Written Testimony of Mike Litt, Sierra Club DC Chapter
For the District Department of Transportation Performance Oversight Hearing
Before the Council of the District of Columbia’s
Committee on Transportation and the Environment
5 February 2025
Chair Allen, my name is Mike Litt. I am a car-free renter in Ward 6 and Chair of the Sierra Club DC Chapter, as well as Chair of our Sustainable Transportation Committee. The Sierra Club is America’s largest grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In DC, we have about 2,100 dues-paying members and many thousands of additional supporters.
According to DC’s Multimodal Long-Range Transportation Plan, also known as “moveDC”, transportation is the District’s second leading source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for 21% of such emissions. DDOT, therefore, plays a critical role in meeting the District’s goals for a 60% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2045, as required by the Climate Commitment Amendment Act.
Meeting our national and local carbon reduction goals and improving air quality and health require immediate action to both shift more trips away from vehicles and make sure that vehicle trips—including those on transit vehicles—are powered by clean energy. The District should continually prioritize those areas of highest needs in order to improve the city as a whole.
Please find our recommendations for making this shift through improved transit service and infrastructure, bike and pedestrian safety, traffic safety enforcement, demand management, and increased electrification.
Transit Service and Infrastructure Improvements
Bus Priority Projects and Service
Bus priority is the easiest, fastest way to improve connections between DC neighborhoods. It is also essential to address the additional time that transit riders are effectively taxed with compared to driving. As DDOT explained in its Performance Oversight pre-hearing responses, bus travel times and reliability have, overall, improved with bus lanes and bus priority projects. We commend the substantial completion of the Columbia Road NW Bus Priority and 11th Street NW Bus Priority projects in December, toward DDOT’s plan for 51 projects to improve bus speeds and reliability across all wards. According to the Bus Priority Projects' website, there are currently 13.3 miles of bus lanes built or under construction toward DDOT's goal of 25 bus-lane miles by 2025.
As it appears that DDOT has fallen short of that goal, we urge funding to ensure DDOT meets its bus priority goals as soon as possible.
We continue to recommend brief descriptions and timelines for each project on the projects map and a central list of all bus priority projects by ward, with brief descriptions and timelines for each to help the public more easily assess bus priority progress across the District.
We are pleased to see the continued expansion of the joint DDOT/Metro Clear Lanes Project to improve bus travel times and bus stop safety by enforcing traffic violations in dedicated bus lanes and bus zones. We ask DDOT to publish data on changes in illegal and obstructive activity in bus lanes and bus travel times as more data becomes available.
We also commend the continuation of overnight Metrobus service, which provides 24/7 service on 14 routes throughout the District, made possible by the passage of Councilmember Allen’s Metro for DC legislation.
According to the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment’s (DOEE) Keep Cool DC Story Map, “Some populations, like people of color and households with limited English proficiency, suffer more impacts of heat than others.”
As DDOT’s current contract for bus shelters ends, it is important that the next one ensures equitable distribution of shelters, taking into account the impacts of heat in different parts of the District. Equitable distribution of bus shelters is an important way to mitigate heat exposure and those impacts, as DC continues to experience dangerous heat waves. Toward that goal we look forward to seeing DDOT’s study, which began in Q1 of FY25, to determine equitable distribution of bus shelters to reduce heat exposure.
Additionally, when our region experiences snowstorms, like the one earlier this year, DDOT and WMATA should work together to ensure that pedestrian access to bus stops is cleared of snow and ice, beyond just the area immediately surrounding the stop.
DC Circulator
We are disappointed in the lack of an impact study and the late transition plan to ensure transit service for riders impacted by the end of DC Circulator service. We would like to know how many riders have been impacted by the loss of routes not taken over by Metro.
Infrastructure Projects
The Sierra Club DC Chapter has long supported the Benning Road Bridges and Transportation Improvements Project, which, as originally conceived, would replace and rehabilitate bridges along Benning Road, and also provide a much-needed transportation link for Ward 5 and 7 neighborhoods by extending the DC Streetcar to the Benning Road Metrorail station and make it safer to walk and cycle along what is now a forbidding highway. We have previously raised concerns that the project appears to be proceeding with the roadway improvements for cars, without the Streetcar extension or safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists. We continue to urge this committee to work with DDOT to find the funding so DDOT can procure contracts for all elements of the project. Short of that, what assurances can be provided that all aspects of the project will proceed?
The H Street Bridge NE Replacement project is needed to address safety concerns about the Hopscotch bridge, which handles streetcars, intercity buses, and crosstown traffic. The timeline for the project appears to have been delayed again. We urge DDOT to prioritize completing the replacement of the H Street Bridge safely, within budget, and on time to its current schedule of issuing a design-build RFQ and contract award during Q4 2025 and completing the project in 2032.
We appreciate the updated list of DDOT Projects and individual project websites since we last requested it in our testimony last year.
Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety
Protected Bike Lanes
We wholeheartedly support the vision of a city that is accessible to cyclists of all ages and skill levels, and we believe that protected cycling infrastructure will allow people to significantly reduce their reliance on cars.
We recognize recent progress in installing protected bike lanes, which use barriers to keep bikes separated from cars, but are concerned that DDOT only installed 4.2 bike lane miles toward its FY24 goal of 10 miles. We urge DDOT to resolve the reasons for this failure, including securing the necessary contracts, and prioritize hitting its protected bike lane goals moving forward.
It is important for DDOT’s plans to address bike lane obstructions to include timely clearing of snow, ice, and leaves, to ensure safe lanes. We look forward to working with DDOT on its Strategic Bikeways Plan to identify this and other solutions to address problems with existing conditions for biking in DC, and update and implement the bike priority network equitably.
We strongly urge the mayor and council to restore protected bike lanes to the Connecticut Avenue redesign plan, which is essential to improving safety along this corridor. We remain deeply disappointed by the Bowser Administration’s about-face on the Connecticut Avenue redesign plan, which we have supported for many years. This plan was the product of substantial community engagement and has been met with widespread community and ANC support.
We commend DDOT’s investment in and great work to deploy Capital Bikeshare, which continues to shatter records for revenue and ridership with six million trips in 2024, a 37% increase of the previous record in 2023.
In addition to expanding our network of on-street protected bike lanes, we urge expansion of our trail network, which makes it possible to bike to many places across the District and region without needing to share the road with cars at all.
Vision Zero and Safety Enforcement
Traffic Fatalities and Safety Measures
Tragically, 2024 was tied with 2023 as the District’s deadliest year for traffic fatalities in 17 years, despite the launch of Vision Zero in 2015. Victims included 19 pedestrians, two cyclists, ten motorcyclists, twenty people in cars, and one unknown. According to the Vision Zero 2022 Update, Wards 7 and 8 bore the brunt with the most crash injuries and fatalities in the District from 2017 - 2021. A DC Auditor report in 2023 found that years went by without fully funding, targeting, or assessing the District’s Vision Zero efforts.
This is a matter of life and death. The District should be fully funding and staffing up Vision Zero and projects that support it, instead of sweeping automated traffic enforcement (ATE) revenue in the Vision Zero Fund into the general fund.
We need streets designed to limit speeding, measures that improve visibility of cyclists and pedestrians, and enforcement against dangerous driving.
We also support fully funding DDOT’s analysis of its safety improvements currently in use, such as its study on pedestrian crossing treatments, which has been on hold due to staffing and funding constraints. Such analysis is important for making the most effective changes to the right of way to draw in walkers and riders to trade car trips for zero-emissions modes of travel, protect those travelers who are most vulnerable to injury and death on the District’s highest injury roads, and improve quality of life for District residents.
Automated Traffic Enforcement
We recognize the expansion of Automated Traffic Enforcement (ATE) cameras in the past year and are encouraged by news over the summer that speeding dropped sharply on streets where cameras had been installed. We look forward to seeing DDOT’s evaluation of the outcomes from each camera, to be completed in April. We also look forward to seeing DDOT’s evaluation of its ATE equity fine reduction pilot, recommended by the Mayor’s Task Force on ATE Equity and Safety and expected to start in Q2 or Q3 of FY25.
Although cameras play a role, without the ability to enforce fines or take cars with repeat offenses off the road, such expansion of cameras will yield limited results.
STEER Act and Parking Enforcement Law
The District auditor’s second report on Vision Zero, released last June, showed that DPW had not been targeting repeat dangerous drivers with its boot and towing programs, and that there has been a lack of accountability, or reciprocity, for dangerous drivers from Maryland and Vriginia.
We commend the DC Council for passing Councilmember Allen’s Strengthening Traffic Enforcement, Education, and Responsibility Amendment Act (STEER Act) and Councilmember Nadeau’s Fraudulent Vehicle Tag and Parking Enforcement Modernization Amendment Act. The STEER Act, which has been partially funded so far, includes provisions to enforce moving violations by drivers (from DC and any state) with large unpaid balances, and limit the speed of those who commit serious speeding crimes. The parking enforcement law will help identify and remove dangerous vehicles from our roads.
Both laws should be fully funded.
The STEER Act, which primarily gives responsibilities to the Department of Motor Vehicles, and the parking enforcement bill, which primarily gives responsibilities to the Department of Public Works, demonstrate the multi-agency approach and departmental coordination that is required to enforce our laws and help restore the social contract when it comes to making our streets safer for all.
We also urge this committee to work with DDOT to eventually enforce the District’s new ban on right turns on red at all traffic lights, beyond the ones that currently have no-turn signs.
We look forward to DDOT’s report, expected to be published this quarter, on its project to test proactive interventions to high-risk drivers.
We request additional information on how the creation of the new Traffic Safety administration within DDOT has been improving the administration of traffic safety and how its success will be measured.
We would also like to know more about DDOT’s plans to update moveDC this year, as indicated in DDOT’s pre-hearing responses.
Reduced Vehicle Miles Traveled through Demand Management
While improved transit service, safe bike and pedestrian infrastructure, and traffic safety enforcement are critical for providing people in DC with viable alternatives to cars, car use itself must also be addressed to reflect its true costs.
Congestion Pricing
One of DDOT’s policies laid out in moveDC is to “implement congestion management tools to support accessible, reliable, sustainable, efficient, and affordable movement throughout the District.” One such congestion management tool available is congestion pricing, also known as road pricing, which would require drivers to pay to drive into the most congested parts of DC. This would decrease congestion, reduce pollution, and help meet the District’s transportation and climate goals. It would also generate revenue that could be used to fund Metro, which is regularly facing budget shortfalls and in need of dedicated funding.
We are disappointed that DDOT has not yet released a critical congestion pricing study, despite its commission by the DC Council in 2019 and a requirement for its update and release last January. The public deserves to see whether decisions by DDOT are being informed by the best available data. We call on this committee to compel DDOT to release the study.
Parking
We support eliminating parking minimums and also encourage the DC Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to increase parking permit fees. In addition to helping reduce vehicle miles traveled, eliminating parking minimums could also help reduce housing costs.
We urge timely completion of DDOT’s study on changing Residential Parking Permit (RPP) policies, which was delayed in FY24 and is expected to start in late FY25 and continue into FY26. As DDOT explains, “RPP parking is priced the same, regardless of location, demand, or occupancy patterns. In this way, the RPP program is inequitably implemented: some residents have plentiful parking near their homes and enjoy free parking near retail, while others have limited parking near their homes.” We look forward to seeing the study’s results on how changing RPP policies “could encourage residents to use safer and more sustainable modes of transportation.”
Car-free Zones
DC should give serious consideration to what it would take to make permanent car-free streets and car-free zones across the District a reality. We are excited by the direction toward vibrant, weekly car-free corridors Councilmember Allen’s recently passed Public Life and Activity Zones Amendment (‘PLAZA’) Act will take the District.
The PLAZA Act, which would also help ensure DDOT prioritizes moving people and not just cars when evaluating transportation plans, should be fully funded.
Electrification
Charging Infrastructure
Thank you for your leadership in introducing and passing the Comprehensive Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Access, Readiness, and Sustainability Act (B25-0106). Transitioning to a zero-emission vehicle future, coupled with reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT), will require electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure to meet the District’s goal under the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act of 2018 for at least 25% of registered vehicles in DC to be zero-emission by 2030.
We urge full funding for this new law to accelerate the installation of more EV charging stations across the District by establishing an EV charger deployment plan, launching a public education campaign, providing incentives for charger installation, ensuring a right-to-install provision for renters and condo owners, and setting charger requirements for residential and commercial properties.
In light of President Trump’s executive order to pause federal funds for EV charging stations, we would like to know how the executive order will impact DDOT’s plan for DC’s Alternative Fuel Corridors and its plan to work with DOEE and vendors to install federally funded charging stations across the District.
E-bikes
Thank you for making the District Electric Bicycle Incentive Program possible, to help District residents afford e-bikes with vouchers up to $1,500. We are pleased to see applications open for all applicants during its second year, while still maintaining preferred status for District residents with low incomes. We urge continued funding of this program.
We also congratulate e-bikes for being the most popular option among Capital Bikeshare riders, accounting for 70.6% of all trips.
Coupled with dedicated resources for protected bike lane infrastructure, electric bike rebates and expanded Bikeshare e-bikes, will help the District reach its climate goals, clean its air, and reduce its dependence on cars.
Tree Canopy
In addition to managing transportation, DDOT also plays an important role as steward of our public trees.
According to Casey Tree's 16th Annual Tree Report Card, released last year, the District has done an overall good job with tree coverage, tree health, and tree planting. However, most schools could significantly increase their tree coverage and planting. And while DC has improved its overall score for tree protection, it has continued to receive a failing grade for “fees and fines being used to plant replacement trees.” Protecting the trees we already have is critical to restoring our tree canopy, which helps mitigate climate change.
All fines for tree law violations should go to the Tree Fund, as required by the Urban Forest Preservation Act, to replace trees.
Conclusion
The District’s transportation system is at a pivotal moment, and the decisions made today will determine whether we meet our climate goals and create a safer, more equitable city.
We look forward to working with the committee to turn these recommendations into action and create a more sustainable transportation future for all residents.
Thank you again for the opportunity to submit this written testimony.