As Mayor Bowser seeks $70M cutting budgets of various agencies to fund more pressing needs like police and Metro, we have a thought. Take a closer look at DDOT’s budget. The Mayor asked the DC Council to trim $5M from the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), but there is a lot more there to cut. DDOT spends millions of dollars on a network of bike lanes, many of which are unnecessary, unwanted, and increasingly recognized to be more dangerous.
City administrators scratch their heads wondering why the Vision Zero goal eludes them while they entice the most vulnerable populations into dangerous streets – streets made more dangerous by a network of so-called protected bike lanes. Bikers are reckless: protected bike lanes are dangerous. The persistent rise in traffic fatalities should tell you something. Pause the bike program in favor of a comprehensive review and spend the money to stem the crime wave.
Drop the Connecticut Avenue Bike Plan and save $7-$10 million immediately. Over 3,700 residents and 120 businesses on Connecticut Ave. have signed the Save Connecticut Ave.org petition opposing the Plan.
Defund the e-bike rebate. What a boondoggle! Seeing residents were not hopping on their bikes, the Council passed a bill to pay residents to ride e-bikes on dangerous streets. All the while, New York City and Paris are taking measures to ban or regulate e-bikes because of speeding hazards and their exploding batteries. Biking is the only mode of transit in DC that is unregulated.
Drop the Connecticut Ave Deckover at Dupont Circle which will take three years of disruption and cost $31M. There’s a park across the street.
Defund DDOT’s contracts with the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) and save $1M per year. The DC Government is WABA’s largest source of financing. Can we really afford to pay WABA $12,000 per school per year (times 12 schools) to teach bike riding? Did you learn in school? That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to WABA contracts. Shouldn’t it be unlawful for WABA, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, to receive DC funds to lobby for more?
Stop the DDOT service road project on Connecticut Ave. in Cleveland Park. On the urging of the middle-finger-toting ANC 3C, DDOT recently turned the service road from a multi-use road for cars and pedestrians to pedestrians only. This last-minute design change will cost DC taxpayers $700K.
A closer look at DDOT’s wasteful budget will save a lot more than $5M.
Nick DelleDonne
DCSafeStreetsCoalition.org
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November 3, 2023