A protected bikeway could be installed on 9th Street in Shaw, but recent reporting indicates Bowser quietly killed the project. Image created with Google Maps.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser says she is committed to eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2024, the District’s goal under the Vision Zero initiative it adopted in 2015. Yet for more than three years her administration has quietly stalled an important safety project, a protected bikeway on 9th Street NW, and refused to give the public straight answers about why.

Publicly, the administration’s line is that the project, officially known as the Eastern Downtown Protected Bike Lanes, can go ahead once it is engineered to some unspecified degree of safety. But, according to my sources, the mayor’s people have no intention of completing it.

According to a source with direct knowledge of the project’s history, senior mayoral advisor Beverly Perry intervened and effectively nixed this piece of infrastructure that officials had spent many years and taxpayer resources planning, engineering, and re-engineering. Independent reporter Gordon Chaffin recently confirmed this with additional sources and reported the story in his publication Street Justice.

The administration directed the staffers at the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to revise and refine the blueprints to buy time, to indefinitely put off a final decision, my source says. It seems our leaders hoped the public would forget the project existed.

In this Bowser has received unsolicited assistance from the local news media, which have chosen to largely ignore the matter.

Inaction hurts safety, and not only in Shaw

DDOT began studying options for a north-south protected bikeway along downtown’s east side and through Shaw in 2015. Officials considered many options and issued a final report in 2017 recommending further analysis of two of the options, on 6th and 9th streets NW.

DDOT has settled on 9th, Chaffin reported, but nothing has progressed beyond the 30% design phase, the first milestone in drawing up plans for construction. Meanwhile, the other two bikeway projects which started studies at the same time, on 20th & 21st streets NW and the “Crosstown Cycletrack” between Petworth, Columbia Heights, and Brookland, have moved forward.

I sat down with Greg Billing, the executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, to discuss the city’s halting progress toward Vision Zero in the context of the interminably delayed, two-mile-long bikeway through Shaw. “The big issue is it sends a signal to [DDOT] about whether the mayor has their back on tough projects. It makes [DDOT] far more reluctant to take on other tough projects because they can’t trust they will have the support of the mayor.”

Billing’s frustration is palpable. He precisely tracks the District’s project maps, which are color-coded to delineate among completed, under construction, or planned bike lanes and protected bikeways. He has long advocated for the latter because they provide a physical barrier between bikes and cars and are therefore significantly safer than basic, painted bike lanes.

“We are drifting on our commitment and progress. We are not a leader right now. We are slowing down our commitments at the exact wrong time,” Billing said.

The District has about 10 miles of protected bikeways. DDOT Director Jeff Marootian said his agency intends to build as many as six additional miles in 2020. That goal is not nearly ambitious enough for Billing, whose organization is calling on the District to construct 20 miles of protected bikeways by the end of next year.

When it comes to the Shaw project, Billing said Bowser “needs to make a decision.” The fact is the mayor – backed by her advisor Perry – has made one: the project is not going anywhere. The DC Council included $300,000 to fund final design to 100% in this fiscal year, but so far the administration has not taken further action.

The District deserves our praise for recently improving bicycle infrastructure on Maine Avenue SW, Virginia Avenue SE, and K Street/Water Street in Georgetown, to name three corridors. Also of note is a new protected bikeway on Florida Avenue NE. The safety changes there were spurred by the death of father, spouse, neighbor and known safe streets advocate Dave Salovesh, who was killed by the driver of a stolen vehicle. Indeed, too often DDOT springs into action only after someone is killed at a dangerous intersection or along a high-speed corridor.

Is that what it will take to pull the Eastern Downtown Bike Lanes out of the garbage can? At the very least Bowser owes the public an honest explanation about why so much time and money were spent on something she had no intention of seeing through to completion. It appears she has condemned this Vision Zero project to death by delay.

Lauren Wolfe dressed as “Ghost of Mayor Bowser’s Deadly Pedestrian, Bike + Scooter Infrastructure.” The sign further reads, “Death Brought to You by Mayor Muriel Bowser + Her Staff, Specifically Beverly Perry.” Image by Eve Zhurbinskiy.

What is happening with this project?

The precise reasons behind mayoral advisor Perry’s anti-bike lane stance are not entirely clear. We know that some churches along the proposed routes did not hide the fact they were unhappy with a potential loss of parking and fearful of gentrification which they say bike lanes represent; Perry is a member of one Shaw church.

At a memorable public meeting held by DDOT at the Shaw library in late 2015, Robert Price, a pastor at the United House of Prayer, raised this fear.

“We know that when you see bike lanes, when you see Whole Foods, when you see Harris Teeter, when you see Chipotles, and all of these different places, that’s nice establishments, but I know that’s not for me,” he said to a decidedly anti-bike lane audience. “And I know that’s not for a whole lot of us. You know what I am saying, don’t you? The reality is we have to stand, because if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”

Recognizing that people are killed regardless of race and many people on bicycles are young people of color in the city, WABA has worked to build dialogue with the churches about bicycling. But the churches remain opposed, and because the Bowser administration has refused to be forthright, it is not possible to engage with the concerns more directly. Nor can street safety advocates know whether Perry is echoing pastors’ opposition or has different reasons for convincing the mayor to obstruct the project’s completion.

With the current state of disingenuous silence from Bowser, Marootian, her transportation director, is forced to tap dance around questions from councilmembers about the delay. At a hearing about Vision Zero on October 24, Charles Allen (Ward 6) asked, “Is there a decision coming?”

After non-answering that DC has “a number of bike lane projects that are either being designed or are getting ready to be implemented,” Allen pressed for specifics on this one. Marootian responded, “I don’t have an update on where we are in the design process other than to say that we continue to have conversations about a number of different projects in and around the community, and we will continue to do that.” The conversation continued in this circle for a few more moments with no further information.

The next day, during an appearance on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU 88.5, Bowser offered a vague answer implying the current design is inadequately safe, after the reporter Chaffin called in and asked her why the bikeway has not been built.

Such dissembling would be risible were it not for the life and death stakes. The Eastern Downtown Protected Bike Lanes have been awaiting a final decision since 2017. The Bowser administration should not be allowed to sweep it into the dustbin without at least fessing up that it does not want it built. Better yet, it should work through any reasonable concerns from churches and other stakeholders and move forward to make the area safe for all DC residents.

GGWash sometimes organizes around issues affecting our region. Should we consider advocacy around this topic? Let us know!