TheWashCycle

Everyone is talking about Pennsylvania

The idea of building a bikeway on Pennsylvania Avenue SE goes back to the District's original 1970's bike plan when they proposed building one on the old streetcar median, but it looks like after decades of thinking about it, DDOT is actually going to do it. 

In July, DDOT presented three alternatives for Pennsylvania Ave SE that would transform the corridor by creating a separated bike lanes and bus only lanes on the Ave between Barney Circle and the Capitol. Once an alternative is selected, the project would be completed in two phases, the portion west of 13th in 2022-23 and one to the east of it, following completion of the Potomac Avenue intersection project, in 2023-24. 

Two of the concepts (A and B) put bike lanes on the right hand side, with either full-time parking or a peak-restricted parking/dedicated bus lane. The third option puts the bike lanes next to the median and the peak parking/bus lane. In option A and C, the bikes lane would be 5 feet wide, but in option B it would be 6 feet wide. They would all have a pylon delineated, one foot buffer between them and traffic.  

WABA found all to be an improvement, but preferred Alternative A.

In our view, Alternative A, which includes curbside protected bike lanes, bus-only lanes, and easy to navigate intersections, is by far the best option for people who bike, for bus riders, and overall safety on Pennsylvania Ave.

DDOT also appears to prefer Alternative A. While one neighbor was concerned about diverted traffic and congestion, 

[Project Manager Greg Matlesky] noted that the pandemic has reduced total daily vehicular daily trips by 30 – 60%, and suggested that after the pandemics asides subsides, “we likely won’t see traffic return to pre-Covid levels for quite some time.”

ANC6B supports the planning and so we now await completion of the preliminary design phase and a second public meeting.

Meanwhile, DDOT also held a public meeting in September on Pennsylvania Avenue's west side, where they presented block plans, perspective renderings, 360 degree street views of each block, and an overview of some of the specific design considerations. The project includes protected bike lanes from the White House to 22nd Street. 

This road could use a diet and the protected bike lanes would be gold standard facilities.

In some parts the bike lanes would be at street level, as they're shown above and others at sidewalk level - to allow access to pick-up / drop-off and loading areas, but always protected. It's hard not to get excited. They plan to keep refining the design through 2021.

In between the two, of course, is the downtown section which already has the center running bike lanes. They just repaved it and are repainting it, but with the same design as before. They still haven't reverted to the original design that Fenty forced DDOT to remove after he was pressured by AAA. Oh well, maybe in 2024.

Highlights from the DDOT's January report to the BAC

At every DC Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting, DDOT gives a report to the BAC. Here are some highlights from this month's.

DDOT

• Anticipates starting Environmental Assessment for new Metropolitan Branch trail route through NPS property north of Fort Totten this summer.
• Has been installing New MBT Wayfinding singage between Union Station and Brookland and will be done by the end of the month. 
• Has awarded the contract to replace all MBT overhead lights between Florida Ave and Franklin St, and work is expected to begin in the spring.
• Is planning a public meeting for as early as this month on the new design of the Anacostia River Trail's Arboretum Bridge. It takes into account input from the rowing community.
• Expects to advertise the Rock Creek trail construction contract (widening, resurfacing, and new segment along Piney Branch) between P Street and Tilden this spring, with the bids due in the fall.
• Kicked off the feasibility study for the Palisades Trolley Trail in November 2018. They tentatively plan to have Public meetings in February or March.
• Expect to begin designing improvements to the Suitland Parkway Trail this spring.
• Is expanding CaBi by 40 stations across all 8 wards
• Started a CaBi Pedal Assist pilot in September with 100 bikes and is exploring how to expand it.
• Has nearly completed construction of the Virginia Avenue Trail in SE
• Is working on the 2019 bike lane list
• Is planning the final meeting on the Western downtown cycletrack (20th, 21st and 22nd Streets NW) project for this winter or spring
• Is about halfway done with the 14th Street Reconstruction project. The project will move the existing bike lanes behind bus stop islands.
• Has chosen a consultant to create the 100% plans for the Florida Ave NE Streetscape Project (2 nd to H Streets). This project includes a 2-way protected bike lane on the south side of the road.
• Will break ground on the Maryland Ave NE Streetscape (2 nd to 14 th Streets) this spring. This project reduces travel lanes from 4 to 3, and includes bike lanes.
• Has begun the 30% design for the Pennsylvania Ave NW Streetscape Project (17 th to 22 nd Streets). This will have a protected bike
  lane on both sides of the road. The preliminary designs are expected by fall.

So, lots of irons in the fire. 

Multiple efforts underway to make Pennsylvania Avenue into DC's biking backbone

Pennsylvania Avenue could arguable be considered DC's most important street, and it competes with K Street as DC's most famous (thanks Soderbergh!) but since the section in front of the White House was closed it's become less important as an automobile thoroughfare. In recognition of this, a couple of efforts are underway to change the street to match the changing city. A related effort recently started on the section between the Capitol and the Anacostia. 

The design process for Downtown West has already wrapped up, and was written about here. It would build protected bike lanes between K and 17th NW. Not sure when - or if - construction will happen.

East of that is the section in front of the White House that was turned into a security plaza back in 2004. This section is widely used by cyclists - at least when it's not closed by the Secret Service. Such closures have anecdotally been more frequent, but no one at USSS will respond to my questions about the frequency with which it's closed or why, so I have little to add on that. Closing it is an inconvenience to cyclists for sure, but it's difficult to know whether or not this is a balanced reaction without knowing why it's happening.

On the next section, between the White House and the Capital, The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), the General Services Administration (GSA), the National Park Service (NPS), and the District of Columbia Government have formed an Executive Committee to consider near- and long-term improvements to the Avenue. They note

The Avenue no longer serves as an east-west vehicular thoroughfare for the city. Since there are many choices about how to move through the neighborhood today, the Avenue may have an extra 20-feet of roadway, allocated to cars, that is no longer necessary. With street closures at the White House and a surface parking lot at the Avenue’s eastern  terminus, strategies will consider how to rebalance the public space (road and sidewalks) to accommodate pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users. Strategies will also consider how the Avenue can improve multi-modal mobility while also accommodating a range of activities, some of which require enhanced security elements.

Among the initial findings of a transportation study are that a lack of east-west connectivity results in motorists traveling on the Avenue for a short distance to access major north/south routes and that due to signal timing and the width of the Avenue, pedestrians must share the median space with bicyclists, often resulting in conflicts. They also state that while half of the streets crossing the Avenue are accessible by bicycle and the Avenue’s central median cycletrack provides convenient eastwest bicycle access along with excellent views of the U.S. Capitol; the bicycle network lacks adequate connections to the Mall and Capitol Hill.

Other bike network findings from the Urban Design Analysis are that 

1. Closing E Street to bicycles and pedestrians impacts the seamless connections between destinations east and west of the White House.
2. The bicycle network connections south of the Avenue across the National Mall are limited to the sidewalk along 15th Street, or bike lane along 4th Street. More of the northern streets have bicycle lanes.
3. Bikeshare capactiy is limited. Several Bikeshare stations are a short walk from the Avenue, but none are directly on it.
4. The Pennsylvania Avenue cycle track is unique, and is one of the most heavily used in Washington. The width of the street, turn
   lanes, and pedestrians cause bicyclist conflicts within the median at intersections.
5. The study area’s north-south elevation change is a disadvantage for some cyclists and impacts Bikeshare’s ability to balance the system throughout the day. 
6. There are no bike racks along the Avenue and few within the study area

Yes. Yes. All these things. Fix some of these most egregious problems and the street would become much more bikeable. 

The UDA notes that the cycletrack on Pennsylvania, despite its flaws, has changed the road into an important cycling route. "Throughout the study area, connections north to Union Station and south to the National Mall have heavy bicycle volumes."

There are no plans identified for how to change it,  and this is a multi-year effort, but for biking some of the changes - like allowing bikeshare on the Avenue - should be easy to implement.

Meanwhile, in October, CM Allen hosted a summit on the future of the section of Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the Anacostia. 

The meeting, attended by more than 125 Hill residents, overflowed into the hallway. In addition to the public, the summit was attended by numerous stakeholders, including District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Chief Project Delivery Officer Sam Zimbabwe and staff working on each of the three major DDOT projects on the corridor; representatives of the National Park Service (NPS) and National Park Police; Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6B; representatives of the Office of Planning and the Department of Health, including the Department of Health and Human Services; and three private developers working on projects on the corridor.

[Some] expressed concern about the safety of Pennsylvania Avenue for pedestrians and cyclists, given the status of the roadway as thoroughfare between the center of the District and Maryland. Zimbabwe responded that the recent signal optimization was designed to assist with this, but added that a Capitol Hill Transportation Study conducted nearly ten years ago had helped inform DDOT as to neighborhood goals, and that a similar study should be undertaken in 2019.

Hopefully, the vision summit and a transportation study can lead to a more bike friendly Pennsylvania, which is something the local ANC wants as well. DDOT's Mike Goodno came to ANC 6B's transportation committee meeting to discuss that. 

Mr. Mike Goodno, DDOT Bicycle Program Specialist, told the Committee that adding bike lanes to Pennsylvania Avenue SE has been under consideration by DDOT since 2005 and was included in moveDC (the District’s multimodal longterm transportation plan) in 2014. Since the report was completed, Mr. Goodno said that DDOT has been working on the Tier 1 projects identified by moveDC and is now beginning to consider Tier 2 items, of which the PA bike lane is one.

Mr. Goodno provided the Committee with a review of existing conditions along the Avenue and an overview of 4 possible options: buffered bike lanes, protected curbside lanes, protected median side lanes, and median lanes. All options result in advantages and disadvantages for the various users, including vehicle flows and parking, bicyclists, and pedestrians.1 Committee members engaged in extensive discussions with Mr. Goodno.

On a motion by RM Holman, seconded by RM Grissom, the Committee voted 8-0 to recommend that the ANC send a letter to DDOT requesting the agency to conduct a comprehensive study of the options for bike lanes along the length of Pennsylvania Avenue SE from the Capitol to the Sousa Bridge.

East of the River, the Avenue was studied as part of the 2007 Great Street Initiative, part of which resulted in the side path from 27th to 38th. More recently, there was a plan to improve the intersection of Pennsylvania and Minnesota Avenue, but it doesn't include any bicycle facilities.

The Avenue from the the Sousa Bridge to 27th is not particularly appealing to cyclists (and I ride it almost every day) so finding a way to improve it would really close a gap. If Pennsylvania Avenue could be improved from west downtown all the way to Alabama Avenue, it would potential become the most important biking diagonal in DC. These efforts are still in the early phases in most cases, and they'll need active involvement from stakeholders to see fruition.

Proposed Pennsylvania and Potomac Avenue redesign will not change things for cyclists

The main takeaway for cyclists from the recently released Pennsylvania and Potomac Avenue SE Intersection Improvement Project Environmental Assessment (EA) is this:

Bicycle traffic would continue to use the streets; there are no dedicated bicycle lanes or paths in the Proposed Action impact area. Bike lanes along 15th Street SE and 14th Street SE, which end beyond the project construction limits, would remain. The Capital Bikeshare station located at the southwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue SE and Potomac Avenue SE would remain. The Proposed Action neither affects nor includes any bicycle facilities, and therefore would not contribute to cumulative effects on the bicycle network.

So basically nothing. Nothing good, but nothing bad. This does not mean there is no need for anything:

The primary safety concerns within the study area are related to pedestrian and vehicle safety associated with traffic. The intersection, as currently configured, presents many conflict points for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists. Traffic congestion, poor visibility, frequent bus stops, pedestrian jaywalking, closely-spaced intersections with inconsistent traffic controls, and skewed geometry contribute to unsafe conditions.

Bicyclists provided qualitative descriptions of biking conditions during public meetings held for this project. They indicated that existing bicycle lanes provide a safe route for bicyclists heading south through the study area. Bicyclists use the 15th Street SE bike lane south to Pennsylvania Avenue SE. South of Pennsylvania Avenue SE, they use the neighborhood streets that have low vehicular traffic. Bicyclists noted the lack of bike lanes to facilitate traveling north through the study area. Bicyclists indicated they would use Potomac Avenue SE in mixed traffic and travel through the Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Potomac Avenue SE, and 14th Street SE intersection to continue heading north on Potomac Avenue SE. DDOT has identified bike lanes along Pennsylvania Avenue SE within the study area as a long term goal. The project is included in both the District of Columbia Bicycle Master Plan (DDOT, 2005) and moveDC, the long-range multimodal transportation plan for the District (DDOT, 2014). Neither of these plans specify whether the bike lanes would occupy the existing Pennsylvania Avenue SE median or use one of the existing vehicular travel lanes.

And comments received highlighted the desire of cyclists for changes

Intersection improvements need to include making the intersection safe for bicycling. Specific improvement features include a protected bike lane allowing those using the currently located Capital Bikeshare station to access the westbound Pennsylvania Avenue SE lanes, and bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

The major issues the public requested the project team take into consideration during the development of the design alternatives included the following:

• Bicyclist mobility and safety.
• Evaluation of the location of the current Capital Bikeshare station.

Many of the letters received echoed this.

But the various alternatives just don't add anything

The No Build Alternative would not preclude the inclusion of bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue SE in the future, but no bicycle improvements are currently pending within the study area.

Alternative 2 does not include any improvements or changes to the bicycle network. Future bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue SE as recommended in the District of Columbia Bicycle Master Plan (DDOT, 2005) and moveDC (DDOT, 2014b) would not be precluded.

Alternative 3 would not preclude the addition of bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue SE. The central public space created by the Rectangle Park Alternative could be modified to accommodate bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue SE. The space could also serve as a way for bicyclists to cross the intersection in a more direct way.

Alternative 4 would not preclude the addition of bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue SE. The central public space created by the Ellipse Park Alternative could be modified to accommodate bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue SE. The space could also serve as a way for bicyclists to cross the intersection in a more direct way

Cyclists will benefit from othee nearby projects though.

DDOT is proposing independent projects at Barney Circle and at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue SE and Minnesota Avenue SE. Both projects intend to slow vehicular traffic in order to provide a safer environment for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists.Both projects intend to slow vehicular traffic in order to provide a safer environment for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists.

No alternative has been selected, but whatever it is, it will require a land jurisdiction transfer between the National Park Service and DDOT. Personally, I prefer Alternative 3., though going north and south on Pennsylvania might be tricky around the oval.

Pennsylvania Avenue Protected Bike Lanes could be extended to Washington Circle

DDOT is currently undertaking the Downtown West Transportation Planning Study which focuses on a new bicycle facility on Pennsylvania Avenue west of the White House and bus lanes on H Street between Pennsylvania and New York Avenues. 

The first citizen's advisory group meeting on the project is scheduled for September 28, 6:30-8:30pm.

At the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library (901 G Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20001) in Room A-9.

At the meeting, DDOT will provide an overview of the existing conditions of the study area for pedestrians, bicyclists, buses, and vehicles and will solicit feedback. The Citizens Advisory Group meetings are open to the public and all are welcome.

Or you could submit comments now.

Mikael Colville-Andersen calls the Pennsylvania Avenue bikeway a failure because he doesn't like it

Today, GGW pointed to a post on Mikael Colville-Andersen's Copenhagenize blog in which he called the Pennsylvania Avenue bikeway a failure, and called on whoever built it to be fired, after he saw a picture of it.

My main problem with this is that he doesn't bother to consider what "fail" means. Fail in what way? Does it fail to achieve its goals? What were the goals? Does it achieve its goals but create some large unintended negative consequences? We don't know, because he never bothers to ask those questions. He actually dismissed facts and numbers as "engineering" and thus beneath him. He's a planner - an artist - and he doesn't give a flip about what the numbers say.

But let's take on his reasons for thinking it fails.

Who would ACTUALLY choose to put cyclists in the middle of a street with speeding cars on either side?

Well, that's not what happens. On one side cyclists have "speeding cars" and on the other they have opposite direction cyclists. If being next to speeding cars is such an issue, why is this:

His example of good design. Good God, they're right next to a speeding car!

But to answer his question - lots of people. In fact, use of Pennsylvania Avenue more than tripled after the bike lanes were installed. 61% of surveyed cyclists said they thought it made them safer and according the Danish (yeah Danish, motherfuckers) Bicycle LOS scoring system, that section of Pennsylvania Avenue went from Unsatisfactory to Satisfactory after installation. By the way, increasing use was one of the main goals of the installation. So in that sense, it was not a failure. 

But that's just facts and numbers. What about how a far-away filmmaker feels after looking at the photo of it for about 8 seconds? Did any of these engineers even think about that?

Looking at the photo from Washington, DC, my first thought is, "how am I supposed to get to a destination in mid-block"? Do I go up to the next intersection and walk my bike back?

Gosh, I don't know. It seems like an insurmountable problem. How do you get to a mid-block destination on the opposite side of the street in Denmark? I guess you could stop at the earlier intersection and then either merge into traffic or cross over to the sidewalk and then ride up to your destination. Or yeah, you could go the long way, inexplicably ride up to the next intersection and walk your bike back. It's not rocket science. He sounds like my kids when they don't want to get dressed so they pretend that getting their pants on is just too hard and fake fall down while grunting.

Why would I want to cycle with my kids or my grandparents on a barren wasteland as cars fly past?

Isn't that exactly happens in every single one of the 4 designs presented as the gold standard. In each case you have to ride your bike next to traffic. And, a "barren wasteland"? Please. It's one of America's most iconic streets. The Capitol on one end, beautiful architecture up and down it, plenty of bike and pedestrian traffic, trees etc...

One of the primary reasons why he calls it a failure is that it doesn't match what he considers best practices. What are best practices? Coincidentally, it is the practices identified in the Copenhagenize Design Co. produced Copenhagenize Bicycle Planning Guide. Well, that's not arrogant at all. But in that guide, it states that streets with a 25 mph speed limit (like Pennsylvania Avenue has here) need painted bike lanes on the right hand side. Now, it's not clear what's so magical about the right hand side, but it would seem that curb-and-flexpost-separated lanes on the left hand side would be just as good.

To make his point about how silly center bike lanes are, he shows this photo

Of course, we would never sit and drink wine in the center of the street. How absurd. So why would we ride our bikes there. Like that guy riding a bike just to the right of him - what an idiot.

Of course that does discredit one of the Four Acceptable Forms of Bike Infrastructure as handed down to us by the Copenhagenize Bicycle Planning Guide which has sharrowed lanes as the slow speed option (Why would I want to cycle with my kids or my grandparents on a barren wasteland as cars fly up from behind me?) But, the guy has a point and he's not going to let consistency or facts get in the way.

His real beef with the design is this.

One rule of thumb to consider is a simple one. If you don't see an infrastructure design in the Netherlands or Denmark, it's probably a stupid infrastructure design.

My Dad used to say that if you think the answer is simple, you probably don't understand the problem. The arrogance in MCA's statement is flooring. If an American were to say the equivalent they'd be roundly criticized. He reminds me of the westerners who would come in to Cameroon when I was in the Peace Corps there and say "Why don't they just do things like we do in France." [Oh, I don't know, about a million cultural and institutional reasons that you haven't bothered to understand and which I only barely grasp].

Colville-Andersen completely ignores several very important issues - like politics, path dependency and the unique qualities of this road.

The bike lanes are currently in a space that was a median. That's why DDOT was able to build them there. It is also a major parade route every four years and a National Park in its own right, so they were severely hamstrung as to what they could do.  Originally they were to take out part of the center traffic lanes and make them larger, but AAA organized a community wide shit-fit over that and the Mayor felt the need to back off. So the choices were what we have or what we used to have. I don't see how that is the fault of the planner or engineers. If he has a bone to pick it is with the politicians and the voters. Calling, as he does, for Mike Goodno to be fired is stupid management. I can't imagine how that would make us better off.  

Collville-Anderson's prescription is for DC to fire people who are very concerned about making DC streets more bike friendly and then fight for infrastructure that no decision-maker will agree to build. Maybe he should stick to taking creepy photos of young female cyclists in short skirts. 

Gabe Klein on the Pennsylvania Avenue Bike lane "snafu"

In Start-Up City, former DDOT Director Gabe Klein spends several pages covering what he calls "The Pennsylvania Avenue Bike Lanes Snafu."

In it, he writes that the bike lanes he pitched to the Mayor, and the ones he thought the bike lane task force were working on, were not the same as what came out of the final designs and what started to be installed on Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Many will recall that when initially installed, the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes were originally built outside of the median, with PaAve put on a road diet. Before opening, they were moved inside the median.]

Original Pennsylvania Avenue Bike lanes (photo by Stephen Davis)

"To my horror," he writes, "The design being applied to the street looked completely different than what I had last seen, and instead of taking the center median as had been agreed upon, the engineers left this space empty, and instead took the travel lane on either side of the median space. I was mortified."

He felt he had unintentionally deceived Mayor Fenty and other stakeholders and that these lanes were unsafe and obtrusive. He tried to defend the design to the Mayor instead of admit that he'd failed to oversee the project properly. He blames the DDOT traffic engineers and planners and the consultant designers/engineers (Toole, I believe) of a massive groupthink lapse. They reverted to an older design that they thought was better, "because it was what they knew versus what was possible." He called the design politically untenable, aesthetically inadequate and patently unsafe.

He goes on to say that things that look good on paper can often be terrible when implemented. That the team fumbled because they feared the unprecedented and that now cars didn't know what to do. So he redesigned it, "on the fly" (if you will) and on the street, and it was moved into the median. The consultant/engineer refused to sign off on it, and so they signed it off themselves.

You can read the whole thing, for now, in a Google Books preview.

Update: [Commenter DaveS notes below that a November 2009 traffic impact study looked at the very design that was orignially implemented

No plan was ever put forward that matches Klein's misunderstanding. The memorandum refers to the proposals as road diets, and notes existing conditions that include the pedestrian refuges now removed to compress the bike lanes into the current configuration.

In other forums Klein has claimed that the "Alternative 2" configuration would have resulted in drivers mistaking this area for a regular lane and driving down it at full speed. I never saw that happen during the few short weeks in 2010 when the long studied and previously approved design was on the street, but anything is possible. Certainly the revised design didn't prevent that either. Only adding barriers has done so to any significant degree.

Which would mean that Klein was checked out from this project for something like 6 months - at least, or that he was well aware of the plans for a road diet.] 

But, the engineers were right. The original design was better. We don't know - despite what he wrote - how it would work when implemented, because it was never actually implemented. If it had been, I suspect that there would have been less of an issue with U-turns and fewer pedestrian conflicts. Drivers would have learned to not drive in the bike lanes. I don't think the engineers were afraid of the unprecedented (the original design was unprecedented too), I think they just realized that Pennsylvania Avenue could use a road diet, and that the original design would make cycling better and safer. I like Klein, and I think he was a good Director, but he was - and still is - wrong about this one. 

Update 2: Will Handsfield, formerly of DDOT, responds with some first hand information.

Update 3: Gabe Klein responds too.