New Bike Lanes Offer More Protection

-A modified bike lane plan on Pennsylvania Avenue will offer more protection for cyclists by keeping motorists out of the bike lanes.

In the new plan, the District Department of Transportation has returned traffic lanes to motorists and moved the cycling lanes to the median, according to the Washington Post. This will offer better protection for the cyclists and should help to ease traffic congestion, DDOT said.

However, the revised plan will still use new signals from the original plan, in order to protect bikers and pedestrians from traffic turning left, according to the Washington Post.

Such signals are necessary as the two bike lanes are located in the center of the avenue surrounded by three lanes of vehicle traffic on either side, the Post said. Traffic light cycles are being altered so cyclists will have an exclusive green light in order to turn left.

DDOT said the cycling lanes should open to bikers in about a week.

The lanes will continue to expand in D.C. and will soon include L, I and Ninth Streets. Fifteenth Street will also be expanded.

To view the revised cycling lanes visit the DDOT’s website.