L Street Bike Lanes

This topic has 50 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 8 months ago by jnva.

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November 5, 2012 at 2:42 pm #912358

Neal Edwards
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Does anybody else think the new L Street bike lanes actually make things worse, not better? The bike lane becomes the turn lane for every north bound street. The pylons make the lane too narrow for cars to pass, resulting in scary tailgating for cars in the turn lane, or worse, cars zooming up to the gap in the pylons just before intersections and muscling there way in. When one has both happen at the same time, as I did this morning, it gets downright scary. I’ve used L St. for 16 years and have always found the right hand lane to be the safest. After a few attempts on the new bike lanes, I think I’ll go back to the right lane.
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November 5, 2012 at 2:51 pm #954838

jrenaut
Participant

Give it some time. They haven’t even finished painting, have they? 15th Street was bad at first, too, then people got used to it.

November 5, 2012 at 3:01 pm #954843

Neal Edwards
Participant

It appears to be done. Big difference between L and 15th. 15th separates the bikes from traffic, L St. funnels them together.

November 5, 2012 at 3:14 pm #954846

jrenaut
Participant

I mean they’re the same in terms of being a new traffic pattern that people aren’t used to seeing. Once people see bikes there all the time, driver behavior will adjust.

November 5, 2012 at 3:14 pm #954848

eminva
Participant

It is hard for me to tell if they are done. Certainly the striping, pylons and signs are in. The one thing that has me puzzled, though is why don’t we see the familiar bicyclist figure painted on the lanes themselves?? This is the one thing that makes me think they aren’t finished. That is such a universal sign for “bike lane” I think that would improve things immensely.

I am now the crazy lady who knocks on car windows. I educated a taxi cab driver this morning and he was very friendly and expressed gratitude for my explanation of where he was supposed to move over to turn left. The http://www.mytech24.com driver refused to open the window, but he signaled his understanding of what I was trying to yell at him through the windshield. It was a thumbs up, not a certain other finger gesture, that he ended our conversation with.

I don’t think motorists have a clue what is going on or what they are supposed to be doing. I’m hoping with time, things get better, as jnrenaut suggests. I also hope they paint some more markings. Otherwise, I’m gonna have a lot of windows to knock on.

Liz

November 5, 2012 at 3:25 pm #954854

DaveK
Participant

I’m withholding judgement for a while until everyone’s gotten used to it. Several elements worry me about it, I won’t go into a full engineer-spasm here but overall I think the benefit will prove worth it. We’ll see in a month or two.

November 5, 2012 at 4:08 pm #954865

Neal Edwards
Participant

Every one keeps calling it a bike lane, which it isn’t. It’s just another lane of traffic with some pylons dividing it from the next lane. Bike lanes are marked for bikes only and are in addition to the traffic lanes. And jrenout, ride it before you comment, please.

November 5, 2012 at 4:31 pm #954867

creadinger
Participant

We walked past this L St. lane on Sunday going down 14th St and it was confusing to say the least. The lane was full of parked cars and the paint markings didn’t seem to make much sense. I would agree that the lanes need some sort of bike picture painted on them because the little pylons are just weird. At first I thought it was a separated bike lane and was impressed, but it doesn’t sound like that is the case.

November 5, 2012 at 4:33 pm #954868

jrenaut
Participant

@creadinger 35117 wrote:

At first I thought it was a separated bike lane and was impressed, but it doesn’t sound like that is the case.

That’s what it is. The plans all have the familiar bike icon painted in the lanes – I’m not sure why they’ve waited until the very end to paint these in, but it is my understanding that they will. They’re also still changing the signs – I think some signs still indicate that you can park in the bike lane, which is no longer true.

November 5, 2012 at 4:53 pm #954878

Terpfan
Participant

About to try it out on way after lunch

November 5, 2012 at 5:07 pm #954887

bobco85
Participant

Although we will have to make our final judgements after all painting and construction of the bike lane/cycletrack/sharrow hybrid is finished, I think that they should at least put up some signs reading “New Traffic Pattern” so that drivers will be more aware of the changes. Right now, it’s more of a surprise being forced on road-users.

I think once it is finished we’ll quickly know how well the mirror M Street bike lane/cycletrack/sharrow hybrid will turn out in 2013.

November 5, 2012 at 5:30 pm #954891

ShawnoftheDread
Participant

@bobco85 35135 wrote:

Although we will have to make our final judgements after all painting and construction of the bike lane/cycletrack/sharrow hybrid is finished, I think that they should at least put up some signs reading “New Traffic Pattern” so that drivers will be more aware of the changes. Right now, it’s more of a surprise being forced on road-users.

I think once it is finished we’ll quickly know how well the mirror M Street bike lane/cycletrack/sharrow hybrid will turn out in 2013.

Any “new traffic pattern” signs would surely be placed in the bike lane.

November 5, 2012 at 5:39 pm #954893

TwoWheelsDC
Participant

@ShawnoftheDread 35139 wrote:

Any “new traffic pattern” signs would surely be placed in the bike lane.

Who would be that dumb?

November 5, 2012 at 5:45 pm #954894

jrenaut
Participant

DDOT tweeted about an hour ago that the bike lane markings are going in today.

November 5, 2012 at 5:58 pm #954895

Valerie
Participant

They should also put in “Wrong Way” signs facing bicycle traffic going West, and arrows pointing East. I’ve seen several cyclists going West in the L Street cycle track, and that’s just a recipe for disaster. As if the merge areas weren’t bad enough…

November 5, 2012 at 6:00 pm #954896

Terpfan
Participant

I just rode it from 20th to 15th (yes if anyone saw me, I had on a green suit–no sense changing for such a short ride). Plus side was it did speed up my commute a little bit. Downside was I noticed one sign that indicated cars needed to yield the right of way to bikes when going into the turn lane. The sign was black and white and really blended in to the usual road signage. I actually think a sign built into where the bollards are right before the turn would be helpful. DDOT is in fact working around 18th I think. This is good in the sense of them finishing the project and bad when they direct traffic all onto one street, which nearly got me hit twice as folks look at the DDOT guy and not where they’re turning onto. Overall, I think this is going to take some getting used to by cyclists and traffic, but I think it’s a good thing. My biggest worry is taxis/cars moving to turn left without looking or blocking the box. I can tell you right now there will be collisions and directly tied to that.
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