L St commuters–

[Terpfan]

I feel bad for you all. I’ve been driving this week as I’ve come down with my second cold in one month (I go all winter and am fine, then boom, hit twice in a month, boo) and I had to go downtown last night during rush hour. On L St, I counted a dozen vehicles driving down the cycletrack. One Silver Cab (#974) literally went at least three blocks down the lane and almost took down a cyclist. I couldn’t catch up to say something and am trying to figure out the DC Cab Commissions website on how to complain. But, wow, I just feel for you all! Not to mention I saw a cop sitting in MPD squad suv across L St while at least half of these flagrant issues occurred and of course they did nothing. Once I knock down this cold, maybe I’ll spend an evening chilling out at the edge of the L St cycletrack and then blocking cars anytime they try driving down it because I was floored seeing the cycletrack so flagrantly flaunted and by people who clearly knew better.

Topic

[83b]

@dasgeh 82162 wrote:

Seriously, STOPPING RUNNING REDS.

So far this Spring I’ve been impressed by the number of people I see taking all sorts of precautions–helmets, lights, hi-viz clothing, etc–who then do stuff that is CRAZY RECKLESS. Like stuff that 14 year old me with a BMX bike wouldn’t have even thought about.

At least when they (inevitably) get tagged the WTOP/DCist stories will note how careful they were being, what with their safety gear and all.

[UrbanEngineer]

The width of the lane is too inviting to drivers. I’d like to see the lane not as wide so motor vehicles could not fit, but something would have to be done to accommodate the loading zones like the one in front of the hotel between 18th and 19th and something would also have to be done to accommodate snow plows (maybe get smaller snow plows?). I also see very little benefit to bicyclists and drivers having that mixing zone. It works fine when there’s minimal traffic but during rush hour, nobody likes it. Every single day the mixing zones are backed up into the traffic lanes forcing bicyclists to weave in/out of the cars. I’d like to hear DDOTs reasons why it can’t be installed the way the 15th street lane is.

[Greenbelt]

@UrbanEngineer 82218 wrote:

The width of the lane is too inviting to drivers. I’d like to see the lane not as wide so motor vehicles could not fit, but something would have to be done to accommodate the loading zones like the one in front of the hotel between 18th and 19th and something would also have to be done to accommodate snow plows (maybe get smaller snow plows?). I also see very little benefit to bicyclists and drivers having that mixing zone. It works fine when there’s minimal traffic but during rush hour, nobody likes it. Every single day the mixing zones are backed up into the traffic lanes forcing bicyclists to weave in/out of the cars. I’d like to hear DDOTs reasons why it can’t be installed the way the 15th street lane is.

Agreed. Make it two way, protected with curb, curb cuts at driveway entrances, green left arrows (with bike stop) for high volume left turn areas.

I think their main priority is getting M street in place and seeing if the parallel one-way lanes work for a year or two before making any changes. I get it.

But I still think that two way fully protected tracks are best. That’s the way they work in Montreal, and they work well.

[jrenaut]

I think they’re pretty limited in what they can do because of the high volume of turning traffic. And having a contraflow lane on a road with a lot of stop lights is a huge pain. That’s why I don’t use the 15th St cycletrack going south – you stop at EVERY LIGHT, and usually right at the beginning of the cycle, so you ride two blocks then wait 40 seconds, over and over and over.

I’d like to see them narrow the lane down everywhere except the loading zones and mixing zones, put in a curb, and then enforce the laws. You can’t tell me having a police officer walking up and down L St all day writing tickets wouldn’t cover his/her salary with the ticket revenue.

[dasgeh]

@UrbanEngineer 82179 wrote:

You won’t be alone one out there defending the bike lane. Saw a guy blocking a driver from abusing it just tonight.

http://youtu.be/AA_gvpUGUlo

Awesome video. If you got the driver’s plates, you could try reporting it on the seeclickfix app for DC, or by calling the DC non emergency number. My understanding is that if there are reports of dangerous driving, police (at least Arlington and FFX PD) sometimes write or visit the offender to just talk about it.

[GuyContinental]

Watching that video led me to this one in NYC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlrqgC7j18

Wow- the cyclist is pretty nuts (and really moving) but the sheer quantity craziness he encounters is staggering.

[Terpfan]

@PotomacCyclist 82189 wrote:

This might help to keep cars out of the cycle track. Add bollards on top too.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5188[/ATTACH]

https://twitter.com/DDOTDC/status/453940040897269761/photo/1

One would hope.

I think if they make it a little narrower at the intersections then it will keep a lot of the traffic out. And maybe if they try some form of enforcement like writing the tickets. I read the parking folks ticket revenues are down 30% so I suggest they be allowed to ticket folks for moving violations in bike lanes since technically any car in there has violated a parking and moving violation. Of course I’m sure this is next to impossible and a pipe dream.

[Author]

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