“To make room for bike lanes, the project reduces 14th Street from four lanes to two”

A reader reports:

“new lanes are getting painted on 14th street above Florida Avenue. Now one lane either direction with a bike lane. That’s going to make traffic better…”

14th and Florida looking north

Last week DDOT explained a bit about the plans:

“DDOT is adding bike lanes to 14th Street NW between Florida Avenue and Columbia Road, closing a gap in the city’s longest stretch of bike lanes.

To make room for bike lanes, the project reduces 14th Street from four lanes to two, plus a center turn lane. This “road-diet” configuration improves safety for motor vehicles by taking turning cars out of the way of cars going straight, and our extensive traffic analysis shows that it will not add to congestion.”