Bike Lanes On National Mall Sharply Reduced Crashes, So Trump's Getting Rid Of Them
Christ on a bike.
Donald Trump’s War On Nice Things is set to start removing bike lanes around the National Mall in Washington DC next week, because bicycles are woke and popular with Democrats, the Washington Post reported Friday (gift link). The protected lanes will be torn out from a roughly mile-long section of 15th Street NW that are on federal property, which is also one of the most heavily traveled areas in DC. The one bright spot in the story is that the vast majority of the bike lane system is controlled by the DC government’s District Department of Transportation (DDOT), and will be left alone.
The move comes even though the protected bike lanes were only opened a few years ago, and despite traffic studies showing that they have reduced congestion, dramatically reduced crashes, and have even improved the flow of motor vehicle traffic. Improving the flow of motor vehicle traffic is woke.
The bike lanes will be torn out between the Tidal Basin and Constitution Avenue on property controlled by the National Park Service, part of Doug Burgum’s Interior Department, which is all in on Trump’s efforts to prop up fossil fuels wherever possible.
The Post reports that a Parks Service statement studiously avoided confirming that the bike lanes would be removed, or giving a definite reason, but a spokesperson did offer this bafflegab: “With the upcoming National Cherry Blossom Festival and preparations underway for America’s 250th anniversary, ensuring safe access for residents, commuters, visitors, and emergency services is a shared priority.” See? it’s, um, patriotic?
The unnamed spox went on about “coordinated infrastructure planning” to “support mobility, security, and a positive experience for all,” but didn’t come right out and say that bikes are more of a Biden thing, so if Trump can make life harder for people who ride them, all the better.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which will actually be tearing out the bollards and concrete blocks separating the bike lanes from vehicular traffic, was more Trumpian in its press statement, saying the changes will “restore common sense into city planning.” The statement claimed — without offering any evidence — that the bike lanes “have dramatically reduced roadway capacity,” and insisted “Bike lane placements must complement normal road activities, not compete with them.”
As the Post points out, the Trump administration just plain wants more people using cars, because cars matter, and your stupid green new scam bikes don’t, okay? Previous administration documents have said that
grants that include “reducing lane capacity for vehicles” with bike lanes or pedestrian infrastructure are “hostile” to cars and “counter” to the Department of Transportation’s “priority of preserving or increasing roadway capacity for motor vehicles.”
You’re never gonna see Donald Trump riding a bicycle, that’s for sure.
As for the claim that the bike lanes have restricted traffic, the Post explains that a 2026 DDOT study found that after the bike lane was completed,
all roadway crashes along the corridor decreased by 46 percent, and bicycle injury crashes decreased by 91 percent, according to the study. The DDOT spokesperson called those statistics “a tremendous testament” to the safety impact of protected bike lanes.
But that’s not all: The study also found that the bike lanes on 15th Street actually improved vehicular traffic flow, increasing speeds by 17 percent and cutting driving time. Why, it’s almost as if separating bikes and cars meant drivers didn’t need to worry about avoiding cyclists who were on the street.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a statement Friday saying that the removal of the protected bike lanes would “likely increase conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles, especially at one of the busiest times of the year.” She noted that the section on the National Mall carries about 4,000 riders daily, and that removing the lanes “would push cyclists into traffic or onto crowded sidewalks, creating new safety risks for everyone. […] Keeping the bike lane in place helps manage high volumes safely and ensures a better experience for all who are visiting the District.”
Well sure, the bike lane removal will add more chaos to a section of road that had been running smoothly, but the important thing to remember is that those streets belong to Donald Trump, and he will tell you people how they should be run.
Sam Moghtaderi, co-founder of the DC group “Hill Family Biking,” which organizes monthly biking events for families in the District, said the feds’ excuse for removing the bike lanes to “improve” traffic just before heavy summer travel didn’t make any sense. He told WUSA TV, "If you've been down here during the peak of Cherry Blossom season, you know how crowded and congested it is. The last thing you want to do is come here with a car.”
A group of congressional Democrats sent the National Parks Service a letter Friday calling on it to reverse the decision, for all the good that will do. Under circumstances like this, more direct action is called for. Maybe the organizers of Portland’s Emergency Naked Bike Ride could offer some support, even if it scares Mike Johnson again.
We haven’t yet seen any reaction to the news from Victoria Jackson, the former Saturday Night Live comic whose foray into paranoid far-Right culture warring first brought to our attention the wingnut panic over bike lanes, which are part of the United Nations’ sinister plot to eliminate private property and freedom. She’s probably pretty happy that a mile of bike lane in DC will be torn up so there can be more deadly crashes, because smart urban planning is socialism.
[WaPo (gift link) / WUSA / Bike Portland]
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The bloke's a cycle path, or so I've heard.
Ciaobella Jr left on a jet plane and I am sad.
But we will see him again in June to help him move into his own apartment in Bawlmer and also attend a music festival on the eastern shore that he is playing at.