Jared Alves

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Mayor Bowser: Recommit to Connecticut Ave Bike Lanes

On April 11, 2024, Sharon Kershbaum, Acting Director of the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) reported during a budget hearing that her Department was cancelling plans to redesign Connecticut Avenue NW with a protected bike lane on each side of the street. I emailed the message below on April 12 to Mayor Bowser, copying Acting Director Kershbaum and my Ward and At-Large City Councilmembers.

As a DC resident and professional city planner, I’m writing to express my profound disappointment in your Administration’s abrupt decision to cancel the separated bike lanes long-planned for Connecticut Avenue.

I urge my City Councilmembers, who I have copied to this message, to hold your Administration accountable to DDOT’s original plan and your 2014 Vision Zero pledge, as will I when you next run for election in 2026.

Abandoning projects like Concept C for the Connecticut Avenue street redesign and K Street transitway as well as slow walking the now hugely popular 9th Street NW cycle track signals that your administration is not serious about saving lives. Indeed, rising traffic fatalities despite your Vision Zero pledge indicates that more significant, faster action is needed today.

DDOT studied the Connecticut Avenue corridor extensively beginning in 2019 and, in 2021, committed to the community that the agency would pursue Concept C. As DDOT noted in its press release, elected leaders along the corridor, including ANCs 3C, 3E, 3F, 3G and 4G all approved resolutions that support Concept C.

You were quoted as saying that Concept C “best meets the needs of our city and moves us closer to a greener DC, a safer DC, and a DC that is less reliant on cars.” Please listen to your words and recommit to Concept C.

Note: The Washington Area Bicyclist Association is collecting signatures on a petition to reinstate the bike lanes. Sign the petition here.