DC Auditor Examines Mayor’s Mandate for Protected Bike Lanes

Release: Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021 

Contact: Nick DelleDonne ,   

delledonne.n@comcast.net, 703 929 6656 

DC Auditor Examines Mayor’s Mandate for Protected Bike Lanes

Last week, the DC Auditor announced a probe into Vision Zero, a program administered by the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), to reduce traffic fatalities. The fact is that deaths have risen in each of the past six years, but one. “We applaud this audit,” said Nick DelleDonne, of the city-wide Coalition on DDOT Bike Plans, “Vision Zero is being used to justify dangerous bike plans throughout the city.”

The Coalition urges neighborhoods around the city to pushback. Protected bike lanes (PBLs) unexpectedly create a hazard for pedestrians – seniors on walkers, toddlers on a rope from daycare, the disabled, and the rest of us. PBLs encourage bad behavior, like speeding and running lights and going the wrong way. In the commercial stretch on 17^th St., NW, this reckless plan runs through the commercial and social nerve center of the community. DDOT’s 17^th St. Bike Plan drives a highway for bikes through the prized livable walkable community. “It is reckless and dangerous,” DelleDonne said.

DDOT agents have said, “We heard your complaints but the Mayor has a mandate and the protected bike lanes are going in whether you like it or not.” The so-called mandate is Vision Zero. The Mayor and Councilmembers rely on the admirable goal of Vision Zero to justify a blind determination to force PBLs in neighborhoods where their installation is reckless and dangerous.

DDOT is coming increasingly under fire for not planning, as a matter of policy. A recent unanimous resolution of ANC3E in Friendship Heights criticizes DDOT in fine detail on this matter. Councilmember Mary Cheh, who chairs the Council oversight committee on transportation, has consequently asked DDOT how its policy is not “an abdication of its responsibility” to plan. The confirmation hearing for DDOT director Everett Lott is Oct. 26.

The DC Coalition on DDOT Bike Plans will rally, ‘Dangerous by Design,’ Friday, Oct. 1, at the Safeway at 17^th and Corcoran Streets, NW, 3:30-5 pm, to protest a Bike Plan DDOT installed without community engagement.