Letter: K Street NE Protected Bike Lane NOI

This project needs to move forward, and it should include protected intersections.

You can view this document in PDF form here.

WABA Comments in support of NOI 23-135-PSD K St NE Protected Bike Lane

July 19, 2023

Mike Goodno
Planning and Sustainability Division District Department of Transportation 250 M Street SE, Washington, DC, 20003

Re: Notice # 23-135-PSD Support for K Street NE Protected Bike Lane Mr. Goodno,

On behalf of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and its 6,000 members in the Washington Region, I am writing in support of DDOT Notice of Intent # 23-135-PSD for the K Street NE Protected Bike Lane.

As far back as 2005, DDOT's transportation plans have envisioned a continuous bicycle facility on K Street from Mount Vernon Square to 8th St NE. This vision was reaffirmed and updated to a recommendation for protected bike lanes in the 2018 NoMa Bicycle Network Study to follow the best practices in design. Now, most of this corridor is built out with protected bike lanes and painted bike lanes with a notable, high-stress gap under the rail tracks.

WABA enthusiastically supports completion of this project. It will close the gap creating a continuous 1.3 mile on-street bikeway, granting more direct and safe access to the First St. NE protected bike lanes and the improved bicycle crossing of North Capitol St from origins east of the tracks. This project will also expand the narrow sidewalks in the underpass, creating a more inviting walking experience with more room to maneuver in an area with many barrier to east-west pedestrian access.

Reducing K St to one lane each way brings the 100 block in line with the rest of the corridor for a more consistent driving environment with fewer opportunities for dangerous lane shifts or aggressive passing. Removing driving lanes may have some impact on driving times or peak-hour level of service and it will require eastbound drivers to turn right at a different street. However, in a city committed to Vision Zero and increasing mode-share of walking and biking, all-day safety for vulnerable road users must always outweigh potential impacts to vehicle level of service.

As the design is finalized for installation, please consider the following for inclusion in the scope of this project or for future upgrades:

1. Implement a protected intersection at First and K St NE
This intersection is a major crossing of two popular protected DC bikeways where a significant volume of bicycle traffic makes a turn. Yet, the intersection design offers no safe space, path guidance, or protected queuing areas to facilitate turns from one bikeway to the next, unnecessarily exposing people on bikes to motor vehicles. Turning left from eastbound K St or right from southbound First St are particularly unintuitive, resulting in unpredictable bicycle movements throughout the intersection.

A Dutch style protected intersection (see example below from MCDOT's Bicycle Facility Design Toolkit) would address all of these problems, reduce conflicts, and improve the experience for everyone. DDOT should add elements of a protected intersection using quick-build materials and follow-up with a more substantial redesign of this intersection that includes moving curbs.

2-way protected intersection from Montgomery County Bicycle Facility Design Toolkit (image in PDF linked above)

Extend bike lanes to 8th St to connect to West Virginia Ave.
The K St. bike lanes extend to 6th St. NE, two blocks short of the connection to the West Virginia Ave NE protected bike lanes. Completing this network gap will improve connections to Trinidad, Ivy City, and the proposed Mount Olivet protected bike lanes.
Add protection to K St east of 2nd St NE
The painted bicycle lanes in the 200 block are frequently used for pickup and dropoff, which pushes people on bikes into a shared lane with vehicle traffic. While space is tight, adding lane protection will help reduce friction between different users.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this important project. Please contact me at garrett.hennigan@waba.org or 202-656-3078 with questions or follow-up.

Sincerely,

Garrett Hennigan Organizing Manager, WABA

Submitted Electronically

More about The DC Low Stress Network

Bike lanes are most effective when they connects to other bike lanes, protected bike lanes, even more so.

WABA works with teams of grassroots volunteers across the District to demand a network of low-stress places to bike. A network where you, your kids, nephews, nieces, or grandkids, can all get where you need to go safely, easily, happily on bikes.

More about Complete Streets

Complete Streets are streets designed to accommodate all users, and that prioritize historically underinvested modes of transportation like transit, walking, and biking. An incomplete street might lack adequate sidewalks, low-stress bike infrastructure, or safe and comfortable access to transit.

Effective Complete Streets policies change the way a jurisdiction plans and builds transportation infrastructure—sidewalks, low stress bike infrastructure, and transit should be included in any new or rebuilt street by default, rather than as an add-on when there's space or demand.

While most regional jurisdictions have a Complete Streets policy of some sort, they lack teeth and permit transportation departments to continue to build streets that put cars first and squeeze other modes into the margins.

More about Advocacy

WABA fights for a region where biking, walking and transit are the best ways to get around.

We educate policymakers and organize grassroots advocates for to speak up for safer places to bike and walk; and for laws and policies that protect people who are walking and biking, reduce dangerous driving, and facilitate changes to the built environment.