ANC Gets Hot About Bike Lanes


At the July 2 meeting of the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission, after the public safety and several items on the Community Comment docket, things got hot when ANC Chair Joe Gibbons called for the “Consideration of a Resolution Regarding the Evaluation Methods for the New Bike Lanes on K Street, Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue.” During his preface, Gibbons said that Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans wants the K Street lines to return to their “original configuration.”

The revelation that Evans opposed the new lanes surprised commissioners and several audience members.

It prompted an immediate reaction from commissioner Lisa Palmer, in whose district the lanes have been installed. The new bike lanes are part of a temporary program, Palmer said, and only “65 percent installed.” She noted that the staged installation by the D.C. Department of Transportation caused confusion and was delayed by the film production of “Wonder Woman 1984.”

Supportive of the new bike lanes, she said, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” The new configuration will be studied by DDOT during the next few months, and a final decision will then be made.

The new bike lanes have caused confusion, and opponents contend that K Street traffic is a mess and that there are other lanes to use in Georgetown Waterfront Park.

At the meeting on a hot summer evening, things calmed down after a few back-and-forths, and the resolution passed, 3-2.

In the next Georgetowner: public space updates on temporary bollards during sidewalk widening events by the Georgetown Business Improvement District. Also, a look at the Georgetown BID’s Rock Creek Parkway access study.

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