DDOT has started construction on a short cycletrack on M Street NE, to connect an entrance to the Metropolitan Branch Trail to the First Street NE cycletrack.

M Street cycletrack plan. Image by DDOT.

The new cycletrack will be on the south side of the street, and will function like an extension of the existing 1st Street cycletrack. Both parking stops and plastic bollards will protect cyclists in the bike lane, just like on 1st Street. This will replace all 16 metered parking spaces on the block.

Running only a single block, the new cycletrack ends just prior to where M Street passes under the railroad tracks, where there’s an entrance to the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

A new ramp is under construction at that spot, to allow bicyclists to cross the sidewalk and access the trail entrance.

For cyclists continuing east under the tracks, DDOT officials will paint sharrows in M Street’s traffic lanes.

At one point on M Street, the cycletrack squeezes down to a narrow 6 feet wide. This is to accommodate the wide turning radius of trucks entering and exiting the Harris Teeter loading dock on the north side of the street. The narrow section will have plastic bollards but no parking stops.

Other bike projects in NoMa

This block-long cycletrack is part of a trio of projects DDOT is working on to fill in the gaps of NoMa’s bike lane network.

Earlier this summer, DDOT officials added bike lanes to the 100 block of F Street NE. Next up, they’ll rebuild 1st Street NE between Massachusetts Avenue and G Street, next to Union Station, to add a cycletrack and wider sidewalks.

Sometime further in the future, DDOT could potentially extend this new M Street cycletrack west to North Capitol Street or beyond, and east to 4th Street or Florida Avenue.

Tony Goodman is an ANC Commissioner for 6C06 in Near Northeast/NoMA and member of the DC Pedestrian Advisory Council. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, he is a Construction Project Manager with a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan and has lived in Washington, DC since 2002.