Options for opposing Connecticut Avenue changes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drove home at 6pm. In the Cleveland Park commercial strip there was a UPS truck, USPS truck, Amazon, and two cars parked illegally. No enforcement anywhere to be seen.

This. Isn’t. Going. To. Work.

Wait, it's not going to work because — before they've changed the street setup — no one is enforcing the parking rules? You think it's inconceivable that they'll do more enforcement once the bike lanes are there and people start complaining because double-parked cars block the car lanes?

DP

No, I don't. A friend of mine's mother notoriously called every time there was a car parked in the reversible lanes near Woodley Park. They basically stopped enforcing it over a decade ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drove home at 6pm. In the Cleveland Park commercial strip there was a UPS truck, USPS truck, Amazon, and two cars parked illegally. No enforcement anywhere to be seen.

This. Isn’t. Going. To. Work.

Wait, it's not going to work because — before they've changed the street setup — no one is enforcing the parking rules? You think it's inconceivable that they'll do more enforcement once the bike lanes are there and people start complaining because double-parked cars block the car lanes?

Before we do the road surgery, can we at least do a pilot to see if DDOT/MPD is capable of towing/enforcing no parking during the existing rush hour for 30 days? If they can’t do it now, we should have no confidence they can do it when CT is reduced to two travel lanes. Traffic aside it’s going to be a major public safety issue if CT is reduced to one lane of traffic because of no enforcement. And it has to be more than just writing tickets because delivery companies just bake that into their prices. There has to be towing on demand or this won’t work.

[Anonymous]

At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

The city actually counts bikes using remote sensors, so we don’t have to rely on your totally anecdotal memories of how many bicycles you think you saw. It’s a lot more than six per day at every spot they have a counter set up. Obviously. Or else none of the public policies drivers are so angry about would even have gotten off of the drawing board in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

The city actually counts bikes using remote sensors, so we don’t have to rely on your totally anecdotal memories of how many bicycles you think you saw. It’s a lot more than six per day at every spot they have a counter set up. Obviously. Or else none of the public policies drivers are so angry about would even have gotten off of the drawing board in the first place.

You misread the comments. First driver saw a total of 6 on a round trip drive downtown, while seeing many many more cars. The number of bikes is vastly overstated. Today of course was a beautiful day, perfect for bikers. But not much there in terms of numbers. But lets focus on those de minimus number of bikers.

[Anonymous]

Single family in Cleveland Park account for 20% of the housing units in that neighborhood. Thus 80% live ON the corridor. The complains we are hearing are generally from the SFH residents. Everyone else supports this. That is what the ANC, the Mayor and Mary Cheh heard.

Let's move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

The city actually counts bikes using remote sensors, so we don’t have to rely on your totally anecdotal memories of how many bicycles you think you saw. It’s a lot more than six per day at every spot they have a counter set up. Obviously. Or else none of the public policies drivers are so angry about would even have gotten off of the drawing board in the first place.

You misread the comments. First driver saw a total of 6 on a round trip drive downtown, while seeing many many more cars. The number of bikes is vastly overstated. Today of course was a beautiful day, perfect for bikers. But not much there in terms of numbers. But lets focus on those de minimus number of bikers.

I didn't misread it at all. I suspect the driver passed more people on bikes than they realized. But my point is that we don't need to rely on random counts by random drivers, and we don't need to assert that the number of bikes is vastly ovestated. The city counts bikes, using machines, and that's where they get the data these policies are based on. Seems like there's a daily average of about 4,000 bike riders downtown every day of the year (which presumably means there are more on weekdays, because I can't imagine there are 4,000 bike riders near Metro Center on any given Sunday) based on the figures posted above in this thread from counters at 11th and H and the 15th Street cycletrack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

The city actually counts bikes using remote sensors, so we don’t have to rely on your totally anecdotal memories of how many bicycles you think you saw. It’s a lot more than six per day at every spot they have a counter set up. Obviously. Or else none of the public policies drivers are so angry about would even have gotten off of the drawing board in the first place.

You misread the comments. First driver saw a total of 6 on a round trip drive downtown, while seeing many many more cars. The number of bikes is vastly overstated. Today of course was a beautiful day, perfect for bikers. But not much there in terms of numbers. But lets focus on those de minimus number of bikers.

I didn't misread it at all. I suspect the driver passed more people on bikes than they realized. But my point is that we don't need to rely on random counts by random drivers, and we don't need to assert that the number of bikes is vastly ovestated. The city counts bikes, using machines, and that's where they get the data these policies are based on. Seems like there's a daily average of about 4,000 bike riders downtown every day of the year (which presumably means there are more on weekdays, because I can't imagine there are 4,000 bike riders near Metro Center on any given Sunday) based on the figures posted above in this thread from counters at 11th and H and the 15th Street cycletrack.

No, you clearly just don’t understand. A guy on an anonymous message board says he only saw 6 cyclists on a busy street that has no bike lanes. That clearly means that the street does not need bike lanes. I will email my ANC rep and councilperson right now and let them know they should withdraw support because some guy didn’t see very many bikes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

Census Bureau says two percent bike in D.C. That's probably higher than it actually is because they're just asking people how they travel, not confirming what they say is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

Census Bureau says two percent bike in D.C. That's probably higher than it actually is because they're just asking people how they travel, not confirming what they say is true.

Again, D.C. counts actual bikes making one-way trips in multiple locations around the city every single day. We don’t need to go by Census sampling or self-reporting or “I saw one bicycle” or anything else. There is actual data, which is what the District is using to inform policy choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

The city actually counts bikes using remote sensors, so we don’t have to rely on your totally anecdotal memories of how many bicycles you think you saw. It’s a lot more than six per day at every spot they have a counter set up. Obviously. Or else none of the public policies drivers are so angry about would even have gotten off of the drawing board in the first place.

You misread the comments. First driver saw a total of 6 on a round trip drive downtown, while seeing many many more cars. The number of bikes is vastly overstated. Today of course was a beautiful day, perfect for bikers. But not much there in terms of numbers. But lets focus on those de minimus number of bikers.

I didn't misread it at all. I suspect the driver passed more people on bikes than they realized. But my point is that we don't need to rely on random counts by random drivers, and we don't need to assert that the number of bikes is vastly ovestated. The city counts bikes, using machines, and that's where they get the data these policies are based on. Seems like there's a daily average of about 4,000 bike riders downtown every day of the year (which presumably means there are more on weekdays, because I can't imagine there are 4,000 bike riders near Metro Center on any given Sunday) based on the figures posted above in this thread from counters at 11th and H and the 15th Street cycletrack.

No, you clearly just don’t understand. A guy on an anonymous message board says he only saw 6 cyclists on a busy street that has no bike lanes. That clearly means that the street does not need bike lanes. I will email my ANC rep and councilperson right now and let them know they should withdraw support because some guy didn’t see very many bikes.

NP, here. Sure, you are right that we can't base policy on anecdotal data. So DDOT should be doing random tests during different seasons and different weather conditions without giving a heads up to anyone so that it is an accurate sample. I do every trip to the office. I observe the bike lane on 20th Street too. I've never seen more than a dozen or so people on it on any given time. On peaks days, maybe I'll see 30 bikers total. On non-peak days, two or three. On bad weather days, none. They don't mean anything by themselves, but they do illustrate that even with the bike lanes, there aren't a lot of users at any given point in time. I really think it's difficult for anyone to dispute that and I challenge anyone on this board to observe the number of bikes they see the next time they commute into downtown DC.
Personally, I don't mind bike lanes on streets like 20th Street or Reno Road. I like the fact that Rock Creek Park and Capital Crescent Trail and the Tow Path offer a lot of safe routes for cyclists. I wish drivers were safer and that traffic infractions were more strictly enforced. For the sake of pedestrians, I also wish cyclists were safer on DC streets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

Census Bureau says two percent bike in D.C. That's probably higher than it actually is because they're just asking people how they travel, not confirming what they say is true.

Again, D.C. counts actual bikes making one-way trips in multiple locations around the city every single day. We don’t need to go by Census sampling or self-reporting or “I saw one bicycle” or anything else. There is actual data, which is what the District is using to inform policy choices.

There are so few bicyclists that the city lumps bicyclists in a miscellaneous category in its statistics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

Census Bureau says two percent bike in D.C. That's probably higher than it actually is because they're just asking people how they travel, not confirming what they say is true.

Again, D.C. counts actual bikes making one-way trips in multiple locations around the city every single day. We don’t need to go by Census sampling or self-reporting or “I saw one bicycle” or anything else. There is actual data, which is what the District is using to inform policy choices.

There are so few bicyclists that the city lumps bicyclists in a miscellaneous category in its statistics.

The city reports data from automated counters: https://ddot.dc.gov/page/dc-automated-bicycle-and-pedestrian-counters

10 of them count bikes only. 1 counts pedestrians only. 7 count bikes and pedestrians. It counts a daily average of about 3,900 people per day, every day, dating back to 2014. (It's actually closer to 4,000, at 3,996, but I'll round down so you don't accuse me of overhyping it by saying "about 4,000.") You can also drill down onto specific counters and specific months. This has nothing to do with the statistics about who commutes how, it is a literal count of every person on a bike or on foot that passes the locations where they're observing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 1030 am today, I drove straight down CT from near the border to K Street, and then I returned at 2 pm or so. I saw a total of 6 bicyclists for my round trip. 4 of the 6 were on the sidewalk. 1 turned onto a side street, and last was riding for at least several blocks down CT Avenue. I obviously saw many hundreds of cars, but only 6 riders. DC of course should focus on those 6 at the expense of the rest of us. Fortunately, I did not see a middle aged white guy trying to be hip and healthy. [I am a middle aged white guy.]

I do this too when I'm driving -- count how many bikers I see. Same result. The number of cyclists in this city is vastly overstated.

The city actually counts bikes using remote sensors, so we don’t have to rely on your totally anecdotal memories of how many bicycles you think you saw. It’s a lot more than six per day at every spot they have a counter set up. Obviously. Or else none of the public policies drivers are so angry about would even have gotten off of the drawing board in the first place.

You misread the comments. First driver saw a total of 6 on a round trip drive downtown, while seeing many many more cars. The number of bikes is vastly overstated. Today of course was a beautiful day, perfect for bikers. But not much there in terms of numbers. But lets focus on those de minimus number of bikers.

I didn't misread it at all. I suspect the driver passed more people on bikes than they realized. But my point is that we don't need to rely on random counts by random drivers, and we don't need to assert that the number of bikes is vastly ovestated. The city counts bikes, using machines, and that's where they get the data these policies are based on. Seems like there's a daily average of about 4,000 bike riders downtown every day of the year (which presumably means there are more on weekdays, because I can't imagine there are 4,000 bike riders near Metro Center on any given Sunday) based on the figures posted above in this thread from counters at 11th and H and the 15th Street cycletrack.

No, you clearly just don’t understand. A guy on an anonymous message board says he only saw 6 cyclists on a busy street that has no bike lanes. That clearly means that the street does not need bike lanes. I will email my ANC rep and councilperson right now and let them know they should withdraw support because some guy didn’t see very many bikes.

NP, here. Sure, you are right that we can't base policy on anecdotal data. So DDOT should be doing random tests during different seasons and different weather conditions without giving a heads up to anyone so that it is an accurate sample. I do every trip to the office. I observe the bike lane on 20th Street too. I've never seen more than a dozen or so people on it on any given time. On peaks days, maybe I'll see 30 bikers total. On non-peak days, two or three. On bad weather days, none. They don't mean anything by themselves, but they do illustrate that even with the bike lanes, there aren't a lot of users at any given point in time. I really think it's difficult for anyone to dispute that and I challenge anyone on this board to observe the number of bikes they see the next time they commute into downtown DC.
Personally, I don't mind bike lanes on streets like 20th Street or Reno Road. I like the fact that Rock Creek Park and Capital Crescent Trail and the Tow Path offer a lot of safe routes for cyclists. I wish drivers were safer and that traffic infractions were more strictly enforced. For the sake of pedestrians, I also wish cyclists were safer on DC streets.

All of these examples are anecdotes, the plural of which is not not data. What would the data point of “never more than a dozen” or so even be?

Additionally, even if these directly translated into data, the city has been clear that they are making the streets safer for cyclists in order to entice more people to cycle. So if six people really used Connecticut Avenue to bike over the course of an hour, when the roads are screamingly unsafe for cyclists, then there will be more people using them if the road if made safer.