1st Street Cycletrack

[skins_brew]

I am really looking forward to the M to L track opening, which should be VERY soon.

When I am coming into DC, I usually take a lane on Louisiana Ave to get to the Penn cycle track. I can get enough speed where I feel pretty good. If you didn’t want to mess with Louisiana, you could take E St to 9th St. That would let you stay in a bike lane all the way to Penn. Coming home on the other hand, I usually Take 6th street up to E St. E St has a bike lane, but 6th does not. You are only on 6th for three or so blocks and traffic is light.

That little section next to Union Station between G St. and Mass Ave. is fairly dangerous. I came very close to t-boning one of those golf carts that carries disabled/fat train passengers due to the fact that the moron came flying out of that little tunnel without looking. Trucks and shuttles are constantly congesting that small little road too. Mix in some jay walking passengers and it gets interesting.

[Greenbelt]

Well, I guess there’s no good way to get from the 1st street cycletrack to the PA Ave cycletrack.

I tried the E street bike lane to 6th street — meh. Crowded, slow, lots of taxis in bike lane, tricky left at 6th.

I tried left on Mass and right on Louisiana — that just flat sucks. Lots of potential for getting left hooked, difficult to make the exposed left on 1st street to cross constitution and get on the PA at the start, difficult to merge on to constitution and then get left to the center track once you get to PA ave.

What we really need is a continuation of the cycletrack down east (Capitol) side of Louisiana, all the way to Constitution. Then you could easily get from Union Station to Capitol, cross Constitution at 1st street to get to the House side and join PA Ave by the reflecting pool.

Tomorrow I think I’ll just poach the sidewalk.

[Greenbelt]

Here’s is where we need a two-way cycletrack in my opinion.

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[Harry Meatmotor]

@Greenbelt 83267 wrote:

Well, I guess there’s no good way to get from the 1st street cycletrack to the PA Ave cycletrack.

I tried the E street bike lane to 6th street — meh. Crowded, slow, lots of taxis in bike lane, tricky left at 6th.

I tried left on Mass and right on Louisiana — that just flat sucks. Lots of potential for getting left hooked, difficult to make the exposed left on 1st street to cross constitution and get on the PA at the start, difficult to merge on to constitution and then get left to the center track once you get to PA ave.

What we really need is a continuation of the cycletrack down east (Capitol) side of Louisiana, all the way to Constitution. Then you could easily get from Union Station to Capitol, cross Constitution at 1st street to get to the House side and join PA Ave by the reflecting pool.

Tomorrow I think I’ll just poach the sidewalk.

I wouldn’t bother trying to noodle through the peds at the top of 1st St. NE – merging into the left most traffic lane is the safeset route i’ve found through there. I’ve been taking: E St., L @ North Cap, R @ Louisiana, R @ Constitution, L @ 3rd St, R @ Madison for almost 4 years now and I’ve never had any major close calls. I’ve noticed that all the (more respectful of cyclists) bus traffic down Louisiana tends to favor the left lane, and if you can grab the left lane on Louisiana when you make the right off North Cap, it’s reasonably safe. Just watch for cabbies stopping to pick up the high dollar fares at Charlie Palmer’s… that and the two big pot holes at New Jersey Ave and C St.

[skins_brew]

I hear ya on Louisiana Ave. I forget to mention in my post that the transition from Louisiana to Penn is tricky, because you have to get into the left lane to merge into the Penn cycle track. When I first started out, I use to just get on the sidewalk at the bottom of Louisiana, ride it until I get to Penn, and jump the curb to the cycle track. On my return trip, before I started biking up 6th to E, I use to ride the sidewalk up Louisiana, which wasn’t bad.

Yea, E Street is pretty slow. Tons of red lights.

Yea, shit canning the parking on the east side of Louisiana and turning it into a contra-flow bike lane would be sweet. Have it terminate at First st and put up some signage directing people to ride on First St. to the reflecting pool.

Ah, politics. This would only really require re-striping the pavement and maybe putting in some of those flexible road barriers. It’s a damn shame something like this would take years to get accomplished.

[Greenbelt]

@skins_brew 83280 wrote:

Ah, politics. This would only really require re-striping the pavement and maybe putting in some of those flexible road barriers. It’s a damn shame something like this would take years to get accomplished.

Although I think DC maintains the roadway on Louisiana Ave, I think the Architect of the of the Capitol (Senate Side) probably does the sidewalks and landscaping along the road? Or maybe it’s NPS?

The Senate probably controls those parking spots?

If so, are the questions for the PR campaign?

1. Would DDOT want to do this, would they run the initial engineering sketches?
2. If Senate controls the parking, can they just withdraw their parking signage and cede it to DC to install the cycletrack there?
3. If Senate refuses, could we start an op-ed campaign? Recruit the Davids at thewashcycle.com and greatergreaterwashington.org to write opeds? GGW’s head has a column in the Post. The op-ed campaign could note that the Senate surface parking lots are already a blight on the otherwise really nice landscape between the Capitol and Union Station, that park features were intended by LEnfant, not surface parking lots, and remind their readers that while most people have to pay for parking in such a area, Congressional staffers get free parking benefits (they still do, right?).

CBO would probably score a Congressional parking fee as a saving to taxpayers — I could see various groups running with this as a budget proposal in a campaign.

So maybe the Senate could be persuaded to be flexible on this, so all that spotlight on their free parking benefits never was necessary?

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[ShawnoftheDread]

@Greenbelt 83304 wrote:

So maybe the Senate could be persuaded to be flexible on this, so all that spotlight on their free parking benefits never was necessary?
]

Yeah, and I’m sure the White House can be persuaded to give back the Ellipse too, because federal entities always seem really scared about bad publicity.

[dasgeh]

@Greenbelt 83304 wrote:

CBO would probably score a Congressional parking fee as a saving to taxpayers — I could see various groups running with this as a budget proposal in a campaign.

Talk to Vitter — he loves to screw over staffers.

And yes, free parking is still an option. Or you can get transit benefits.

[Greenbelt]

The DC Master Plan shows a bike trail on Louisiana Ave, so it’s definitely on DDOT’s radar:

http://ddot.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ddot/publication/attachments/bicycle_master_plan_2005_proposed_bicycle_facilities_map_0.pdf

Courtesy of http://www.thewashcycle.com

[Greenbelt]

It’s also part of the East Coast Greenway, which could also be a useful supporter.

http://greenway.org/maps/ECG-DC2.kmz

[Greenbelt]

From DDOT:

“You’re right: Louisiana Ave is designated for a bike trail on the south sidewalk. This area is managed by the architect of the capital so any changes will need to be made in consultation with them. I believe the plan is to use the existing sidewalk and make changes to the handicap ramps – widen them and better align them with the sidewalks.”

“I believe the original idea was to use the sidewalks. But, I agree that a Cycletrack makes more or just a lot of sense. I would suggest separated Cycletrack facilities on each side of the street, though. I think, because of the numerous skewed intersections, that a two-way on the east side might be especially complicated.”

I sort of agree it would be great to have a separate lane on both sides, but I think the east side is really best to start, since there’s less turning traffic, no bus stops or pull ins, no taxi loading zones along the park side. The angled streets aren’t a problem — just way less cross traffic on the east side.

[dasgeh]

@Greenbelt 83405 wrote:

From DDOT:

“You’re right: Louisiana Ave is designated for a bike trail on the south sidewalk. This area is managed by the architect of the capital so any changes will need to be made in consultation with them. I believe the plan is to use the existing sidewalk and make changes to the handicap ramps – widen them and better align them with the sidewalks.”

“I believe the original idea was to use the sidewalks. But, I agree that a Cycletrack makes more or just a lot of sense. I would suggest separated Cycletrack facilities on each side of the street, though. I think, because of the numerous skewed intersections, that a two-way on the east side might be especially complicated.”

I sort of agree it would be great to have a separate lane on both sides, but I think the east side is really best to start, since there’s less turning traffic, no bus stops or pull ins, no taxi loading zones along the park side. The angled streets aren’t a problem — just way less cross traffic on the east side.

The good news is that the Architect of the Capitol is very interested in becoming more bike friendly — they have a sustainability guy who was at the National Bike Summit. So maybe there’s hope.

Closer to the Capitol and the office buildings, the big road block to getting anything done is Capitol Police.

[Greenbelt]

@dasgeh 83412 wrote:

The good news is that the Architect of the Capitol is very interested in becoming more bike friendly — they have a sustainability guy who was at the National Bike Summit. So maybe there’s hope.

Closer to the Capitol and the office buildings, the big road block to getting anything done is Capitol Police.

Do you have a name or phone number? Could put the sustainability guy in touch with Mike and Heather from DDOT.

[Greenbelt]

Here’s what we need in my opinion in the long run, an uphill/counterflow two-way lane for two blocks on Louisiana, and then a two or three block extension on the south side of D Street. The DDOT master plan indicates shared use trails where the sidewalks are, but I’d rather replace the parking lane and leave plenty of sidewalk space.

There’s already plenty of senate staff parking, and the new garage at Union Station provides enough room for tourist/visitor parking.

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[UrbanEngineer]

I saw a rider yesterday take the Pennsylvania ave bike lane heading east at the intersection with Constitution to the South sidewalk on Constitution. He did this during the left turn cycle for traffic, which to him I guess made sense because he was turning left. In reality, he was lucky he wasn’t obliterated by the two lanes of turning traffic with the green arrow that he crossed right in front of. The intersection of Constitution and Pennsylvania is not set up for turning bicyclists, even though when looking at a map that seems to be the most direct path to take from the penn bike lane to Union station. They definitely left a lot of room for improvement in this area.

[Author]

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