Bicycling
Lincoln Park CaBi station decision imminent
DDOT will make a final decision about the placement of a Lincoln Park area CaBi station within days, Chris Holben told an occasionally animated but civil ANC meeting last night.
Image from Google Maps.
According to Holben, the island on the northeast corner has some advantages over the previously-suggested southeast corner. The northeast island is larger, enabling the bike rack to be placed parallel to 13th Street.
This placement would also deter some crossing between intersections that is currently possible from the island across 13th Street.
Holben also confirmed that National Park Service concession contracts interfere with putting a station inside the park itself. DDOT intends to continue to pursue placement of bikes on NPS land, but to do so, they must convince the Department of Interior attorneys that CaBi is a transit system, placing it outside of the scope of NPS's existing contracts.
After initially ruling out an initial proposal on the west side of the park as too small, DDOT proposed the pedestrian island on the SE corner of Lincoln Park. For reasons that were not made clear at the time, the SE corner proposal was canceled. At last night's ANC meeting, residents wanted an explanation.
According to Holben, DDOT heard a number of concerns including possible vandalism, noise, safety (both pedestrian and bicyclist), potentially obstructed sight lines on Mass Ave. and 13th Street, and the potential for the bikes to be an attractive nuisance to children. An ANC commissioner from 6A pointed out that if those were issues on the southeast triangle, surely they also would be issues on the northeast island as well. Thus, what was the rationale for the change?
Within the context of the community meeting, it was difficult to pursue a sustained line of questioning, but as best I could decipher, the initial opposition to the SE triangle proposal was enough of an impetus to cause DDOT to revisit the site.
Reading the tea leaves, the question seems not to be if a CaBi station will be placed near Lincoln Park, but where, and the northeast pedestrian triangle seems to be the presumptive favorite at this point. Of course, moving the bike rack from the SE corner to the NE corner mitigates few, if any, of the litany of concerns DDOT heard about the SE triangle.
To the extent the risks are real, the proposal would simply relocate them a block away. Perhaps DDOT simply became convinced the NE triangle was better, since the original sites were only tentative. Or, perhaps the simply looked for a site where people would object less loudly.
Most encouraging to me about the meeting was the absence of outright opposition to a CaBi station in the Lincoln Park area. To be sure, some neighborhood residents voiced strong opposition to specific site proposals, citing a litany of concerns, primarily related to biker and pedestrian safety, but no one suggested that a CaBi station in the neighborhood was an unworthy goal.
There were clearly a respectable number of supporters present in the audience, ranging from a group of young men wearing the official-issue, black CaBi t-shirt, to the originator of the online petition supporting the Lincoln Park CaBi station, representing a group of 18 supportive community members.
ANC6B candidate Brian Pate came prepared with a proposal that would place the CaBi Station on 13th Street along the park, removing one lane of traffic and creating additional parking. A number of individuals who live across from one of the pedestrian triangles under consideration showed up to support the placement of the CaBi station on the site.
DDOT views CaBi as a transit system, most of which lose money; however, compared with other transit systems in the city, such as the Circulator, which recovers 20 to 30 percent of its operating costs, DDOT believes CaBi may recover as much as 75% of operating costs in subscription and usage fees.
CaBi cost $6.4 million in capital and operational costs in year one and will cost $1.4 million in operating costs in subsequent years. According to a recent government study, London, which recently implemented the same bike share system, albeit on a much larger scale, is on pace to recover the total cost of its system in 2-3 years.
DDOT will also learn today whether they won a federal TIGER II grant award for an additional 1000 CaBi bikes in the region.
Mark Jordan is a Capitol Hill resident and public sector management consultant. From 2000 to 2004, Mark worked on public safety issues for DC Mayor Anthony Williams.  |
Comments
@ggwash
- Bikeshare is a gateway to private biking, not competition
- Judge denies injunction against closing schools
- Long-term closures: A solution to single-tracking?
- Metro policy for refunds after delays falls short, riders say
- M Street cycle track keeps improving, draws church anger
- Prince George's County struggles to get trails right
- Science Gateway plan brings urban approach to White Oak
by lee in DC on Oct 19, 2010 8:02 am • link • report
by Paul on Oct 19, 2010 8:18 am • link • report
Hehe, you are right. Ggw gets a little obsessed about these little details don't they. Conspiracy theory almost. If you want max community involvement, that is what you get. DDOT can't catch a break with these guys it seems.
by yupsis on Oct 19, 2010 8:29 am • link • report
by Tour guide on Oct 19, 2010 8:30 am • link • report
by Ward 1 Guy on Oct 19, 2010 8:37 am • link • report
by ErikD on Oct 19, 2010 9:07 am • link • report
by m on Oct 19, 2010 9:08 am • link • report
Also, to further clarify DDOT's stance on the SE vs. NE corner of the park. Holben said that the SE site had been selected, but when neighbors complained, the site was revisited. Their concerns, which Holben listed (children safety, noise, crime, etc..) were deemed not a concern to DDOT. However, Holban said when they revisited the sites,a as a result of the complaints, the NE triangle was seen as a better option because it is wider and can more easily accommodate a larger station.
The ANC commissioner for 6A was very hostile to the fact that the bike station would be moved from 6B to 6A, when in my view, he should have seen this as the benefit it is to the nearby residents.
DDOT should have a decision within a matter of days on the Lincoln Park Station. Something could be installed within a week to 10 days and I came away from the meeting with the impression that this was exceedingly likely.
by TR on Oct 19, 2010 9:25 am • link • report
by jcm on Oct 19, 2010 9:39 am • link • report
GGW seems to think that DDOT should have gone around and done some sort of survey or neighborhood vote. Well, the neighbors have an opportunity and a venue every month to communicate with DDOT about these issues... THE ANC MEETING!!! So at the first meeting the neighbors are against it, DDOT acknowledges and respects their position on the issue, this becomes public, there is media coverage (GGW is in fact part of this process), then there's an outcry. DDOT comes back at the next meeting after the outcry, and presents another option that is favorably received.
This is the process. GGW acts like DDOT should go to some other lengths to evaluate neighbor opinion. They should not. Neighbors that care should go to the established venue to communicate between neighborhoods and the city... ANC meetings. In fact most neighbors that REALLY care do go, and for their trouble, the GGW crowd calls them NIMBY's.
Sure, I get it, reasonable people that don't care one way or the other if such and such coffee shop stays open an hour later or not, and they don't want to spend their weekday nights amongst a bunch of opinionated yelling. However, that is one cost in our democratic process. If you want things to go your way, you have to show up and speak up.
If I'm wrong, then what should DDOT have done to get the neighborhood's opinion? Perhaps send everyone a SurveyMonkey link? Go door to door and ask? Set up a table in Lincoln Park and wait for people to stop by? I'd like to hear what GGW thinks the process should be.
The fact is, as per Home Rule, ANCs get to weigh-in, and the city is obliged to listen, it doesn't mean ANCs make the right decisions, or that they even represent the majority opinion of the neighborhood, just that of the ANC commissioners and the loudest yellers from the crowd.
by JC on Oct 19, 2010 9:46 am • link • report
If after the first objections DDOT had said publicly, we're getting some complaints, so we'll wait until the ANC has a chance to weigh in among some alternatives, that would have been a great process.
by David Alpert on Oct 19, 2010 10:03 am • link • report
I agree with David that the correct venue for this discussion is in public at an ANC meeting, but ANC6B is notorious for refusing to discuss issues of public policy in public.
If there was an ANC6A Commissioner who argued against the NE site, at least s/he did so in public where s/he can be held accountable. Nonetheless, too bad if ANC6A is not embracing the CaBi site.
All this is especially troubling since the CaBi's at Eastern Market Metro and Safeway at 14th and Kentucky are in place and working well. Why isn't the actual positive experience of those CaBi's given "great weight" when neighbors make up potential hazards that won't really develop?
I'm glad ANC6B candidate Brian Pate decided to show up with a concrete solution for public discussion. He'd be a great addition to ANC6B.
by Trulee Pist on Oct 19, 2010 11:04 am • link • report
Apparently there was some sort of physical altercation last night after the meeting involving a supporter and non-supporter of CaBi. One of the residents near the SE triangle is alleging that he's received death threats over his opposition. I kid you not, read it on TBD:
http://tbd.ly/cMKpq8
by petrograd on Oct 19, 2010 2:31 pm • link • report
by Dave on Oct 19, 2010 8:24 pm • link • report
by David C on Oct 19, 2010 10:31 pm • link • report
As for those who think GGW's coverage of the Lincoln Park CaBi station is overkill, I beg you to reconsider, as the matter is representative of several other significant issues in our city. Chiefly:
a) Who controls our green space? NPS, the city or the citizens? Until DC achieves full sovereignty, at Lincoln Park at least, we need a sustainable usage plan to mitigate similar issues in the future.
b) How healthy are our local democratic institutions? Our ANC system is unique. If it functions in an opaque environment of complacency, comprised of self-anointed elites, it is an albatross. If the system harnesses citizen participation and facilitates a vibrant civic discourse, it is a boon.
c) What hurdles will CaBi face as it expands to achieve the desired density of one station every five blocks? Lincoln Park is the tip-o'-the-iceberg. If we want CaBi to be a successful system a la Montreal and London, DDOT needs to learn a lesson from this experience and prepare a more robust outreach plan for future stations in even more sensitive residential areas.
d) It says something about the challenge of having an unemotional debate over something as benign as a bicycle. Fortunately, Monday night's meeting was mainly constructive, though it was disheartening to see neighbors whom I know well reduced to name calling and near fist-a-cuffs after the meeting. Surely we can transcend our labels and labeling (NIMBY, New Urbanist, Progressive, Old Guard, Gentrifier, Gentrified, etc, etc.) to find win-win solutions. After all, that is the best way to achieve a greater greater Washington.
Lastly, I'd like to thank Chris Holben for not only attending the meeting, but for doing a diplomatic job of handling the many questions he received. His demeanor and style kept the meeting constructive.
by B Pate on Oct 21, 2010 12:44 am • link • report
Add a Comment