Last summer DDOT completed the 30% designs for the Connecticut Avenue (CTA) deckover and streetscape project. That project will redesign CTA from Dupont Circle to California Street and build a plaza over top of the open hole above CTA right at Dupont Circle. While there are some safety improvements to CTA that will probably benefit everyone, and they call for new bike racks along the Avenue; the biggest part here for cyclists is the block immediately adjacent to the new plaza - which will become a curbless "shared" street.
There's also talk of a "A location for a bike fix-it station". It'd be a whole lot better without parking, though it will eliminate 17 spaces.
Design won't be completed until 2021, work would start late in the year, and it would take 2-3 years to complete.
As for bike lanes:
bike lanes will not be installed as a part of this project. DDOT is looking at the feasibility of protected bike lanes along the whole Connecticut Avenue corridor through the Connecticut Avenue Reversible Lane Study. The current project does not preclude future accommodations of bike lanes once a feasibility determination has been made.
Speaking of that study....DDOT has known since 2003 that the reversible lanes on Connecticut Avenue in the Woodley Park area are dangerous, but only recently did they commit to studying them, with the possibility - however remote - that it would result in new bike infrastructure. That study is going slow and, despite the headline, I can't even confirm that it has started yet.
In a 2003 transportation study of Connecticut Avenue, DDOT's consultants determined that "the reversible lane operation is a safety issue" and that "The high number of accidents on Connecticut Avenue can be attributed in part to the reversible lane operation, high volume of traffic and the relatively high speed at which vehicles travel on this roadway" which means the road is ripe for a redesign and road diet. But it also suggested fixing them with better signs and operations, not removing them
In 2018, local residents effectively advocated for DDOT to study the reversible lanes with an eye on removal.
Now, the District Department of Transportation is studying the feasibility of removing the reversing lanes, as part of the city’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2024.
At the time they said we were about 15 months away from study results, which would be around the end of March. I don't expect that to happen, since in June they were saying the 9 month study wouldn't start until Fall 2019, and I can't determine if even that has started yet.
In the meantime, they've also announced short-term safety improvements at R and S Streets at CTA, which I suspect are complete(?)
My understanding is that the contract for the CT Ave Reversible Lane study has been signed, and background work has been started, with public engagement coming soon.
This study, though, only goes as far south as Woodley Park, so it is an open question as to how people on bicycles would continue on to Dupont.
Posted by: Josh R | March 10, 2020 at 09:39 AM