Map Out How to moveDC

How to give feedback on the city’s future transit

Cities have to plan for how to upgrade and improve their transportation networks. Since 2014, D.C. has had the long-range multimodal transportation plan, otherwise known as moveDC. The District Department of Transportation now has its eye on 2045, with tweaks and changes planned for every five years, including 2021. The update is done in two phases, but between now and November 10th, you can submit your own ideas about how to improve street-level transportation within the city.

“I think it’s an opportunity to really change [our transit system],” Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen told me. “We have to have people who come in, and really challenge the city and challenge the conventional wisdom,” he said. “I mean, conventional wisdom is still to get in your car by yourself and drive around, to circle the blocks endlessly until you find a magical free parking space. The conventional wisdom is what we’ve got. It’s not where we need to be.”

Here’s why he’s right — and what to know as you craft your response.

Why it’s different this time

There’s another reason the moveDC 2021 plans are really important — the Vision Zero Enhancement Omnibus bill that just unanimously passed Council and presumably will become law early next year. At its core, the bill aims to create a domino effect of reconstructing the District’s roads with protected bicycling infrastructure, transit lanes solely for buses and streets free of motor vehicles. Going forward, if a road segment prioritized in the moveDC plan is going to be significantly rebuilt, then DDOT must attempt to rebuild it with something like a cycle track, bus lane or other planned infrastructure.

So what does that actually mean?

Here’s an example of how you can actually improve DC’s transit network for you and your neighbors:

1. First, you go to wemovedc.org and annotate the Bicycle Priority Network draft map before November 10th and suggest a street that should be safer to bike on. (More about how to do this below.)
2. If DDOT likes your suggestion (and they think a cycle track can actually go there based on best practices and guidelines), they add it to the draft plan and it sticks around through the final plan next summer.
3. At some point in the future, a construction project, like a large condo building or a DC Water or DDOT infrastructure upgrade, plans major reconstruction for that street. Then, because of the new law, protected bicycle infrastructure must be included as part of the rebuilt street.
4. Rinse and repeat until you have a robust cycling network and all users feel safe biking around.

Yes, that could take decades, and it very well might. In Cambridge, MA, where they passed a similar ordinance in 2019, activists say that the conversation around bike lanes there is already changing into something much more positive and productive. The Americans with Disabilities Act, and the curb cuts at nearly every intersection throughout the city, show how normal and expected installing this infrastructure could become. And yet, our sidewalks are still not by any means perfectly accessible thirty years after the ADA, so expect revisions to be necessary.

What do I actually do?

First, you can help by filling out this short survey. It’s just a few tabs of simple questions where you can rank what’s important to you, and you can comment on any of your answers with up to 500 characters. I took my time and I was done in about ten minutes.

Then, take it to the next level with the maps. WMATA runs MetroBus, but DDOT has responsibility for the roads and traffic infrastructure. They have the power to speed up buses and prioritize them on the road, which according to Metro’s own Bus Transformation Project, is essential to increasing ridership and improving the system overall.

On the transit map, you can help DDOT prioritize routes for buses to go first through the intersection ahead of cars (queue jumping) and for red lanes on the street so that buses can move quickly and not get stuck in traffic (bus priority). Then there is the bike map discussed above.

Finally, there is the freight map, where DDOT can designate loading zones and local roads not meant for trucks. This map may seem like it’s the least important, but without places to pull over and make deliveries, trucks can overwhelm the best-intentioned bus and bike lanes.

The mapping interface that DDOT has built is pretty responsive. You draw lines on top of streets on the map to show which proposed projects you like, which you don’t like, and where you want to suggest routes. Be warned: there isn’t a way to delete suggestions, so be careful clicking around. Wherever you draw a line, you can leave a comment, and this is a great way to say where you think there should be protected bike lanes, as the map does not differentiate between these and painted lanes. But you can do a lot more than that. According to DDOT, you can also note a Slow Street installation that you believe should be permanent, or if there’s a bus stop you want upgraded to a bus shelter with a bench. You can even note dangerous intersections and sidewalk problems.

I recommend that you focus on your neighborhood and the streets you know best. Take a look at what DDOT is already proposing near you, and then walk around and try and imagine what that would actually be like. By 2045, will it feel safe enough for children and elders to bike in your neighborhood?

If you want to add your voice to the chorus advocating for safer, more robust transit networks, here are some good maps. Feel free to copy routes into your suggestions on the Mobility Priority Network draft maps.

• Here are the Washington Area Bicycling Association’s goals for the next few years and through 2040.
• This is a map of where DDOT plans to build protected bicycle infrastructure between now and 2022. Affirming support for these routes can help keep them on track. Planned projects do not always get installed as originally planned.
• A map of the Slow Streets network, which is now expanding. DDOT and the mayor have been cagey about exactly how temporary they expect these installations to be. Given a chance, they could become a fixture in the city’s transportation networks, or they could simply get packed up after Covid.

If you find it easier to just write a few paragraphs, you can email your thoughts to moveDC@dc.gov or call during one of their telephone office hours.

Do I really have to do this?

Advocacy can make a difference. When you told the city your priorities for Slow Streets and the Comprehensive Plan, they listened. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Charles Allen, who introduced the Vision Zero Enhancement Omnibus Act of 2019, told me about participating in moveDC 2021:

“We have a fascinating moment right now. In the middle of multiple crises, there’s actually an opportunity as well, though, to help rethink the way that transit works for our city. And in particular, I think we are laying bare gross inequities that exist within our transit system … And so I would strongly encourage people to get involved, and to really help shape this to be what it needs to be. I think the Vision Zero legislation is going to be elevating the moveDC effort. And so, if we’re going to elevate it, I need everybody to be a part of it.”