Politics & Government

M Street Cycletrack Delayed, L Street Moving Ahead

A cycletracks' flexible posts run the length of a bike lane to provide a physical barrier between bikers and traffic.

The M Street Cycletrack will be delayed for at least another year, but the L Street project is moving ahead in 2012. The District Department of Transportation recently shared that the agency intends to complete the L Street eastbound cycletrack in 2012.

Originally the L and M Street improvements were to have been completed in the same year. The M Street cycletrack would create a flexible post barrier along a westbound bike lane that would run from 15th Street to 29th Street.

But in an email to Patch, DDOT's Mike Goodno explained that the agency is now focusing solely on L Street.

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"This decision was a recognition of the complexity and amount of time to plan and execute these projects," he wrote.

There was a fear that the projects would be scrapped when new DDOT Director Terry Bellamy testified before the District Council during his nomination hearing that the cycletracks were on hold, possible permanently, over concerns about a loss of vehicular parking.

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As DDOT nears complete on a one-year study of the 15th Street Cycletracks, those lessons and best practices will be used to inform the design and installation of the L Street track, which will run between New Hampshire Avenue and 12th Street.

"Once we install L St [sic], we will be able to apply what we have learned to M St [sic], which we hope to execute next year," Goodno wrote.


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