Reply to Connecticut Ave bike lanes are back!

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Reply to "Connecticut Ave bike lanes are back!"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]At the same time they are pushing to get rid of a significant amount of the bus service in the same area - re: the 96 and the L2.  Buses are much more accessible to many people than the metro and  bike lanes and should not be cut back [/quote]

There is so much overlap with metrorail on this corridor that cutting the bus service actually makes sense. [/quote]

So bikes can't ride on side streets and then double back on to CT Ave to do their shopping (there are tons of posts about how bikes must have a straight shot and bike lanes all the way along their preferred routes), but old people, disabled, people with little kids etc.. need to get themselves multiple blocks to the metro stops and up and down the escalators v.s the bus stops which are much more frequent and user friendly for groups that arent' fleet footed.[/quote]

I'm pro-bike lane but agree with you that cutting bus service would be a mistake. However, to be clear, the posts don't say bikes "must have a straight shot"; they typically say riding in Rock Creek Park is a bad alternative to riding on Connecticut. If you wanted to put protected bike lanes on, say, Porter instead of CT, I'd be all for it, going a couple of blocks out of the way is nothing like going half a mile downhill out of the way (and then ending up in Georgetown instead of downtown).[/quote]

Cars have to go out of the way ALL THE TIME (one way streets, roundabouts, etc). This is a function of travel by car. You can't get directly where you want to go in DC without having to make some loops and turnarounds because of the traffic flow. Pedestrians are the only ones not limited in this way. I don't understand why bikers believe that this should not be the case for them as well. Their traffic patterns need to be managed and diverted for the greater good just like vehicle traffic. [/quote]

Yes, cars go a block or two out of the way all the time. But going through the park instead of on Connecticut from, say, my house, would add three-quarters of a mile and nearly double the amount of vertical feet involved in the trip (and if I wanted to stay in the park all the way to where the trail ends, it would add even more, but that distance is for if I were to exit it in Woodley Park instead). I don't think that's really comparable to having to drive through a roundabout.

I'm often happy to go out of my way to get to a protected bike lane (I head to 15th Street as soon as possible when commuting through downtown). My point, though, is that suggesting Rock Creek Park is a fine alternative to bike lanes on Connecticut means making it FAR less convenient for bikes than for any other mode of transportation. Which maybe makes sense if you just think anyone who rides a bike anywhere is an idiot who must be punished, but from a planning standpoint, it's probably not ideal.[/quote]

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