Via DDOT.
Proposed regulations would limit cycling on roads with streetcar tracks in D.C.
As the city is preparing to begin passenger service along H Street and Benning Road NE by the end of the year, the District Department of Transportation has released a set of proposed regulations that, as DCist noted last week, establish hours of operation and other rules.
But as the Washington Area Bicyclist Association said today to members, the regulations propose limiting cycling on roads where tracks have been installed. To some, the limitations could be seen as an effective ban.
“DDOT’s proposed streetcar regulations, released last week, prohibit ‘riding a bicycle within a streetcar guideway, except to cross the street,” WABA’s Colin Browne said in a blog post today. “On H St Northeast, that guideway is the entire street, effective banning biking on this popular corridor. This is a problem.”
According to DDOT, the “guideway” doesn’t encompass all four lanes. Here’s the definition, as written in the regulations: “The area where streetcars operate, including the streetcar track, overhead wiring, and the airspace between, above, and surrounding the streetcar tracks through which the streetcar or its appurtenances will pass while operating on the streetcar track.”
In a Facebook post on the regulations, DDOT said cycling would “only be prohibited in the area of the concrete surrounding the rails (effectively the lane the streetcar is running in).” That means cycling would be banned on the “outside lanes on H Street and the inside lanes on Benning Rd, not the entire street right-of-way.”
Even if the proposed regulations only limit where cyclists can ride to the lanes on the corridor without tracks, Greg Billing, WABA’s advocacy coordinator, said “it’s not a great precedent” for the rest of the proposed system.
Billing said WABA suggested during an earlier stage of the process that DDOT make space for cyclists on H Street and Benning Road, a suggestion that wasn’t adopted and sent cyclists up on the narrow sidewalks. “It’s not a pleasant experience to ride on H Street,” Billing said, noting the many crashes cyclists have suffered.
Indeed, while tire-in-track crashes may have scared some cyclists away from the corridor, Billing said there are people skilled enough to use the road safely: “They shouldn’t be banned.” Capital Bikeshare bikes — there are five stations on H Street NE alone — also feature tires that are fat enough to avoid getting stuck in the tracks, he said.
“DDOT’s number one priority is the safety of all modes of transportation, including bicycles, who share H Street,” a statement posted to the agency’s Facebook page reads. “To that end, G and I Streets now have contraflow bicycle lanes, a safer alternative to H Street and designed to keep cyclists away from streetcar tracks.”
While Billing said WABA is “glad” DDOT installed the contraflow bike lanes on G and I Street NE, “that doesn’t improve bicycling on H Street.”
“You have to get to H Street somehow” to reach businesses, he said. “We want them to make it a safer place to access.”
“We have concerns about all kinds of vehicles impeding the travel of the streetcar, and taken as a whole, the regulations address that,” DDOT said in a statement. “We are looking for constructive ways to address this concern while not minimizing the impact to all users of the street. What were shared are (proposed) regulations for which we are seeking public comment. Constituents have until Sept. 27 to weigh in.”
Comments can be emailed to publicspace.policy@dc.gov or submitted through WABA here.
The Transportation and Public Space Committee of ANC 6C, which represents the area, will take up the issue at a Thursday meeting. ANC 6C04 commissioner Mark V.S. Eckenwiler said he plans to oppose the “ban.”
