'moveDC' Transportation Plan Emphasizes Bikes and Buses

• October 22nd 2014

by Lark Turner

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DC’s long-term transportation goals, called moveDC, show a pivot toward bikes and buses.

The goals, released in a report on Tuesday, will ring in at a cost of $54 billion. Here’s a quick summary of some of the more exciting plans detailed in the report:

Big Capital Investments

• Finishing up the long-awaited Klingle Trail, as well as the Kenilworth Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, and moving forward on the Rock Creek and Metropolitan Branch Trail projects within two years.
• Putting in or upgrading 15 miles of on-street bike facilities. DDOT says it will try to increase cyclists’ separation from traffic, bike signals and intersection safety.
• Make buses faster by installing a dedicated bus lane on Georgia Avenue from Florida Avenue to Barry Place, as well as “identify and implement signal improvements in at least 10 locations on high-ridership corridors to reduce bus delay.”

Studies

• Continuing to look at a dedicated bus lane on 16th Street NW. (For more on this, check out one of Greater Greater Washington’s treatises on the subject.)
• Finding a way to put in a north-south bike connector between 4th and 7th Streets NW.
• Advancing streetcar goals with environmental studies, “including the east-west line from Benning Road to Georgetown, the Anacostia-Southwest Waterfront Line from Joint Base Anacostia Bolling to the Southwest Waterfront, and the north-south corridor from Takoma to Buzzard Point.”
• Improving access to ballooning neighborhoods — and yes, they’ve included the McMillan Sand Filtration Site. Also on the list: Adams Morgan/Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights and Brookland.

Policy Recommendations

• Review DC’s long-neglected bike laws.
• Keep trying dynamic parking pricing in Chinatown and Penn Quarter as a model for a citywide program.
• Look into tolls. “Study findings will inform DDOT on future strategies for congestion management through pricing on key corridors and in the Central Employment Area,” DDOT says.

New Programs

• Parklets. Looks like this year’s PARK Day was a success. DDOT wants to work with neighborhood business improvement districts (BIDs) to create small parks in what would otherwise be parking spots.
• Step up red-light cameras: “This includes continuing to expand features of the photo enforcement program to target pedestrian safety goals.”
• Keep evaluating parking in DC. Check out our look at a recent report from DDOT for more on parking.
• Make DDOT data more publicly available. This includes everything from trees to public space permits to, we hope, an easier way to search for addresses eligible and ineligible for residential parking permits.
• Actually evaluate whether transportation plans implemented during construction work do their job. This is “to assess how effectively DDOT met the goals and expectations of the original” transportation management plan.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/movedc_transportation_plan_emphasizes_bikes_and_buses/9125.