Good news: We have a new bicycle lane in Congress Heights!
Not so good news: It's pretty short and doesn't connect you to anywhere... yet.
My husband noticed on his morning commute that a bicycle lane was recently painted onto Malcolm X St. It goes all the way up to the intersection with South Capitol. That would take you from Sheppard Parkway, everyone's favorite park on MLK and Malcolm X, almost right up to JBAB.
That's a good start, but I truly hope there is a plan to continue. Because for those of us who want to continue up South Capitol to downtown DC, there's no good way to do so. I cringe every time I see some poor brave soul biking up or down South Capitol. I've thought about doing it before, but it scares me to bike on what is, for all intensive purposes, a highway. There's limited visibility under the overpass. Any driver could hit a bicyclist sharing the road there, and there's no shoulder of the road/sidewalk for the bicyclist to ride on.
As Nikki on Congress Heights on the Rise noted, contrary to popular belief, Ward 8 bikes a lot. I know I, among others, would use it to bike to work and for recreation. We need a safe and direct way to get to the other side of the river.
I hope this is the beginning of more bicycle lanes east of the river.
FYI, DDOT is supposed to start construction on the new Fredrick Douglas Bridge in Fall 2015. At that time, when they reconfigure the connections to Suitland Pkwy etc, they plan on extending a bike path down South Capitol Street. Eventually, it would link up with the Malcolm X path, MLK, and the Oxon Hill bike path. Not immediate, but hopefully we should have this within the next two years or so.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.anacostiawaterfront.org/awi-transportation-projects/south-capitol-street-trail/
P.S. - They also plan to reconfigure the Malcolm X and South Capitol Street intersection during this process.
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