It sounded to me from the description in the story that they're going to narrow the median between the bike lanes going in each direction, keep the buffer, and move the lanes closer to the center. Not sure if this means they'll save enough space to add back a lane going eastbound or not.

I thought keeping the median between the bike lanes was silly, and the lanes should have taken that spot — though not all the way to the middle because they have to navigate around the traffic light poles. The median isn't as useful since the lanes touching each other are filled with slow moving bikes rather than speeding traffic.

Your points are well taken though.

by Steve on May 20, 2010 3:06 pm • link • report

Having tested them out last weekend, I don't think they're too wide.

Concur with Steve...sounds like they're going to narrow the median. Given the median interaction at intersections (especially those with left turn lanes), I don't see how this will add back a lane of traffic, but perhaps it'll add back some street parking.

by Froggie on May 20, 2010 3:08 pm • link • report

The WUSA article talked about adding some type of barrier for the Penn Ave. bike lanes since cars had mistaken them car lanes. I know the Capital Revolutionary Tribunal vetoed this idea, but I'm wondering whether some of those heavy duty in-road reflectors could be installed to keep the lanes separated from car lanes. The reflectors usually stick out of the road by about a half inch. Some western states use them to help with sun glare.

by aaa on May 20, 2010 3:25 pm • link • report

Or some of those reflective sticks that are used to separate lanes . . . just space them more widely so bikes could easily get through.

http://highway-markers.com/HTML-FLEX/surface.html

The waste of the median is a joke. It should be used for the bike lanes somehow or another.

And, Froggie, pretty sure no parking is allowed along most of Penn. ave.

by ah on May 20, 2010 3:47 pm • link • report

Finally, a shred of responsible decision making.

And no, you don't build something with your fingers crossed, see how it works, then tear it down. That has to be the most irresponsible way to design/build anything and a huge waste of money. You build it only after you've studied the problem and understand how it is going function.

The problem with the PA Ave bike lanes is despite DDOT claiming to have put together a traffic study that showed there wasn't any affect on traffic, they obviously didn't. I've called them twice and they don't seem to be able to find it or provide it, and it isn't online.

The lunacy of them claiming that you could remove 25% of the lanes from an already crowded road that gets 34,000 vehicles per day, and have it "not" affect traffic didn't even pass the smell test.

by nookie on May 20, 2010 4:52 pm • link • report

I hope they are. The left turn lane at 3rd and Constitution is terrible post-installation.

Retime the light and make the bike lanes narrower. Pennsylvania Ave is a mess now.

by Redline SOS on May 20, 2010 5:00 pm • link • report

DDOT FAIL.

Just wait until similar stories about the streetcar program start.

by Fritz on May 20, 2010 5:16 pm • link • report

nookie: 34,000 cars a day can easily be handled on a 6-lane road. Happens all the time around here. There's no need for 8 lanes with that level of traffic.

by Froggie on May 21, 2010 6:40 am • link • report

Froggie,

I'm sorry, I should have deferred to you, the obvious traffic engineer. I am sure you have the stats handy to prove your subjective point?

Lets get real here shall we. Sure, you could throw all 34K on a two lane road if you want, but it will be an epic failure, just like this. You evidently don't use PA Ave, because it has been a cluster fu*k since the bike lanes went in, easily increasing a commute by 5 minutes per.

Also, by your logic, the bike lane need only be 3 feet wide. Surely if 34K cars a day can be easily handled by 6 lanes, then the 200 people a day that bike PA Ave can "easily" use one lane 3 feet wide.

See who easy strawmen are to make. Point is, DDOT failed hugely in this regard and now they are being taken to task for it.

by nookie on May 21, 2010 8:32 am • link • report

Open or not, the lanes were getting their fair share of use this morning.

by ah on May 21, 2010 9:00 am • link • report

@ nookie: I am sure you have the stats handy to prove your subjective point?

Do you have yours handy to prove your admittedly subjective point? Pot, kettle.

by Jasper on May 21, 2010 9:48 am • link • report

Do you have yours handy to prove your admittedly subjective point? Pot, kettle., Jasper

Jasper ... to use your very words:

There you have it folks, silent discrimination, still an everyday feature, even on a progressive forum as this.

by Lance on May 21, 2010 10:11 am • link • report

Jasper,

Yes, my watch. And I just got John Lisle (DDOT spokes guy they finally connected me with this morning) to admit that they don't have a traffic impact analysis for PA Ave bike lanes. They never did one.

So let me get this straight. The Districts Department of Transportation in yet another sham job, decided arbitrarily to remove 25% of the lanes on according to DDOT's own stats, the most heavily trafficd road in downtown DC, without first spending one dollar or minute trying to technically determine what the effect would be? That should have been the FIRST step.

Now they've spent a million bucks and all they had to do was repaint some lines, and they couldn't even get that right. These are the same people who you want to handle a 1.5 billion (min) streetcar project that is already years behind schedule and bungled?

Gabe Klein is a disaster. He needs to go.

by nookie on May 21, 2010 10:40 am • link • report

Has Tommy Tax Wells or The Grahamstander called for an investigation in how DDOT screwed this up?

Oh wait.

They're both too busy complaining that Mendelson "hates" streetcars because he keeps asking questions about DDOT's "planning" and whether they've done end-runs around the project.

by Fritz on May 21, 2010 12:38 pm • link • report

No the Grahamstander is too busy having DDOT's traffic signal contractor post his campaign signs...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2010/05/city_contractor_hangs_campaign.html#more

by Contrarian on May 21, 2010 2:24 pm • link • report

The documentation provided by edit for the tpb vote did include the results if traffic modeling run on the Penn ave lanes. The study showed no decrease in vehicle Los.

by Eric on May 21, 2010 6:46 pm • link • report

It's not bad, it's good. Since they made the changes, rush hour traffic has been backed up and intersections blocked by traffic that can't turn onto Penn Ave. There's no justification for delaying thousands of motorists for the sake of a few bicyclists when there are readily available alternatives for the bicyclists to cross downtown (E St and Madison Dr, for example). When I heard about this plan I assumed they were going to make use of the space in the median, and I thought it was brilliant. It never occurred to me that they'd take away entire lanes of traffic and leave the median.

by Matt on May 21, 2010 7:46 pm • link • report

No the Grahamstander is too busy having DDOT's traffic signal contractor post his campaign signs...

I'm continually amazed at how a government that has of late been billing itself as 'almost as liberal as West Hollywood' doesn't have a clue as to how to avoid conflicts of interests, either in fact or in perception.

by Lance on May 22, 2010 10:19 am • link • report

I'd like to know if those complaining about the lanes are DC residents. If not, I'm not sure what you have to complain about.

by Joe on May 28, 2010 1:24 pm • link • report