The neighborhoods at the north end of downtown, including U Street NW and Shaw, have seen an increase in bike commuting trips in recent years. Although there are multiple east-west dedicated bicycle facilities traversing the areas in and around downtown, only 15th Street NW provides contiguous north-south protected facilities in the city core. This leads to a large downtown north-south gap in the protected bike facility network between the Metropolitan Branch Trail and 15th Street NW. The purpose of Eastern Downtown Protected Bike Lane is to fill-in this gap by developing the final design for a new protected bike lane that will connect central DC neighborhoods to downtown, as well as existing east-west bicycle facilities.

The project is currently in the design stage. During the 30% design (preliminary design), the team will develop preliminary drawings and cost estimates for 6th Street NW and 9th Street NW corridors from Pennsylvania Avenue to Florida Avenue NW. At the end of the 30% design stage, DDOT will identify one (1) preferred route for final design. The preferred alternative will be selected to provide the best multimodal transportation option that safely and effectively accommodates bicycle  travel as well as pedestrians, motorists, transit service, parking, taxis, loading/unloading,  businesses, community facilities and local residents.