Options for opposing Connecticut Avenue changes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many active regular bicycle commuters are there in DC? How many people bike, rather than drive, for 1 mile or greater transportation?

A few hundred. The number is tiny.

I'd give them a thousand maybe. But would like to hear from them. Without knowing that number the validity of the 3,000-10,000 range cannot be established

The point is, if you make it safe and attractive, more people will do it.

Also, as housing prices and the cost of living continue to escalate, people ditch the expense associated with owning and operating a car. As a result they need other safe ways of getting around. Or is your contention that only the wealthy should be living, working and shopping along Connecticut Avenue?

Cars = wealth

What an inane trope. A used card costs less than moped or the fancy bikes the bicyclists making these arguments ride.

With increasing housing expenses working people have to live further away from population centers. A bicycle, even the multi-thousand dollar ones commuters use, is not substitutable if one has to get five or more miles away. The utility of bikes as a mode of transport is limited to 1-3 miles in practice. If it's less then the vast majority of people walk. If it's more then the vast majority of people need to drive or take mass transit. I'm not even going to get into cargo or passenger space. If anything bikes are a luxury.

There is no way most bike commuters use “multi-thousand dollar” bikes, You’re conflating, deliberately or not, recreational riders with fancy bikes and commuters. The bikes I see commuting to work and in the bike cage at my office cost multi-hundreds of dollars. No one is taking high end carbon fiber racing bikes out on city streets every day.

Replying to myself to add that of course 5 miles is not the limit of a bike commute. I ride 6 miles each way to and from work. It’s faster than Metro going to work and about 5 minutes slower going home, because it’s uphill.

Good for you. I walk 2 miles to the metro and hike 10 miles most weekends. That does not mean that I pretend that either of those distances are mass market walkability distances.

The role of bicycles in transportation infrastructure is sold as a finishing complementary piece to mass transit and walkability. To fill in the transit gap between 1 and 3 miles that is currently served by buses, which are being reduced ironically. One of the big problems with this plan is that Connecticut, north of Van Ness, does not have a metro station. What's more 16th street doesnt have any at all. Focusing on bicycles, the luxury finishing piece, without addressing the glaring mass transit problem of 16th street is emblematic of the miplaced priorities of the DC Government regarding mass transit. Virginia is building the silver line. Maryland the purple line. DC is taking away roads to build a bike lane that even under the most optimistic use estimates will increase traffic. The worst part is that 16th/North Capitol is perfectly situated for a light rail system connecting the purple line from Silver Spring to Union Station. And yet we're talking about removing two lanes of roadway and adding bike lanes to Connecticut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the posters saying this is not for bike commuters but for those supposedly doing errands up and down CT avenue - that has to be a miniscule number of people - hoards of people are not going up and down every day between woodley and van ness or ccdc and I have never seen a biker with their groceries on the bike up here. Down in adams morgan or shaw yes - but up in the republic of the redline - not a common occurrence. What are you even going to? Our stores along CT ave have been decimated - there is very little shopping to be done anymore

and as a resident of a neighborhood along CT ave I would never let me kids on a bike in CT Ave regardless of the lane. My kids bike to and from the neighnorhoods by going on the CT Ave sidewalk or more generally up and around on the reno road sidewalks which other than school drop off/pick up have no one on them

I suppose it depends on where you live. I see people biking from the Chevy Chase Safeway south and i see people biking from the Van Ness Giant, north. All.The.Time.

Personally, there are several shops in each of Cleveland Park, Van Ness and Chevy Chase that I would frequent more if I could bike to them safely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the posters saying this is not for bike commuters but for those supposedly doing errands up and down CT avenue - that has to be a miniscule number of people - hoards of people are not going up and down every day between woodley and van ness or ccdc and I have never seen a biker with their groceries on the bike up here. Down in adams morgan or shaw yes - but up in the republic of the redline - not a common occurrence. What are you even going to? Our stores along CT ave have been decimated - there is very little shopping to be done anymore

and as a resident of a neighborhood along CT ave I would never let me kids on a bike in CT Ave regardless of the lane. My kids bike to and from the neighnorhoods by going on the CT Ave sidewalk or more generally up and around on the reno road sidewalks which other than school drop off/pick up have no one on them

So you are saying the stores have been decimated. Maybe opening up the customer base because more people feel safer walking and biking is just the push our businesses need, since the status quo isn't hacking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many active regular bicycle commuters are there in DC? How many people bike, rather than drive, for 1 mile or greater transportation?

A few hundred. The number is tiny.

I'd give them a thousand maybe. But would like to hear from them. Without knowing that number the validity of the 3,000-10,000 range cannot be established

The point is, if you make it safe and attractive, more people will do it.

Also, as housing prices and the cost of living continue to escalate, people ditch the expense associated with owning and operating a car. As a result they need other safe ways of getting around. Or is your contention that only the wealthy should be living, working and shopping along Connecticut Avenue?

Cars = wealth

What an inane trope. A used card costs less than moped or the fancy bikes the bicyclists making these arguments ride.

With increasing housing expenses working people have to live further away from population centers. A bicycle, even the multi-thousand dollar ones commuters use, is not substitutable if one has to get five or more miles away. The utility of bikes as a mode of transport is limited to 1-3 miles in practice. If it's less then the vast majority of people walk. If it's more then the vast majority of people need to drive or take mass transit. I'm not even going to get into cargo or passenger space. If anything bikes are a luxury.

Please direct us to those cheap used cars. I was dumb enough to sink a few thousand dollars into what I thought was a well-loved high-mileage used car and in a few months I've already shelled out more than what I paid for it on various critical maintenance items. Everyone else I know who has similarly thought they got a good deal on a used vehicle has ended up getting routinely reamed by repairs.

For the true necessities of getting to work, school, and after-school activities, we use bus / metro and bikes almost exclusively. Doing 15 miles on the bike in an evening at least once or twice a week is standard. The car is actually for the luxuries - the weekend getaways and what not. I've learned the hard way that renting periodically is a much more economical option than owning.

But, please, go on to tell me about the life you think everyone else is living.

I am sorry you bought a lemon. My decade plus car has almost 100,000 miles on it and is going strong. I have saved more money by having a car than I would have without it. The ability to buy in bulk and have access to cheaper shopping options has more than made up the annual maintenance cost. But I commend you for discovering your own way to save. I make yoghurt. It's far cheaper, tastier and healthier than what you would buy in the store but it does take time and effort. I also walk a lot, far more than the regular person, which is even cheaper and healthier than biking. I have friends that raise chickens and let me tell you a fresh egg is sublime and the manure does wonders for the tomatoes. That doesn't mean I think that those things are anything but a niche idiosyncracy or that public policy should try and force people into building chicken coops. People aren't going to bicycle 5+ miles each way for regular errands. You yourself say you use mass transit for that. I am all for bike lanes where they don't cause harm and where they are complementary to metro and walking.

The Connecticut Avenue plan does not do that. It causes massive harm by significantly increasing traffic and will only be used by a self-selecting few that already have alternate routes to everywhere they would concievably want to go. For instance, the absolute best case scenario is Woodley Park. An area that has direct easy
access to Rock Creek Parkway, the oldest, most popular and best maintained bike path in the city. If it was only an add on that wastes government resources it wouldn't be that big a deal. But it's not, the plan dramatically downsizes an already popular and congested road to make room for a luxury vanity project that is neither necessary nor increases aggregate transportation access. It will substantially increase traffic and most ironically make bicycling less easy in the parts of town where it is popular. The reason why people don't bike on Connecticut is because they bike throughout the side streets. More traffic on the side streets hurts bicyclists most of all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many active regular bicycle commuters are there in DC? How many people bike, rather than drive, for 1 mile or greater transportation?

A few hundred. The number is tiny.

I'd give them a thousand maybe. But would like to hear from them. Without knowing that number the validity of the 3,000-10,000 range cannot be established

The point is, if you make it safe and attractive, more people will do it.

Also, as housing prices and the cost of living continue to escalate, people ditch the expense associated with owning and operating a car. As a result they need other safe ways of getting around. Or is your contention that only the wealthy should be living, working and shopping along Connecticut Avenue?

Cars = wealth

What an inane trope. A used card costs less than moped or the fancy bikes the bicyclists making these arguments ride.

With increasing housing expenses working people have to live further away from population centers. A bicycle, even the multi-thousand dollar ones commuters use, is not substitutable if one has to get five or more miles away. The utility of bikes as a mode of transport is limited to 1-3 miles in practice. If it's less then the vast majority of people walk. If it's more then the vast majority of people need to drive or take mass transit. I'm not even going to get into cargo or passenger space. If anything bikes are a luxury.

There is no way most bike commuters use “multi-thousand dollar” bikes, You’re conflating, deliberately or not, recreational riders with fancy bikes and commuters. The bikes I see commuting to work and in the bike cage at my office cost multi-hundreds of dollars. No one is taking high end carbon fiber racing bikes out on city streets every day.

Replying to myself to add that of course 5 miles is not the limit of a bike commute. I ride 6 miles each way to and from work. It’s faster than Metro going to work and about 5 minutes slower going home, because it’s uphill.

Good for you. I walk 2 miles to the metro and hike 10 miles most weekends. That does not mean that I pretend that either of those distances are mass market walkability distances.

The role of bicycles in transportation infrastructure is sold as a finishing complementary piece to mass transit and walkability. To fill in the transit gap between 1 and 3 miles that is currently served by buses, which are being reduced ironically. One of the big problems with this plan is that Connecticut, north of Van Ness, does not have a metro station. What's more 16th street doesnt have any at all. Focusing on bicycles, the luxury finishing piece, without addressing the glaring mass transit problem of 16th street is emblematic of the miplaced priorities of the DC Government regarding mass transit. Virginia is building the silver line. Maryland the purple line. DC is taking away roads to build a bike lane that even under the most optimistic use estimates will increase traffic. The worst part is that 16th/North Capitol is perfectly situated for a light rail system connecting the purple line from Silver Spring to Union Station. And yet we're talking about removing two lanes of roadway and adding bike lanes to Connecticut.

Most functional cities have redundant bike infrastructure with mass transit infrastructure. If by this post, you are for expanding the DC Street car back up Connecticut Avenue, then there are many of us who would fully support that, along with the bike lanes.

[Anonymous]

used car index up 44%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the posters saying this is not for bike commuters but for those supposedly doing errands up and down CT avenue - that has to be a miniscule number of people - hoards of people are not going up and down every day between woodley and van ness or ccdc and I have never seen a biker with their groceries on the bike up here. Down in adams morgan or shaw yes - but up in the republic of the redline - not a common occurrence. What are you even going to? Our stores along CT ave have been decimated - there is very little shopping to be done anymore

and as a resident of a neighborhood along CT ave I would never let me kids on a bike in CT Ave regardless of the lane. My kids bike to and from the neighnorhoods by going on the CT Ave sidewalk or more generally up and around on the reno road sidewalks which other than school drop off/pick up have no one on them

So you are saying the stores have been decimated. Maybe opening up the customer base because more people feel safer walking and biking is just the push our businesses need, since the status quo isn't hacking it.

This plan doesn't help pedestrians who currently have absolutely no issues walking up and down Connecticut. However, increasing traffic on the side streets they take to get there will decrease their access. So get that word out of your mouth. You do not care one whit for them.

Were the plan to add bike lanes without reducing traffic lanes then you might have a point. But that is not the plan. Under this plan the amount of bicyclists has to surpass the amount of people in vehicles displaced in order to create larger potential customer base. That's not happening. Even the most rosy estimates say 10%, a 500% increase over the current baseline, with a corresponding 33-50% decrease in vehicle accessability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many active regular bicycle commuters are there in DC? How many people bike, rather than drive, for 1 mile or greater transportation?

A few hundred. The number is tiny.

I'd give them a thousand maybe. But would like to hear from them. Without knowing that number the validity of the 3,000-10,000 range cannot be established

The point is, if you make it safe and attractive, more people will do it.

Also, as housing prices and the cost of living continue to escalate, people ditch the expense associated with owning and operating a car. As a result they need other safe ways of getting around. Or is your contention that only the wealthy should be living, working and shopping along Connecticut Avenue?

Cars = wealth

What an inane trope. A used card costs less than moped or the fancy bikes the bicyclists making these arguments ride.

With increasing housing expenses working people have to live further away from population centers. A bicycle, even the multi-thousand dollar ones commuters use, is not substitutable if one has to get five or more miles away. The utility of bikes as a mode of transport is limited to 1-3 miles in practice. If it's less then the vast majority of people walk. If it's more then the vast majority of people need to drive or take mass transit. I'm not even going to get into cargo or passenger space. If anything bikes are a luxury.

There is no way most bike commuters use “multi-thousand dollar” bikes, You’re conflating, deliberately or not, recreational riders with fancy bikes and commuters. The bikes I see commuting to work and in the bike cage at my office cost multi-hundreds of dollars. No one is taking high end carbon fiber racing bikes out on city streets every day.

Replying to myself to add that of course 5 miles is not the limit of a bike commute. I ride 6 miles each way to and from work. It’s faster than Metro going to work and about 5 minutes slower going home, because it’s uphill.

Good for you. I walk 2 miles to the metro and hike 10 miles most weekends. That does not mean that I pretend that either of those distances are mass market walkability distances.

The role of bicycles in transportation infrastructure is sold as a finishing complementary piece to mass transit and walkability. To fill in the transit gap between 1 and 3 miles that is currently served by buses, which are being reduced ironically. One of the big problems with this plan is that Connecticut, north of Van Ness, does not have a metro station. What's more 16th street doesnt have any at all. Focusing on bicycles, the luxury finishing piece, without addressing the glaring mass transit problem of 16th street is emblematic of the miplaced priorities of the DC Government regarding mass transit. Virginia is building the silver line. Maryland the purple line. DC is taking away roads to build a bike lane that even under the most optimistic use estimates will increase traffic. The worst part is that 16th/North Capitol is perfectly situated for a light rail system connecting the purple line from Silver Spring to Union Station. And yet we're talking about removing two lanes of roadway and adding bike lanes to Connecticut.

This is contrary to fact. DC just put in a dedicated bus lane on 16th St NW. DC is making huge efforts for all kinds of transit projects right now - bike lanes are just one piece of it. However bike lanes DO get an extremely disproportionate share of public attention because they really trigger people in an irrational way. Just because you are not paying attention to everything else DC is doing doesn't mean it's not happening.

But sure - I welcome your advocacy to extend the metro within DC. Have at it! Just don't pretend it's some kind of trump card to defeat traffic projects you have an irrational dislike of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:used car index up 44%

Because people avoided mass transit during the pandemic and realized that a bicycle was not a substitute for trips over 3 miles. If bicycling did not increase during the pandemic when everything was in its favor why would it increase when its over?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many active regular bicycle commuters are there in DC? How many people bike, rather than drive, for 1 mile or greater transportation?

A few hundred. The number is tiny.

I'd give them a thousand maybe. But would like to hear from them. Without knowing that number the validity of the 3,000-10,000 range cannot be established

The point is, if you make it safe and attractive, more people will do it.

Also, as housing prices and the cost of living continue to escalate, people ditch the expense associated with owning and operating a car. As a result they need other safe ways of getting around. Or is your contention that only the wealthy should be living, working and shopping along Connecticut Avenue?

Cars = wealth

What an inane trope. A used card costs less than moped or the fancy bikes the bicyclists making these arguments ride.

With increasing housing expenses working people have to live further away from population centers. A bicycle, even the multi-thousand dollar ones commuters use, is not substitutable if one has to get five or more miles away. The utility of bikes as a mode of transport is limited to 1-3 miles in practice. If it's less then the vast majority of people walk. If it's more then the vast majority of people need to drive or take mass transit. I'm not even going to get into cargo or passenger space. If anything bikes are a luxury.

There is no way most bike commuters use “multi-thousand dollar” bikes, You’re conflating, deliberately or not, recreational riders with fancy bikes and commuters. The bikes I see commuting to work and in the bike cage at my office cost multi-hundreds of dollars. No one is taking high end carbon fiber racing bikes out on city streets every day.

Replying to myself to add that of course 5 miles is not the limit of a bike commute. I ride 6 miles each way to and from work. It’s faster than Metro going to work and about 5 minutes slower going home, because it’s uphill.

Good for you. I walk 2 miles to the metro and hike 10 miles most weekends. That does not mean that I pretend that either of those distances are mass market walkability distances.

The role of bicycles in transportation infrastructure is sold as a finishing complementary piece to mass transit and walkability. To fill in the transit gap between 1 and 3 miles that is currently served by buses, which are being reduced ironically. One of the big problems with this plan is that Connecticut, north of Van Ness, does not have a metro station. What's more 16th street doesnt have any at all. Focusing on bicycles, the luxury finishing piece, without addressing the glaring mass transit problem of 16th street is emblematic of the miplaced priorities of the DC Government regarding mass transit. Virginia is building the silver line. Maryland the purple line. DC is taking away roads to build a bike lane that even under the most optimistic use estimates will increase traffic. The worst part is that 16th/North Capitol is perfectly situated for a light rail system connecting the purple line from Silver Spring to Union Station. And yet we're talking about removing two lanes of roadway and adding bike lanes to Connecticut.

This is contrary to fact. DC just put in a dedicated bus lane on 16th St NW. DC is making huge efforts for all kinds of transit projects right now - bike lanes are just one piece of it. However bike lanes DO get an extremely disproportionate share of public attention because they really trigger people in an irrational way. Just because you are not paying attention to everything else DC is doing doesn't mean it's not happening.

But sure - I welcome your advocacy to extend the metro within DC. Have at it! Just don't pretend it's some kind of trump card to defeat traffic projects you have an irrational dislike of.

Please tell us. What are these mass transit projects? Where are the mass transit gaps being filled by mass transit projects? Local bus service has been cut and the plan is to decrease stops even further.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the posters saying this is not for bike commuters but for those supposedly doing errands up and down CT avenue - that has to be a miniscule number of people - hoards of people are not going up and down every day between woodley and van ness or ccdc and I have never seen a biker with their groceries on the bike up here. Down in adams morgan or shaw yes - but up in the republic of the redline - not a common occurrence. What are you even going to? Our stores along CT ave have been decimated - there is very little shopping to be done anymore

and as a resident of a neighborhood along CT ave I would never let me kids on a bike in CT Ave regardless of the lane. My kids bike to and from the neighnorhoods by going on the CT Ave sidewalk or more generally up and around on the reno road sidewalks which other than school drop off/pick up have no one on them

So you are saying the stores have been decimated. Maybe opening up the customer base because more people feel safer walking and biking is just the push our businesses need, since the status quo isn't hacking it.

This plan doesn't help pedestrians who currently have absolutely no issues walking up and down Connecticut. However, increasing traffic on the side streets they take to get there will decrease their access. So get that word out of your mouth. You do not care one whit for them.

Were the plan to add bike lanes without reducing traffic lanes then you might have a point. But that is not the plan. Under this plan the amount of bicyclists has to surpass the amount of people in vehicles displaced in order to create larger potential customer base. That's not happening. Even the most rosy estimates say 10%, a 500% increase over the current baseline, with a corresponding 33-50% decrease in vehicle accessability.

Earlier in this thread, there were complaints about cyclists on the sidewalks. Also, for me as a pedestrian, I much prefer there be a protected buffer between me and the cars driving on the road. There are too many cars on the sidewalks acoss the city because drivers suck at driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:used car index up 44%

Because people avoided mass transit during the pandemic and realized that a bicycle was not a substitute for trips over 3 miles. If bicycling did not increase during the pandemic when everything was in its favor why would it increase when its over?

Once can go 3 miles in like 8 minutes at a slow pace on a bike. I mean, You really have to get closer to 6-8 miles on a bike before an average person would begin to tire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many active regular bicycle commuters are there in DC? How many people bike, rather than drive, for 1 mile or greater transportation?

A few hundred. The number is tiny.

I'd give them a thousand maybe. But would like to hear from them. Without knowing that number the validity of the 3,000-10,000 range cannot be established

The point is, if you make it safe and attractive, more people will do it.

Also, as housing prices and the cost of living continue to escalate, people ditch the expense associated with owning and operating a car. As a result they need other safe ways of getting around. Or is your contention that only the wealthy should be living, working and shopping along Connecticut Avenue?

Cars = wealth

What an inane trope. A used card costs less than moped or the fancy bikes the bicyclists making these arguments ride.

With increasing housing expenses working people have to live further away from population centers. A bicycle, even the multi-thousand dollar ones commuters use, is not substitutable if one has to get five or more miles away. The utility of bikes as a mode of transport is limited to 1-3 miles in practice. If it's less then the vast majority of people walk. If it's more then the vast majority of people need to drive or take mass transit. I'm not even going to get into cargo or passenger space. If anything bikes are a luxury.

There is no way most bike commuters use “multi-thousand dollar” bikes, You’re conflating, deliberately or not, recreational riders with fancy bikes and commuters. The bikes I see commuting to work and in the bike cage at my office cost multi-hundreds of dollars. No one is taking high end carbon fiber racing bikes out on city streets every day.

Replying to myself to add that of course 5 miles is not the limit of a bike commute. I ride 6 miles each way to and from work. It’s faster than Metro going to work and about 5 minutes slower going home, because it’s uphill.

Good for you. I walk 2 miles to the metro and hike 10 miles most weekends. That does not mean that I pretend that either of those distances are mass market walkability distances.

The role of bicycles in transportation infrastructure is sold as a finishing complementary piece to mass transit and walkability. To fill in the transit gap between 1 and 3 miles that is currently served by buses, which are being reduced ironically. One of the big problems with this plan is that Connecticut, north of Van Ness, does not have a metro station. What's more 16th street doesnt have any at all. Focusing on bicycles, the luxury finishing piece, without addressing the glaring mass transit problem of 16th street is emblematic of the miplaced priorities of the DC Government regarding mass transit. Virginia is building the silver line. Maryland the purple line. DC is taking away roads to build a bike lane that even under the most optimistic use estimates will increase traffic. The worst part is that 16th/North Capitol is perfectly situated for a light rail system connecting the purple line from Silver Spring to Union Station. And yet we're talking about removing two lanes of roadway and adding bike lanes to Connecticut.

This is contrary to fact. DC just put in a dedicated bus lane on 16th St NW. DC is making huge efforts for all kinds of transit projects right now - bike lanes are just one piece of it. However bike lanes DO get an extremely disproportionate share of public attention because they really trigger people in an irrational way. Just because you are not paying attention to everything else DC is doing doesn't mean it's not happening.

But sure - I welcome your advocacy to extend the metro within DC. Have at it! Just don't pretend it's some kind of trump card to defeat traffic projects you have an irrational dislike of.

Please tell us. What are these mass transit projects? Where are the mass transit gaps being filled by mass transit projects? Local bus service has been cut and the plan is to decrease stops even further.

The streetcar is being expanded both east and west, the purple line is opening in 4 years. It would be great to get more streetcar lines into the planning phase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's so few cyclists that both the city and the Census Bureau throw them into a miscellaneous category.

The only thing this statement tells us is that you have no idea what you are talking about.

The Census Bureau disaggregates "Means of Transportation to Work" into five broad categories, of which "Bicycle" is one. The 2021 data, with margins of error, for Washington, DC is here: https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=Washington%20city,%20District%20of%20Columbia&t=Commuting&tid=ACSST1Y2021.S0801

Before you get too excited about the 2.1% figure, not that 48.3% of respondents indicated that they work from home. As of 2019, 4.0% of DC commuters were cycling to work and 38.5% were driving (or being driven).

Isn't that only showing the commuters who live in DC and none of the MD and VA people who commute to DC?

It also is only talking about commute "to work", not the school commuters with all the cross city OOB commuters for public schools and all the private school commuters from DC, MD, and VA in cars.

Or the people who work from home who bike to various spots up and down the Avenue, or would if there were a safe way to do it.

Soon they will get to bike to lots and lots of smoke/vape shops and check cashing places. Because that’s all that will be left when businesses close on the corridor. Of course their bike might not be there when they come out, buts that’s a whole different issue.

The ironic thing is that it’s the NIMBYs that are running down neighborhoods like Cleveland Park and the Palisades by stubbornly blocking any changes that might make them attractive to newcomers. Those who have lived in these neighborhoods for 50 years do not understand, but most people moving in to DC want bike lanes and trails, public schools for their kids, rec centers, and large supermarkets. If they can’t get it in Ward 3, they are perfectly happy to move in to cheaper up-and-coming neighborhoods flush with modern amenities. That there are so many empty apartments in both neighborhoods that are vacant to be filled with voucher recipients is a sign that there is a problem. NIMBYs - and their GOP champion - can wail at DCHA and Bowser all they want about the voucher program, but the apartments wouldn’t have been empty in the first place if these areas were actually attractive to younger renters.

This makes no sense - there are large grocery stores serving these neighborhoods - Giant and the brand new Wegmans, and there are public schools that are excellent and draw kids from all over the city. Ditto trails, bike lanes through the side streets etc.. the issue with the retail is that most of the conn ave retail shops were packaged and sold in the late '90s early 2000s and the funds that own them only want to lease to the highest credit tenants that will pay the most like chipotle, cvs etc.. that drain all of the character out of the neighborhood. The neighborhoods attracting young renters are doing so because they have huge loft like apartments with crazy lux amenities in them and all young people want those amenities and to be where the other young people are. The Class B and C 1950s rentals along CT ave can't compete

This. The city doesn't have enough walkable amenities in certain areas. They don't punish vacant building owners and help small business with rent. I would happily bike to get groceries if there was something better than that disgusting, decrepit Safeway on Conn Avenue. I can barely stand to shop at Tenleytown Target now due to everything being locked up (according to the staff there is an underground market in the metro that the police haven't or won't stop). So, I'm ready to start heading back to Bethesda and Rockville. Cleveland Park and Van Ness is tired and not very impressive or useful -- nobody under 30 would ever want to live there. The problem is the city needs bike lanes AND thriving urban centers that are accessible, attractive, and serve people's needs. Also, they could improve parking at the metro. Tenley metro has a few 4-hour spots, but it doesn't encourage people to take the Metro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many active regular bicycle commuters are there in DC? How many people bike, rather than drive, for 1 mile or greater transportation?

A few hundred. The number is tiny.

I'd give them a thousand maybe. But would like to hear from them. Without knowing that number the validity of the 3,000-10,000 range cannot be established

The point is, if you make it safe and attractive, more people will do it.

Also, as housing prices and the cost of living continue to escalate, people ditch the expense associated with owning and operating a car. As a result they need other safe ways of getting around. Or is your contention that only the wealthy should be living, working and shopping along Connecticut Avenue?

Cars = wealth

What an inane trope. A used card costs less than moped or the fancy bikes the bicyclists making these arguments ride.

With increasing housing expenses working people have to live further away from population centers. A bicycle, even the multi-thousand dollar ones commuters use, is not substitutable if one has to get five or more miles away. The utility of bikes as a mode of transport is limited to 1-3 miles in practice. If it's less then the vast majority of people walk. If it's more then the vast majority of people need to drive or take mass transit. I'm not even going to get into cargo or passenger space. If anything bikes are a luxury.

There is no way most bike commuters use “multi-thousand dollar” bikes, You’re conflating, deliberately or not, recreational riders with fancy bikes and commuters. The bikes I see commuting to work and in the bike cage at my office cost multi-hundreds of dollars. No one is taking high end carbon fiber racing bikes out on city streets every day.

Replying to myself to add that of course 5 miles is not the limit of a bike commute. I ride 6 miles each way to and from work. It’s faster than Metro going to work and about 5 minutes slower going home, because it’s uphill.

Good for you. I walk 2 miles to the metro and hike 10 miles most weekends. That does not mean that I pretend that either of those distances are mass market walkability distances.

The role of bicycles in transportation infrastructure is sold as a finishing complementary piece to mass transit and walkability. To fill in the transit gap between 1 and 3 miles that is currently served by buses, which are being reduced ironically. One of the big problems with this plan is that Connecticut, north of Van Ness, does not have a metro station. What's more 16th street doesnt have any at all. Focusing on bicycles, the luxury finishing piece, without addressing the glaring mass transit problem of 16th street is emblematic of the miplaced priorities of the DC Government regarding mass transit. Virginia is building the silver line. Maryland the purple line. DC is taking away roads to build a bike lane that even under the most optimistic use estimates will increase traffic. The worst part is that 16th/North Capitol is perfectly situated for a light rail system connecting the purple line from Silver Spring to Union Station. And yet we're talking about removing two lanes of roadway and adding bike lanes to Connecticut.

This is contrary to fact. DC just put in a dedicated bus lane on 16th St NW. DC is making huge efforts for all kinds of transit projects right now - bike lanes are just one piece of it. However bike lanes DO get an extremely disproportionate share of public attention because they really trigger people in an irrational way. Just because you are not paying attention to everything else DC is doing doesn't mean it's not happening.

But sure - I welcome your advocacy to extend the metro within DC. Have at it! Just don't pretend it's some kind of trump card to defeat traffic projects you have an irrational dislike of.

Please tell us. What are these mass transit projects? Where are the mass transit gaps being filled by mass transit projects? Local bus service has been cut and the plan is to decrease stops even further.

The streetcar is being expanded both east and west, the purple line is opening in 4 years. It would be great to get more streetcar lines into the planning phase.

You really are a piece of work. There are no plans to expand the streetcar line north/south. The only plan is to finish the original line to Anacostia a decade later. Now that's a good thing and it does fill one of the gaps. The problem, as you well know, is that the Connecticut Avenue bike lanes, as well as the 16th street redesign, are considered replacements for a street car and effectively prevents one from ever being built. It's a worst of all worlds solution that increases traffic without increasing mass transit.