Representatives from the media, biking community, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and Bikes Belong Foundation’s Green Lane Project met at the DowntownDC BID last week to discuss the recent success of protected bike lanes on 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue as well as details on developing bike lanes on L Street and in other areas. These bike lanes are designed, in part, to address demand for transportation in Downtown DC, which is expected to grow by 12 percent in peak hours by 2015. The lanes also address safety issues by creating a buffer zone between bicycles and traffic.
“The city’s demographics and changes in the workplace and workforce point to greater bike use,” said Richard Bradley, executive director of the DowntownDC BID. “It’s a smart travel choice. With more education and additional secure bike storage places, we are confident biking will continue to be an attractive transportation alternative.”
This past spring, DC was recognized as a city poised to be a national leader in installing protected bike lanes when it was named one of six cities to be part of Bikes Belong Foundation’s Green Lane Project. The project supports participating cities as they work to develop world-class protected bicycling networks. Protected lanes are also called green lanes or cycle tracks.
DC plans to have five miles of green lanes installed by the end of the year, including on L Street. DDOT began a roadway improvement project along L Street last week that will include installing a green lane for eastbound bicycle traffic. The lanes now appear on select Downtown DC streets. The first appeared on 15th Street north of Massachusetts Avenue three years ago and has since expanded south of 15th Street. Green lanes also exist down the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue, from the White House to the US Capitol. Keep an eye on M Street. A green lane is coming in the spring or summer of 2013, and the city is taking suggestions for other locations.
Ellen Jones, the BID’s director of Infrastructure & Sustainability; Martha Roskowski, director of Bikes Belong Foundation’s Green Lane Project; and Jim Sebastian, DDOT’s bicycle program manager, joined Bradley in sharing recent bicycling data at last week’s luncheon briefing.