Interstate 15

"Interstate 15 (I-15) is the fourth-longest north-south transcontinental Interstate Highway in the United States, traveling through the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. The Utah and Arizona portions have been officially designated the 'Veterans Memorial Highway'."

"Since I-15's inception, it has served as a long-haul route for North American commerce. It is now officially chartered for this purpose. From the junction of Interstate 515 in Las Vegas to the Canadian border I-15 forms part of the CANAMEX Corridor, a High Priority Corridor, as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement."
Source: Wikipedia

15th Street, NW from K Street to Euclid Street is not, contrary to popular belief, Interstate 15.

DDOT has announced a plan to add a bicycle lane going Southbound on 15th Street. Bloggers love bicycles, and this has gotten a lot of attention around the blogosphere. People have been, apparently, up in arms about the speed of traffic going North on 15th, and how this hurts the neighborhood, etc. I won't lie, 15th street heading North is as wide as a highway and people speed. I speed. I love it, it's a great shortcut to get up the hill. I've occasionally ridden a bicycle (yes, I have ridden a bicycle before) on 15th, and generally I nearly get killed by either a vehicle or another cyclist. Usually one dressed up like Lance Armstrong or whoever else is a popular figure in cycling these days.

But, people in the "Borderstan" neighborhood are perhaps rightfully upset because DDOT has selected quite possibly the stupidest plan to add bike lanes to 15th street. Putting in a wrong way bike lane with a foot wide buffer between parked cars and the curb is a great solution--if your goal is to dismember bicyclists. I can't say I would be against this, just another volley in the war between bicyclists, motorists, and pedestrians. Only one will win, and I'll put my money on the one in the two ton killing machine.

While DDOT is reconfiguring 15th Street to be more amenable to the bicyclists who apparently can't be bothered to ride ONE BLOCK OVER on 14th Street... perhaps they can also invest in, I don't know, adding some dedicated BUS LANES to 16th Street. Eliminate two lanes each direction on 16th, enforce it with cameras or some other kind of high tech device, and boom the S buses won't suck as bad.

Bicycles are great, whatever, and maybe in some alternate "Sliders"-esque world, they would save us from both global warming and obesity. But hey DC Government, you ARE DOING IT WRONG. You almost get it... but not quite, and instead you make things worse. Bicycle sharing seems like a potentially good idea... but you give us SmartBike. Not only are they ugly and I assume difficult to ride, the rental system makes them useless for things like "maybe I want to try riding a bike to work today."

Keep up the good work, DDOT.