Road diets will close bike lane gaps and connect trail segments in DDOT's long-range plan

Around the District, four new sections of bike lanes and protected bikeways will replace existing driving lanes. These are part of four miles of planned new segments that will close gaps in the city's bike infrastructure.

Photo by Dylan Passmore on Flickr.

They're focused on four major areas: the Metropolitan Branch Trail, the Klingle Trail, downtown, and closing gaps on Piney Branch Road,  and near Catholic University. The projects are part of an amendment the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is submitting to the Transportation Planning Board's long-term plan. DDOT is proposing to complete all of them this year, an undertaking that would cost $1.35 million. Here's a big-picture look at all of them:

Map from MWCOG.

Metropolitan Branch Trail

Three of the eight projects are related to the Metropolitan Branch Trail. One would cut Blair Rd NW from three lanes to two lanes from Peabody Street to Aspen Street (a total of 0.73 miles) to allow for that section of the trail to be added in.

Blair Road with a protected path. Image from DDOT.

Two other projects would, functionally if not explicitly, extend the trail south from Union Station to the National Mall. One would remove a lane from Louisiana Avenue from Columbus Circle to Constitution Avenue in order to add in a 0.42 mile long protected bikeway. The other would remove two lanes from the stretch of Constitution Avenue that runs from 1st to Pennsylvania Ave NW to add in 0.23 miles of protected bikeway.

Klingle Trail Connection

Another project would remove half the lanes on Klingle Road between the under-construction Klingle Trail at Porter Street and Adams Mill Road. This would allow for 0.31 miles of separated bike lanes on both sides of the street, which will help to connect Mount Pleasant and the new trail.

Image from Google Maps.

East side downtown protected bikeway

The longest project on the list (1.6 miles), this is the bike facility that has been the subject of so much media attention. It would add protected bikeways to 5th, 6th or 9th Street NW.

Image from DDOT.

Closing bike lane gaps

The remaining three projects would close gaps in the current bike network. The first, in Edgewood, would remove a driving lane on 4th St NE between the existing bike lanes that end at Lincoln Road and the existing bike lanes at Harewood Road and add 0.27 miles of bike lane in their place.

Image from Google Maps.

The second would remove one of two driving lanes on the one-way section of Harewood Rd NW on the south side of the Soldier's Home Cemetery and replace it with a separated bike lane (I assume bi-directional). It would be 0.2 miles long between Rock Creek Church Road and North Capitol.

Image from Google Maps.

The last and smallest project, at 0.11 miles, would close a small gap in the bike lanes on Piney Branch Road NW between Georgia Ave and Underwood Street, again by removing a driving lane.

Image from Google Maps.

The Transportation Planning Board has opened a 30-day comment period on these changes. There are other new bike projects in the works around the region. The I-66 Multimodal Improvement Project includes bike and walking improvements, and a project to extend VRE to Haymarket will include three new stations with "bicycle access." The Crystal City Transit Way (BRT) promise bicycle and pedestrian facilities improvements, and the I-66 Outside the Beltway project notes that Bicycle and Pedestrian accommodations in the corridor are included as part of the Preferred Alternative.

Comments

[Uptowner]

I'm particularly excited about the Klingle Road bike lanes, as they will make a terrifying stretch of road into an enjoyable stretch, with good connections to bicycle friendly streets on both ends. The project will also have a traffic calming effect on a piece of roadway where there is absolutely no need for two lanes in each direction. The speeding and aggressive passing I've seen on that road will be a thing of the past! Kudos to DDOT for pursuing this project!

[Uptowner]

Now, all we need to do is improve our street designs to best practice dutch designs, including protected intersections along streets with bike lanes,
http://www.protectedintersection.com/

and unraveled networks for bicycling and driving. The unravelled network includes local streets that are traffic calmed for local car access but allows through bicycle access, and the car streets (collectors & arterials) which allow through access for cars but provide protected bike lanes to allow good bicycle access as well.

http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2012/07/unravelling-of-modes.html

[Matt]

Great projects--personally very excited about the MBT and Piney Branch connections.

FWIW, Piney Branch needs ped traffic calming at Underwood very badly. This has become a commuter route and drivers from Maryland fly through (I think the lanes are 12 feet). It's the main walking connection for a whole neighborhood to the only nearby grocery store and would to a ton to improve basic walkability.

[fongfong]

My 1st grader attends school at Yu Ying, and the Harewood approach by bike is hair-raising (see what I did there).

So what exactly does this mean? I worry about the comment period and whether this is really something that is going to happen. And is this the end of public comments? Taking away a travel lane is usually pretty hard, but since no one lives along Harewood (excepting ghosts), it seems like it will be hard for drivers to make their case. Thank god they are not taking away any parking.

[washcycle]

I'm getting a little out of my depth here, but the CLRP is just one, early step in the process. The comment period iss just for adding this to the CLRP. That's a necessary step, but lots of things get into the CLRP without ever being built.

"The CLRP identifies all of the regionally significant capital improvements to the region’s highway and transit systems that area transportation agencies expect to make and to be able to afford over the next 20 plus years."

When DDOT gets closer to work, they will probably allow for more public comments, at least at the ANC level.

[fongfong]

That is helpful. My sense is that the biggest issue on Harewood would be for the through commuters, not the immediate neighbors. Several years ago DDOT changed this to one-way several years ago without much protest.

Of course within 20 years I will be dead and my son will hopefully be fully employed during the Miley Cyrus presidency.

[washcycle]

Don't you mean the 3rd year of Ivanka Trump's rule on the throne?

[eawrist]

I so rarely agree with DDOT's quest to design every street like a highway (and insist that it be drivers responsibility to act like they are not highways) that when they do something--anything--moving towards safety I have to pause and say: Oh, someone at DDOT actually cares about something other than the capacity and speed of cars. Thank you DDOT.

[Paul]

Thanks for the excellent article. Would that then fully connect the MBT between Fort Totten and Takoma?

[washcycle]

Paul, I don't think so. DC has divided the MT into two sections. Phase I is "ready" to go. That's from CUA to just north of Ft. Totten Metro. Phase II is from there to the Boundary/Takoma. Phase II still requires some negotiation with NPS - so timeline is up in the area. This PBL is only part of Phase II.

[Jeff K]

If they built the MBT along Blair from Peabody to aspen before the other phase through Fort Totten, I have no idea how we would access that trail. Right now, the street part of the MBT trail shunts bikers down Gallatin to 3rd street - a far cry from Blair. I guess I should cheer the completion of any part of the trail, even if one part is a little disjointed for the time being.