Submitted by mistersmiley318 t3_z7ynz5 in washingtondc
Personally I think this is a bad design that doesn't do much to address the real issues with safety at Hains Point, or properly accomodate the varied ways people use Ohio Drive. As a reminder, two pedestrians were killed by a speeding driver last April (and on a somewhat related note, it took a year and Representative Norton personally intervening to get NPS/Park Police to actually provide the name of the driver to the two families since they weren't arrested). The problem wirh Ohio Drive is that its design is too accommodating to speeding. A roadway that long and straight subconsciously influences regular drivers to go faster than the posted speed limit, and does nothing to dissuade bad drivers from treating it as a drag strip (see this video for more info on how the environment affects traffic speed).
To remedy the danger NPS is proposing some paint and nothing else. For a start, paint provides absolutely no protection if a driver veers into the bike/pedestrian space, and you can look up countless examples of this exact scenario playing out across the nation, causing injuries and fatalities. Unfortunately though, even if the bike/pedestrian space was protected by curbs or bollards, it still wouldn't be a good design. Hains Point is incredibly popular with capital C Cyclists (the kind in lycra) who use it for training rides at high speed. Asking them to share space with people biking at a normal pace and pedestrians is a recipe for conflicts and collisions, to say nothing of including a contraflow bike lane in such a narrow space.
If I were designing the changes instead, I would implement traffic chicanes at regular intervals and build a separate sidewalk for pedestrians. With chicanes, there would be physical barriers forcing drivers to slow down, while still allowing cyclists to maintain their speed unimpeded and casual bike riders to go their own pace. It'd definitely cost more, but it would show NPS actually cares about addressing this problem. Unfortunately, given NPS's shoddy track record when it comes to dealing with things they manage in DC outside of the big monuments (see the Park Police example above, neglect for parks east of the river, trying to put cars back on Beach Drive) this half measure is par for the course.
TL/DR: NPS's design is bad and it needs revisions.
> . Hains Point is incredibly popular with capital C Cyclists (the kind in lycra) who use it for training rides at high speed. Asking them to share space with people biking at a normal pace and pedestrians is a recipe for conflicts and collisions, to say nothing of including a contraflow bike lane in such a narrow space.
Also it's already really easy to share the space with slower cyclists. It's 2 full lanes of empty space, you just give the slower person space, say on your left, ding a bell, and there's zero conflict.
I cycle there slow sometimes, and fast other times. It's a beautiful route. So easy to share the space too.
After this redesign there will be less space, with one counter flow lane in the middle of the road, like how does that do anything but make it worse??
>S's shoddy track record when it comes to dealing with things they manage in DC outside of the big monuments (see the Park Police example above, neglect for parks east of the river, trying to put cars back on Beach Drive) this half measure is par for the course.
Have you studied this with evaulations on chicanes versus dedicated bikes lanes? I think data is more convincing, if that is what you are trying to do. I literally just wrapped up a program synethsis that is 35 pages long. These (transportation policy, housing policy, etc.) issues often aren't just "decided on a whim." Public policy experts usually spend months researching them.
“C”yclists are just going to use the bike/car lane.
Thank you for the TLDR. I didn’t read. It was too long.
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