A showcase example for Federal promotion of special bicycle facilities in the USA has been laid down on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, with bike lanes extending between the Capitol and the White House. It’s quite a show, but it didn’t turn out exactly as planned.
Well, on with the show. On June 7, 2010 — as described in a press release and videos — [Revised version as of 2016 without photo but with link to photo gallery] [Article announcing the event] [Version of article as of August, 2016] [Press release] League of American Bicyclists President Andy Clarke, Representative James Oberstar (D-MN), NBA basketball star Caron Butler and the Crown Prince of Denmark were out on Pennsylvania Avenue expressing their enthusiasm for the bike lanes, riding bicycles supplied by Specialized, a major American bicycle supplier. Why the Crown Prince? American bicycle facilities advocates hold Denmark up as an example. Why industry involvement? Because the industry sees special facilities for urban cycling as the key element in propelling the next wave of bicycle sales. Why politicians? Because public funding would have to pay for the facilities. Why Caron Butler? I don’t know! [Update: the blog post and press release indicate that Butler funded a bicycle giveaway program for children.]
Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes, May 11, 2010
But, in its press release, the League of American Bicyclists borrowed a basketball expression, describing the Pennsylvania Avenue project as a “slam dunk.”
This wasn’t the first praise for the project. A month earlier, on May 12, the photo at the right appeared in a message sent to an e-mail list of the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking (a consortium of state and local advocacy groups) among other lists. The iconic bicyclist is riding off into the sunrise, toward the Capitol. In the background, tourist buses queue for their first run of the day. Accompanying text, by League of American Bicyclists board member Tim Young, reads:
I was just in Washington and rode the new Pennsylvania Ave Bike Lanes, so fun the paint was still drying. Awesome to ride from the White House on one end to Congress on the other, and have such huge dedicated space for bikes. You have to ride it!
Center lane was an unexpected design for me, but it works if you follow the signals and signs. Its casual riding, so much room and buffer, and the road is not that busy for its size, I understand about 30,000 ADT. You can see from this photo the massive bus use, so the curb lane is full of conflicts. The center rides fine. The only unhappy campers were taxi drivers wanting to make U turns mid block.
Photo: Mike Tongour, Bikes Belong lobbyist, rides towards Capital Hill.
(Bikes Belong is a bicycle industry lobbying organization which, among other efforts, lends substantial financial support to the League.)
Young may, however, have spoken too soon about the ample width of the bike lanes. They had been installed over the weekend of May 1 and 2; promptly on Monday, May 3, the Mid-Atlantic Division of the American Automobile Association issued a press release suggesting that they would worsen traffic congestion. (That press release is no longer available on the AAA Web site, but I have made it available.) It has in turn been widely criticized by bicycling advocates, for example here, and the criticism has been echoed in some media outlets, for example, here and here. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association, the local bicyclists’ advocacy group, asked its members to support the lanes, here.
Bicycling advocates pointed out that Pennsylvania Avenue was already relatively lightly traveled, as the blocks nearest the White House had been permanently closed to motor traffic following the 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. An AAA poll, cited in the press release, indicated that only 20% of members would feel compelled to become bicycle commuters if traffic congestion worsened. The bicycling advocates turned this finding on its head: 20% is a higher bicycling mode share than in any US city. Copenhagen’s bicycle mode share is hardly any larger, though its bicycle-to-work/school mode share is around 37%.
On May 20, the Washington Post reported that changes in the lanes were in the works. A quote:
Gabe Klein, director of the Department of Transportation, called to clarify that the delay in the opening of the bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue might not result in the lanes growing tighter.
Klein disclaimed bowing to any pressure and said the lanes needed to be “redesigned” to enhance the safety of bicyclists.
The article also described a Bike to Work Day rally to be held the next morning in support of the lanes and to be addressed by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland, Oregon).
Two weeks later, on June 7, Clarke, Oberstar, the Crown Prince and NBA basketball star Caron Butler were out in the bike lanes for their media event. Clarke returned to his office to describe the project as a “slam dunk.” In the light of the proposed changes, this event can be construed as support of the project in the face of a threat.
Slam dunk indeed. It turned out that bicyclists were slammed, and dunked.
On the next day, June 8, the Post published an article describing the planned modifications. Travel lanes that had been converted to bike lanes were to be restored, and the bike lanes moved to the median (growing tighter, in spite of what Mr. Klein had said). The article reports that the AAA applauded this change, while the Washington Area Bicyclist Association expressed concerns about conflicts between bicyclists and pedestrians.
The changes were made. On June 22, the lanes officially opened. On July 3, independent journalist Matt Johnson rode the lanes and took photos. He wrote an article and posted his photos on Flickr. He gave anyone permission to use them, with attribution. I thank him.
The title of Jphnson’s article, “Pennsylvania Avenue Bike Lanes Still have a Few Flaws“, suggests that the lanes had been improved. The contents of the article and the photos show quite the opposite. The space for bicyclists had been significantly reduced, and bicyclists were thrown into conflict with pedestrians at intersections.
Here’s a photo of the bike lanes, looking west across 9th Street NW, taken in mid-May. The layout is already rather strange, with turning bicyclists — including right-turning bicyclists — directed to merge left. The right-turning bicyclists have to re-cross the stream of through-traveling bicyclists to get to the crosswalk which they are supposed to use.
Bike lanes at 9th St. NW, mid-May, 2010
Below is another photo which Johnson took at the same location on July 3. (You may click on either photo for a larger view.)
Bike lanes at 9th St. NW, July 3, 2010
The space between the two lanes of opposite-direction bicycle traffic is gone — the available width is indeed tight if the lanes are to carry any substantial volume of bicycle traffic. But the intersections are weirdest of all. Through-traveling bicyclists now ride up and over the median refuge where pedestrians wait. The bike lanes are now immediately adjacent to the black, handlebar-snagging bollards that protect the traffic-signal poles. Turning bicyclists have it stranger yet: they are aimed straight at the traffic signal at the center of the median.
The one change that anyone could contend is a safety feature is the row of flex posts between each bike lane and the adjacent travel lane, intended to keep motorists from encroaching into the bike lane. Safety feature? Well, maybe. A flex post is harmless to a car, but it can easily take down a bicyclist.
A search of the League’s e-mail blasts and blog turned up blog posts responding to the AAA press release [version as of August, 2016, without photo] and reporting on the opening celebration [version as of August, 2016 without embedded photo but with link to photo gallery] for the reconfigured bike lanes on June 22, as well as the “slam dunk” post and a couple of others featuring the Crown Prince, but no mention of the redesign. Comments on the redesign turn up several times in a record of a live online chat with Washington Area bicyclist Association Executive director Shane Farthing. (Search on “Pennsylvania” inside the post to find them.)
Enough for now. This article is intended as a brief history. I’ve addressed technical issues only to the extent necessary to move the history along. I’ll be addressing them in detail in another post.
[Update: I have posted a video of a ride on these bike lanes, with narrative description. It addresses technical issues.]
Also see Keri Caffrey’s videos of Washington, DC infrastructure.
John–
Thanks for putting up information on this mess. Whenever they get away from treating cyclists as drivers, they make a mess–almost always a dangerous one. This is a good example.
John, your story is a little garbled and inaccurate. The event with the League, the Crown Prince and Congressman Oberstar (not Blumenauer) was June 7th, not July 7th. Motivation for the ride might just have been to try and preserve the cycle lanes as they were originally installed by drawing attention to their popularity and ensuring they got a positive reception. The changes made since have definitely compromised their utility and comfort. As for the “slam dunk” comment…I suspect that might have had something to do with the fact that NBA basketball star Caron Butler was also on the ride. It’s a media thing.
@cycletracker
Thanks for the clarifications and corrections. I’ll amend the post accordingly.
I have now amended the post, and added a couple of references to the Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s actions concerning this project.
“cycletracker” is Andy Clarke, the League’s President. He was there, he took part and he saw it all. I thank him for helping to make this a better report.
Additional information as I am attending the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas, end of September 2010.
According to Andy Clarke, it was the Mayor of DC who ordered the changes in the project, and they occurred because of objections largely from taxi drivers. Something that did not happen, Clarke reports, was enforcement against illegal parking by buses and taxis in the rightmost travel lanes. This would have prevented congestion. Clarke confirmed his opinion that the project was seriously compromised.
Congressman Blumenauer, on the other hand, responding to my question following his speech in favor of PeopleforBikes, said that he had always ridden in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue — he was often in a hurry — and that he did not think that the project was seriously compromised.
I roundly dislike this bike lane for numerous reasons. Here are a few:
— It teaches cyclists that the normal rules of the road don’t matter, and can be disobeyed on a whim. NO OTHER vehicle operator is ever told this. Other vehicle operators are always told to turn left from the left side, right from the right side, let faster traffic pass on your left, etc. Always. By all traffic control devices. This bike lane tells you “make up your own traffic law wherever you want. Hell, we did it!”
— The thought of a bicyclists with 20th percentile skills froggering his way from the curb, or a side street, to this lane, scares me.
— “Stop, wait, and turn here” instructions have historically had miserable compliance rates.
— Most bicyclists are very awkward at starting, stopping, dismounting, mounting, slow speed sharp turns, and riding slowly (below, say, seven mph). This bike lane requires all of those maneuvers. Frequently.
— It miserably complicates everyone’s left turns and right turns. It adds Rube Goldberg fixes to solve the problems caused by the complication.
— Since this bike lane was added, they’ve put parking next to it, to block taxis from making U-turns and hooking bicyclists. Before the bike lane was there, taxis could make U turns safely, if not legally. Now the road is less useful, adding to trip times, fuel consumption, congestion & pollution.
— Think of the opportunity cost. The millions this cost could have taught Cycling Savvy to thousands of people.
— Its genesis was political chest-beating. I think it was Congressman Earl Blumenauer who gave a speech about how he wanted a bike lane from the Capitol to the White House. I hate political chest-beating, from both liberals and conservatives.
— A bike lane like this was on the main drag in Minneapolis for several years. They found it didn’t work well and took it out — and then, a couple years later, this one appeared. I don’t buy the “oh, but these local conditions are different” argument. That argument applies to some design aspects, but not the fundamental rules of the road, nor to the operating characteristics and limitations of bicycles and their operators.
About the Hennepin Avenue bike lanes: http://www.bikexprt.com/bikepol/minneapolis/hennepin.htm
DC’s Pennsylvania Avenue bike lane may be sui generis. I can’t imagine another road appropriate for this sort of facility, but I think it works here for a number of reasons.
When we first used it (in pouring rain !!!) I thought: It’s gonna take a lot of work to keep ourselves safe. As we proceeded, though, I was impressed by signalization at each intersection that offered orderly cooperation.
Being in the middle of the road (more about this later) makes it easier to see and be seen. Cyclists who obey traffic signals will be fine.
When making turns, cyclists need to practice “pedestrian behavior” (in this case, go slowly and confirm that other traffic is yielding). Cyclists are guided to turn onto huge crosswalks that connect fairly easily to door-zone bike lanes on most cross streets. (May these DZBLs be replaced speedily and in our time with oversized shared lane markings!) It’s easy to make these turns, at least during the week, because everyone is moving at pedestrian speed. The only people getting anywhere are those on bicycles.
In this way DC has become like Manhattan. At some point people will realize that it’s pointless to use private autos in these places. Right? Maybe not, but it’s their waste of time and their loss. They have no idea what they’re missing–which leads me to the reason I love this bike lane:
It puts me in the MIDDLE of one of the most iconic roads in America. The eye candy on either side and at each end of Pennsylvania Avenue is amazing. There is no better way to enjoy it than from the seat of one’s bicycle!