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DISTRICT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
NOTICE OF EMERGENCY AND PROPOSED RULEMAKING
The Director of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), pursuant to the authority set forth in sections 5(3)(A) (providing for a safe transportation system), 6(b) (transferring to the Department the traffic management function previously delegated to the Department of Public Works (DPW) under section III (H) of Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1983), and 7 (making Director of DDOT the successor to transportation related authority delegated to the Director of DPW) of the Department of Transportation Establishment Act of 2002, effective May 21, 2002 (D.C. Law 14-137; D.C. Official Code §§ 50-921.04(3)(D), 50-921.05(b), and 50-921.06 (2009 Repl. & 2012 Supp.)), and Mayor’s Order 77-127, dated August 3, 1977, hereby gives notice of the intent to adopt the following rulemaking that will amend Chapter 22 of Title 18 of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations (DCMR) (Vehicles and Traffic).
The emergency and proposed rules will prohibit U-turns across bicycle lanes, including the bicycle lane on Pennsylvania Avenue.
This emergency rulemaking is necessitated by the immediate need to address the threat to the public welfare posed by vehicles making U-turns on Pennsylvania Avenue and causing accidents with bicyclists. District residents and their visitors use the new bicycle lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue, and it is already a busy street for vehicular traffic. There are growing safety concerns about vehicles making U-turns on Pennsylvania Avenue – currently the only street in the District with a bicycle lane running in between the travel lanes – without seeing bicycles. Recent accidents have highlighted that concern. The emergency rulemaking will allow DDOT and the Metropolitan Police Department to better maintain – through education and enforcement – bicycle safety on Pennsylvania Avenue and future bicycle lanes that run in between travel lanes.
This emergency rule was adopted on December 1, 2012, and became effective immediately. This emergency rule will remain in effect until March 31, 2013, one hundred twenty (120) days from the date it became effective, unless earlier superseded by a notice of final rulemaking.
Final rulemaking action shall not be taken in less than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice in the D.C. Register.
Section 2204 of Chapter 22 of Title 18 (Moving Violations), is amended by adding a new subsection 2204.10 to read as follows:
2204.10 No vehicle shall make a U-turn so as to proceed in the opposite direction across a bicycle lane.
Any person interested in commenting on the subject matter in this proposed rulemaking action
may file comments in writing, not later than thirty (30) days after publication of this notice in the
D.C. Register, with Sam Zimbabwe, Associate Director, PPSA, District Department of
Transportation, 55 M Street, SE, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20003. Comments may also be sent
electronically to Policy.DDOT@dc.gov. Additional copies of this proposal are available, at cost,
by writing to the above address, and are available electronically, at no cost, on the Department’s
website at www.ddot.dc.gov.
