Wednesday Afternoon Commute - Whereas

Remember the NASA bike share thing from last week. Two things - I've ridden one of the bikes a couple of times and though clunkier than a CaBi, they get the job done; and one of the major contractors here has forbidden their employees from riding them because it's too risky. 

• CaBi installed four new stations in DC yesterday,  at 8th & East Capitol St. NE, 15th & East Capitol St. NE, 8th and F, NE, and NJ and R, NW.
• M Street Cycletrack meeting tonight. 
• Homeless camp along the MVT removed. 
• If I known my post in response to Goodyear's article would become a multi-day thing, I would've edited it or something. 
• NCPC is hosting a meeting on 10th Street SW and Banneker
• ANC3F passed a resolution in support for a separated cycle track on Connecticut Ave. NW (text below)
• "Front and center in today's bike-lane dust-ups is San Francisco. ... an effort to build bike lanes along Polk Street, which would provide a relatively flat, north-south route in the city, has met opposition. Polk Street is a narrow, congested thoroughfare, so the plan is to replace most of the curbside parking with bike lanes and miniature parklets. However, business owners in the heavily commercial neighborhood are not impressed, fearing the loss of parking will have a negative impact on their business. They have placed protest signs in storefront windows and have jammed community meetings on the lane plans, turning them into rowdy events."

WHEREAS the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is developing a
master transportation plan, which will direct DDOT funding for the next ten
years or more; and

WHEREAS biking is the most efficient use of public space and fund for
transportation; and

WHEREAS Mayor Gray's Sustainable DC initiative has called for at least 75%
of all trips to be made by walking, transit, or biking by 2032; and

WHEREAS All District corridors and arterials should be made safe for
walking, driving, and biking; and

WHEREAS Connecticut Avenue is a major arterial road from Montgomery County
to Downtown Washington, D.C.; and

WHEREAS Capital Bikeshare is expanding in Montgomery County, and in the
District along Connecticut Avenue; and

WHEREAS separated bicycle facilities are safer than other roadway
treatments, reducing crashes up to 90%; and

WHEREAS bicyclists using the 15th Street cycle track stated that they felt
overwhelmingly safer when riding in a physically separated facility
according to DDOT; and

WHEREAS a protected cycle track encourage bicyclists to use the road instead
of the sidewalks; and

WHERAS 83% of residents in the area around the 15th Street cycle track
surveyed consider it to be a valuable asset to their neighborhood according
to DDOT; and

WHEREAS Motorists interviewed on D.C. streets with cycle tracks were found
to be favorable toward the lanes according to DDOT; and

WHEREAS a protected cycle track would improve the flow of traffic,
especially uphill, by allowing bikes to move at a slower speed without
impeding cars; and

WHEREAS business benefits by having cycle tracks, with the first cycle
tracks in the U.S. on 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan seeing up to 49% rise
in local businesses, with 3% in the rest of the borough.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that ANC 3F supports the inclusion of a separated
cycle track on Connecticut Avenue in the forthcoming master transportation
plan.

 

Comments

[Greenbelt]

Too risky compared with what? Walking?

[Crickey7]

Experimental Teleportation.

[UrbanEngineer]

A Connecticut Ave cycletrack or buffered bike lane would be great. ANC3F doesn't stretch the full length of Connecticut Ave in DC, and I don't think this bike infrastructure would be complete unless it did stretched that full length. It will be a pain to design with all the existing infrastructure as it fluctuates so much through that stretch (6 lanes, 4 lanes, on street parking, no on street parking, buffered lanes, bridges, suicide lanes, hawk signal, etc...). It will require more than just slapping some paint on the road to do it right. Hope it happens though.

[SJE]

Washcycle: I agree it got a bit out of hand, but what did you expect when you posted an article on GGW titled "cyclists are special and have their own rules"?

[washcycle]

I didn't - David Alpert did.