(Washington, DC) – Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced plans for a new two-way cycle track on the east side of 9th Street NW, adding a 1.6 mile protected bike lane connecting Florida Avenue/U Street NW to the north and Pennsylvania Avenue to the south.

“This project will make our city safer and travel Downtown more accessible,” said Mayor Bowser. “With the 9th Street cycle track we are improving DC’s infrastructure to make it safer, more sustainable, and more efficient for everyone who travels through this corridor.”

A new 9th Street NW protected bike lane will significantly expand safe bicycling infrastructure on the eastern side of downtown. Ten percent of all trips originating in the Shaw neighborhood are by bicycle, more than double the average bike trips District-wide. The bike lane will provide a critical north-south connection for cyclists to downtown, in an area that does not currently have any designated bike lanes.

“We are thrilled to move forward with such an important project that will make our city safer for those cyclists traveling in the eastern downtown area,” said Acting DDOT Director Everett Lott. “This two-way cycle track supports the corridor’s strong and growing bike usage, and lower vehicular speeds, making the corridor safer for drivers and pedestrians, too.”

The project would remove one of two northbound travel lanes from 9th Street NW between Massachusetts Avenue NW to Florida Avenue/U Street NW. Traffic analysis found that a single travel lane will accommodate the motor vehicle traffic volume and result in minimal impact to traffic congestion.

DDOT completed the Eastern Downtown Protected Bike Lane Study to identify a preferred alignment for a north-south protected bike lane between 4th Street NW and 9th Street NW connecting from Florida Avenue/U Street to the north to Pennsylvania Avenue to the south. Stakeholder outreach and project design will continue through this year; construction will begin in 2022.

Today’s announcement comes the day after Mayor Bowser released her Fiscal Year 2022 Fair Shot budget proposal, which includes significant investments to increase access to sustainable transportation options and deliver:

• 30 miles of protected bike lanes over the next 3 years (doubling current planned investments)
• 17.4 miles of new pedestrian and bicycle trails for safer walking and biking
• 80 new Capital Bikeshare stations so every resident has a station within 1/4 mile of home
• 3,500 new e-bikes for the Bikeshare fleet and a 20-bike pilot of new adaptive Bikeshare bikes for people with disabilities
• Car-free lanes and other initiatives to improve bus speeds and reliability on 50+ priority bus corridors throughout the city
• All streets, sidewalks, and alleys in a state of good repair by 2025

For more information about the 9th Street NW protected bike lane project, visit dccycletrack.com/eastern-downtown