Getting Around Washington By Bicycle, 1982

On DDOT's website, I stumbled across this pamphlet from 1982 "Getting Around Washington By Bicycle" That's from before I moved here, so I was interested to see what stood out.  There's quite a lot

Bike routes

There's a list of "bikeways," but they're not what we would call bikeways today, they're more like signed bike routes. Some are on sidewalks and others are just wide curb lanes. Rhode Island and 13th Street NW are listed, but they doesn't even have sharrows, just signs that say that bicyclists can use the full lane DURING RUSH HOUR. 11th St SE has bike lanes from East Capitol to the 11th Street bridge, but I remember when bike lanes were put in during the early '00s so they must've been removed at some point in between. 

Bridges 

There are several pages showing how to cross bridges. Interestingly, the map predates any TR Bridge connections on the Virginia side, so the bridge can only be used to access TR Island or to get a view of the River. There is still no Virginia connection to the downstream sidewalk. (There are notes on the map on the VA ends of the sidewalks, but I can't read them). It also doesn't show the upstream side of the Sousa Bridge as usable, and says that a connection to the East Capital Street Bridge's downstream east side is forthcoming (It wasn't and still isn't). 

Bike shops.

In the section for bike rentals, bikes are priced by how many speeds they had. It was a different time. 

Safety

There is a strong vehicular cycling influence in this pamphlet. Hazardous storm grates are listed as a hazard instead of...y'know...being replaced. "Wear white at night" they advise in the pre-safety vest days. There were still railroad tracks on Water Street and bikes were banned on O and P because of the streetcar tracks (so there was some history there when DDOT tried to ban them on H Street). 

Advocacy

Back in the 70's and 80's the Youth Hostel organization was probably the area's most influential bike advocacy organization, so they get listed here. I don't know when they stopped being one.  The WABA office was on Eye Street. LAB was still LAW. 

 

The Washington City Paper wrote about this years ago and noticed that it said "The majority of bicyclist/motor vehicle accidents in the District are caused by bicyclists." Yikes. Michael Jackson, now with MDOT, was the bicycle coordinator then. I wonder if he regrets that. 

Comments

[Urbanico]

What a golden information! I would never have thought that such info can be found on the net so easy. 1982 was a year with many new upgrades and innovations, nowadays you may find ever newer bicycles and even electric bicycles to ride the city. Regular bikes may not be as attractive as before, but still. Today Washington have managed to build many paths for bicyclists so this already a big upgrade from these years.
Thanks for sharing this picture, I would gladly share it with my Facebook group of bicycle enthusiastic when I get the chance.