Penn Ave Zebras Are Endangered; Park-its to Come

[bobco85]

Interesting news on the Pennsylvania Ave cycletrack: DDOT will be removing the zebras because they were not very effective and replacing them with park-its like the ones currently on the 1st Ave NE cycletrack.

Here’s the article I got this news from: http://wamu.org/news/14/07/07/ddot_abandons_zebras_designed_to_stop_illegal_u_turns_in_pennsylvania_avenue_cycle_track

For more information on park-its: http://www.gnrtech.com/parking_curb.php

According to the article, the park-its are 6 feet long, will be installed between 15th St NW and Constitution Ave, and will be spaced 8 feet apart. The plan currently is for park-its to be installed along the PA Ave cycletrack and L St cycletrack by the end of summer, but I did not see anything more specific. From the manufacturer’s website, the warranty for park-its is 3 years for the rubber stop and 1 year for the striping.

I think this will be great. The zebras were not installed properly (15 feet spaced apart is almost twice the recommended distance of 8 feet by the manufacturer) and were pretty useless. However, I do hope that the park-its are staggered on either side of the cycletrack because I think that having a gap of 8 feet would be enough of an invitation for some drivers to still try to turn through the cycletrack.

A fitting quote from the WAMU article to show the situation at hand:

As this reporter interviewed bicycle commuter Dave Salovesh at the corner of 12th and Pennsylvania Monday afternoon, within a span of 20 seconds first a delivery van and then a cab driver made illegal U-turns over the zebras and through the cycle track. The cab managed to violate the crosswalk at the end of the block, too.

Topic

[dasgeh]

How did the cab violate the crosswalk?

[jrenaut]

I was talking to the reporter, Martin Di Caro, on Twitter, and he says MPD claims they’ve written 700 tickets for u-turns since January. I find that really, really hard to believe. I’m in the cycletrack almost every morning during rush hour then 3 days a week around 2pm and 2 days around 5pm. I have seen what might have been a u-turn ticket a grand total of one time. Although I suppose it’s certainly possible that one officer in an hour or two could have written that many on just about any day of the week on any block of PA Ave….

[jrenaut]

@dasgeh 89685 wrote:

How did the cab violate the crosswalk?

This is a family-friendly forum!

[Subby]

Can’t imagine the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts is going to be all that psyched about Park-Its.

[cyclingfool]

@jrenaut 89687 wrote:

This is a family-friendly forum!

You beat me to the punch.

@Subby 89688 wrote:

Can’t imagine the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts is going to be all that psyched about Park-Its.

They might even feel violated.

[83b]

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Unfortunately, however, the parkits are already showing signs of durability issues where they’re installed on the First ST cycletrack.

[Phatboing]

This is just me being grr angry cyclist, but why not proper curbs, like there are for tiny parts of M street (is it M I’m thinking of?)? A barrier that’d damage your car sounds like a pretty decent way to deter u-turns.

[kcb203]

@Phatboing 89701 wrote:

This is just me being grr angry cyclist, but why not proper curbs, like there are for tiny parts of M street (is it M I’m thinking of?)? A barrier that’d damage your car sounds like a pretty decent way to deter u-turns.

Anything on Penn has to be removable for the Inaugural Parade every four years.

[Phatboing]

@kcb203 89764 wrote:

Anything on Penn has to be removable for the Inaugural Parade every four years.

Ah. I claim ignorance an account of being in DC for just the one election cycle.

[mstone]

@kcb203 89764 wrote:

Anything on Penn has to be removable for the Inaugural Parade every four years.

If they can remove traffic lights, they can remove safety barriers.

[jrenaut]

They really should move the stupid Inaugural Parade to an underground bunker on a green screen so they can show DC as it really is – a magical land where little red, white, and blue butterflies land on the President’s lapel as he or she moves tranquily through the city, waving to the adoring masses with their miniature American flags and their sense of patriotism burning in their hearts.

That way the President is safe from ZOMFG TERRORISTS and we can have a PA Ave that works for all modes of transportation.

[Bill on Capitol Hill]

How about spacing them zero feet apart? Emergency vehicles could still make U-turns at the intersections.

[Mikey]

Wouldn’t this work?

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[83b]

@Mikey 90202 wrote:

Wouldn’t this work?

Frankly, I’m not sure even the visibly armed man could deter the typical DC cabbie from swinging across the street to nab a fare.

[dbb]

@mstone 89767 wrote:

If they can remove traffic lights, they can remove safety barriers.

But the upside is that we get the cycle track repaved with greater frequency than any other bike path in America!

[Author]

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