Testimony of Rachel Maisler, Chair & Ward 4 Representative, DC Bicycle Advisory Council for the Performance Oversight Hearing: Committee on Transportation & the Environment
February 25, 2019
As prepared for delivery
Good morning Chair Cheh, members of the Committee. My name is Rachel Maisler. I am the chair of the Bicycle Advisory Council and represent Ward 4. The Bicycle Advisory Council is comprised of 13 citizen members – one to represent each Councilmember, as well as representatives from the Department of Transportation, Metropolitan Police Department, Office of Planning, Department of Parks and Recreation, and DC Public Schools. Today I will provide you with an update on the current state of bicycling in Washington, DC.
First, I want to thank the members of the BAC as well as District agency staff who attended our six bi-monthly meetings, as well as numerous committee meetings throughout the last year. Staff from DDOT and the Office of Planning were at the table for every full BAC meeting in FY2018; representatives from MPD attended many meetings as well. I also want to thank the members of the public who attended our meetings. The partnership between the BAC, District agencies and the public has enabled our members to provide informed advice and comments to District and federal agencies when relevant to bicycling in DC.
In 2018, the BAC, as a council and as individual members, submitted comments and testimonies on bicycle regulations, snow removal operations, dockless bikeshare regulations, Vision Zero, and the Long Bridge project.
Now, for the current state of bicycling in Washington, DC. One of the biggest issues bicyclists of all ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds face is safety. You ask any person biking in DC, and they will regale you with stories of near-misses or worse and the culprit is usually a driver.
As you are aware, 2018 was a deadly year for cyclists in DC. Three cyclists, Malik Habib, Jeffrey Long and Thomas Hollowell, were killed in entirely preventable crashes, compared with two cyclists in 2017. However, the number of reported major and minor crashes in 2018 are lower than in 2017. There were 20 fewer major injuries and nearly 60 fewer minor injuries last year. Beyond these statistics, it’s hard to track whether bicycle safety has improved in the District. Many minor injuries, for example, are not reported.
In 2018, many cyclists routinely took to social media and apps (i.e. Bike Lane Uprising[1]and How’s My Driving DC[2]) to document the dangerous driver behavior and bike lane obstructions they face every day. The reporting via these platforms underscores not only flaws in design, but the important role agencies that have traditionally not engaged with the BAC have in bicyclist safety.
The Department of Public Works is responsible for parking enforcement and the removal of leaves and snow from bike lanes; The Department of For Hire Vehicles oversees taxis as well as the ride-hailing services. Bike lanes that don’t have physical protection offer cyclists a false sense of security from drivers, especially when parking enforcement prioritizes resident parking violations over traffic safety violations. Of the 1.3 million parking tickets DPW issued in 2018, only 1,723 were issued for bike lane violations.[3]Bicyclists filed numerous complaints about taxi and ride-hail drivers. The agency investigated each complaint, and in many cases reprimanded or educated the driver.
The Mayor’s renewed commitment to the Vision Zero initiative is encouraging, but completely reactive to a deadly year for cyclists and pedestrians. This Council submitted a letter[4]to the Mayor, DC Council and heads of agencies responsible for implementing Vision Zero. The letter outlines many recommendations for creating a safer environment for all people traveling in Washington, DC. We continue to stand by what we wrote, and look forward to working together with agencies toward Vision Zero. Additionally, I hope the Vision Zero Enhancement Amendment Act of 2018 will be reintroduced and passed by Council during this legislative period.[5]
For its part, members of the BAC worked diligently to engage with agencies throughout the District government to educate leadership and staff about their role in protecting bicyclist safety. As a group and as individuals, the BAC took an active role in the September Roundtable hearing to examine the state of Vision Zero in the District and how it should be improved. BAC members took part in several councilmember bike rides to examine bicycling conditions in the District. We also traveled with DPW enforcement staff to explain the need to ticket vehicles in bike lanes and to better understand from their point of view the problems these city employees face. We rode along with an MPD Traffic Enforcement Officer to observe their interactions with motorists and other road users, and provide insights on obstructions bicyclists face in DC. The BAC saw a renewed commitment from MPD in working together toward the common goal of Vision Zero. We worked with the Department of For Hire Vehicles to update their complaint form to allow bicyclists to report taxi drivers or ride-hail operators blocking the bike lane, and learned from DFHV about vague laws about taxi drop offs that DDOT has proposed regulations to clarify. We also regularly attended hearings and commented on DDOT proposed transportation plans. We hosted “moving meetings” on bicycle facilities with representatives from DDOT that were consistently informative, impactful and educational. We are confident these activities are helpful in our advisory capacity to improving bicyclist safety in our city.
It is our hope the state of safety for bicyclists in the District of Columbia will continue to improve, and I will be able to report such at this hearing next year. To help accomplish this, the BAC will focus on:
- Building our partnership with the Metropolitan Police Department to improve bicycle safety and traffic control.
- Working with DDOT to improve bicycle facilities throughout all eight wards.
- Advising Council and District agencies on matters pertinent to bicycling through public comments, testimony and letters.
But as a volunteer citizen advisory council, there is only so much we can do. We need you, Councilmembers, to prioritize the lives of road users not traveling in cars if we’re going to lower the number of bicyclist injuries and fatalities next year.
We need you to enhance DDOT’s ability to maintain, repair, improve the condition of DC streets, such as removing potholes, promptly filling utility cuts and re-painting current bike lanes.
We need you to hold DDOT accountable for completing critical safety projects that have faced a myriad of delays like:
- Eastern Downtown Protected Bike Lane
- Florida Ave NE Streetscape
- Rock Creek Park Trail Rehabilitation
- DC Streetcar flange filler investigation and H St. traffic calming improvements
- Alabama Ave SE Bike Lanes
- Pennsylvania Ave SE Protected Bike Lanes
- South Capitol St. Trail
- Western Downtown Protected Bike Lanes
- K St. NW and K St. NE Protected Bike Lanes
(We thank our friends at the Washington Area Bicyclist Association for compiling this list.[6])
We need you to continue to allocate funds for the expansion of Capital Bikeshare, especially in Wards 7 and 8, and to support the addition of more e-Bikes to the fleet.
We need to you allocate funding to build adequate bicycle facilities in every Ward of the city.
We need you to provide more funding and resources for DPW to boot, tow and impound vehicles with excessive unpaid tickets.
We need you to pass tougher legislation on distracted driving, fund the Enhanced Penalties for Distracted Driving Amendment Act of 2015[7], and support more stringent enforcement of existing laws.
At the end of the day, anybody who wants should be able to ride a bike in DC without fear of death or major injury. And we need you to continue to hold District agencies accountable for achieving this goal.
Thank you.
[1]https://www.bikelaneuprising.com
[2]https://twitter.com/howsmydrivingdc?lang=en
[3]https://wtop.com/dc-transit/2019/02/d-c-parking-ticket-revenue-declining/
[4]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1edGolsCDIHkKhk33ZdngsGcuMTGodf76/view
[5]http://lims.dccouncil.us/Legislation/B22-1038
[6]https://www.waba.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/DC-Delayed-Projects-Update-Letter.pdf
[7]http://lims.dccouncil.us/Legislation/B21-0021?FromSearchResults=true