Photo by Ashly Higgins.

Update: DDOT has no immediate plans to install barriers between 13th and 15th streets along Pennsylvania Avenue, according to acting communications director Keith St. Clair. “The park-its are a good tool for 3rd to 13th St. But what works there isn’t necessarily best for down the street,” he said via email. “DDOT’s engineers are examining multiple proposals, accident data, signalization, benefit analysis and strategies” to determine what safety improvements should be made for the additional blocks. If park-its are found to be the best solution, DDOT will “move quickly” to install them, St. Clair said, but he declined to give a time frame for completing the analysis.

Original:

Some people who ride bikes are taking safety matters into their own hands—well into their whole bodies, really—this afternoon.

As commuters whoosh by on Pennsylvania Avenue this afternoon, a group of bike activists plans to form a human chain to protect riders between 13th and 15th Streets.

While Pennsylvania Avenue has long been a harrowing experience for cyclists who face the dangers of illegal U-turns, they say that things have improved along much of the road as a result of barriers that the District Department of Transportation installed this year. But the wheel stops, called Park-its, only stretch between 3rd and 13th streets.

DDOT is holding off on installing the barriers between 13th and 15th streets pending the results of a study, WAMU reported in May.

But Sam Wetzel, the event’s organizers argues that isn’t good enough. “There’s no reason to delay installation that is going to be effective in stopping illegal u-turns,” she said, accusing DDDOT of “using study as an excuse to avoid taking action.”

DDOT did not return calls for comment about their plans for the blocks that don’t currently have the barriers.

More than 40 people have said they plan to join the chain, which is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.