The gods must be crazy

More coverage of the Great Cycletrack Battle of 2013. 

The Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, a 175-year-old congregation on M Street between 15th and 16th Streets, has convinced planners to preserve its congregants’ parking spaces on the north side of the street by removing protective bollards from the design, turning a protected cycle track into a regular bike lane for one crosstown block.

“That plan, we felt, would create a major traffic issue when we had special events like funerals and for our worship services and evening programs,” said Reverend Ronald Braxton, who said the compromise represents a “win-win situation” for churchgoers and cyclists. Bicycle boosters are not convinced such design changes are optimal.

But did DDOT think it would cause major traffic issues? Because, frankly I think they know more about traffic than Metropolitan A.M.E. does. If I want to know about sermons or Bible versus should I now call DDOT?

Also win-win is not accurate. It's more like retain status quo-lose. The idea that they've compromised is ridiculous. In a compromise, both sides give up a little. They're giving up nothing. 

“They have a couple different concerns. One of them is parking during service on Sunday. Also they have major events such as funerals. We want to make sure we can accommodate the amount of traffic, the amount of buses and the other vehicles that come in for those special events,” he said.

So, allow Sunday parking in the bike lanes and allow them to close a lane for special events and funerals - like every other funeral facility does. Maybe the city should sell them the land in the street - if they're going to get exclusive use of it. 

From the Post

The Greater Greater Washington web site published drawings Thursday that looked awfully final, but transportation department spokesman Reggie Sanders told me Thursday the situation is “kind of fluid.”

I was unable to reach anyone at Metropolitan, which is one of the oldest and most storied black congregations in the city and counts among its members many influential folks including D.C. Council member Vincent B. Orange (D-At Large). No one picked up the phone in the church office Thursday, and no one was at the church when I dropped by this afternoon.

But you know, they frequently have events that require all the parking everywhere. And they can't believe DDOT didn't get in touch with them before the May meeting.

And the City Paper.

"We’re trying to achieve a win-win between the biking community and the people who attend the church there," says Sanders, referring to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. "The church has been around of a long time. There are a lot of people who are elderly, who, you know, it helps them to park in front of the church."

So, get a few young churchmembers to run a valet. 

I think we’re talking about more than holding onto parking spaces," says Rev.Ronald Braxton of his church's opposition to the cycletrack. "We also talked about the flow of traffic, the speed of traffic. We talked about pedestrian safety, reducing the lanes of travel. We talked about the narrowness of the street itself."

Again, why is the church talking about this? Are they the Metropolitan A.M.E. or Metropolitan A.A.A? Why is the flow or speed of traffic their concern? Ostensibly it will be slower. Doesn't that add to pedestrian safety?

I did say yesterday that the loss of the cycletrack is not that big of a deal. What is a big deal, as Aaron Weiner put it is

 it sets a terrible precedent. If every business owner who fears an inconvenience to his customers, and every homeowner who worries her guests will have a hard time parking, gets to veto a stretch of cycletrack in favor of preserving curbside parking, the city won't get a very effective network of cycletracks.

Comments

[T]

I disagree with everyone who says no big deal because I think the church is being cheap and lazy. I asked a parking attendant if they would open for the church on a weekend (>1 block away) and they said sure if they could charge a small fee, but the church has never asked them. I just find the whole thing lousy on the church's part.

[W]

I pitched this on GGW, but I think any of us who are car2go members should make a personal commitment to move a car2go into one of those spaces any time we happen to be in the vicinity.

[Tara]

It is unfortunate that the church seems to be unable to move beyond the paradigm of every Granny parking her Buick directly in front of the church on a Sunday morning. Has Metropolitan AME ever disclosed their Sunday attendance and how many of them carpool or take public transportation? How many of them drive in from Maryland? Have they considered running a shuttle from McPherson Square in the morning to pick up folks who might take Metro? Or running a valet, like National City Christian Church, only a few blocks away? Or, encouraging biking to church by having indoor bike parking, like Luther Place Church? There are so many ways they could have been part of the solution here.

[Smedley Burkhart]

It seems any commercial place of resort could make an identical claim.

The rest of my thoughts on this subject are unsuitable for public discussion.

[Dave]

As it's been pointed out elsewhere - the cycletrack would be across the street. It wouldn't prevent parking in front of the church at all.

[guest1]

I'm sure some nice men in the congregation could volunteer to come early and park Granny's Buick. I know when I go somewhere with my grandma, my dad* parks the car and I help Grandma into the building. Seems like something an upstanding member of the church would do and I bet Granny would love the special treatment she deserves anyway.

Or my mom or aunt or whomever

[Walsh44]

Where is the all-powerful bicycle lobby now that we need it?

[Michael]

Good news roundup - I'm about to link to it. But since race is clearly an issue here, it might be appropriate to rethink the title of this post.

[washcycle]

I guess I hadn't seen that - though I understand your point. But it's part of a set (admittedly only a set of 2 right now - but this is the plan) of posts all based on movie titles with "God" in them. So in that larger scope I don't think it's an issue.

But I'd be interested if others think the title is racially loaded.