9th Street’s bikeway project is at a standstill, again

BicyclingBy Andrew Small (Correspondent) March 4, 2020

Paramedics respond to a cyclist struck and injured by a driver on 9th Street used with permission.

Facing a divided council, Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau withdrew her emergency legislation to install the 9th Street Cycletrack during a legislative hearing on Tuesday.

“With deep regret, I will withdraw this legislation today,” Nadeau said. “I truly believe that it represents a strong compromise that respects the daily uses of the existing institutions while also enhancing safety for all.”

At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman did offer to bring bike advocates and church leaders together for a dialogue about the stalled protected bikeway.

The 9th Street bikeway has been underway since 2015 as part of the Eastern Downtown Cycletrack, with DDOT design plans completed in 2017. The mayor’s office and DDOT have stayed mum on why the protected bike lane has yet to be built. Action has been heating up as attention to Vision Zero grows with increased pedestrian and bicyclist deaths and injuries. Advocates for the bike lane organized monthly rides and lobbied councilmembers, while church members have expressed concerns about losing parking spaces and displacement by gentrification, which the District has seen at the highest intensity among metro areas in the United States.

Nadeau’s bill would have included a plan that preserved Sunday parking for the 9th Street, but the bill also saw opposition from a broader coalition of churches that see bike lanes a harbinger of neighborhood change. “This measure does reflect engagement and input from churches, putting into law things that they’ve requested, including protection of parking,” said Nadeau. “But it’s become clear through months of outreach, dialogue, tweaks, and more tweaks, that this bill has become a lightning rod and a symbol for some of the most deeply felt racial conflicts in our city.”

Nadeau said the emergency bill was meant to restart a conversation after the plan has stalled out without further directions from Mayor Muriel Bowser, despite having a design plan since 2017 and budget allocations in the 2020 Fiscal Year.

Nadeau’s emergency bill would have faced opposition from some of her colleagues, with Chairman Mendelson, At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds, and Councilmembers Vincent Gray (Ward 7), Kenyan McDuffie (Ward 5), and Brandon Todd (Ward 4) all expressing concern with setting the precedent of taking a vote on a protected bike lane outside of the usual process. At-Large Councilmembers Robert White and Silverman, and Councilmembers Mary Cheh and Charles Allen, expressed support for the legislation while Councilmember Trayon White did not speak on the bill.

“I support the intent behind expanding our bicycle infrastructure and I support better infrastructure in a broader network in general. That said, we need to be honest with ourselves and our constituents that this issue goes beyond a cycle track along Ninth Street,” McDuffie said at the start of the discussion before the vote.

“Our city is grappling with the fast-paced changes that accompany gentrification while at the same time espousing the virtues of being an inclusive city,” McDuffie said. “For many people, this is also an issue about race and while that issue can be divisive, it can be controversial, it can be uncomfortable, we must confront that. I think we can do that in a way that is respectful of each other and productive in the long run.”

McDuffie’s appointment to the Bicycle Advisory Council resigned after Tuesday’s hearing.

Before Nadeau withdrew the bill, Silverman put up an offer for church members and cycling advocates to get bike advocates and churchgoers together to discuss the impasse on the Eastern Cycletrack project.

“In the end, we all know this is not a debate about a protected bike lane. It’s not a debate about parking. It’s not a debate about whether the Department of Transportation has taken action or has not taken action,” Silverman said. “This is a discussion about race. It’s about gentrification. It’s about perceptions of who has power in this city, who is gaining power in this city, who is losing power in this city and who is benefitting and who is not benefitting from the decisions we make.” Silverman expressed a need to change the tenor of the dialogue.

“When I read the letters from the Shiloh members, I think about my parents who are in their eighties,” Silverman said. “They care about climate change and they care about transit equity but they fear taking a fall when they walk. I think I have an understanding of how the Shiloh and New Bethel churchgoers, especially the older ones, feel about a bike lane that might be terrifying to them.”

Silverman said she sees what the cycling community feels every day on the city’s streets, too. “As many people know, I’m also a longtime cyclist and I was cycling in this city before we had any protected infrastructure, so I understand the terror of cycling and feeling that you’re always defensively biking.”

Instead of a legislative proposal, Silverman offered a “friendly” proposal to Nadeau. “I am inviting those who support the protected bike lane and the church members to sit down and break bread together, and I will pay for it.” Silverman said that Apostle Sterling Green offered the United House of Prayer’s Paradise Cafe as a possible venue for the meeting.

“I am tired of us getting to this point because we are a city and we need to understand each other to talk to each other and I think we need to understand how each other feel.”

Nadeau accepted the offer, but with a warning about inaction.

“If this process continues to stall, more people will die. All the users of 9th street should be concerned about this. Whether they primarily travel on 9th Street on Sunday or any other day of the week, I plan to take my colleague Councilmember Silverman up on her offer to convene and break bread. Let’s start there, let’s resume that dialogue but please hear me when I say this. The need for new infrastructure and enhanced safety on 9th Street will not go away and we as government leaders are called upon to address that need urgently.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman would have opposed the emergency legislation on the 9th Street Cycletrack. Councilmember Silverman’s office says she was prepared to support the bill.