WASHINGTON — There’s a bike lane battle brewing on Capitol Hill. The District has proposed changes to one street that has neighbors on the offensive to stop it.
On a Friday morning, North Carolina Avenue neighbors bristled about a proposed bike lane on their street. Residents are quick to tell you they aren’t opposed to bike lanes.
“This was never about bike lanes,” Arabella Kohlmeyer said. “This was always about how it was going to impact our streets.”
The problem to them is what this bike lane plan does to North Carolina Avenue.
“There's a lot of traffic in the morning of commuters coming into the city here,” resident Alex Kelly said. “(The city) wants to make it one way.”
A year ago, they first got rumblings about the big changes to the street. The plan transforms it into two bike lanes, adds concrete barriers, and moves parking away from the curb. But the biggest change is instead of two-way traffic on the street it is now one way.
“You're gonna have traffic problems because we are going to have traffic backing up the street,” neighbor Mel Turner said.
“Our older residents and disabled kids, and little kids are gonna have a heck of a time navigating this when the cars are parked way out there in the street,” Kelly said.
The alarmed neighbors went to the city meetings to air their concerns. They even proposed a new design. As they mentioned previously, the neighbors said they’re not opposed to bike lanes, just the current plan. But in all attempts to have a say on how they felt, they were shut out.
“We didn't get single response,” Kelly added, “ [At least] 340 residents signed this petition and this plan and this letter and not a single response from the city.
We took their concerns to Advisory Neighborhood Commission chair for the area, Amber Gove.
“Between January and 2021, there were eight public meetings were held on this topic DDOT presented essentially two options to us,” Gove said.
“As a commission, we can only respond to the plans that DDOT gives us,” she said.
Gove said the plan ties into the C street bike lanes project. As far as traffic congestion concerns, she explained the plan addresses that with pull-off areas.
Ultimately, she and city leaders think this plan makes North Carolina Avenue safer:
“We have pretty great research from AARP and other sources that indicate that the safest to protect all users is to give everybody their own space,” Gove said.
But neighbors aren’t convinced.
“I have not seen any study that shows how that works in this neighborhood,” Alex Kelly said. “I don’t see how it works with the traffic flow. And I don't think a study exists.
At this point, it is said to believe residents will continue to battle the bike lane plan until the first construction team breaks ground.