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DISTRICT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
NOTICE OF EMERGENCY 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 adoption of the following emergency rulemaking that amends Chapter 22 (Moving Violations) of Title 18 (Vehicles and Traffic)of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations (DCMR).
The emergency rule prohibits U-turns across bicycle lanes, including the bicycle lane on Pennsylvania Avenue.
This emergency rulemaking is necessitated by the immediate and continued 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 allows 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 until the publication of final rulemaking.
This emergency rule was adopted on April 9, 2013, and became effective immediately. This emergency rule will remain in effect until August 7, 2013, one hundred twenty (120) days from the date it became effective, or until superseded by a notice of final rulemaking.
Section 2204 of Chapter 22 (Moving Violations) of Title 18(Vehicles and Traffic), 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.
