As DDOT construction crews set to install Bike Plan on the 600 block of K St NE, neighbors staged a protest Tuesday, Dec. 19. The K Street Collective is calling for a pause in a Bike Plan that radically changes the traffic pattern on the street, denying residents street parking and creating a confusing mix that residents never voted for.
Residents marched with signs, called out chants, and handed out flyers to parents delivering their kids to Wilson Elementary School. Parents acknowledged that the plan creates hazards for them. Neighborhood schools decades ago were designed for children in the neighborhood so they could walk to school. That has changed. Today, schools enroll students from across the city and beyond, a change that requires parents to drive across town twice a day in their SUVs in rush hour traffic. The Mayor’s ‘traffic calming’ measures, ‘curbside management’, and the network of bike lanes have created traffic mayhem.
Neighbors complain that the new installation denies them nearby parking and exposes them to rampant night-time street crime as they find new places to park. A senior handicapped resident was heartlessly denied a parking space at her home because of the curbside bike lane – this despite the fact that alternate bike routes on Eye Street and Florida Ave. already exist and the fact that cyclists are seldom seen on the street.
(photos – Disabled senior resident Miss Jean featured on Fox5 News, yard sign, bike installation notice ).
The protest was reported on Fox5 News on Tuesday, and neighborhood opposition to the bike plan was reported by the Capitol Hill news outlet, Hill Rag, on Monday Community Clashes as DDOT Prepares to Install K Street Bike Lanes | HillRag
Those who support the protest are encouraged to contact the K St. Collective at KStreetCollective@gmail.com.
Nick DelleDonne
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DCSafeStreetsCoalition.org
December 19, 2023