15th Street Closed Near Tidal Basin

[birddog]

VERY Annoying.

I know it’s the 20th anniversary for the museum – but I’m not a Nazi. They could let bikes through…I had to go up and around the white house to get to the NoMA via K st and hit every light .

Do I have to go the same way to get home?

[dbb]

This morning when I engaged the police officers staffing the ramparts, they indicated they had reached out to the media to announce the road closure all weekend. I’ve not been able to find any mention of it, so it would appear their efforts were for naught.

I didn’t catch the flavor of the police, but it would appear President Clinton will be speaking there this morning so it is likely the Secret Service.

Come on guys, work with the media. Maybe your public affairs folks could post to the forum!

I’d expect it will be hosed this evening as well.

[Subby]

@dbb 50431 wrote:

I’d expect it will be hosed this evening as well.

What is the best alternate choice for getting to the bridge if I am coming down 15th street to Independence? I was looking at a map but it isn’t readily apparent.

[dbb]

@Subby 50460 wrote:

What is the best alternate choice for getting to the bridge if I am coming down 15th street to Independence? I was looking at a map but it isn’t readily apparent.

Turn west on PA Ave in front of the White House and take 17th across the mall. Turn right on the sidewalk along Independence. Cross Independence at West Basin Drive at the MLK Memorial (Salmon Alert!) and head towards the river. Turn left on Ohio and head to East Basin Drive. Get on the I395 side sidewalk by the Geo Mason memorial and then onto the Mason Bridge.

Alternative is to head east towards the Capitol on Jefferson and take 7th Street to Maine Ave and pick the trail up between the street closure and the Jefferson.

[sjclaeys]

Let me if I have this right. I believe that the National Park Service has resisted having CaBi stations on the Mall because they will detract from its beauty and getting them to move cones from a sidewalk cutout took major negotiations. However, putting up a huge temporary building and closing a major street in and out of DC, no problem! As far as reaching out to the media, every Sunday Dr. Gridlock lists street closures and other similar events in the Metro section and there was no mention of 15th St being closed in yesterday’s paper. He certainly would have mentioned that if told.

[Arlingtonrider]

I was concerned about going through this area this morning but found that the sidewalk on the other side of 15th Street was completely open and passable. No problems.

[dbb]

@Arlingtonrider 50647 wrote:

I was concerned about going through this area this morning but found that the sidewalk on the other side of 15th Street was completely open and passable. No problems.

My bad. The contractor seemed to be taking that big-ass tent down. All that work for a single day. It would appear that the police that said the media had been notified and the road would be closed for two days were wrong on both counts.

On a related note, the forum could be the “Miss Utility” of bike trail/path/route disruptions if we could get the local governments to see it that way. While the forum doesn’t reach everybody, it gets a bigger slice of the rider pie than any place else. Our blogger friends already review and pluck tidbits so some relevant item on the forum would get more traction.

[rcannon100]

@dbb 50656 wrote:

On a related note, the forum could be the “Miss Utility” of bike trail/path/route disruptions if we could get the local governments to see it that way. While the forum doesn’t reach everybody, it gets a bigger slice of the rider pie than any place else. Our blogger friends already review and pluck tidbits so some relevant item on the forum would get more traction.

It is a fabric of new media sources: forum + blogs + twitter (#bikedc) There are also other bike forums (potomac pedalers, yahoo group). Each has its own little community.

[dbb]

I think that trying to get the various agencies that, upon occasion, screw with our commutes to go through a six step notification process (OK, maybe only four) when they frequently don’t do even one might be a heavy lift. I agree that there are other media sources that could contribute to the outreach effort but I think that starting with a established, known quantity that many riders follow would be a good first step.

Others have mentioned that those that have the ability to impact our commutes do so without (or with little) warning or thought far too frequently. Others do a much better job (the thread on the pipe over the Four Mile Run Trail is a good example of that – someone was thinking about how to mitigate the impact of their actions).

If we could get the transportation, police and utility agencies to put the information in one location, I am sure the smart folks could figure out how to automatically share it more widely. My goal is to get the agencies from zero outreach locations to one.

[Author]

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