Frequent Community Concern

There seem to be very few cyclists that use Connecticut Avenue currently. Why should the neighborhood have to endure a substantial hardship to build bike lanes that few will use?

Answer

Broadly speaking, the focus on the bike lane aspect of Concept C is important for many reasons, but the paramount reason for this proposed design is to create a safer street for all users, including car drivers. Including pedestrian protections and a safe bike lane will simply better allocate scarce city resources for DC residents.

Additional Details

In Ward 3, according to DC Health Matters (link), only 37.5% of residents drove their own vehicles to work for their commute. Yet clearly the corridor design today is meant to benefit them.
For cyclists, their “Level of Traffic Stress” is greatly reduced when using a cycle track. Conn. Ave. as it exists today is an LTS4, but with the planned changes of dedicated cycling lanes with consistent physical barriers will move to an LTS1. Under LTS4 conditions, fewer than 1% of the population, those who are most dedicated and who are most physically fit, are those likely to leverage the infrastructure, which is a reasonable explanation for the currently low usage levels by cyclists observed in the DDOT existing conditions report (see pages 48-50, link).
Once installed, we will see residents 8-80 begin using this road for bike transportation. This provides adequate justification for the relatively large expansion in projected ridership from 300 to 3,000+.
Additionally the changes are not just about cycle tracks. Significant Pedestrian improvements will include
- Refuge islands in several larger intersections to provide more comfortable crossing,
- Shorter overall crossings required (from 60 feet today for the 6 lanes down to 40 feet for the remaining 4 lanes),
- HAWK signals at several high-traffic crosswalks throughout the corridor which have no lights today (including an area where Clinton Covington was recently killed by a vehicle while crossing Conn Ave., link),
- The physical barriers for the bike lanes will provide a concrete refuge for pedestrians crossing the avenue, and;
- Adjustment and or removal of some dangerous car intersection designs such as the RH split at east-bound Nebraska and Conn Ave or the split intersection of 24th and Conn. Ave.

Frequent Community Concern

Answer

Additional Details

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