PA Ave u-turns – Enforcement?

1) I ride the Pa Ave lanes between the Capitol to 9th 8-10 times per week, typically twice a day M-Th. Fridays are variable. Morning rides are between 7:45 and 8:15, evenings are between 5:30 and 7:00.

2) I see U-turns on almost every ride, so 6-8 times per week. They seem to cluster, so when I notice one I often see several.

3 & 4) I’ve never seen MPD monitoring for U-turns. A few months ago I never saw MPD there at all. I’ve never seen a U-turn made and police action following it.

I’ll add that in recognition of how little I can observe while moving through this stretch for five minutes, I’ve taken several opportunities to stay in one place and observe for 15-30 minutes. I’ve seen as many as one U-turn per minute, and I’ve never gone more than 15 minutes without seeing one. I occasionally ride Pa Ave at odd hours – very early in the morning, very late at night, middle of the day – and even at those times I see U-turns.

@DSalovesh 43821 wrote:

I’ll add that in recognition of how little I can observe while moving through this stretch for five minutes, I’ve taken several opportunities to stay in one place and observe for 15-30 minutes. I’ve seen as many as one U-turn per minute, and I’ve never gone more than 15 minutes without seeing one. I occasionally ride Pa Ave at odd hours – very early in the morning, very late at night, middle of the day – and even at those times I see U-turns.

Something like this really needs to be caught on camera to show the powers that be that this is a real problem. Perhaps upload to YouTube and blast to every news outlet, public official, AAA, police HQ, etc. Perhaps when works slows down and I’m back from my trip I’ll take a gander over with my camera.

What is it about Pennsylvania Avenue that prompts so many motorists to u-turn? While I don’t usually commute on K Street, for about half of the last 14 years, I’ve had an office that affords me a view of K (to say nothing of walking along the street while going to lunch, errands, etc). I do see illegal u-turns from time to time, but nothing like you are describing on Penn. Why?

Liz

I don’t ride it regularly at all. I’ve probably only ridden it 5 times total, including the time I was there for TJROW and for the Stop U Turns on Penn ride.

I imagine patrolling the heck out of it will only work for as long as patrols are kept up. Taxis will adapt fast to increases and decreases in enforcement. I guess there’s no such thing as a U-turn camera?

@jrenaut 43844 wrote:

Second, and much nicer for all, is to remove the cycletracks and the two center car lanes and replace them with a bike and pedestrian boulevard with raised flowerbeds between cars and non-cars, and the bike and pedestrian lanes clearly marked. Car traffic on PA Ave is not heavy, and the number of lanes makes it feel like a highway. Keeping the road unsafe every day so we can have a useless parade every four years isn’t a reasonable solution.

Agreed.

@jrenaut 43844 wrote:

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Second, and much nicer for all, is to remove the cycletracks and the two center car lanes and replace them with a bike and pedestrian boulevard with raised flowerbeds between cars and non-cars, and the bike and pedestrian lanes clearly marked. Car traffic on PA Ave is not heavy, and the number of lanes makes it feel like a highway. Keeping the road unsafe every day so we can have a useless parade every four years isn’t a reasonable solution.

I would suggest one-way cycletracks on both right sides of the streets. Then I’d let the cars do all the U-turns they would like.

Agree that the center is best place for the cycle track on PA Ave. I like this track a lot, actually. It just needs pylons all the way up and down, not just near the intersections.

And they need to not pull the pylons for “snow removal” in winter. Just leave them in year round; we’ll deal with snow in the lanes as long as they don’t plow any extra in there.

It hasn’t snowed of any consequence in two years!