Is DC delaying bike lanes with redundant studies?

Bicycling

Is DC delaying bike lanes with redundant studies?

by Dan Malouff • December 23, 2011 11:27 am

Sometimes politicians delay otherwise popular projects they don't support by insisting on more studies before work can begin. In DC, less than one mile of bike lanes were added in 2011. Is this a sign of tepid support for bike lanes from Mayor Gray or other top officials?

Photo by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr.

Former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich used a "paralysis by analysis" strategy to stall the Purple Line. To say the Purple Line went nowhere under his leadership would be an understatement. But it was studied a lot. Ehrlich added new routing options, new modes, new timelines... anything to keep it on paper but not moving forward.

Meanwhile, he fast-tracked the ICC through the planning process in record time.

It's a great solution for politicians. You're not actually canceling anything and risking re-election. You're just waiting for more information to come in, so you can make an informed decision. Who could possibly be against that?

Bike lane striping under the Gray administration has ground to a halt. Almost none of the promised 2011 additions to the bike network were delivered. And while DDOT promises to stripe new bike lanes as soon as the weather warms up, they are clearly falling behind.

Meanwhile, the most significant proposed bike projects, the L and M Street cycle tracks, remain mired in study. DDOT has said it won't commit to building them until it has completed a study of the existing 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue cycle tracks. That's a little odd, because DDOT already completed a similar study in 2010. Why do we need another one to tell us the same thing? And how long is this study supposed to take? It's already been six months.

No doubt Mayor Gray hears a lot about bike lanes. It must seem that half of his constituents want more of them, and the other half don't want them at all. Putting off the decision in order to avoid upsetting anyone must be a tempting solution. It's hard to know for sure, but the longer these studies drag on, the more likely this possibility seems.

But the delay-by-study strategy can only work for so long. Ultimately voters in Maryland saw through Ehrlich's Purple Line scheme, and it contributed to his defeat by Martin O'Malley.

When Gray was elected I said we should give him a chance to prove that he really will continue urbanist policies. After one year, the jury is still out. It is still too early to judge him. It is still too early to conclude that he is trying to study the cycle tracks out of existence. But if he hasn't decided to build them in another six months or so—a year after the study began—then we'll have our answer.

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.

30 comments

Tags: bicycling, bike lanes, Bob Ehrlich, DDOT, Purple Line, Vincent Gray

DDOT moves planned I Street cycle track to M Street (May 4, 2010)
Amid exciting innovations, DDOT neglecting bus priority (Mar 23, 2010)
Pennsylvania Avenue cycle track slated for May (Mar 10, 2010)
New Hampshire Ave bike lane has some flaws (Jul 11, 2011)
Are protected bike lanes actually more dangerous? (Jan 14, 2008)

Dan Malouff is a professional transportation planner for the Arlington County Department of Transportation. He has a degree in Urban Planning from the University of Colorado, and lives a car-free lifestyle in Northwest Washington. His posts are his own opinions and do not represent the views of his employer in any way. He runs the blog BeyondDC and also contributes to the Washington Post Local Opinions blog.

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Some varient of Hanlon's Razor would seem to apply here.

by dcd on Dec 23, 2011 11:40 am

Just do it, Mayor Gray and DC Council. Get those lanes striped, install the new cycletracks, and live up to the planning goal of 10 miles of bike lanes per year.

by MrTinDC on Dec 23, 2011 11:50 am

I want more lanes and more lanes now, but I'll just play devil's advocate. Can we point to bikelanes that went in too quickly without enough study? It's not a rhetorical question.

The example that comes to mind is the one down the median of Pennsylvania Ave (between 15th and 4th St.). I can't recall the details, but it seems like it took two or three takes to get that one right. I don't know if the issue was not enough study or poor implementation or something else.

by Ward 1 Guy on Dec 23, 2011 11:59 am

I would rather they wait until the weather and contracts are available in the spring than install poorly install them now and have the snow plows peel the pavement markings up like candy. Otherwise it is a waste of money.

Would you rather they install them correctly once? Or twice and the bicyclist community not get the next location on the list because the money was spent reinstalling it.

Another item no one has mentioned is that more pavement marking means more pavement marking maintenance. Yes, these items are relatively less expensive than new pavement, but they are not free. Anyone looking and the maintenance cycle and impact on the project development/budget cycle? There are lanes installed 5-6 years ago that need to be restriped in spots.

by Some Ideas on Dec 23, 2011 12:02 pm

Besides the cycle tracks on L and M, what is the holdup? I can see why those tracks would be complicated.

There are some locations, like NoMa, for instance, where you'd want some more construction to play its course before installing bikelanes. Construction sites often take a lane during the building phase (which can be years and cover a block or more). Also, you don't know the area will be used until the construction is complete and the buildings are occupied. THere are major streetscape projects disrupting things on Sherman Ave, U Street, and 18th Street in Adams Morgan. Bike laneage in those areas will probably have to wait until those projects are done.

So where is the need for bikelanes the greatest in the short run? Have they tried a crowdsourcing map to get user input on highest priorities?

Should the priority be on extending and connecting existing lanes or striping new areas entirely? There is a funny website somewhere on bike lanes to nowhere. I hate when you're riding along and the lane just ends.

by Ward 1 Guy on Dec 23, 2011 12:15 pm

Another point about the L and M cycle tracks is that it is not just bicycle lane striping. I would expect some turn lane modifications because of exclusive signalized left (or right)turns to one way streets. There are traffic signal timing/operation issues that are not simple; that may require different left or right turn signals (like 15th Street). The signal modifications could cost some real dollars to redesign and change all across downtown on both L and M Streets. Better to have that designed and the contact task order in place to do the modifications instead of ad hoc'ing it -- less expensive in the long run and a much more successful project in the end.

by Some Ideas on Dec 23, 2011 12:22 pm

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

by selxic on Dec 23, 2011 12:25 pm

Deciding whether or not Gray is for _____ will require further study...

by @SamuelMoore on Dec 23, 2011 12:35 pm

In a word, yes. The mayor is delivering (or not delivering) exactly what the people who voted for him want.

by A dude on Dec 23, 2011 1:11 pm

I miss Fenty.

by Sam on Dec 23, 2011 1:24 pm

Under the previous Administration(s)Fenty, Klein, Tanghelini, Graham bike lanes and etc. were a transporation gimmicks, the engineering did not matter. Supporters did not have to engage in real policy making or politics. Now, the GGW Crew will have to engage in real politics and policy making and its hard. Class, race baiting and unproven transit theories won't cut it any more. [Sentence removed for violating the comment policy.] Where you may have to really engage with others away from the safety of the internet and stacked meetings.

This is a good thing.

William

by W Jordan on Dec 23, 2011 1:36 pm

This being DC government, the effects of incompetence and free-floating lassitude should not be discounted.

by Paulus on Dec 23, 2011 1:42 pm

It's an astounding failure of communication that the cheapest mode of transportation accessible to the most people (bike) became linked with privilege, compelling the poorest communities to advocate for dependence on the most expensive mode of transportation accessible to the fewest people (car).

by logicfour on Dec 23, 2011 1:49 pm

It's an astounding ~~failure of communication~~ triumph of dishonesty

FTFY

by JustMe on Dec 23, 2011 2:18 pm

No, William, the issue does not have to be studied to death. On wide enough road, bring in truck, paint line, put in bike signage, it doesn;t have to be perfect. Just get them in so drivers, pedestrians and cyclists all get used to them being a ubiquitous, viable option.

[Sentence removed for violating the comment policy.]

by MrTinDC on Dec 23, 2011 2:29 pm

@W Jordan,

Now, the GGW Crew will have to engage in real politics and policy making and its hard. Class, race baiting and unproven transit theories won't cut it any more.

Not so sure this is true. With 16000 new residents in the last year alone, and growth projected to increase rather than stall, we may just see the priorities of those new residents reflected at the ballot box. Certainly in the next 5 years.

Also, I'd be interested in some concrete examples of "race-baiting" you're seeing, if there are any. At least something that rises to the level of "Bike lanes for WHO???".

by oboe on Dec 23, 2011 3:35 pm

Perhaps W Jordan is concerned the bike lanes will be filled with escape goats.

by ontarioroader on Dec 23, 2011 3:43 pm

@Oboe

So at least Your People's strategy is clear: crowd out the Native Black population. Thanks for confirming what we knew all along.

by Longtime resident on Dec 23, 2011 3:50 pm

@Longtime Resident:

I know there's a hope among some DC residents that the city cannot grow and prosper, that the population numbers tank as they did between 1960 and 1990, but I'd like to think that most people who actually care about the city's fortune and its residents quality of life, look at the growth in residents as a good thing.

As someone who is not just a "longtime resident" but who was actually born here, I think its a good sign that more and more middle-class people want to live here. While you seem to think that "Native Black" is synonymous for "poor people", there are a lot of middle-class professional blacks who are going to stay in DC because of the transformation it's undergone over the last two decades. And because they stay, and middle-class residents settle here, It makes it possible to support our welfare "safety net" in a sustainable fashion.

by oboe on Dec 23, 2011 4:03 pm

Longtime resident said;

So at least Your People's strategy is clear

Who are Oboe's people?

by Fred on Dec 23, 2011 4:08 pm

I want to see new bike lanes on both New Mexico Avenue and Tunlaw Road and I think some of the delay is excessive but the recent lanes on Spring Street in Los Angeles shows what happens when they are installed too hastily.

L.A.'s Bike Lane Blues
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/12/la-bike-lane-blues/719/

by Ben on Dec 23, 2011 4:49 pm

I heard that the plan for reconstruction of Wisconsin Ave through Glover Park will not include bicycle lanes. Although I would like to see bicycle lanes on Wisconsin Ave, I don't know how feasible that would be.

by The Civic Center on Dec 23, 2011 6:42 pm

Ward 1 Guy, So where is the need for bikelanes the greatest in the short run? Have they tried a crowdsourcing map to get user input on highest priorities?

The bike plan had a crowdsourcing element to it. They held meetings in every Ward and they did surveys of cyclists at BTWD. I think they accepted online comments too. But I think it was actually before the days of Google Maps, if you can believe it.

The priority often is to paint bike lanes as a road is being repaved, since it's much cheaper. So basically a road comes up for work, and if it is to have bike lanes in the bike plan, then they try to get bike lanes in with the work. Though sometimes they just go in and retrofit. I'd love to tell you that there was some complex analysis done about this lane first and this lane second, but that was never done. Trying to do it that way would be much more expensive, not to mention the added cost of prioritizing them such (and the politics of it....uh boy).

by David C on Dec 23, 2011 11:03 pm

@The Civic Center:

Correct, there won't be bike lanes on WIsconsin Avenue but the 2009 Glover Park Transportation Study by the Toole Design Group and DDOT's plans for 2011 call for striped bike lanes on Tunlaw Road and New Mexico Avenue. Hopefully we'll see them soon.

by Ben on Dec 24, 2011 8:50 am

I love this site. It's great for raising issues. However, I wish it made suggestions for how to engage the DC government to press for actions we want. For example, if bike lanes are stalling, tell us who to contact and give us a talking point on what to say. Be a source of organization and action.

by Rally the Troops on Dec 24, 2011 10:18 am

Who are Oboe's people?

Native Washingtonians. Or possibly woodwinds.

by cminus on Dec 24, 2011 10:25 am

I've also thought oboe's people were Gungans.

by David C on Dec 24, 2011 11:14 am

My comment above got killed by autocorrect. It should read "I've always thought oboe's people were Gungans." Which is a nerdy Star Wars reference, fyi.

by David C on Dec 24, 2011 7:01 pm

It does seem that people who want bike lanes, and a walkable compact urban experience, are not Mayor Gray's constituency, and he has decided to do absolutely nothing for us and, in cases where it might provide some real or perceived benefit to his true constituency, actively harm our cause.

Which is not to say Gray is on a crusade against us. It's just that he doesn't care to do anything for us. I don't think it bothers him that some positive projects are moving forward (set in motion by others), but he will not expend any effort or political capital for them.

I'm surprised that some think the jury's still out on Gray and his approach to walkable compact urbanism. If you look at his record, it speaks loud and clear, and has for a long time. (the only way it might be muddled is if you give him credit for things like the Capital Bikeshare expansion that he is not responsible for, despite them occurring on his watch, because the program and processes were created before him)

He threw us under the bus and is now slow walking us. We'll continue to get _something_, but expect to be underwhelmed.

by skeptic on Dec 25, 2011 8:51 am

re: Gungans:

Mesa cause one, two-y little bitty axadentes, huh? Yud say boom de gasser, den crashin der bosses heyblibber, den banished.

by oboe on Dec 26, 2011 1:26 pm