What's the matter with Kansas (Avenue)?

(With apologies to Thomas Frank...)

The Northwest Current should really be called the West Northwest Current because for the most part it isn't distributed east of Georgia Avenue, so I don't always read it, although I have recently learned that the pdfs are now available online.

Recent issues have had a story and editorial about the Dept. of Parks and Recreation proposal to close a few blocks of Kansas Avenue NW on one Sunday, I think in August, in order to create a New York City like "Summer Streets" program, which is modeled after the Ciclovia program in Bogota, where streets are closed on Sundays, and people walk, bike, exercise, etc. in the streets, rather than leave streets as the more or less exclusive domain of automobiles and trucks.

Apparently ANC4 was negative because it would impact driving on the street, going to Church, etc. Since the Current Newspapers website seems to be down at the moment I can't find and provide the details, direct citations and quotes that I would normally include. But the editorial in the Current agreed that closing the street was a bad idea. It was for one Sunday, and probably proposed closing the street from Georgia Avenue eastwards to Sherman Circle and beyond.

Now, it happens that I am a bit leery of summer streets like programs in DC, not because I don't believe in feet first programming, but because for these programs to really work, you have to have a lot of participation, and population density. The fact is that this area isn't that dense and is somewhat spread out. It's not the ideal place to launch such a project, if you want to ensure a successful launch.

But I am still distressed by the negativity in general, about closing the street. I do see a slight problem resulting from impact on the routing of the 62 bus line, and that bus is the only bus providing north-south service between Georgia Avenue and Blair Road, in the area between the Takoma and Petworth stations.

But it happens that the concern about blocking traffic, except for a couple churches, which have alternative routes, is pretty much laughable.

It happens that now that I live in upper northwest, Kansas Avenue is one of the major bicycle "highways" I use to get to Downtown, via either Georgia Avenue or 13th Street, and beyond, because it makes for efficient moving about the city from where I live. I ride on this street at a variety of times of day including at night and on weekends.

Kansas Avenue has bike lanes for a goodly section and it barely has any traffic (even though a guy in a car once screamed at me from across the street, then turned around after me and threatened me a couple blocks down because he seemed to have a problem with bicyclists), few pedestrians, and it's served between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street NW by the 62/63 busline.

Here are a couple photos, one looking eastward towards Sherman Circle, the other westward towards Georgia Avenue, taken around 6pm last night (Thursday). This level of traffic is minimal and typical for this street.



Westward view.

The concerns people have expressed about major imposition are groundless.

Nonetheless, I think that aping the Summer Streets program is a bit grandiose. What the city needs to do is "walk before it starts to run." In my bike plan, "Ideas for making bicycling irresistible in DC," I suggest that each ward have an annual Ward bicycle ride, modeled after the BikeArlington event. We need to do ward bike rides at least once/year, and ward walks every month. From that point we can step it up to Summer Streets.

Here's what I wrote in that plan. Of course, it's focused on bicycling, but the concepts can easily be scaled up to include walking and health promotion programs.

Ward/Neighborhood bicycling enhancement

• Rate all neighborhoods in terms of their capacity to support bicycling including topography, distance to amenities and other destinations, location of schools and parks, etc. (Could use DCOP’s 37 planning areas for the organizing framework for this activity.)

• Create (relatively simple) subplans of the Bicycle Master Plan for neighborhoods-ANCs-Wards and develop programs to enhance bicycling within neighborhoods based on this assessment.
Create programs that are fine-tuned to local conditions, rather than one-size-fits-all programs that will fail if implemented in places with unfavorable conditions.

• Create focused programs to engage demographic segments under-represented in the ranks of bicyclists: children; families; disabled (London has specific programs); seniors, people who speak English as a Second Language (ESL), low-income, etc.

• Ensure that bicycling promotion programs provide information, focused outreach, and assistance to various ESL demographics.

• DDOT and DCOP have ward planners. (And DPR has Ward coordinators for Recreation Centers and programs.) Add a new position of Bicycle and Pedestrian Ward Planner to DDOT for each ward. (This could be funded all or in part by the TEA grant. Or part of the funding for these positions could be local – for the non-bicycling portion—and be considered local match, if required.

• Develop stronger civic engagement/volunteer programs. Non-government employee bicyclists can serve as “ambassadors,” mentors, and “buddies” to move people along the path from occasional rider to daily bicyclist.

• Community-neighborhood cycling enhancement grants (London). This is a small grants program (up to $10,000) supporting various projects. Could be run in coordination with ANCs. Some ANCs have Transportation and Public Space Committees (ANC6A, ANC6C), which would be logical partners.

• Annual neighborhood and/or ward rides, comparable to BikeArlington and Alexandria but on a smaller scale. This can be complemented with the development of a BikeDC annual ride, comparable to that offered by BikeArlington.

• Create neighborhood bicycle tours with online and printed maps. Partner with DestinationDC and CulturalTourismDC to do this.