Louisiana Avenue Cycletrack Meeting Wed 10/24

[Judd]

Hope people can come out Wednesday night to see plans for a protected bike lane on Louisiana Avenue which would help connect the Pennsylvania Ave Cycletrack to the First St Cycletrack. Open house from 6-7 and a community meeting from 7-9. I’m hoping Eleanor Holmes-Norton is there in person so that I can thank her for continuing to champion this project despite significant resistance from the US Senate’s Sergeant at Arms.

From WABA:
After more than three years working to fill a gap in Downtown DC’s protected bike lane network on Louisiana Ave, the project is moving forward. Better yet, preliminary plans are done and ready to share!

On Wednesday, October 24, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is hosting a community meeting and panel discussion with the District Department of Transportation to introduce this project to the public and get feedback on current plans. This is our chance to stand up as a community and say “we want this project!”

http://www.waba.org/blog/2018/10/lets-talk-about-louisiana-ave-protected-bike-lanes/

[dbehrend]

Thank you, Judd. I regret missing this. The bag restrictions for the Capitol and traveling the next day made it challenging. Aside from monitoring the WABA advoacy alerts, are there any actions we should be taking?

[Judd]

@dbehrend 182304 wrote:

Thank you, Judd. I regret missing this. The bag restrictions for the Capitol and traveling the next day made it challenging. Aside from monitoring the WABA advoacy alerts, are there any actions we should be taking?

Thanks for the poke about the results of the meeting.

Here’s some live tweeting that captured the meeting really well: https://twitter.com/bryan_in_dc/status/1055234202302582784

The meeting was really well attended by Bike DC. There’s no public constituency that’s negatively impacted by this project so there wasn’t any opposition voices in the crowd.

My thoughts:
1. There’s three concepts. DDOT’s preferred concept is a cycletrack in the center like Pennsylvania Ave. This is also my preferred option despite it being a bit challenging for making turns.
2. Eleanor Holmes Norton (EHN) is an incredible champion for this project and continues to push the Architect of the Capitol (AoC) and the Senate Sergeant At Arms (SAA) to move the project forward. She’s also wicked funny and a bit sardonic.
3. The AoC and SAA both remain a barrier to the project. EHN invited both of them to the meeting. The SAA declined the day before. The AoC sent a letter stating that the project was a good idea but then listing 8 reasons why it couldn’t be done currently. Neither sent a staffer.
4. The SAA is still resistive because of the loss of some surface parking spaces. Both the AoC and SAA have to be on board because the project would require granting an easement to DDOT because Louisiana Ave is owned by the AoC and not DDOT. If I recall correctly, Sam from DDOT said that in what part of the area, the AoC owned the street, DDOT owned the curb and NPS owned the sidewalk.
5. EHN is sending another letter demanding that the project begin in 2019.

Based on the AoC and SAA not attending, I don’t feel very optimistic. Personally, my next step is to send a thank you letter to EHN’s office to encourage her to keep championing the project and support anything WABA asks for as far as a campaign. I’m not sure if there’s anything else that we can do to move the needle since the barrier are two individuals I wouldn’t know how to reach to try to influence them.

[LhasaCM]

https://dccommutetimes.com/news/article/protected-bike-lanes-planned-for-louisiana-avenue-connecting-penn-ave-and-m has another summary of the meeting, as well as links to the slide deck and the design mockups. A couple of thoughts on top of Judd’s update above:

@Judd 182310 wrote:

…

4. The SAA is still resistive because of the loss of some surface parking spaces. Both the AoC and SAA have to be on board because the project would require granting an easement to DDOT because Louisiana Ave is owned by the AoC and not DDOT. If I recall correctly, Sam from DDOT said that in what part of the area, the AoC owned the street, DDOT owned the curb and NPS owned the sidewalk.[/quote]

Yeah – one of the quirks about living in DC is the jurisdictional challenges. Louisiana Ave was not an original L’Enfant street but was created out of the Capitol Grounds when Union Station was built, which is why it’s owned by the AoC. Sam then contrasted it with the even more complicated status of Pennsylvania Ave NW where DC owns curb-to-curb, but the NPS owns the sidewalks.

@Judd 182310 wrote:

Based on the AoC and SAA not attending, I don’t feel very optimistic. Personally, my next step is to send a thank you letter to EHN’s office to encourage her to keep championing the project and support anything WABA asks for as far as a campaign. I’m not sure if there’s anything else that we can do to move the needle since the barrier are two individuals I wouldn’t know how to reach to try to influence them.

I agree that a letter to EHN’s office is a great next step. One other thought I had and have been mulling over was to get my mom to send a letter to her representative and senators (in Wisconsin – so both of the current senators are on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee) about the importance of this connection for everyone’s constituents who visit the nation’s capital, as well as to the safety and needs of her granddaughter who lives here Given the upcoming election and turnover in committee assignments, this is something that may make more sense for January when it’s a bit clearer who has what pull in this area.

[dbehrend]

Thank you, Judd and LhasaCM. The summaries and suggestions are helpful. Maybe a writing campaign in January would help.

[Judd]

I’m hoping that DDOT puts the materials from the meeting online. I couldn’t find a project page.

There was also an ABC7 news story featuring someone we all know and love: https://wjla.com/news/local/cyclists-review-proposed-changes-to-louisiana-avenue-in-northwest-dc

[dbehrend]

The Washington Post had an article on the Louisiana Avenue cycletrack :

The District’s long road to building a half-mile bike lane leads to the U.S. Capitol
https://wapo.st/2F2a1K3

Sam Zimbabwe, who’s leaving DDOT to become Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation, anticipated having a plan that Congress agrees with, but no construction, in 2019.

[LhasaCM]

@dbehrend 184557 wrote:

The Washington Post had an article on the Louisiana Avenue cycletrack :

The District’s long road to building a half-mile bike lane leads to the U.S. Capitol
https://wapo.st/2F2a1K3

Sam Zimbabwe, who’s leaving DDOT to become Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation, anticipated having a plan that Congress agrees with, but no construction, in 2019.

It was an odd article; it almost read to me as if it was written shortly after the meeting, but they forgot to publish it (or were saving it for a slower news day) and then put it out without going back to correct it. For example: no mention of Zimbabwe’s departure, or how AoC Ayers retired around Thanksgiving.

[dbehrend]

@LhasaCM 184572 wrote:

It was an odd article; it almost read to me as if it was written shortly after the meeting, but they forgot to publish it (or were saving it for a slower news day) and then put it out without going back to correct it. For example: no mention of Zimbabwe’s departure, or how AoC Ayers retired around Thanksgiving.

I agree. I got the impression that this, the article on the Bicycle Beltway, and the article on the Long Bridge, were all in some queue waiting for a slow news day.

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