The District Department of Transportation last week proposed rules that would make it illegal for any vehicle to stop in a bike lane, even in instances where it’s currently allowed (like when rideshare vehicles are dropping off or picking up passengers).
The new rules would prohibit “stopping, standing, parking, passenger loading and unloading, and other obstructions of bicycle lanes,” according to a DDOT press release announcing the proposal. It’s already illegal for cars to drive in bike lanes, but current rules allow vehicles to pick up or drop off passengers in a bike lane. The new rule would allow vehicles into bike lanes only when they’re about to turn into an intersection, a driveway, an alley, or a parking space.
The proposal was announced as a part of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2024. That goal has seemed far out of reach over the last year: 2018 saw a 13 percent uptick in traffic deaths from 2017, with 34 fatalities. Nineteen pedestrians—including three cyclists and one scooter rider—eight motorcyclists, and seven people riding in cars were killed in the District last year. The city has been rolling out several proposals in an attempt to keep pedestrians in particular safer, including more bike lanes and slower speed limits. The agency has also banned right turns on red at 100 intersections, and increased pedestrians’ walk time at more than 90 intersections.
These new proposed rules ban vehicles from entering bike lanes “to avoid conflict with other traffic,” or “to load or unload passengers or freight.” In what is certainly a shoutout to rideshare vehicles and taxis, DDOT specifies: “These proposed rules apply to all vehicles, including vehicles for hire.”
Natalie Delgadillo