A history and accounting of bicycling policy in Washington, DC

Ralph Buehler and John Stowe wrote a chapter on bicycling in the recent book Capital Dilemma: Growth and Inequality in Washington, DC. The chapter covers the history of bicycle planning and policy in Washington from 1970 to the present.

It focuses on the time period since the late 1990s when the District of Columbia’s population and economy increased strongly. Bicycle planning in the region has its roots in the 1970s, but experienced a hiatus in the 1990s, and has witnessed a ‘renaissance’ since the late 1990s. In the 1970s and 1980s, local jurisdictions focused their bicycle policies on the provision of off-street paths—often shared with pedestrians. Since the late 1990s, all jurisdictions have greatly expanded their on-street bicycle lanes and implemented other innovative programs. Washington, DC, Alexandria City, and Arlington County have implemented more bike-friendly policies and have been at the forefront of experimenting with innovative measures. In spite of the progress, many challenges for cycling remain. Area cyclists are predominantly male, between 25 and 65 years old, White, and from higher income groups. Cycling appears to be spatially concentrated in neighborhoods of the urban core jurisdictions that experienced strong population growth. Moreover, the network of bicycle paths and lanes is still fragmented and often requires cyclists to mix with heavy or fast moving car traffic. 

You can read the whole chapter here. 

Also, today is the 11th Anniversary of the Washcycle. Back then WABA was moving offices, NPS was studying a proposal to extend the Mount Vernon Trail to the American Legion Bridge and I was complaining about how it had been 6 years since the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Met Branch Trail, but it still wasn't finished. Luckily that's not an issue anymore. 

Comments

[xmal]

Congrats on publishing for 11 years and thank you for all the posts!

After seeing all the ups and downs (MBT still not done and they were concerned about missing the 2-year budget cycle), how are you feeling about the state of cycling in the area and its long-term growth potential?

[Brett Young]

Thanks for being a champion of cycling in the DC metro region. Your blog inspired me to work on the Palisades Neighborhood trail & The Foundry Branch Bridge and I appreciate all of the advice you've given me over the past 2 years.

[Crickey7]

I, too am predominantly male, between 25 and 65 years old, White, and from higher income groups.

[Jonathan Krall]

Thanks for your service. And I'm glad that flexbike thing worked out.

[SJE]

Congratulations on the anniversary. You have inspired me to keep going on the bike, and to get more involved in making it better for everyone.

[washcycle]

xmal,

Looking just at DC, the state of cycling isn't what it could be, but we're basically at the top of the class for our contemporaries (except Portland). We really missed the boat when we fired Gabe Klein, since Chicago has caught up to us in the interim.

It's frustrating, because we don't have some state overlords - filled with rural voters - preventing us from passing the best laws in the country or from spending our money on tons of great infrastructure, yet we aren't really doing either of those things at the level I'd expect. The Idaho Stop being one example.

But I also think the floodgates are primed to open. Maybe not on PBLs but on trails. The new Anacostia Trail and Klingle Trail are either finished or underway. A better Rock Creek Park Trail is being built. The Met Branch is pretty close to breaking ground on the next DC section, and the South Capitol and Oxon Run Trails are basically sitting in the on-deck Circle. I think in the next 10 years all of those projects will be either finished or underway.

The contrib negligence bill and the new safety bill which passed this year are both very big deals, and to have them both in the same year probably makes for the biggest year legislatively since I've been involved. Add to that new Vision Zero regs and new bicycle parking regs and this has been a pretty standout year so far. Perhaps the best year since the blog started.

Regionally, bikeshare is the big story. We've been able to do something that very few others have and that's build a regional system. I think that has been huge as far as changing the way people see biking and how much people do it.

But I'd say that some areas are doing better than others, which could represent a lot of opportunity.

Jim Sebastian's policy that he once iterated long ago and that I think of as "island hopping" was the right way to go 10-15 years ago. The idea was build what you can, get more people biking, change the culture and repeat (hoping that you can do mare now than you could before). That has largely worked. But if we want to catch Portland, or just keep up, we need to push it harder than that. Not unlike what JSK was doing in New York or Klein did in DC or Chicago. We're going to need to piss people off. So far there doesn't seem to be a lot of stomach for that.

And the total disaster that is Congress isn't really helping either. We could use a little more leadership, or just common sense, when it comes to federal policy.

So I think we'll keep seeing progress, and maybe a lot more in the next 5-10 years then we saw in the prior 5-10, just because the calendar is working out that way. With turnover in the Council maybe there will be another breakthrough or two on top of that. But to get to "best biking city in America," we're missing a leader who's willing to get fired or at least heavily criticized.