Bike lanes are just parking spaces

[streetsmarts]

@excimer34 177584 wrote:

DC created beautiful new bike lanes on L’Enfant Plaza SW (aka L’Enfant Promenade). The only problems is that tour buses stay parked in the bike lanes all day. There are clearly posted signs stating “No parking or standing anytime.” I bike this road everyday and there are buses parked there everyday. In fact, I don’t even see how the city was able to paint bike lanes with the buses there all the time. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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One way I report/ complain about stuff like this is to tweet @ddotdc and others..with pics times etc.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Judd]

I am absolutely surprised by this.

[bentbike33]

I think a more effective way of establishing a bike lane in this area would have been to install parking meters.

Even if the buses weren’t always there, these bike lanes are kind of pointless since the arrows (which you can’t see because they are under the buses) indicate the bike lanes are unidirectional in the same direction as the motor vehicles are supposed to travel. There is very little traffic on this road even during the height of evening and morning rush hours so it is perfectly safe to take the lane. Also, since there is no curb cut in the median at the top of the hill for as far as the eye can see, if you don’t like to hoist your bike up the extra-large granite curb, you’ll want to use the lovely new curb cut in the median just west of 9th street and go the wrong way in the bike lane to get to the other lovely new curb cut at the end of the Case Bridge ramp.

[jrenaut]

@bentbike33 177591 wrote:

Even if the buses weren’t always there, these bike lanes are kind of pointless

Those bike lanes are NOT pointless. They allow DDOT to brag about how many miles of bike lanes they’ve installed without actually inconveniencing any Maryland drivers. You didn’t think bike lanes were meant to benefit cyclists, did you?

[SarahBee]

@jrenaut 177592 wrote:

Those bike lanes are NOT pointless. They allow DDOT to brag about how many miles of bike lanes they’ve installed without actually inconveniencing any Maryland drivers. You didn’t think bike lanes were meant to benefit cyclists, did you?

Those Murrland drivers… always causing problems

[Emm]

I reported this to 311, ddot, and sent a nasty gram to the tour bus company on the first day I saw it last week. When I tried to (politely) tell the tour bus driver he was parked in the bike lane he waved me off and turned his back to me quite rudely. I haven’t bothered to report it when I’ve seen it every single day since then since I’ve generally been rushed. Last night around 7 there were 3-4 buses parked in the lane.

I’ve reinstalled my bike camera, so maybe I’ll get back to reporting it daily if I have the time.

[LhasaCM]

@Emm 177599 wrote:

I reported this to 311, ddot, and sent a nasty gram to the tour bus company on the first day I saw it last week. When I tried to (politely) tell the tour bus driver he was parked in the bike lane he waved me off and turned his back to me quite rudely. I haven’t bothered to report it when I’ve seen it every single day since then since I’ve generally been rushed. Last night around 7 there were 3-4 buses parked in the lane.

I’ve reinstalled my bike camera, so maybe I’ll get back to reporting it daily if I have the time.

Daily reminders show we care. (Which reminds me – I’m a day late in sharing pictures of 4th street…)

[Emm]

@bentbike33 177591 wrote:

Also, since there is no curb cut in the median at the top of the hill for as far as the eye can see, if you don’t like to hoist your bike up the extra-large granite curb, you’ll want to use the lovely new curb cut in the median just west of 9th street and go the wrong way in the bike lane to get to the other lovely new curb cut at the end of the Case Bridge ramp.

They have crosswalks at the top of the hill spray painted on right now (I assume in preparation for permanently painting them on), and rumor has it they’ll be accompanied by curb cuts. So we’ll see…

[musclys]

Not just parking spaces. Bike lanes also are a good spot for bulk mulch deliveries (almost plowed straight into one this morning after surviving the car-door gauntlet on Yorktown Blvd and thinking I was in the clear).

[Steve O]

@bentbike33 177591 wrote:

Even if the buses weren’t always there, these bike lanes are kind of pointless since the arrows (which you can’t see because they are under the buses) indicate the bike lanes are unidirectional in the same direction as the motor vehicles are supposed to travel.

Agree. The solution here is to remove the painted bike lanes and put in giant sharrows. Traffic is both light and generally slow; this is a fine place for people on bikes and cars to mix, especially after they install the curb cuts across the median. The buses then serve as traffic calming by narrowing the roadway.

[lordofthemark]

@Steve O 177608 wrote:

Agree. The solution here is to remove the painted bike lanes and put in giant sharrows. Traffic is both light and generally slow; this is a fine place for people on bikes and cars to mix, especially after they install the curb cuts across the median. The buses then serve as traffic calming by narrowing the roadway.

For a significant portion of the year there are no buses there, and its just a very wide lane. At a very minimum you would need to clearly paint the parking spots, and even then I think they do not function that well as traffic calming when empty – that is a general problem with parking as traffic calming in places where parking demand is often light.

On the other hand I like “Cast a Giant Sharrow”.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060218/

We will build something up that hill, and break the siege – of L’Enfant Plaza?

[SarahBee]

@Emm 177599 wrote:

I reported this to 311, ddot, and sent a nasty gram to the tour bus company on the first day I saw it last week. When I tried to (politely) tell the tour bus driver he was parked in the bike lane he waved me off and turned his back to me quite rudely. I haven’t bothered to report it when I’ve seen it every single day since then since I’ve generally been rushed. Last night around 7 there were 3-4 buses parked in the lane.

I’ve reinstalled my bike camera, so maybe I’ll get back to reporting it daily if I have the time.

Jerk faces! I will do so as well. Maybe if more people complain it will help.

[Author]

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