M Street Cycle Track Delayed. Again.

[jabberwocky]

WWJD? Moar parking!

[Mikey]

I’m pretty sure if the world does end soon, and the rapture happens, Jesus will be riding a bike. Can you imagine traffic during the appocolypse? Jesus would recognize this are ride a sweet steel fixie. Ironically these parishoners will be left behind because their church isn’t connected to the highway to heaven with a protected bike lane.

[bobco85]

To put things in perspective, I remember hearing about one of the meetings for the M Street cycletrack where churchmembers (I’m assuming it is the same one) were outraged at the idea of losing parking in an article on GreaterGreaterWashington.

One quote that really stood out from the article is this (with emphasis added):

But the biggest issues were that the church would lose its angled parking on Sundays (which took them 3 years to get) and that no one talked to them about it until the day before.

The article can be found here: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/18898/m-street-cycle-track-keeps-improving-draws-church-anger/

While I agree that the M Street cycletrack needs to be continuous, I understand the problem that the churchmembers have with how things are being done. I hope a compromise can be found, perhaps one with temporarily (only on Sundays) removing another lane of traffic so that the bike lane can be protected and the angled parking can be kept.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@DCLiz 60972 wrote:

http://wamu.org/news/13/08/14/holdups_delay_m_street_cycle_track_three_months

I am so angry about this. This cycletrack has already been delayed for years, and now a church has succeeded in getting one block of it unprotected so that they can have their Sunday parking. As @timcraigpost commented on Twitter, “Wow. Trading 24-hr. bicycle safety for on-street, unmetered?, parking for 1 or 2 hours of Sunday service?”

I think I need to calm down and then start writing some letters.

I’d also wager that more than 50% of the congregation drives in from Md.

[chris_s]

There are HUNDREDS of parking spaces sitting empty and unused within a quarter mile of that church on Sunday…for instance the parking garage next door to the church which appears to currently be closed on Sundays. If there is such a desperate need for parking there I’m sure at least one of those nearby garages would be happy to take their money, rather than endangering cyclist lives.

[mstone]

@chris_s 61005 wrote:

There are HUNDREDS of parking spaces sitting empty and unused within a quarter mile of that church on Sunday…for instance the parking garage next door to the church which appears to currently be closed on Sundays. If there is such a desperate need for parking there I’m sure at least one of those nearby garages would be happy to take their money, rather than endangering cyclist lives.

People have given their lives to protect the ideals this country was founded on, like free parking.

[DaveK]

DDOT has a TDM program, and to not notify the church in advance and have their TDM staffers work with the church to find parking is just unfathomable. I don’t know what went on on the inside so I’m hesitant to place blame, but if no one really ever talked to the church that’s just an unbelievable mistake.

[consularrider]

@mstone 61024 wrote:

People have given their lives to protect the ideals this country was founded on, like free parking.

Actually, isn’t that their “God given” right?

[mstone]

@DaveK 61027 wrote:

DDOT has a TDM program, and to not notify the church in advance and have their TDM staffers work with the church to find parking is just unfathomable. I don’t know what went on on the inside so I’m hesitant to place blame, but if no one really ever talked to the church that’s just an unbelievable mistake.

I don’t believe it. I do believe that the church would just ignore the process.

[KelOnWheels]

@Mikey 60982 wrote:

I’m pretty sure if the world does end soon, and the rapture happens, Jesus will be riding a bike. Can you imagine traffic during the appocolypse? Jesus would recognize this are ride a sweet steel fixie. Ironically these parishoners will be left behind because their church isn’t connected to the highway to heaven with a protected bike lane.

My t-shirt agrees.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3482[/ATTACH]

[OneEighth]

I would note He appears to be riding fixed.

[Mikey]

Ain’t no carbon on that ride neither.

[DaveK]

@mstone 61037 wrote:

I don’t believe it. I do believe that the church would just ignore the process.

What I’m suggesting is that DDOT should have explained to them a year ago that because this is in the greater public interest, it is going to happen. Period. The cycletrack will be built as it should be, protected, through every block of M Street, and these are some nice folks who will help any displaced double-parkers find somewhere close by to park. But that didn’t happen, instead they decided that one morning a week of convenience trumps 24/7/365 safety for cyclists.

[DSalovesh]

@DaveK 61097 wrote:

What I’m suggesting is that DDOT should have explained to them a year ago that because this is in the greater public interest, it is going to happen. Period.

An ultimatum like that could happen at any time with no change in outcome. It won’t.

The fact that the church doesn’t believe communication was adequate is unfortunate, but the claim barely holds up since this has been in planning for almost a decade. Even without debating what they knew or when they knew it, DDOT’s role is to mediate such conflicts creatively, not to abandon whole blocks when conflicts arise. There are several options that would preserve protection and parking, not reported to be under consideration.

In addition, October/November is the perfectly wrong time to open this cycletrack. If L Street and Pa Ave are any guide many posts will be removed right after installation, not expected to return until April or later. In essence, this setback already pushes the final opening to spring 2014 – so why not use those 8-9 months to further develop a plan that keeps the fully protected full length cycletrack and addresses parking issues?

The reason, I fear, is that DDOT isn’t running this show.

[Terpfan]

That’s literally right where I work. As a neighbor, the church is generally pretty good. But that’s probably more because they’re there on the weekends when I am not (well usually not).

What really grinds me is that this whole ordeal is really about the church losing a handful of parking spots. The misconception they’re portraying is that it eliminates all the spots, but it doesn’t. During the week, the spots are all parallel parking spots along M here. It’s only when the church meets that they permit diagonal parking. And as some folks said, there are several parking garages, plenty of weekend on-street parking and the Metro isn’t far away at all.

[Author]

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