Tell the District: Safety First!

In recent months, the District has downgraded bikeway projects and advanced sub-standard designs, compromising DDOT’s moveDC safety standards. DDOT has paused other “shovel-ready” projects that would have boosted road safety, despite 25 traffic deaths in 2025 and 5 deaths already in January 2026, including 3 pedestrians. Vision Zero should mean redoubled action and not a mere aspiration!

Please join us to ask Mayor Muriel Bowser and her administration for a return to a Safety First transportation policy.

DDOT promised protected bike lanes on Kansas Ave… until they didn’t. Same on East Capitol Street in Ward 7. And then there’s Arizona Ave NW: Last fall, DDOT removed protected bike lanes that had been installed less than a year before. All three streets are classified as “arterials” whose bicycling infrastructure should be “fully protected” according to DDOT policy. In these cases and others, DDOT has compromised on safety. All signs point to politics trumping standards and prevailing over the District’s commitment to Vision Zero.   

DC is recognized as a national bike infrastructure leader. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration has led that progress, with leadership and innovation from DDOT. These changes have made DC safer for everyone. That’s why we have high expectations and are disappointed when there are lapses.

This isn’t a technical question. MoveDC, including the 2021 Bicycle Priority Network map, provides both safety standards and a literal roadmap for “future planned improvements” to boost safety. The map envisions bikeways on East Capitol Street and on Pennsylvania Ave. SE in both directions from the Minnesota Ave SE intersection. Both are in Ward 7, which has been historically underinvested by the District. Yet DDOT stripped bike lanes from East Capitol plans and never updated 2018 PA-MN SE intersection improvement plans to include the recommended Pennsylvania Ave SE protected bike lanes per moveDC 2021 guidance. DDOT is advancing projects that do not conform with their own safety standards. 

We know protected bike lanes and intersection improvements improve safety for everyone: people biking, walking, and driving. The District’s walking away from Connecticut Ave. NW safety improvements in 2024 is a glaring example of acting contrary to data and recognized best practices as well as DDOT’s moveDC commitment. Now DDOT has paused bikeway construction on Jenifer St. NW and 44th St. NW, where plans are at 100% design, and on Western Ave. NW. DDOT needs to hear from us that deprioritizing safety is not acceptable. 

Your message will go to Mayor Muriel Bowser; Rachel Molly Joseph, DC’s Director of Sustainable Urban Infrastructure; and DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum. City leaders need to hear that the public wants the District to implement the safety policies and plans they themselves created as part of moveDC 2021 and to unfreeze projects that are already underway.