it banned in Georgetown. Though of that group of speakers, one neighborhood advocate said that cyclist on the sidewalk was not even mentioned in a poll of his groups members about sidewalk safety. Cheh seemed to agree with WABA, that sidewalk cycling is often not ideal, but banning it would be an over-reaction and that it would discourage new cyclists, concerned cyclists from riding. I said that DDOT should review crash data on sidewalks before any decision is made. I've looked at the issue before, but MPD doesn't always report if a crash happened on the sidewalk, so the data is weak, but I think there are actually few crashes, and they are rarely serious. I will say this:

• I know of 5 ped-bike fatal crashes in the DC area and none of them were the result of sidewalk cycling
• DDOT counts show that few cyclists ride on sidewalks, unless it is some place like the National Mall
• Cyclists and pedestrians can share space safely as demonstrated on numerous trails

Cheh asked if MPD was enforcing laws, specifically laws about parking in the bike lanes. I told her that even after the Council added a fine to the law, enforcement didn't seem to pick up and that there was even a website dedicated to "Who is parking in the L Street Cycle track today".  There was also talk of the new rules for closing bike lanes and creating "safe accommodations", with a few speakers concerned that it would be no more effectively carried out than it is for sidewalks now.

Cheh also wanted to know about education and what the District could do to better educate drivers.

I have to say it was all a breath of fresh air. There was a little bit of "cyclists always run red lights," calls for banning bikes on sidewalks and one complaint about the "preferential treatment" cyclist receive, but in general there was a lot of agreement. And Cheh came off as at least as sympathetic to the position of cyclists and pedestrians as anyone else in DC government. I know I was concerned that by losing Tommy Wells as head of that committee we were losing someone who understood the importance of active transportation, but Cheh is right there with him. When the chair of the Pedestrian Advisory Council said that DDOT Director Terry Bellamy might attend a meeting she said she wanted to know if he would so she could attend too. 

In the end, I'm confident the law is going to pass, and I look forward to cycle-tracks on DC's diagonal streets. 

Comments

[charlie]

Was 15th repaved before the cycletrack? BEcause when I drive it the road condition is almost as bad as the cycletrack. How did it go bad so quickly?

[JimT]

I am not speaking for WABA, but I don't see no inherent problem with legislation like the Idaho stop being passed before contributor negligence is reformed. We would have one less cause of cntributory negligence per se. Frankly, I doubt that there are alot of cases where the law against running a stop sign or red light makes a cyclist contributorily negligent who would not have been negligent anyway.

Are we talking about the entire length of Connecticut Avenue, or south of some point (e.g. Rock Creek Park). I would imagine that a cycle track would need to be on one side or the other in the northern portion with the two reversible lanes.

Regarding sidewalks: The boundaries where bikes are excluded from sidewalks were set ages ago, but not by L'Enfant. So I wonder why Georgetown was omitted. Maybe becaue of the towpath bringing in novices?

I would rather see the 3-foot rule extended to bikes passing pedestrians, than the outright ban on sidewalks. Pedestrians are--if anything--more prone to sudden wobbles in direction than cyclists and hence need the buffer just as much.

[Jay]

For reference, the blog you mentioned is http://whosblockinglsttoday.tumblr.com/

[Joe Flood]

The 15th St bike lanes do need to be repaved, but then so do half the roads in the city.

[MM]

AAA's next headline: "Councilmember Cheh declares war on Maryland car commuters."

[Oxie]

As someone who commutes from Connecticut & Livingston to Downtown, I am super excited to hear about the possibility of cycle tracks on Connecticut!

Along with repaving the 15th St cycle track, it would be great if DDOT could do some work on timing the lights on that street. I feel like I run into just about every possible red light when I'm on it, which is honestly my biggest reason for avoiding it.

[highvizguy]

I'd like very much to see a cycletrack or combined bus/bike lane on RI Ave. in NE. It doesn't make sense to have 3 lanes for traffic when there are often cars parked in the curbside lane. All this does is encourage drivers in the middle lane to speed around other cars by going into the curbside lane and then forcing their way back into the middle lane to avoid the next group of parked cars. It creates a backwards wave of people slowing down to accommodate them. I don't know much about the other "state" streets, are they 3 lanes also, is there space for a cycletrack, etc.? All I know is that speeds are far too high on RI Ave. and there is too much weaving/lane changing by drivers for it to support the type of pedestrian activity/bike activity that businesses along that corridor need to survive and thrive.

[Crickey7]

Connecticut Ave. has historically been a major cycling route to downtown. The major problems I've experienced with it are (1) northbound at the Columbia Road split, where a cyclist has to occupy a lane essentially in the middle of a major road, while going uphill, and (2) southbound on the approaches to the Taft Bridge, where auto traffic back up for blocks and the space between lanes is very narrow. You either sit and wait, thread a narrow passageway of irate drivers or ride on the sidewalk with a host of pedestrians.

[SJE]

I don't see a cycletrack up the middle of Conn Ave working, but definitely on the sides. Complaints about loss of parking could be alleviated by making the cycle track active only during rush hour.

[PA Ave cycletrack]

I can haz pylons back?

[LDM]

There are a number of bike lanes that have deteriorated horribly over the past year. 5th St NW/Park and Tilden are two examples.

I had no idea what the Idaho Stop was till I read this, but yes that's exactly the way to do it. I am now a supporter!

[dynaryder]

I could see banning bikes from the sidewalks on M and Wisc in G'town;on the weekends especially the sidewalks are just too jammed up with people to ride on them. I rarely see people actually doing it though,so it might be a non-issue. Better would be to stripe some bike lanes on M,but not sure if there'd really be room.

[washcycle]

dynarider, that was actually Cheh's point. That she never sees cyclists on M. But the one speaker most concerned about it said it was more an issue on the side streets.

[Will]

Charlie, When 15th St. cycletrack was installed, it was supposed to be a pilot, and so it was done using paint markings (instead of thermoplastic), and it was done without repaving the road first. The thinking was that we'd test out that configuration, and at the time when it needed to be repaved, if it was safe, effective and useful, DDOT would build it in permanently with hardscaping (curbs & planters). I don't know if the current DDOT administration shares this view, but that was what Gabe Klein had in mind. I do know that DDOT is planning the segment from V to Florida with hardscaping as part of it, so that's something.

[Paytonchung]

@Oxie: you're not the only one. DDOT's own follow-up analysis has found that the signal timing, particularly for southbound cyclists is really difficult. I've regularly encountered 90%+ red lights headed south from Rhode Island; this gets especially tiresome in summer when the breeze is the only thing keeping me from collapsing into a puddle. And since the lights will always favor northbound car/bike traffic, there's no good way to fix the situation.

Also, the pavement ruts are obviously pre-cycletrack: they line up nicely with parked-car engine drippings.

[Paytonchung]

Also, wow, very heartening report from the hearing! Connecticut is a tough case: it was one of the nation's premier mixed-use streetcar corridors, and it could be so much more: commercial still thrives along it despite the torrents of commuter traffic. Yet it's so integral to the regional arterial system, and to get from/to the very choicest bits of town.

[Lyon]

I don't regularly commute on Connecticut, but I do live along it and often return from afternoon rides along the Calvert-Cleveland Park portion. During rush hour, I find that the outside lane - the fourth lane for cars - is often very easily considered as a bike lane. I don't get hassled there, though I may have been just lucky.

Going the other way, against rush hour traffic, is a totally different story. With only two lanes, drivers do not enjoy my riding on the road. Even though they have as many lanes as during non-rush hour, the greater number of cars means they're squeezed in more. It's unpleasant.

[charlie]

@Will, thanks, informative.

[Brookland commuter]

I support highvizguy's comment on a bike lane for RI Ave. I use this thoroughfare on my work commute and a center bike lane would be highly advantageous to commuters and all the new businesses popping up - especially in Bloomingdale and and Northeast.

[Oxie]

@Paytonchung: Glad to hear I'm not the only one with this issue! I guess there's probably only so much you can change things without creating other problems for traffic flow. But yeah, that stretch southbound from Rhode Island is brutal.

@Lyon: I've had the same experience with Connecticut Ave -- it's actually pretty easy if you're on the outside lane going the same direction as rush hour traffic. But at other times drivers seem very annoyed that I'm not riding right next to the parked cars or on the sidewalk.

[washcycle]

During the Bike Master Plan process, DDOT surveyed cyclists about where to put bike lanes. As I recall, of roads which did not get bike lanes in the plan, Rhode Island Avenue had the distinction of being the one where they were most requested. The Susan Lucci of DC bike lane requests.

[highvizguy]

That's very strange RE: RIA and Susan Lucci. I don't think volumes, at least from Eastern to Florida NE support 3 lanes on RIA. As mentioned, those three are constantly constricted to two anyway b/c of parked vehicles.

[Weiwen]

I used to live in NW DC, on Connecticut Ave. It would be great to get a cycletrack there. Many parts of the Northwest don't have good connectivity - for example, it isn't that easy to get from Woodley Park to Van Ness unless you go on Conn Ave, which is a bit too drowded in the day.