Family Biking Matters: A Proposal for a Safer 11th Street SE

Dear Family Biking Matters,

I’ve been noticing your Hill Family Biking rides keep getting bigger! It’s wonderful to see you help kids and families have a safe opportunity to ride. What else are you guys doing to promote safe streets for the community? Any way that we can help?

— Seeking Safer Streets

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Dear Seeking,

From the very beginning, a core mission of Hill Family Biking has been to help kids and families feel more confident and safe riding their bikes in our community. We think that our monthly rides are a great way to introduce people to on-street riding in our neighborhood, and to give them a safe and protected opportunity to experience the joy of biking. But you are correct. Ultimately, we want to advocate for community infrastructure that is safe and comfortable for all ages and abilities. 

At the recent Open Streets Capitol Hill event, we introduced our first advocacy project: a proposal to convert the unprotected bike lanes on 11th Street SE to a fully protected 2-way cycletrack. This is a project that, when realized, would not only make this significant travel corridor safer, but serve as the spine to our growing excellent bike infrastructure on the Hill. 

Why 11th Street Matters

We have a great and growing network of protected bike lanes in DC and on the Hill. These include new protected paths on M Street SE leading to Nats Park, I Street SE to the Wharf, Pennsylvania Avenue SE to the Capitol, and the world-class protected system on C Street NE and North Carolina Avenue NE that link Lincoln Park to The Fields at RFK. But these are all disjointed parts, and we are missing the critical north-south path that would connect these corridors and help complete a protected network. 

11th Street SE is a busy travel corridor (both for cars and bikes) that is well positioned to be a “bike spine” that links all of these east-west paths as well as Lincoln Park. This corridor is also home to two elementary schools (Chisholm on 11th Street, and Watkins one block over on 12th Street) and making this a more comfortable route will help families and kids getting to school from all over the neighborhood. 

Paint is Not Protection

11th Street already benefits from painted bike lanes, but lacks separation and protection from car traffic, leaving riders vulnerable on a busy thoroughfare.  

Unprotected lanes theoretically set aside room for bike riders, but in practice they leave riders vulnerable to cars intruding into their space, double-parking to block their space, or to getting “door’ed” when passengers get out of parked cars. And at the southern end of 11th Street SE, the approach to a busy highway interchange at I-695 increases the volume and speeds of the cars significantly, leaving unprotected bike riders particularly vulnerable. 

Data shows that converting unprotected painted lines to a fully protected cycletrack reduces crashes and also reduces injuries—not just to bike riders, but also pedestrians and car occupants too. But importantly,  it also makes riders feel safer. Research has shown that adding such “low-stress” bike infrastructure increases usage by the community, especially among families and new riders. 

Protect the Lanes. Keep the Parking.

Because of the existing painted bike lanes and wider than needed travel lanes, there is space for better protected bike lanes. Reconfiguring 11th Street can be done without taking away any travel lanes or parking lanes. Our proposal is simple. We suggest moving the northbound and southbound bike lanes to the same side of the street. This would allow a protected barrier to separate bikes from the car parking and travel lanes. 

This is one of those “low hanging fruit” possibilities that has the potential to bring about a large benefit, with relatively little downside. A protected 2-way bike lane upgrade to 11th Street SE will link our bike network and allow a comfortable ride all the way from The Fields at RFK, to Lincoln Park, across Yards Park, to the stadiums, and to the Wharf. And someday, when the 11th Street Bridge Park is built, this path will also allow easy access to there, and all the way across the river to Anacostia Park. 

How You Can Support This Project

Grassroots efforts need community support in order to become a reality, and this project is no different. Last week, we received unanimous support from ANC 6B. And we intend to showcase this idea in the coming months at our rides and other community events to build community support with the ultimate goal of  presenting the proposal to the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) leadership. 

Here are some ways you can help:

• Sign our online petition—which already has over 300 DC residents’ signatures—to help us show community support. You can also include comments telling DDOT leadership why you support the idea.
• Come to Hill Family Biking rides! The larger our rides, the more impactful our collective voice. Our Back to School ride had a record 512 riders and we’re expecting another big ride this month on our Kingman Island Friends & Family Day Ride on September 27th.
• Share the idea with neighbors, your schools, and local businesses
• Keep an eye on our website and our social media for updates.