The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) recently installed a short two-way cycletrack on the south side of Riggs Road between 1st Place NE and South Dakota Avenue NE. DDOT initially proposed installing the cycletrack back in 2022. Plans stalled due to staffing issues before DDOT reissued a Notice of Intent in 2023. Plans always included retaining a portion of the dedicated right-turn lane from Riggs onto South Dakota.

I used the cycletrack earlier this week. The nice thing about it is that it does provide a way for people to connect to the Met Branch Trail from east of South Dakota Avenue without having to share the narrow sidewalk with pedestrians.

It seems like drivers are getting used to it. A couple of ancillary effects of the new cycletrack are that drivers can no longer use the dedicated right-turn lane from Riggs onto 1st Place NE to drive straight ahead to South Dakota as they used to do. They can no longer change lanes in the middle of the intersection like they used to do. And just from my initial observation, it seems like there is a little less speeding down the slight hill towards South Dakota. People realize they need to drive a bit more carefully through this area.