A church in Shaw thinks bike lanes make streets safer
Some churches in Shaw are fighting hard to block a proposed north-south protected bikeway, but not all churches think it’s such a bad idea.
Hemingway Temple AME Church. Photo by Martin Moulton.
Hamingway Temple African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, at 5th and P streets NW, has sent a letter to the District Department of Transportation suggesting “a fair balance” in its ongoing study of ways to add a protected bikeway around 5th, 6th, and/or 9th streets.
The letter says,
We realize that as our neighborhood becomes more heavily populated, its needs also become more diverse. Preserving church parking is important to our members, but we appreciate the Mayor’s Vision Zero initiative and strategies that will make our streets safer and eliminate all traffic related fatalities. … Separate protected facilities for cyclists keeps them out of the way of motor vehicles. Reducing the width of roads makes them safer for pedestrians to walk across.
(Before someone jumps on the church’s seeming to claim the only benefit of bike lanes is to keep them out of drivers’ way, cycling advocates have long been arguing drivers should support bike lanes for this very reason — they’re actually potentially in the interests of people bicycling and people driving alike.)
The letter credits Martin Moulton, board vice president of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, for engaging with the church. The nearby KIPP DC Shaw Campus, for which Moulton has worked as a consultant on community outreach, also has for some time let church members park in its parking lot on Sundays.
This demonstrates, first, that reaching out to engage constructively with churches is important; and second, that there can be creative other solutions to churches’ parking needs besides forbidding bike lanes entirely. We can hope more churches will engage with area cyclists and find ways to make streets safer while still allowing parishioners to reach worship services as well.
There will be an open house meeting on the bikeway study this Saturday, February 6, from 12-4 pm at KIPP. People who want to speak should arrive at noon to sign up, and public testimony will begin at 1.