Why do we need bike lanes that even bikers don’t use? One of the priorities of DDOT’s 5-year strategic plan is to complete the network of bike lanes across the city. But more than a decade into DC’s ambitious project to accommodate biking, completion of the network has become the goal whether the lanes are used or needed. Bike lanes without bikers is a fool’s quest.
You don’t need a bike lane to bike. When I was growing up and wanted to ride my bike downtown, I would map a route avoiding dangerous intersections, and, as you can see, it worked. Without benefit of bike lanes, it worked. Today, that is DDOT’s job - to map safe routes for bikers. But instead, on the advice of the bike lobby, DDOT chooses the most dangerous routes and then says: See, that’s why we need ‘protected’ bike lanes. ‘Protected’ lanes are meant to make people feel safe. But feeling safe is not the same as being safe. Bikers have died in protected bike lanes. Two bikers crashed in the protected bike lane on Pennsylvania Ave. near the FBI; one fell to the ground and died of injuries. Moreover, DDOT’s consideration of bikers’ feelings does not take into account the fears of pedestrians and drivers at the mayhem in the streets.
DC Safe Streets Coalition urges DC to map bike routes on side streets and through parkland. There are plenty of tranquil side streets with no safety hazard, streets that need no bike lane of any kind. Indeed, DDOT’s plan called the Neighborhood Bikeway uses no visible bike lane. The street itself is designated as the bikeway. but DDOT isn’t using it. The dangerous plan for Grant Circle in Petworth and the plan for Taylor St. NE in Michigan Park are examples where side streets or no-bike-lane would serve the community better.
A great portion of DC is parkland, either federal or local, offering yet another safer option. DDOT already invests in bike trails through parkland. One would expect collaboration with the National Park Service to be routine at DDOT, but it is not. Bike plans on Missouri Ave. and Kansas Ave. are examples where parkland is a safer option.
The DC Council knows bike lanes are not being used. That is why it established the e-bikes rebate program, so far awarding $1M to put bikes in bike lanes. But, to our everlasting chagrin we are all finding out that putting e-bikes into the streets is not the same as putting them into bike lanes. And failing to regulate e-bikes is making our streets meaner, not safer. A growing chorus of DC residents agrees, it’s time to regulate e-bikes. Thank you for signing our petition. Please ask neighbors to sign https://c.org/GVFzcRN8kP
Is it wise to complete a network of bike lanes that are not needed or used? There are better options for bikers and for the rest of us who suffer daily a radical transformation of traffic in DC streets.