Tour of DC Bike Facilities

Jim Sebastian (center) describes the cycletrack on our tour

Friday, a group from Baltimore’s Department of Transportation (DOT) took a tour of some new bike lanes and cycletracks around Washington, DC.  The idea of the tour was initiated by Jennfier Toole of Toole Design Group during Baltimore’s Bike-Friendly Community regonition.  Representing B’more’s DOT was our new director Khalil Zaied, new Planning Division chief Theo Ngongang, planner Mark Brown, new bike planner Andie Murtha and myself.  We were joined by Eric Gilliland of NACTO, bike planners from DDOT, Philadelphia & Pittsburgh and engineers from Toole Design.

Bike Signal

We started at District Department of Transportation (DDOT) on the new Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) bikes at U St.  We made our way down the 15th St. cycletrack – bi-directional bike lanes between the curb and parked cars (with flex posts).  The southern end of the facility was still under construction, but we continued on to the White House and onto the Pennsylvania Avenue cycletrack.  This cycletrack is unique in that it runs down the center of the street! 

Check out a quick video of the Pennsylvania Ave cycletrack here

At Union Station, we toured the Bike Station and headed across E Street.  The road diet on E St. provided bike lanes from Columbus Circle to the White House.  Working our way back to DDOT, we headed up New Hampshire Ave and experienced a bicycle traffic signal at U St & 16th St. 

B'more DOT after a great bike ride around DC (L-R me, Andie Murtha, Khalil Zaied, Theo Ngongang & Mark Brown)

We wrapped up our spin without any wrecks or close calls.  It had been Theo’s first time on a bike in 10 years, Khalil’s first time in 30 years and both had a great ride.  Now, we’ll take ‘em for a ride around B’more!