DC Strategic Bikeways Plan 2025: Ward 3 Opportunities
Let’s make sure key Ward 3 needs are included as District Strategic Bikeways Plan (SBP) priorities!
The District Dept. of Transportation (DDOT) states that “the Bike Lane Program plans to build an additional 50 miles of bicycle lanes across the District over the next 5 years.” Please communicate your bicycling, safety concerns, network gaps, and project ideas to DDOT via the Strategic Bikeways Plan Public Comment Map.
We’ll call out five key Ward 3 priority bikeway routes, focusing on longer-distance, corridor routes rather than local connections, which DDOT should pursue as a matter of course:
- Connecticut Avenue NW protected bike lanes, as developed by DDOT before being scrapped by the city administration, over council objections, in April, 2024.
- The conversion of Dalecarlia Parkway, between Westmoreland Circle NW and Loughboro Road NW near Sibley Hospital, from a four-lane road into a two-lane auto road, with the westernmost two lanes turned into a non-motorized trail and park.
- Protected bike lanes on River Road NW between Western and Wisconsin Avenues NW.
- Protected bike lanes on the length of Massachusetts Ave. NW, from Western Ave. NW, southeast through downtown DC.
- The creation of a continuous two-way bike route for the length of 39th St. NW from Fulton St. to “Massachusetts-39th Trail” (just south of Ridge Square) and then onto the northern quarter-mile of the Glover Archbold Trail up to Van Ness St. NW.
You can provide your comments NOW via DDOT’s Strategic Bikeways Plan Public Comment Map.
Other things we’d like to see – projects already underway and trail projects – outside of the Strategic Bikeways Plan process:
- Construction of Western Avenue NW protected bike lanes, which are currently at 30% design, and 44th St NW & Jenifer St NW protected bike lanes, which are at 100% design!
- Implementation of the Palisades Trolley Trail and Foundry Trestle Bridge project, from Galena Pl. NW in the west. It should extend east beyond Georgetown University, all the way to Wisconsin Ave in Georgetown.
- Construction of the Arizona Avenue Trail to the Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) connection, programmed for the coming year, followed by reinstallation of the Arizona Ave. NW protected bike lanes that DDOT removed earlier this year.
Provide your comments NOW via DDOT’s Strategic Bikeways Plan Public Comment Map.
Are there other priorities WABA should post? Please let us know by e-mail to advocacy@waba.org or via our DC Bikeway Priorities form.