Posts about Bike Boulevards

Of course, cul-de-sacs weren't the traffic panacea 20th-century planners thought they were, and there's since been a growing backlash against them. In some newer neighborhoods like Poplar Run in Glenmont, they're few and far between; in others, like Kentlands in Gaithersburg or King Farm in Rockville, they've been all but banished.

We've returned to appreciating a connected street network, which can diffuse congestion and make walking, biking and even driving safer and easier. They're also cheaper to maintain and easier for emergency vehicles to navigate, which are two of the reasons why Virginia banned cul-de-sacs in 2009.

Yet in many of Montgomery's oldest neighborhoods, which were built with grids to begin with, the cul-de-sac mindset remains. Prodded by residents sick of speeding drivers on their neighborhood streets, the county's Department of Transportation has found ways to keep through traffic at bay using a kind of "fake" cul-de-sac.

Sometimes, they'll restrict turns from arterial streets or ban cars from entering certain streets at rush hour. Occasionally, they'll take more drastic measures and cut off a through-street entirely, like Ellsworth Drive near downtown Silver Spring.

If you live on a street like Ellsworth, you're probably not complaining. You get all of the benefits of living next to one of the region's biggest jobs, shopping and entertainment districts, while enjoying quiet, peaceful streets undisturbed by people from outside the neighborhood.

Less amused, however, are your neighbors on adjacent streets, like Colesville Road, Wayne Avenue or Georgia Avenue, that have to pick up the slack. Breaking up the street grid means more local trips end up on what through streets remain, making them more congested.

Studies show that residents living on busy streets are not only exposed to higher pollution levels, but they have fewer friends and a weakened sense of community.

Sometimes access restrictions displace car traffic to another neighborhood entirely. In 2010, the Sligo Park Hills community in Silver Spring asked the county to restrict rush-hour commuters from using several streets there.

Neighbors in adjacent Takoma Park worried it would just send cars their way. "We will be impacted by moving your traffic over to us, and your neighborhood is no more important, your kids are no important and your convenience is no more important [than our own]," said Takoma Park resident Ellen Zavian.

However, one Sligo Park Hills resident was so tired of drivers using his street that he threatened violence against them. "If you guys drive through my neighborhood in the early morning hours and I perceive you to be a threat, I'm going to start walking around with a rock in my hand," Sean Gibbons told the Gazette.

As a result, the City of Takoma Park implemented their own traffic restrictions later that year. Mayor Bruce Williams said that if they didn't, they would "be essentially saying 'okay take all that traffic and send it through Mississippi Avenue and Ritchie Avenue."

We can't fault people for wanting to live on a safe, quiet street, but the streets in neighborhoods like Sligo Park Hills are owned by Montgomery County, meaning that all Montgomery County residents pay taxes to maintain them, and have a right to use them. Besides, telling drivers they can't use your street does nothing to solve the larger traffic problem.

If we're trying to discourage folks from driving through certain neighborhoods, we might as well finish the job and make it easier for them and the people living in these neighborhoods to get around without a car.

While Montgomery's older communities were built with interconnected streets, they didn't have sidewalks. Many residents want to keep it that way. However, the best way to reduce car traffic, at least for shorter trips, is to make it easier and safer to bike or walk. Many of the neighborhoods that currently have traffic restrictions are already within a short walk or bike ride of major shopping areas, job centers and public transit. If more people are out biking and walking on local streets, it'll be a cue that drivers should slow down.

Sidewalks are a start, though Montgomery County planners have also explored striping a "pedestrian lane" on streets where sidewalks are either impractical or too costly. While we're at it, we could stripe some more bike lanes as well.

Or we could turn streets like Ellsworth Drive into "neighborhood greenways," also known as "bike boulevards," designed to give people on foot or bike priority over drivers. That's sort of what currently exists on Second Avenue between 16th and Spring streets in Silver Spring, which allows bikes and buses during rush hour, but not cars. And if we're going to turn a street into a dead-end, we should at least make it passable for pedestrians and bicyclists, like on Middleton Lane near downtown Bethesda.

A well-connected street network has many potential benefits: better access to local amenities, diffused traffic congestion, and even stronger social ties. The best way to reduce congestion on little streets and big streets alike is to give people choices, whether it's multiple routes for driving, the option of taking transit, or the ability to safely get around by foot or bike.

While residents shouldn't have to worry about speeding drivers or heavy traffic on small neighborhood streets, closing off public streets isn't a real solution.

Many jurisdictions designate unaltered mixed-traffic streets deemed to be inherently bike-friendly as "suggested bike routes." Arlington's bike map provides a good example: white-colored streets are normal roads, while blue-colored streets are suggested bike routes. Both white and blue qualify as mixed-traffic bikeways. Some cyclists prefer to ride in mixed traffic rather than on dedicated facilities.

Sharrow street
Sharrow streets are mixed traffic roads on which graphics have been applied to the roadway indicating that cars and bikes should share the full lane as equals.

Sharrows notify drivers that they should expect bicycles on that street, and indicate to bicyclists that is safe to ride in the center of the street rather than on the sidewalk or in the door zone. They are the minimum bike-specific infrastructure applied to shared-use roads.

Bike lane
Bike lanes are the most common type of bike-specific infrastructure in most cities. They are lanes painted onto a street that are designated for use by bicycles, but which are not physically protected from lanes used by cars.

Most bike lanes are located on the extreme right of the through part of the street, but to the left of the parking lane or right-turn lane (if they are present). Drivers are allowed (and in most jurisdictions, are supposed to) merge into bike lanes before turning right.

The most common type of bike lane is designated with white paint as shown in the picture. Some jurisdictions take the extra step of painting them green or blue at key locations in order to increase visibility. Another modification to the standard bike line is to add a painted buffer that increases the separation between bikes and cars. Painted or buffered bike lanes may be considered "enhanced."

Bike boulevard
Bike boulevards are pathways specifically optimized for bikes through a variety of techniques, but on which cars are also permitted (though sometimes discouraged) to operate in mixed traffic, except in the case of dead-end streets where bikes are permitted to continue forward but not cars.

Optimization techniques are not standardized, but may include lane markings, chicanes (and other traffic calming measures), car access restrictions, bike-optimized intersection treatments, and any number of other potential enhancements. Although bike boulevards are technically mixed traffic streets, the degree of extra bike-specific infrastructure is considerably greater than on sharrow streets.

As far as I am aware, there are not currently any bike boulevards in the DC area, although Arlington is considering two parallel to Columbia Pike. There are some cases where a short trail through a wooded area or a non-auto bridge across a stream provides cyclists with a more direct route between discontiguous streets than cars can take. There are several examples of this in DC's suburbs, and most can be discovered by using Google Maps' cycling directions.

Sidepath
Sidepaths are off-street bikeways that are built as extensions of the sidewalk. They provide complete physical separation from cars except at intersections with cross streets.

Some sidepaths are shared with pedestrians, while others designate separation from pedestrians using paint or unique paving materials. Those that do are sometimes referred to as a subset of cycle tracks since they are intended to be exclusive to bikes, but they have a lesser degree of separation from pedestrians than true cycle tracks.

Cycle track
In North American usage, cycle tracks are segments of roads that are completely exclusive to bikes, physically separated from all other modes. The most common form is as an on-street bike lane placed between the curb and row of parked cars, but separation can also be obtained through other means such as bollards or additional curbs.

Cycle tracks can come in many shapes and sizes, and are generally considered to be the pinnacle of street-adjacent bikeways. In Europe the term is more general and can be synonymous with bike lane.

Trail / shared-use path
Trails are dedicated car-free travelways that follow their own unique route. They are intended to be not only off-street, but to be completely free of any interaction with cars at all. Even street crossings are intended to be extremely rare, and ideally are grade separated.

Most trails are technically shared-use paths, which means pedestrians are permitted to use them as well, but the degree of separation from cars is such that trails are generally considered to be superior to cycle tracks and all other forms of bike infrastructure. The bulk of the paved trails in greater Washington, and in most US cities, follow abandoned railroad rights-of-way or the banks of streams or rivers.

The full gamut of bicycle infrastructure includes many other types of enhancements, such as bike boxes and bike stations, but these are the seven basic types of bicycle travelways available.

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.

Although bike boulevards are a new concept for the District and Arlington, many of the ingredients that make up a bike boulevard have been in place throughout Arlington County for years as part of its neighborhood traffic calming improvements. Despite this, none of the county's streets had ever been planned specifically as bike boulevards.

The proposed bike boulevards near Columbia Pike take advantage of existing infrastructure such as a mini-roundabouts along 9th Street at Quincy, Oakland and Lincoln streets.

New features planned include significant changes at the intersection of 9th Street and Glebe Road, which would get new high-visibility "ladder" crosswalks, a HAWK pedestrian crossing signal and a raised median that would prevent left turns from Glebe and through traffic on 9th while still allowing bicycles and pedestrians to make all turns and through movements at the intersection. The intersection of 9th Street and Glebe Road will see turn restrictions, as well.

The intersection of 9th Street and Walter Reed Drive is also slated for changes, including curb extensions and a potential HAWK signal. Where Walter Reed Drive intersects 12th Street, the existing median will be widened to provide a refuge for cyclists and pedestrians as they cross. Similar improvements are planned at 12th Street and George Mason Drive, which will also see the adjacent trail in Doctors Branch Park widened to 12 feet.

Other changes include curb extensions at the intersections of 9th Street and Irving, Highland, Cleveland, Barton, Adams and Wayne streets. Stop sign removal is also proposed on 12th Street at Highland and Edgewood streets, to make the route more attractive for cyclists traveling at a slow, constant speed.

Given that the plans were announced more than a month in advance and meeting details were announced in local media more than a week in advance, much of the turbulence at the meeting seemed overblown. County staff admitted that no matter what they did, it would be almost impossible to make everyone happy.

One resident, who would only identify herself as Allison, opposed the entire concept of encouraging bicycle use for non-recreational trips and was very vocal that bike boulevards should not be considered in the first place. "Roads were meant for cars," she said. "It's frightening to think that a biker now thinks that they share the road." Arlington County's chief traffic engineer, Wayne Wentz, quickly set her straight on the facts.

Although there were a handful of meeting attendees seated with Allison who agreed with her that bikes are not a mode of transportation that should be encouraged, she clearly held a minority opinion at the meeting. One concern of Allison's, however, was widespread among other attendees. Despite being a resident of 12th Street, she said, she first found out about the plans from a blog post earlier that day on ARLnow.com.

Arlington County's bike and pedestrian program manager, David Goodman, noted at the meeting that the bicycle boulevard plans emerged from the county's Columbia Pike planning process, not from the citizen-initiated Neighborhood Conservation Program that results in many of the county's traffic-calming installations. As a result, the planning process may not have been one to which many residents were accustomed.

"A lot of people here are feeling ambushed," the vice president of a local civic association said. "There's been a lot of work and study, but none of it included us."

Other residents expressed the same concern about the short notice. When county staff responded that they had notified local civic associations weeks before the meeting and other meeting attendees pointed out that the plan was the result of a planning process that had been ongoing for at least five years, the civic association vice president became angry. "I don't like the insinuation that we weren't paying attention," he said.

Despite the distrust that grew out of communication gaps, some significant issues related to the plan were discussed at the meeting. The county plans to install some of the less controversial aspects of the plan, such as sharrows and signage, this summer, while continuing to work with the community on other parts of the plan. One such sticking point for residents of 9th Street was conversion of a section of their street near Ivy Street to two-way operation.

County staff explained that although a bike boulevard corridor should enable two-way travel, they were hesitant to place contraflow bicycle lanes alongside parallel parking and chose two-way operation instead. Meanwhile, residents were worried that the change would create more cut-through auto traffic on their streets. Discussions after the meeting between chief traffic engineer Wayne Wentz and 9th Street residents provided promising indications that a compromise could be reached.

As the county begins to implement some parts of this project over the summer, there are still opportunities to weigh in on less definite aspects of the plan, such as 9th Street two-way operation, on the project's page on the county website.

Here's a video about bike boulevards from New York:

The bicycle boulevards would go on certain streets which travel through residential areas but stretch long distances. This not only gives cyclists a safe and comfortable through route but also discourages motor vehicles from using the streets for long trips, instead pushing them to use the major arterial routes and making the resident streets quieter and safer.

Several other roads would get "sharrows," which also promote sharing space between bikes and cars but don't give priority to bicycles.

For a number of intersections, DDOT is proposing curb extensions, or bulb-outs. Some, where there is a high volume of pedestrians, would be paved, adding space for pedestrians to wait and also shortening the crossing distance.

In other places, they would be "green curb extensions," where most of the added space is filled with plantings and designed to capture and hold stormwater that runs off from the surrounding street.

Curb extensions would go along River Road at 45th/Fessenden (paved) and 44th (green), on Davenport at Reno Road and Connecticut Avenue (both green) and 36th (paved), and at a lot of corners in Tenleytown.

At some places where three roads come together, small side roads serve as slip lanes encouraging fast turns and speeding. The study recommends closing a small section adjacent to main streets at 36th Street between Connecticut Avenue and Fessenden Street, and Brandywine Street between 42nd and River Road.

The former road space would either become a basic grass area or get additional stormwater facilities, like rain gardens, to capture and store rainwater and runoff.

From Albemarle to Brandywine Streets just east of the Tenleytown Metro station, between the Whole Foods and Wilson High School, is a pair of parallel roads, 40th Street and Fort Drive. They are only a median's width apart and serve essentially as two directions of one street with a median in between. The report calls the intersection between these and Albemarle Street "awkward, confusing, and obstruct[ing] some views."

It suggests reversing the direction, so cars travel clockwise instead of counterclockwise, and replacing parallel parking adjacent to the median with angled parking, almost doubling the amount of parking. A break in the median for U-turns, currently adjacent to Albemarle, would be moved to the center of the block, lining up with the Whole Foods while also adding crosswalks there.

42nd Street and Warren Street meet in a large, gently curving triangular intersection which also encourages speeding. The plan suggests a pair of small neighborhood traffic circles, essentially small islands in the middle of the intersection which drivers have to travel around more slowly instead of zooming through the large intersection.

These items are far from all the suggestions for improving safety and mobility in Upper Northwest. Part 2 will look at Ward and Chevy Chase Circles, other ideas that didn't make it into the report, and when all of this might actually become a reality.

As currently proposed, bike lanes on G and I Streets, NE between 2nd and 13th would be just fine. But DDOT could do even better by creating a neighborhood street that provides traffic calming for residents and road users while also giving a better facility to bicyclists by implementing some of the following treatments.

Sharrows, or shared-lane markings, are currently used on 12th Street NE and New Hampshire Avenue near U Street NW. Sharrows indicate priority and proper placement of cyclists, keeping them out of the door zone and letting drivers know the important role cyclists play on this particular street.

As bicycle planner Mia Birk notes, sharrows are often most appropriate when "the speed differential between cyclists and motorists is either low or zero." Residential streets like G and I fit this situation perfectly.

The primary method of controlling speed on many residential streets has been the stop sign, with four-way stops at nearly every block. In theory, this keeps speeds low, but many drivers will speed between intersections, while both motorists and cyclists will slowly roll through stop signs. This makes the street experience frustrating, and sometimes dangerous.

Bike boulevards on G and I would keep road users at a slow but steady pace by removing stop signs for east-west traffic and instead inserting mini-roundabouts at some intersections, so all road users must slowly negotiate the space together.

At intersections without mini-roundabouts, slow-moving east-west traffic would not stop, while north-south traffic would have stop signs. These "partial-stop" intersections, as seen at 5th and R NW, are not uncommon in DC.

There are more treatments that can be used to keep traffic traveling at a slow pace. Speed humps are a common sight throughout DC, but over-reliance has led to noisy and dangerous short-distance speeding by some motorists not unlike the speeding often seen between stop signs.

For a better example, we only have to look to Arlington, where some speed humps include groooves for motor vehicles. Motorists must slow to align their vehicles' wheels with the grooves, but do not experience the cringe-inducing bounce that can sometimes scrape the undercarraige. By riding in the grooves, cyclists can reduce wear and tear on their bikes, as well.

In addition to reducing crossing distance for pedestrians, bulb-outs are another feature commonly used to slow vehicle speeds by narrowing the roadway. While complete curb extensions may be too expensive to be implemented quickly on G and I, DDOT can create bulb-outs with bollards.

Areas near intersections where parking is currently prohibited for visibility reasons can also be converted into bike corrals, which provide bike parking and some protection for pedestrians without reducing visibility for motorists.

DC's first bike corrals were recently installed in Georgetown and Columbia Heights. By serving the traffic calming needs of pedestrians, the parking needs of cyclists and the visibility needs of motorists without removing on-street parking, bike corrals can be a great addition to some neighborhood streets.

An important component of a bike boulevard is deterring through motor vehicle traffic. This has been accomplished in other cities by creating refuges in the middle of a cross-street that allow cyclists and pedestrians to cross while prohibiting motor vehicle turns and through movement.

It may be desirable to prevent motorists on G and I from continuing across 8th Street, or to prevent drivers on 8th Street from turning left onto G or I. The effectiveness of this type of prohibition at 8th Street—and whether the sacrifices made by drivers would be worth the reduction in through traffic—can only be determined by study from DDOT in consultation with the neighborhood.

H Street vs. U Street

The current plan for bike lanes along the H Street corridor is similar to how DDOT has managed bike facilities along the U Street NW corridor. Bike lanes are provided not on the major thoroughfare itself but are instead striped on parallel residential streets. Near U Street, T and V streets have bike lanes. In Northeast, lanes are planned not for H Street but on G and I.

The addition of streetcar tracks to H Street makes DDOT's decision to provide altnerate routes for cyclists even more appropriate. While streetcar service will be a major mobility improvement, the introduction of streetcar tracks to H Street poses challenges for cyclists navigating the area. While there are ways to reduce the danger to cyclists, one of the best practices of bike/streetcar planning is the provision of parallel alternate routes for cyclists. G and I streets are an ideal alternative to H Street for bicycle traffic.

So why would a bike boulevard be better for G and I streets NE, while bike lanes are best for T and V streets NW? Although these corridors have some similarities, there are important differences. T Street, especially, functions as a secondary through route from Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan to Bloomingdale and Shaw. As a result, it carries significantly more motor vehicle traffic than G and I, which are cut off by Union Station at 2nd Street NE.

The difference is evident when you think about restricting through and left-turning traffic at major cross streets. Restricting through traffic along T Street at 14th Street, for example, would have a much bigger negative impact than doing so on G or I at 8th Street. Finally, for busier roads like T Street, bike lanes are a better choice because they carve out a space in the road for cyclists that would otherwise be taken by motor vehicles. This isn't the case on quieter, more residential streets.

Bike boulevards were first implemented in American cities such as Berkeley and Portland and have become popular additions to their neighborhoods. When surveyed, the majority of residents on a bicycle boulevard in Portland "generally agree...that these low-traffic bikeways have a positive impact on quality of life, home values, sense of community, noise [and] air quality."

Because cyclists are not the only beneficiaries of these traffic-calming interventions, Portland's Bureau of Transportaton broadened the scope of its bike boulevards and rechristened them as Neighborhood Greenways. PBOT has also begun partnering with other city agencies to include features like vegetated stormwater capture areas that double as traffic-calming curb extensions. We've seen some similar work in our area, most recently on the sidewalk in front of the new Casey Trees headquarters in Brookland and by Constitution Square on 1st Street NE. The region's most holistic "green street" is found in Edmonston, Maryland.

Looking ahead

DDOT is interested in implementing this type of facility; the agency is already looking at bicycle boulevards as part of the Rock Creek West II Livability Study.

It's important to remember that not every bike boulevard must include the full complement of treatments. For example, it's not always appropriate to restrict turns and through traffic, and curb extensions or stormwater capture areas could be cost-prohibitive for some projects. But as DDOT's protected bike lane projects have shown, the agency is able to implement cost-effective facilities that have been done at greater cost elsewhere.

The District needs to expand its repertoire of bike facilities to include more than just bike lanes. With the addition of 15th Street's protected bike lane and the Metropolitan Branch Trail, DDOT has strengthened the types and number of facilities that separate cyclists from other road users.

And while not every street should have a bike lane, every street should be a complete street. For quieter residential areas, bike boulevard treatments can be important tools as DC expands its bike network beyond the city's core.