Open House for Crosstown (DC) Protected Bike Lanes on June 12

[streetsmarts]

Does your commute involve crossing from NW to NE DC? Or do you ride there on weekends? Plan on this upcoming meeting!
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The open house is scheduled for Tuesday June 12, 2018 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm in the Raymond Recreation Center Multipurpose Room. DDOT staff will make a presentation and solicit feedback.

What: Crosstown Protected Bike Lanes Open House

When: Tuesday, June 12, 2018
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Where: Raymond Recreation Center
Multipurpose Room
3725 10th St NW, Washington, DC 20010

From DDOT Site:
The District of Columbia has few east-west network connections north of the original L'Enfant Plan street grid. This makes east-west travel to and from neighborhoods and activity centers challenging as a limited number of corridors carry the majority of the traffic.

In September 2016, DDOT completed the Crosstown Multimodal Transportation Study. In addition to recommending a variety of multimodal improvements throughout the corridor to enhance operations for motorists, transit, cyclists, and pedestrians, the study identified safe east and westbound biking connectivity as a priority to close a major gap in the existing bicycle network between Columbia Heights and Brookland. The community has also requested protected bike lanes on Park Place NW, Warder Street NW, 7th Street NW, and 5th Street NW.

Based on the recommendations provided in the Crosstown Study and by the community, DDOT will develop preliminary (30%) designs for protected bike lanes along

​Irving Street NE/NW between Michigan Avenue NE and the 400 block of Kenyon Street NW;

5th Street NW/Park Place NW between Grant Circle and Kenyon Street NW; and

7th Street NW/Warder Street NW between New Hampshire Avenue NW and Kenyon Street NW.



For more info and history: https://www.dccycletrack.com/crosstown

[Judd]

Giving this a bump. Several forum folks will be there including LhasaCM and Jon who currently ride the 4 foot wide sidewalk with their kids. Come help tell DDOT that they're proposing something good.

[bikepedantic]

There's a ton of design options in these corridors. Some suggestions on things to focus in on:

*How do they propose to get bicyclists into/out of lanes at the Irving/Michigan intersection? How does that work with planned cycletrack on the west side of 4th St NE (from Lincoln Rd to Michigan)?
*How do they get bicyclists through the 1st St NW/Irving intersection?
*How do they handle bicyclists and the Kenyon/Irving split?
*Depending on what they propose for the E-W route, there may be opportunities to upgrade the N-S routes south of Kenyon

[LhasaCM]

There's a ton of design options in these corridors. Some suggestions on things to focus in on:

*How do they propose to get bicyclists into/out of lanes at the Irving/Michigan intersection? How does that work with planned cycletrack on the west side of 4th St NE (from Lincoln Rd to Michigan)?
*How do they get bicyclists through the 1st St NW/Irving intersection?
*How do they handle bicyclists and the Kenyon/Irving split?
*Depending on what they propose for the E-W route, there may be opportunities to upgrade the N-S routes south of Kenyon

All great suggestions. My other thoughts/concerns/curiosities I'll have in mind for tonight's open house (some of which may be premature of this stage of the conversation):

• What protections are envisioned on Park/Warder? Do they make sense?
• What's the transition from Kenyon to Park/Warder? (The website says the work on Kenyon goes to the 400 block, so presumably will get to the northbound bike lane on Warder.)
• Building beyond just how to get past 1st on Irving: what's the transition like from the proposed solution to the hospital itself?
• How does the design avoid conflicts with the freeway-style ramps at N. Capitol?
• Will the design accommodate/integrate with the planned AFRH development envisioned for the SE corner of their property?
• Will the design on Irving be more than just taking a lane as it is but keeping the rest of the travel lanes untouched? For example, will they slightly narrow the remaining travel lanes to encourage folks to drive below freeway speeds and provide greater separation?
• What thoughts have been given to signaling (e.g., bike-specific traffic signals) to reduce conflicts where the design cannot avoid it?

[bikepedantic]

[*]How does the design avoid conflicts with the freeway-style ramps at N. Capitol?[*]Will the design accommodate/integrate with the planned AFRH development envisioned for the SE corner of their property?[/LIST]

All great questions, I can speculate on the two above - assuming that the team hasn't strayed too far from the original plan, this design effort will likely propose doing something that runs through the N Cap ramp complex adjacent to the median (on one or both sides), to avoid the ramps entirely. If true, questions about how people get in and out at Michigan, the hospital entrance, & Kenyon, are going to be important. Exclusive bike phases might be part of that.

This project is intended as a short/medium term measure in advance of AFRH. The Crosstown plan envisioned proper trails on either one or both sides of Irving, to be implemented with the AFRH development, and the conceptual redesign (blowing up) of the N Cap cloverleaf, to be replaced by a more conventional intersection.

[infinitebuffalo]

For those who didn't make it to the meeting last week, the materials are posted at https://www.dccycletrack.com/crosstown --- comments are accepted via email to dcprotectedbikelanes@gmail.com through June 27, 2018.