TheWashCycle

July 2009 DC BAC Meeting Notes

Legislative Committee - The legislative committee has deemed Complete Streets legislation their top priority. There are many examples of this available, so they're going to work on pulling together a best practices proposal. There's no update on the change from contributory negligence to comparative negligence. they also want to see a Bicycles in Buildings ordinance similar to the one proposed in NYC. This would do more to guarantee an employee's right to bring a bike into their building (with exceptions).

They discussed the bicycle-mounted DDOT traffic enforcement program. While they're for more enforcement, there is concern that an unarmed, bicycle-mounted force will overly target cyclists and pedestrians (who will be easier to pull over) and under target drivers. They also feel that if traffic enforcement is to be increased, it's the MPD that should do it and that having the MPD enforce more traffic violations will help create more arrests for felonious crimes (many times they catch people with warrants out or who are breaking other laws at the time). They'd like to see the enforcement focus on: for drivers - 3ft. violations, failures to yield right of way, u-turns and speeding; for cyclists - wrong-way riding, riding without lights at night and red-light running.

DDOT has had their first meeting with the Traffic Control Officers (TCO) and several have expressed interest in being part of the bicycle mounted (BM) force. Some laws DDOT sees them enforcing are bike lane violations, blocking crosswalks and blocking the box. They've done 3 hour training sessions with all TCOs as part of StreetSmart. All BMTCO's would need to take the Confident City Cycling course, be issued bikes, etc... so it's still a ways off. They won't have guns.


Facilities Committee and News - The facilities committee focused on the South Capitol Street Trail. DDOT has hired Toole Design to study a lane closure along South Capitol and the installation of a bike trail in its place as well as studying the intersection changes needed. The recent opening of the Wilson Bridge has moved this to the foreground (The Post wrote about it this week), with DDOT director Klein asking about it. DDOT, NPS and PG County Parks are discussing how to create better connectivity on the MD/DC side of the bridge.

Some residents and riders who have used the newly opened Woodrow Wilson Bridge Trail, which connects pedestrians and cyclists on both sides of the Potomac River between Prince George's County and Alexandria, say that despite the hype, planners still have a ways to go to fully integrate the bridge trail into other trail networks and sites in the county.
 
"People coming across from Virginia are, like, 'Where do we go?,' " said Mark Holt of Fort Washington, coordinator of the Southern Prince George's Trails Coalition, a group advocating for bike and hiking trail expansion in south county. [WC: If you're looking for someone to talk to about this, this would be a good place to start]

Riders also say they are miffed that the 1.1-mile trail ends when approaching the National Harbor development. The asphalt pavement gives way to a seashell road covering that riders say is difficult to ride, and the path dead-ends. Cyclists are not allowed to ride along the shoreline in the development.

Rocell Viniard, a National Harbor spokeswoman, said the seashell trail was designed for pedestrians, not bikes, because of the residents and hotels on the site. Cyclists are allowed to ride along the streets at National Harbor, Viniard said.

"For a lot of cyclists, it's unpleasant" to ride, said Jim Hudnall of Fort Washington, a member of the Oxon Hill Bicycle and Trail Club. "I'd like to see it have better connections to other trails in the area."

Holt said he and other cyclists hope to see better signage that would direct riders from the bridge to historic sites and parks in Oxon Hill and Fort Washington. The trail points only to National Harbor, he said, leaving visitors crossing the bridge with few options.

The county plans to make a stronger connection between the bridge trail and the Potomac Heritage Trail, the Department of Public Works and Transportation said. The added trail section eventually would include a dedicated bike lane on Oxon Hill Road, but funding for the project has not materialized.

Laura Connelly, a planner for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, said the newly installed 700-foot-long stone dust path that runs adjacent to National Harbor's portion of the bridge trail would be easier for cyclists to ride.

DDOT also mentioned that they're in talks with NPS about putting bike parking and bike lanes on Pennsylvania Ave NW. The street belongs to NPS and so DDOT can't do it on their own. Also, DDOT believes there will be more artistic bike racks next year.

The Met Branch Trail section between NY Avenue and Franklin is underway and an update to the website is forthcoming.  The preliminary design for the next section of the trail in the queue has been sent to the FHWA for review.

[Meanwhile in Montgomery County officials are pushing for funding for the long delayed MoCo section of the Met Branch in next year's budget. The Post article has the Georgetown Branch and Metropolitan Branch Trail confused. The Georgetown Branch is the future CCT.

After preliminary designs for the Metropolitan Branch Trail, also known as the Georgetown Branch Trail, were completed three years ago, transportation officials said the project came to a halt to await a decision on the different proposed alignments for the Purple Line, a planned rapid-transit route between New Carrollton and Bethesda.

Now, with Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) set to decide soon on a Purple Line alignment and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) taking suggestions through December for the county's Capital Improvements Program for fiscal 2011-12, officials are looking to move forward.

"Now's the time to finish this while all these things are being done," said County Council member Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring), who sent a letter to the transportation department in April urging progress on the trail.]

DDOT is looking at 13 miles of possible bike lanes with the goal to get in 5 this year. Some places where lanes are being added include 11th Street NW, Eckington Place and the cycletrack on 15th St NW. WABA submitted a list of gaps in the bike lane network that they'd like to see created. DDOT usually adds bike lanes in conjunction with road repairs, but WABA feels they now need to do more 'retrofits' - adding a bike lane in without any repair. This is more expensive. Sherman Avenue will be dieted from four lanes down to 2 with a turning lane. The outside lanes will be 14 feet wide with sharrows and the sidewalks will be widened. The sharrows wil be placed outside the door zone, but away from the center of the lane.

The Bike Station RFP closes out this week. DDOT had a few parties at the pre-bid meeting (a good sign). The goal is to finish the Station by the end of August and have it occupied by the operator sometime in September. Because the door will be keycard protected, it could open for bike parking before the operator moves in - and of course the outside parking will not need an operator. You can see progress on the station here.

DDOT is still talking to Clear Channel about smartbike expansion. They also sent some of the bike team to Montreal to look at Bixi (and are considering still other options). Bixi has the advantage of being solar powerd (so no PEPCO problems) and not permanently installed. So stations could be moved around if they aren't used enough or if seasonal changes (such as one near the baseball stadium during the baseball season) warranted it, and installation is quicker. On the downside the bikes are heavier and the stations are less streamlined. Arlington is reviewing it's RFP and DDOT could just go with what they choose - saving the time and cost of doing its own. They have some sort of regional agreement on this. Arlington is pursuing $10M in federal money for regional bike share and DC would be entitled to some of that too. DDOT has several years before they need to spend the federal stimulus money they obligated for this.

After shopping around for a summer streets location (K Street, East Capitol, Kansas Avenue) DDOT, with support from NPS, is planning to do it in Fort Dupont Park. Both Fort Dupont Drive and Fort Davis Drive would be closed for one day in August. Think of it as an East of the River Beach Drive. NPS's new lead in the area is eager to find ways to get people into the parks. They'll do more than close the streets, they'll have rental bikes and maybe free pedicabs available too, for example. DDOT is hoping to do more locations next year.

Photo by Leah L. Jones -- The Gazette

New Urban Mural to Bloom in Edgewood

From a recent Press Release.

This summer, 45 DC young people will work with the non-profit public arts organization to cover a wall in the Edgewood community of Northeast DC with beautiful art and to create a new curriculum on youth leadership in public arts. The result of their work will be a 300 foot-long mural alongside the new Metropolitan Branch Trail, which will serve cyclists and pedestrians when complete. The art will also be visible from the Rhode Island Metro station.

All Aboard the Met Branch Trail

This week a ceremony featuring Mayor Adrian Fenty (seen here waving at a passing Metro train) and DDOT Director Gabe Klein was held to celebrate the beginning of construction on the next section of the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

The new construction section marks a milestone in creating a continuous trail from Catholic University to downtown DC.

The DDOT press release has some details on the trail

MBT Overview

MBT is named after the “Metropolitan Branch,” the first rail line built through the corridor by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The corridor is now home to Amtrak and Metro as well as freight lines. It is anchored by two significant railroad landmarks, Union Station and the old B & O Railroad station in Silver Spring.

Since the trail planning began in the 1990s, three segments are currently in place from New York Avenue to Union Station, 1st Street NE and John McCormack Road.

When completed, the new 1.5 mile addition to the trail will lead pedestrian and bikers over Florida Avenue, under New York Avenue and over Rhode Island Avenue, avoiding 18 lanes of heavily traveled roadway. Construction on this section, from New York Avenue to Franklin Street NE, is expected to be completed this summer.

Ultimately, the trail will connect to metro stations at New York Avenue and Union Station; as well as the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station, upon completion of a bicycle/pedestrian bridge which is planned for the site.

Director Klein pointed out that Abraham Lincoln had advocated for the railroad's completion (which finally happened in 1873) - it only feels like he advocated for the bike trail.

Dr. Gridlock mentioned the ceremony as well (though commenters cared not for his comparing it to the ICC).

Meanwhile, down at the end of the trail, the Bike Station at Union Station is nearing completion. John Lisle, a spokesman for the District Department of Transportation, says D.C. is hoping to open the hub in August.

Which couldn't come a minute too soon it seems.

When I returned [to Union Station] on Friday evening to pick [my bike] up, I found the seat had disappeared and both tires had been slashed. The worst part: I wasn't alone. During a spree of crime against cyclists, vandals punctured the tires of at least ten bikes and stole numerous seats and wheels.

So no one is watching your bike, but they have got Loudoun stop signs covered.

The new section of the Met Branch should be finished by the end of summer and maybe even by Labor Day. Over the winter they'll begin formal design of the Fort Totten section and in March of 2010 DDOT plans to break ground on the bridge from the trail to the Rhode Island Avenue Metro.

Mayor Fenty Announces the Start of Construction on Metropolitan Branch Trail

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty will announce the start of construction on a critical piece of the Metropolitan Branch Trail.  The completion of this historic milestone will create a continuous trail from Catholic University to downtown DC.

Who:   Mayor Adrian M. Fenty

Gabe Klein, Director, District Department of Transportation

When:   Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 9:15am

Where:   700 Rhode Island Ave, NE at the Rhode Island Avenue Shopping Center

Met Branch Trail Ceremony Postponed

The Metropolitan Branch Trail Milestone ceremony scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed. No new date is available yet.

Rendering of NY Avenue Bridge

Here's a rendering of the NY Avenue Bridge (not sure if it's the new one) with the Met Branch off to the left and the Washington Gateway complex - as of yet not started - prominently featured. The rendering is not from DDOT it's from the Gateway people, but I think if you look at the near end of the trees on the far side of the street you can see a little path off the bridge that appears to connect to the MBT. That would be swell.

MBT Q Street Connector

Earlier this month I repeated a story from eckington...(wbts) by stating that "the Harry Thomas Way connector of the Met Branch Trail has been dropped." This was not correct. On that post, Jay commented that DDOT had responded to him about this.

“There has been no change to that planned connection at ‘Q’ street, but it is not in the ongoing construction contract because we do not yet control that land.  I believe the developer was going to provide the land but they have yet to buy the whole parcel from PEPCO.  We will talk to PEPCO again about how to make that connection in the meantime.”

So, here is what has actually happened. Getting into our wayback machine we can go  to the year 1999* when WABA published a Draft Concept Plan for the trail.

that envisioned creation of a large urban park and greenway along the abandoned, and as yet undeveloped, CSX railroad property.

Then in 2003 DDOT did its own trail design plan, which was - I believe - completed in 2004 2005. This plan also envisioned using the CSX railroad property and creating a large park. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum - PEPCO bought the land and decided to build a substation on part of it.

So to avert catastrophe, DDOT convinced them to donate enough land for the trail. This was a $3.3M donation that took about a year to finalize, but came through last summer.PEPCO also gave DDOT permission to cross their property to work on the trail.

The land north of the PEPCO substation also belongs to PEPCO and was to be sold to Trammell Crow. Trammell Crow had agreed to then give DDOT an easement to a strip of that land that would become the Q Street connector to the MBT. Trammell Crow owns the piece of land across the street (between Harry Thomas way and Eckington Place) and the plan was to continue Q Street across that and to Harry Thomas, then the connector would continue to the trail. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum - our entire financial system nearly collapsed around us.

So Trammell Crow hasn't yet bought the land, and thus can not give an easement to DDOT. PEPCO doesn't want to give the land to DDOT because it will make the whole lot less valuable. As originally planned, Trammell Crow would be able to build a building based on the FAR of the whole lot including the trail. So at present, DDOT is waiting for that real estate deal to come through. Even if it doesn't, when another one does, it will have to go through a PUD and DDOT will make sure the connector is included in any development.

In the meantime, DDOT - figuring that we've all waited long enough - will go ahead with the next section of the trail from it's terminus under the New York Avenue Bridge to R Franklin Street NE. They are holding a Milestone Ceremony (not a groundbreaking - that was held 10 years ago in 1999) for the new section on June 2nd at 10:30am at 700 Rhode Island Avenue NE. [This has changed, from the previously reported May 28th].

 

And, when the land is available, DDOT will build the Q Street Connector. 

*Try not to go back to 1989 when the trail was first proposed.

Met Branch Trail Milestone Ceremony

Has been moved from tomorrow at 10:00 am to Tuesday at 10:30 am.

New York Avenue Corridors TMP Meeting

I went to this meeting last night. I was one of three guests. There were about 9 DDOT employees and consultants. They first mentioned how surprised they were no one showed up - right, you didn't really advertise it.

Anyway, it wasn't a design meeting. All of the projects below are either designed or being built under a design build contract. The three of us had design questions, but Project Manager Ali Shakeri had few answers. He's new on the project, and that's fine, but there probably should have been someone there who did have design answers. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Traffic Management Plan (TMP) for the numerous projects they're doing. But it was high level. Mostly they gave a bit on what would be done, how many lanes would be left open and when. Their TMP was limited to one slide which listed 6 strategies. I asked about the Transportation Demand Management bullet and was told it would consist solely of informing people of the construction and other options. They did give out a website with design info (which was good), but it was a dead link (which was bad). I think I found the website they meant to send us to (good) but it doesn't have all of the projects on it (bad). We all got a free frogurt (which was good) but the frogurt was cursed (which was bad).

So, not that useful. Still I was able to glean some facts of note.

Reconstruction of Brentwood Road NE
They're resurfacing the road between T St NE and Rhode Island Avenue NE starting this August and lasting for a year. There are no bike lanes on this section now, but the Bicycle Master Plan shows them.

Me: "Will you be adding bike lanes?"
Them: "Not sure"

Replacement of 9th Street Bridge NE
See this post from a few weeks ago

Replacement of New York Avenue NE railroad bridge
So this is kind of cool. They're going to completely demolish this bridge and replace it without closing it (for cars). The bridge also holds all the electrical power mounts for the Amtrak and Marc trains that pass underneath, so they have to remove those first and build new supports. Then they tear out the two center lanes, drill new pylons - the new bridge will only have two rows of supports instead of the current five, and then rebuild the center. Then close, demolish and rebuild the four quadrants one at a time. This will all start in August and end in February 2011. They'll use the current abutments. There will be no, more direct, connection to the Metropolitan Branch Trail built (like from the sidewalk along the bridge back to the MBT between the bridge and the FedEx building or between the bridge and the yet to be built building south of NY Ave).

The pedestrian lane will be closed and I had to ask them where the detour was. It's along Florida and then up 4th street. Hopefully it will be signed.

I was told that if the Metropolitan Branch Trail opens before work is done, they will not close it, unless they "have to." So that's a big loophole. Mr. Shakeri pointed out that they actually consider the Met Branch to be part of this project but that it had no traffic implications since it isn't open yet.

The new bridge will be wider to accommodate wider sidewalks, but he didn't know how wide the sidewalks would be.

Dave Thomas Circle
This is the "virtual" Circle where Florida Ave, New York Ave and 1st Street NE meet. It has a Wendy's in the middle. I wish I came up with the name, but that's what DDOT actually calls it.

Anyway the idea is to reroute traffic so that Florida Ave and 1st street become one way around the circle - which is actually a triangle. In addition there will be new traffic signals, streetlights, crosswalks and sidewalks.

Me: "So 1st and Florida make up part of a signed bike route to Eckington Place, how will this be rerouted for northbound cyclists?"
Them: "Not sure"

Reconstruction of 1st Street NE From New York to K Street
This project is on hold because WASA has to go in and tear up the street and they want to wait for all the construction - the construction that has all the bike lanes closed - to be completed. So the NoMa bid will tell WASA when they're done, then WASA will give DDOT the green light, then they'll rebuild the road which involves a new surface, curb, gutters, sidewalks and lights.

Me: "Will the bike lanes be kept open during construction?"
Them: "We're not widening the road."
Me: "Right...but there are bike lanes there now, will they be open during construction."
Them: "DDOT is no longer adding road capacity as a general rule, so if there's room for bike lanes we add them in."
Me: "Thanks, all the design work is online right?"
Them: "Yes, at that website in the presentation."

On the upside, I don't ever drive through that area. God have mercy on your soul if you do

Met Branch Trail Milestone Ceremony

Though crews are already working to clear and prepare the Metropolitan Branch Trail right of way for paving, DDOT is planning a formal groundbreaking for May 28th at 10am Milestone Ceremony for June 2nd at 10:30am at 700 Rhode Island Avenue NE.

Also, two new murals have been painted under the Franklin Street NE overpass along the trail and more murals will be painted as work continues

Finally, I hate to bring up a bummer, but eckington... brings us the unfortunate news that the Harry Thomas Way Q Street connector of the Met Branch Trail has been dropped will not be included in this construction segment due to problems in the real estate market.