Support a Green, Safe K Street NE/NW

Concept design of K Street from 2018 NoMa/Mount Vernon Triangle Bicycle Network Study

This Sunday, there will be a march and ride on K Street NE/NW to demand a road diet and more green space. 

Safe Streets for Hill East and Near NE, Keya Chatterjee, and ANC 6C06 Commissioner Robb Dooling are organizing a picnic, march, and bike ride from the green space at 800 K St NE to 440 K St NW.

Come tell the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) we want more green spaces and the K St NE Road Diet that would add sidewalk extensions and bike lanes from 6th St NE to 2nd St NE! We have been waiting three years for this street to become safer.

Wear green, walk some or all of the 12 blocks, and bring signs!

Back in 2017, in response to a 2016 request by the ANC, DDOT prepared a Vision Zero corridor study of K St NE extending from 12th St NE to 1st St. NE. DDOT decided that it wanted to remove rush-hour restrictions on residential parking as part of a road diet and came up with four alternatives. Alternatives 1-3 put cyclists in shared lanes, but alternative 4 removed parking from one side to make bike lanes and in the underpass below the railroad tracks removed a lane of the road to create a cycletrack. Since then they've made some small improvements at K Street/8th Street/West Virginia Avenue NE; at K Street/12th Street/Florida Avenue NE and at K Street/12th Street/Florida Avenue NE.

Then, in January, they presented a refined design to minimize parking impacts s along the corridor and provide on‐street parking on south side of K Street NE. It included multiple options on the west end (cycletrack, PBLs, sharrowed lanes); a road diet in the middle that creates bike lanes and then curb extensions on the east.

K between 2nd and 6th, NE

Here are the proposed plans in NE with the two-way cycletrack on the west end.

From there the plan was to work on 65% designs, perform some test closures to measure traffic impacts, issue a Notice of Intent for any changes to traffic control and/or parking and to complete the work this summer. 

A road diet and safer streets, who could oppose that? Neighbors, that's who.  

Wednesday night, a group of residents from K Street, NE, showed up at ANC6C’s March meeting to oppose implementation of DDOT’s plan to add bike lanes on K Street, NE, west of 6^th Street, NE. The move would result in the loss of many residential parking spaces and affected residents are up in arms. During DDOT’s comment period for the plan, residents submitted a petition with 170 signatures opposing the project, reinforcing what one resident told the ANC Wednesday night, “90% of the people on K Street want parking and not a bike lane.”

The ANC heard the objections, and then voted to send a letter to the Mayor, reiterating their support of the project expressed in a previous letter (see link below) sent to DDOT in February. The vote was 5 – 0 – 1, with Commissioner Joel Kelty abstaining.

At a special meeting of the ANC’s Transportation Committee on the K Street “road diet” [in February], objections from residents included the reduction in parking, worsening traffic conditions, loss of loading space for elderly residents, a lack of engagement with the community, and a lack of data on auto and bike volumes.

The petition and letter had some harsh accusations

it is our opinion that this current plan ignores the needs of the residents of K Streets and its environs.  We live here and we matter. Instead of moving forward with efforts to maintain inclusion and diversity in our neighborhood, this plan appears to economically discriminate against the K Street neighborhood by redesigning residency based on wealth. Furthermore, we have great concern over the safety of cyclists, drivers, children and pedestrians should this plan to install bike lanes as proposed by DDOT on K Street NE go forward.

For nearly two years, our community has expressed concern and opposition both to the ANC6C committees and commissioners, and to DDOT, during all public meetings and through letters and emails. We have asked to discuss this. Our ANC6C commissioners have not attempted to mediate nor properly address our concerns; instead they are adopting solicitations of non-resident advocacy groups such as WABA (none of the WABA representatives that we see in attendance seem to live in ANC6C boundaries).  We have now resorted to appealing to you directly. 

Their list of Koncerns is below

They pulled out all the classics here: "by slowing cars you'll actually CAUSE pollution", "there are already bike lanes on a street a few blocks over", "ambulances!!!"; but also broke new territory by complaining that the new design will encourage cars to drive on another street. That's a first. 

It's interesting that they are worried about buses being slowed since the letter with it claims that the traffic calming plan will "take away the only mode of transportation most current K Street NE residents have" and I had assumed that meant cars. Considering it has buses and is very walkable, I'm now not sure which mode their talking about. But they claim that taking away some curbside parking to install bike lanes "will do just this."

Anyway these items were all discussed at the March ANC 6A Transportation Committee meeting, though I'm not sure how it went. 

WABA's petition is here if you're interested in signing it. 

Comments

[Sean]

I'm always amused when people claim that bike lanes are somehow wealthy gentrifiers screwing poor people.
Bikes are vastly cheaper than cars?
It's also funny that they think putting a bike lane in and cutting down on auto traffic lanes will... increase pollution on K St? Huh?
I suppose by that logic expanding K St to an 8 lane highway will make the air crystal clear?

[drumz]

I love it when people who are arguing that biking doesn't work for them (whatever the resason) also have time to tell us what is and isn't safe for cycling.

Now I've not been to flight academy but let me tell you how I'd flying those Boeing jets to avoid a crash.

[Jeffb]

I recommend DDOT embark on a multi-year study of alternatives including a no build option. Every couple of years they can issue a terse statement they are still studying it just to reassure us Vision Zero is working.

[Jan Janson]

The campaign by just two K St residents on local social media was astonishing. I really admire them each posting around 60 comments about how many elderly will be killed by this road calming project. Just to confirm they are not Russians, I might have to check in on them in person. Both have off street parking. It almost seems like mental illness? Would love to understand.

[fongfong]

We often ride this route (10 year old and me), and we call it K for Krazy Street. The combination of drivers let loose from the tunnel, the width of the street and the general open air feel make it seem like cars should be flying along this route. Any traffic calming would be great.

[Infinitebuffalo]

sorry i missed this until now... it's interesting that one of the 'koncerns' was that "protected, safe bike lanes already exist in our neighborhood on non-residential streets...K Street is 90% residential", especially considering how many complaints cities get when they attempt to install bike lanes or other bike-related infrastructure on non-residential streets saying people should be riding on residential roads...