Work is finally starting to transform nearly a mile of C St. NE and North Carolina Ave from an auto speedway to a neighborhood boulevard with gold-standard protected bike lanes. Unfortunately, this plan stops one long block shy of Lincoln Park, leaving a block-long gap in Capitol Hill’s near-future, low-stress bicycle network.

The Good News: The District Department of Transportation has committed to filling this gap and drawn up preliminary options.

The Bad News: Some residents are pushing back over the choice of reducing car parking or turning this one block to one-way car traffic to make room for a low-stress bike option.

People choose to hop on a bike when it is safe, convenient, and low-stress. Even when most of the route is blissful, it is the most stressful block that turns someone away.

North Carolina Ave needs a continuous, low-stress, all ages and abilities bike connection from Lincoln Park to C St, the Fields at RFK, and the Anacostia River Trail to fill out the Capitol Hill netowrk. Shared lanes, sharrows, or narrow painted bike lanes squeezed next to high-volume driving lanes are no substitute for a truly low-stress and safe bikeway.

See more details and the preliminary designs here.