Gordon Chaffinis a freelance journalist who focuses on infrastructure and traffic news and insights for Street Justice. You can support independent journalism by subscribing to Gordon’s StreetJustice newsletter: He’s offering a 20% discount to THIH readers. See more information below. –Maria Helena Carey
K Street NW Getting Road Diet 2020-21
This week at ANC 6E (Shaw/Mount Vernon Square), DDOT officials presented conceptual designs for a road diet on K Street NW. Staff outlined previous studies pointing to the need for street changes. The proposed conditions use 50-feet of road width from North Capitol to 7th Street NW to add curbside protected bike lanes and reduce existing lane width from the dangerous 12-13 feet to modern standards of 11-feet travel lanes, a 10-feet turning lane, and 8-feet parking lanes. [Full Story]
Arlington Could Extend Scooter Pilot to December
At this week’s Arlington Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting, County staff explained preliminary data from their shared bike and scooter pilot. Jim Larsen, the County’s Director of Commuter Services provided ridership data, a map of routes taken, and directly answered questions from the committee of residents. Arlington’s current Shared Mobility Devices Pilot started October 2018 and runs through June 30. Larsen explained that County staff will ask the Board to extend the pilot through December 2019. [Full Story]
New Data on Ride-Hailing Violations in DC
With DC’s How’s My Driving (HMD) app crossing $1.1MM in citations identified, the team behind it have collected great data on violations. Recently, the HMD team presented data on bike safety and ride-hailing services to DC’s Bike Advisory Council. Those data informed a letter the BAC is preparing with policy suggestions for DC’s agencies and the Council. [Full Story]
Arlington Now the 5th Best Place to Ride Bikes
Arlington County earned the ranking of 5th Best Place to Ride bikes according to PeopleForBikes, a non-profit advocacy organization out of Colorado. Arlington was rated at 3.4 stars on a 5-star scale. Boulder, the nation’s best city to ride bikes according to PFB, is rated at 3.7 stars. DC is 13th with 3.1 stars. The big takeaway here is that smaller cities in MD and VA aren’t doing a good job building plentiful, safe bike infrastructure. [Full Story]
VDOT Holding Leesburg Pike Meetings Away from Transit
Virginia’s Department of Transportation (VDOT) held a meeting this week and will have one next week featuring details of changes they’re going to make to Route 7/Leesburg Pike. VDOT owns and operates the road in Fairfax County. The agency claims that widening Route 7 will decrease congestion by increasing capacity, but that’s false: Widening lanes without tolling them results in worse traffic. [Full Story]
This is a daily newsletter produced by Gordon Chaffin, a journalist in Washington DC. I cover transportation & urban planning in DC, MD, & VA to explain what’s happening in the street and why. Reports delivered every weekday afternoon for paid subscribers and Sunday mornings for free subscribers. Sign up for free. Please support my local journalism with $5/mo or $50/yr. The Hill is Home readers can subscribe to Street Justice for a 20% discount.