What is going on with 15th Bike Lane to Constitution Ave?

[DSalovesh]

No point to it unless they’re going to continue it all the way around the tidal basin to connect with MVT. (That should be a priority considering how many people use MVT to enter DC across the George Mason bridge. The fact that it’s not contributes to my theory that bike lanes are designed to aid drivers and not bikers, but that’s a whole other story…)

Constitution has a horrible BLOS rating (bicycle level of service), which it probably deserves due to traffic volume alone. A road diet would help, but it would have to start at Rockville and Fairfax.

Rides to/from the east should probably use Pa Ave instead.

Rides to/from the west have no great alternative at this point, which is one reason adding a crosstown track is so crucial to building out a complete facility network. (And again, the fact that it seems so politically hard to pick an east/west street or two and make the track happen adds to my paranoid theory.)

There may also be a jurisdictional issue with the roads along the Ellipse. it gets crazy somewhere around there.

Otherwise, it’s not my favorite answer, but: take the lane. That was the situation before the cycletrack, and it’s still the situation wherever we don’t have one.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@DSalovesh 18134 wrote:

Otherwise, it’s not my favorite answer, but: take the lane. That was the situation before the cycletrack, and it’s still the situation wherever we don’t have one.

This. I’ve found that if you time it right, you can a decent break in traffic and get to Constitution before cars really start jockeying to get in the right turn lane. And that stretch is relatively easy to keep up with traffic, so I haven’t had too many problems. Although drivers will try to pass you, even if you’re keeping up with traffic…I guess maybe it’s emasculating to drive behind a bike?

[jojopuppyfish]

but why is it like that? It doesn’t make sense. The lane is half finished.

[OneEighth]

Because DC gets revenue from the vendors. There have been vendors there messing up evening rush hour since long before there was a cycle track on 15th.

[Terpfan]

The easy solution is to detour into the Ellipse area right by the guard booth at PA Ave and 15th then pop back out down at 15th and Constitution. The only trick to that is making sure the Secrety Service hasn’t closed it off for some event.

It would be great if they complete the route and even took it all the way down to the MVT connector by Jefferson Memorial, but I highly doubt they will ever do that because those vendors won’t move without a fight and as mentioned, the city is making money off of them. From the city’s perspective, we don’t pay them parking tickets, they rarely ever give us other tickets and so we cost them money without necessarily providing them resources. So they’re more likely to expand cycletracks into the residential portions of the city then to connect them to cross-border commuter hotspots.

[DCLiz]

@DSalovesh 18134 wrote:

answer, but: take the lane. That was the situation before the cycletrack, and it’s still the situation wherever we don’t have one.

Gotta tell ya — I did that and had a near miss. I took the lefthand of the two travel lanes, as I was continuing straight. The lefthand lane was free of traffic, while the right lane had a long queue of cars waiting to turn right onto Constitution.

A car swerved suddenly–no signal–out of the right lane, into the left lane to cut the queue. Had I been about 6″ further along, I’d be under an SUV. Barely made it to the safety of the crosswalk then sidewalk I was shaking so bad.

So I won’t be riding on this stretch any time in the near future!

BTW — if I did something wrong or could have prevented this near miss by doing something differently, I am open to constructive suggestions. I was actually riding along expecting a car to swerve out, but it was just luck that this one missed me–he obviously hadn’t seen me at all. I think I was riding in the center or center left of the lane.

[paytonc]

@DSalovesh 18134 wrote:

No point to it…

15th south of Constitution is fine to bike in, particularly around the Washington Monument, although it needs some detangling as it gets to the Tidal Basin. (There are some interesting proposals for a new multi-use path between the Monument and the Basin as part of the Trust for the Mall’s design competition for the Sylvan Theater area.) Extending the facility south to the Mall would tie it into the existing paths/sharrows there.

After too many close calls on that stretch of 15th, I usually weasel around and take the Ellipse roads these days. The forthcoming redesign of President’s Park will move the guardhouse further from 15th and apparently reopen E Street to open pedestrian access, and kind of open the Ellipse road for what would be contraflow (northbound) cyclists.

[Terpfan]

@paytonc 18452 wrote:

15th south of Constitution is fine to bike in, particularly around the Washington Monument, although it needs some detangling as it gets to the Tidal Basin. (There are some interesting proposals for a new multi-use path between the Monument and the Basin as part of the Trust for the Mall’s design competition for the Sylvan Theater area.) Extending the facility south to the Mall would tie it into the existing paths/sharrows there.

After too many close calls on that stretch of 15th, I usually weasel around and take the Ellipse roads these days. The forthcoming redesign of President’s Park will move the guardhouse further from 15th and apparently reopen E Street to open pedestrian access, and kind of open the Ellipse road for what would be contraflow (northbound) cyclists.

The redesign by Ellipse sounds great. It would make it much easier and less of the trying to squeeze between that guard house and 15th St.

The real problem section of 15th at Maine Avenue. Beyond terrible road condition, the curb cuts, double crosswalk, right turn lane from 15th S to Maine Ave W/NW and then influx of tourists between tidal basin and Washington Monument just make it a hassle. If there is one spot they could fix, that’s what I would pick more so than the 15th St Stretch of Constitution between PA and Con.

[jojopuppyfish]

All of those vendors can easily be moved to 17th street.
So what all of you are saying is that there is currently no movement to extend the bike path to constitution ave (which is a no brainer)

[Brendan von Buckingham]

My life passed before me on the 15th Street bicycle track yesterday. I had just took F Street wb and with the green went through to the the 15th St cycle track to go north. I had gone about half a block in the track when I said to myself: what is that red O with the buckeye leaves doing in the cycle track? Why is it getting bigger? Why is it attached to the grille of a bus touring couch?

That’s right, in the cycle track I came within 10 feet and a split second of a head on collision with a tour bus.

The Ohio State bus was pulling over into the cycle track. It was rolling about 10-15 miles an hour as the driver, inexplicably, was focused on his rear view mirror and not seeing me 40 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet right in front of him.

So I stopped dead in my tracks and yelled as loud as I could. The driver looked up and veered back into the traffic lane with about 10 feet to spare.

I almost never use cycle tracks. I think I’m going back to my vehicularist comfort zone where it’s safe.

[Greenbelt]

Truly protected cycletracks have curbs or hardened (car-proof) bollards. The 15th street and PA ave tracks in DC are welcome spaces, but not fully protected.

[americancyclo]

are there not bollards on 15th and F?

as an aside, the 15th st tracks are inadequate in my opinion. like riding in the gutter.

[Author]

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