Of the 700,000 residents in DC, few want to ride a bike – very few. Despite this fact, DC is pushing E-bikes onto city streets at our peril in a vain effort to fill empty bike lanes.
DDOT spokesman Greg Billing, former Executive Director of DC’s bike lobby, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA), tells us that the police are responsible for enforcement, not DDOT. But that response is disingenuous as DDOT and the DC Council are themselves creating hazards by promoting E-bikes with no warnings, no precautions and no safeguards.
On Easter weekend a 10-year-old riding an e-bike in a bike lane without a helmet was struck by a hit-and-run ATV. The 10-year-old was hospitalized with brain injury. The ATV rider has never been caught. The victim’s mother said later, ‘I thought my son would be safe in the bike lane.’ That’s what DDOT wants us to believe, but the safety they provide is being questioned. People have been killed in protected bike lanes. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) advises that protected bike lanes are not safe where they are interrupted frequently by driveways, alleys, and intersections – the very places where accidents occur, and where we will never get the promised ‘protection.’ DC wants us to believe that the more protected bike lanes we have, the safer we are, but in fact DC is making our streets more dangerous.
When I was growing up and wanted to ride my bike downtown, I mapped a route to avoid the most dangerous streets, and it worked, as any fool can plainly see. Today, that is DDOT’s job, to map safe routes on side streets and through parkland, avoiding hazards. Instead, it chooses to embrace the most dangerous, congested streets and then declare: That’s why we need protected bike lanes. It is a fallacy concocted to sell bikes and counselling services.
DC ranks 5th among US cities as bike-friendly, according to the testimony of DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum at the Council oversight hearing last year. What are we shooting for, 4th place? It’s time we stopped to reconsider what makes our streets safe.
On Thursday, DDOT will hold a public meeting required by the Federal government under the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) to justify funding for DC‘s bike plans. More at: https://movedc.dc.gov/pages/dc-stip
DC Safe Streets Coalition has begun a campaign to regulate E-bikes, particularly requiring registration and tags so that bikers can be identified and held accountable. It would also require insurance, licensing, certification, and protective gear. Please review and sign our petition here https://c.org/GVFzcRN8kP
Nick DelleDonne
DC Safe Streets Coalition
703 929 6656
May 26, 2026