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
28 January 2026
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.
According to the Bus Priority Projects' website, there are currently still only 13.3 miles of bus lanes built or under construction toward DDOT's goal of 25 bus-lane miles by 2025 (which is the same number as last year.)
As DDOT updates the Bus Priority Plan and moveDC, these forthcoming plans must set robust, measurable goals for improving service, increasing ridership, and decreasing emissions. We then urge the Council to provide the necessary funding to turn those goals into reality.
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.
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.”
DDOT’s solicitation for a new bus shelter contract increases the cap on shelters to 1,500, which is an overdue increase. But there should also be flexibility that allows that number to increase. 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, for which funds were allocated in FY25, to determine equitable distribution of bus shelters to reduce heat exposure.
Frequent and electrified transit service must be planned to replace the DC Streetcar, which is slated for elimination at the end of March.
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 are concerned that DDOT only installed 3.46 miles of protected bikelane miles toward its FY25 goal of 10 miles. We urge the holdup of these projects to be resolved. We are also concerned about the undoing of progress already made.
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 are hopeful that DDOT’s forthcoming Strategic Bikeways Plan will update and implement the bike priority network equitably with community priorities, including:
- Connecticut Avenue between Western Ave. NW (Chevy Chase Circle) and California St. NW protected bike lanes
- A Q / R cross-town protected bikeway between Sheridan Circle NW (northwest of Dupont Circle) and the Metropolitan Branch Trail (MBT)
- Converting painted bike lanes on 14th St. NW to protected bike lanes between Aspen St. NW and downtown DC
- Kansas Avenue protected bike lanes between Eastern Ave. NE and 13th St. NW, the entire Kansas Ave. corridor, including improvements to Sherman Circle NW
- Bladensburg Road NE protected bike lanes between Benning Road NE and Eastern Ave. NE
- Massachusetts Avenue NE protected bike lanes between 1st St. NE and 19th St. SE, through Columbus Circle, Lincoln Park, and Stanton Park
- 11th St. SE, between Lincoln Park and the Anacostia River bridge, an upgrade of the current painted bike lanes
- Benning Road SE protected bike lanes between Southern Ave. SE and the Benning Road bridge
- Martin Luther King Ave.-South Capitol St. SE protected bike lanes, on MLK between the 11th St. Bridge and across Malcolm X Ave. SE and then on South Capitol St. to Southern Ave. SE
We commend DDOT’s investment in and great work to deploy Capital Bikeshare, which continues to shatter records for revenue and ridership with more than 6.3 million trips in 2025.
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
Last year there were 25 traffic fatalities, a significant decrease, compared to 52 in 2024. However, deaths are as high as they were a decade ago when the District committed to Vision Zero, and pedestrians remain particularly at risk. Traffic victims included 14 pedestrians, 8 people in cars, 2 motorcyclists, and 1 bicyclist.
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 FY26 budget increase was a step in the right direction, but sustained focus and investment are critical to make further progress and help continue this downward trend in fatalities. The District should not be 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.
Automated Traffic Enforcement
After finally making some progress on traffic safety, we must maintain use of all available tools, including Automated Traffic Enforcement, which has shown promise for sharp reductions in speed where they are installed. In addition to the information that has been made public - such as camera locations and number of citations - we’d like to see DDOT’s evaluation of the outcomes from each camera. 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.
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
The District auditor’s second report on Vision Zero, released in June 2024, 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 funding Councilmember Allen’s Strengthening Traffic Enforcement, Education, and Responsibility Amendment Act (STEER Act). The law empowers DC’s Office of the Attorney General to file civil suits against dangerous drivers, including those who live outside DC, to collect unpaid fines. It also established a new point system to prioritize the booting and towing of dangerous vehicles, and it allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to install "speed governors" that prohibit speeding in the vehicles of those convicted of criminal reckless driving. We are pleased to see the DC Attorney General’s office making use of the law and suing the worst offenders.
The STEER Act should continue to be funded.
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. Such positive outcomes have been seen in other jurisdictions that have implemented congestion pricing, such as New York City. It would also generate revenue that could be used to fund Metro, which is regularly facing budget shortfalls and in need of dedicated funding.
It is unacceptable that DDOT has still 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 in 2024.
The public deserves to see whether decisions by DDOT are being informed by the best available data, especially when a recent report has shown that congestion has gotten worse in the District and we are now ranked as the 19th worst city for congestion in the world. 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.
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 Public Life and Activity Zones Amendment (‘PLAZA’) Act will take the District.
The PLAZA Act should continue to 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 were disappointed that after much work to get the bill passed, the District has not funded it.
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.
We look forward to seeing the timely deployment of the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Station Pilot, which "will provide sixteen (16) curbside EV chargers across eight (8) locations in the District - a location in each Ward.”
We are pleased to see, after a federal pause last year, that DDOT is planning to open a round of funding in early 2026 to install chargers as part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program.
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 about to be open for a third year. We urge continued funding of this program.
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 Trees’ 17th Annual Tree Report Card, released in April, the District has done a good job with tree coverage, tree health, and tree planting. While DC has improved its overall score for tree protection, it continues to receive a failing grade for “fees and fines being used to plant replacement trees” and has earned an incomplete for “fees and fines required to remove Special trees keeping pace with inflation.” Protecting the trees we already have is critical to restoring our tree canopy, which in turn helps mitigate climate change.
We urge the DC Council to pass Chairman Mendelson’s Tree Preservation Enhancement Amendment Act of 2025, which would expand the definition of Special Trees from those with a 44-inch circumference to those with a 25-inch circumference, helping to protect more of our canopy. It would also increase the removal fee for Special Trees to account for inflation.
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.