A two-block bike lane brought out the best – and worst – of neighborhood-level politics

DDOT has proposed contraflow bike lanes for both blocks of Woodley Place, which parallels Connecticut Avenue in Northwest DC. (Photo by me)

To read my planned public comments on the proposed Woodley Place bike lane, click here. I’d planned to present these comments to DC’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3C at the March 18, 2019 meeting but was unable to do so due to time constraints, as described below.

 

It might be the simplest transportation project in American history.

Currently, there’s no safe or comfortable way to bike from DC’s Cleveland Park (where I live) and other parts of Upper Northwest to or from Adams Morgan, the U Street corridor, and central parts of the city. As a result, a lot of cyclists ride on busy streets, such as Connecticut Avenue, or on sidewalks, creating dangerous conflicts with drivers and pedestrians. 

Fortunately, calmer Woodley Place parallels Connecticut through the Woodley Park neighborhood. The two-block street carries few cars, because one block allows only northbound travel and the other only southbound travel. Though cyclists also can’t legally travel the length of Woodley Place, plenty of us – including myself – regularly choose the route over its legal, but more dangerous alternatives. 

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) has proposed an obvious alignment of law and safety: contraflow bike lanes on both blocks of Woodley Place that will allow cyclists to proceed through. Because the road’s existing travel lane is unusually wide, DDOT will just convert that lane into one of normal width, allow contraflow cyclists to use the excess street space, and preserve all the existing capacity parkers and drivers enjoy. In fact, due to a quirk of the street’s design, there will actually be more space for people to park their cars once the project is complete.

But though the bike lane project might be straightforward and logical, politics – and the human interaction it entails – never are.

A cyclist on Connecticut Ave pedals past the Cleveland Park Library, where Monday's Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3C meeting took place. (Photo courtesy of Gilbane Building Company).

The March 18, 2019 Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 3C meeting, which featured discussion of the proposed Woodley Place bike lane, ended in a successful draw but was a mobility-vs-NIMBY showdown to remember. (The second link includes video of the meeting’s bike lane discussion).

DC has 40 different ANCs, covering the entire city. Each consists of commissioners who serve two-year terms, are chosen in the general November elections, and represent around 2,000 residents.

ANCs don’t have any hard power. But their resolutions, which advise and provide recommendations to city agencies, can have substantial influence. For example, a group of ANCs along the 14^th Street Corridor worked together to help start WMATA’s limited-stop Route 59 bus. And some of DC’s most influential politicians, including Mayor Muriel Bowser and Councilmember Jack Evans (who also chairs the WMATA board), got their starts as ANC commissioners.

So last Monday night, the DC transportation world’s eyes were on the Cleveland Park Library. I rode a Capital Bikeshare bike from my downtown office, up Woodley Place, and into the docks right outside the library. Electricity was in the air as attendees streamed into the meeting room.

Proponents of the bike lane comprised the majority of the standing-room-only crowd, but like fans at a title fight they had to wait a while for the meeting’s main event. As the nine 3C commissioners worked through the agenda, which included a monthly crime report from a Metropolitan Police Department lieutenant (apparently, MPD recently stepped up its presence in our neighborhood due to a series of car break-ins) and discussion on a planned apartment complex redevelopment, anticipation built.

Then, the moment arrived. Officials from DDOT kicked off the bike lane discussion with a presentation on the city’s proposal. After the presentation concluded, it was time for public comments.

Supporters of the Woodley Place bike lane line up to speak at Monday's Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3C meeting. Opponents of the lane formed a separate line, which was not long enough to be visible in this photo. (Photo by me) 

ANC 3C Chairperson Nancy MacWood’s format for the meeting’s public comment portion made me wonder if she’d manufactured the participation trophy I received for playing outfield on Davis, CA Little League’s one-win Zephyr in 2001.

Though the vast majority of meeting attendees wore stickers supporting the bike lane proposal, MacWood declared that one of every two comments must oppose the lane. After listening to the first few speakers, MacWood ordered attendees for and against the bike lane to form two separate lines and exchange the mic. The line of proponents extended the length of the center aisle and wrapped around the back of the room. Four or five opponents rose to face them.

Things heated up. When an opponent complained that the Woodley Place project may set precedent for DDOT to further expand the area’s bike lane network, supporters erupted in cheers, excited about this prospect. When a proponent speculated that some Woodley Place residents don’t want bike lanes primarily because parking illegally on the street will become more challenging, opponents in the crowd fumed and seemed ready to physically fight him.

Then, as I stood second in line, and with a couple dozen more bike lane supporters waiting behind me, MacWood abruptly closed comments, citing time constraints. Almost on cue, loudspeaker announcements warned attendees that the library would be closing at 9pm. With the clock winding down, it was time for ANC 3C to consider the issue at hand.

Lee Brian Reba, who represents the district that Woodley Place lies in (3C01), introduced a resolution calling for the bike lane’s paralysis-by-analysis. Reba had collaborated with Woodley Place residents – minus the 140 people who live at the Calvert Woodley Apartments – to craft his resolution. Jimmy Dubois, hailing from 3C03, then seconded Reba’s resolution but introduced an amendment – one that would strike all of Reba’s text and replace it with wording supporting the lane. Beau Finley, who represents 3C04 (my district), quickly seconded Dubois’s amendment.

Then, right before the vote, came the bombshell that would dominate conversation during the post-meeting celebration at local watering hole Nanny O’Briens: Commissioner Angela Bradbery recused herself due to a financial conflict of interest. Bradbery’s partner tutors a student who lives on Woodley Place and the student’s anti-bike lane parents had made a point of asking who Bradbery, a swing vote, would side with.

With Bradbery sidelined, it was up to the remaining eight commissioners to determine who would win the night. First up was Dubois’s pro-bike amendment: a 4-4 tie, short of the majority required to pass. Then, Reba’s original anti-bike resolution also drew 4-4.

But as in a group-stage soccer match, a draw is never actually a draw. And on this night, the goal differential was in our favor. Because ANC 3C couldn’t comment on the bike lane, DDOT can proceed with its proposed fix for Woodley Place without interruption.

Minutes later, the taps across the street at Nanny’s were flowing. As cycling advocates and pro-bike lane ANC commissioners enjoyed themselves and started planning for the next battle, a blank-faced Reba sulked at a nearby table with 3C08 Commissioner and fellow project opponent Maureen Boucher, munching on a quesadilla. 

  

A plane sprays mosquitoes in Davis, CA in August 2006, due to concerns about West Nile Virus. The previous year, protesters opposing insect spraying took over a City Council meeting. (Photo courtesy of Davis Wiki)

Last Monday’s ANC 3C meeting brought back memories from my youth of the legendary 2005 Davis City Council.

Led by icons including Ruth Uy Asmundson and Sue Greenwald, the city held a series of epic public hearings in June (at which everyone wishing to comment was able to) on Covell Village, a proposed mixed-use development project that would later fall short at the ballot box. Two months later, meeting attendees hijacked a Q&A session on West Nile Virus mosquito spraying, running Mayor Asmundson and a panel of experts she’d convened out of the community’s chambers. The protesters helped spare that year’s mosquitoes, but after four more Yolo County residents caught the virus the next summer, pesticide-spraying planes would roar over the town.

Those memories reinforced the fact that no matter how much work we do to craft the perfect transportation solution, civil engagement like Monday night’s determines the fate of many important projects. Transportation progress will always require navigating the absurdity of politics, from neighborhood commissions up to @realDonaldTrump.

          

Sure, special interests do everything they can to buy people off and otherwise manipulate the political process.

But in the end, pure will can win the day.