Today, as noted earlier, DDOT announced their 2014 Proposal for bike lanes. Benjamin Freed at the Washingtonian asks if they will actually get built? If history is any indication the answer is probably not, at least, not in 2014.
If you look at previous announcements you can see many lanes carried over from one year to the next. For example, Piney Branch from Missouri to Georgia shows up in 2011 and then in 2012, and then in 2013 and then again in 2014. So, yes, they put more in their plan than they actually get done. Part of this is because of the way bike lanes usually get added. Often it is part of a road repair project. The group at DDOT that repairs roads lets the group at DDOT that does bike lanes know about what work they're going to do. So then the bike lane group puts that stretch of bike lanes on the list. If, then, the road repair does not occur, then the bike lanes do not go in. But that is only some of the times. There are probably several reasons, some better than others, why bike lanes are proposed in the winter and then not installed for years.
A couple of other notes from the Washingtonian article.
Another project listed as “ready to go” is a two-block protected lane on First St., NE, connecting the Metropolitan Branch Trail to street level. (Currently, cyclists must haul their bikes up a staircase to access the trail’s southern end.)
This project will not change the connections to the Met Branch Trail. It's still either the stairs at L Street or the ramp at M Street. In fact, I heard that DDOT may have to postpone the L Street ramp for now. Bristol Property, the owner, is concerned that there's a hazmat issue with the land where and does not want DDOT to take any soil borings which would indefinitely stall the project.
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