Streetfilms: Contraflow Bike Lanes — A Capital Idea

While we were down in Washington, DC for the National Bike Summit, Streetfilms got the chance to check out some of the capital’s innovative new bike infrastructure.

Tops
on our list: the city’s first protected, contraflow lane for
bicyclists. The district DOT has redesigned 15th Street NW between U
Street and Massachusetts Avenue to accommodate two-way bike traffic on
a one-way street. Northbound cyclists get a shared lane moving in the
same direction as car traffic, and southbound cyclists ride in a
parking-protected lane. The treatment has also slimmed down the street,
removing a vehicle lane and calming traffic.

DC transportation
officials say that when designing this protected bike lane, they looked
to New York and Montreal for inspiration. Contraflow
lanes could help make critical new connections in New York’s bike
network, like the gap between Park Slope and Fort Greene that Brooklyn CB 2 recently asked DOT
to take a look at. So hopefully some of that inspiration will work its way back up the Acela corridor to NYC.

Although not captured in the video, DC has also just
finished a curbside, un-protected contraflow lane on the narrower Champlain Street in Adams
Morgan. See pics after the jump.