DDOT data shows zebras helping, but cyclists note that they aren't perfect.

From a WAMU story today.

On a weekday last June, DDOT witnessed 14 illegal U-turns between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the 1200 block of Pennsylvania Ave., Sebastian said. Last Tuesday — after the zebra installation — a DDOT team during the same four-hour window on the same block saw no U-turns.

“These initial results are promising,” Sebastian said.

It is unclear how long DDOT’s pilot program will last, but Sebastian said the agency plans on expanding the zebras along Pennsylvania Avenue NW where illegal U-turns have become a very dangerous problem. In 2012, of fourteen car-bike crashes on the avenue in downtown D.C., nine involved illegal U-turns.

But there is anecdotal evidence that zero is not the total number since installation. 

The zebras are not designed to stop vehicles cold. In fact, they are built to allow emergency vehicles to cross them. Their soft edges are easy on both bicycle and car tires. The zebras are supposed to act as a deterrent to augment ticket enforcement by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Since Jan. 1 police have issued more than 700 tickets to illegal U-turners on Pennsylvania Ave. between 3rd and 15th Streets NW, according to an MPD spokeswoman.

"No amount of zebras — five-inch high zebras — is going to stop a car, a taxi, an SUV that wants to drive over these things. It's a first step in the process of eliminating U-turns along with enforcement, education and with maybe more barriers spaced closer together,” said Sebastian. “We wanted to start with a conservative approach on the spacing before we spent a lot more time and money and effort on adding additional barriers.”

To cyclists like Wetzel, DDOT can start making changes now. “I think if they were closer together it would be harder to drive just straight through them.”

Comments

[Crickey7]

I think the zebras will work. Cars needs a design feature that provided a visual and physical reinforcement to the "No U-Turns" message.

[SJE]

There are these people who wear blue and drive around in cars with flashing lights on top. I hear that they can really help with this problem.

[Brandon]

From my understanding the "conservative spacing" of the zebras actually stems from a line painting mistake that occurred the last time the bike lanes were painted. The zebras were placed evenly between each painted area, wider than the recommendation by the zebra manufacturer and wider than the lines were supposed to have been painted in the first place.

http://dcist.com/2013/11/vehicles_still_u-turning_despite_pe.php

[Rob P]

Zebras, even properly spaced, probably won't stop 100% of u-turns, but they will make it painfully obvious that they're not something you're supposed to do. The ignorance plea will no longer fly.

I'm not sure anything short of something like these will ever physically end u-turns.
http://flic.kr/p/if9x

[Bill on Capitol Hill]

If only there were a "No U-turns" message. It'd be nice if it said that somewhere other than at the intersections. On the zebras, perhaps.

I've seen trying-to-be-law-abiding drivers avoid U-turns at intersections, noting the signs, and then make them mid-block. Yes, they should know better. But they don't.

[Just me]

I think the visual message of the zebras is fairly clear. Nonetheless, I personally had a close call with a driver u-turning through them. He or she didn't drive over even one of them, and the driver didn't really even slow down. I wrote DDOT about it. I agree with the guy above who says they should be closer together.