Cyclists and people riding scooters along the Metropolitan Branch Trail are being greeted with digital messages either telling them their speed is safe or urging them to slow down.
Cyclists and people riding scooters along the Metropolitan Branch Trail are being greeted with digital messages, either telling them their speed is safe or urging them to slow down.
The messages are part of a pilot program D.C.’s Department of Transportation launched in October. It’s an effort to determine whether the immediate feedback will slow people down and prevent collisions, making the trail safer for the thousands of people who use it during peak hours.
The pilot comes in response to community feedback that, at times, the trail becomes unsafe. City data indicates that during peak hours along the trail, 5,000 people use it, and one in five of those users go faster than 15 mph.
“On our trails and our bike lanes, we now have devices that are moving incredibly fast,” DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum said. “Often, e-bikes are going 20 mph over, and they’re riding adjacent to people who are walking their dogs or strolling or taking a normal bike, and so we’ve been very concerned with the difference in speeds and how that affects safety.”
People who pass the digital message boards moving at less than 15 mph are greeted with either a smiley face or message that says, “Safe Thanks.”
Those going too fast, meanwhile, receive a digital frowning face or a message that says, “Slow Down.”
“This is an effort to change behavior,” Kershbaum said. “We hope that a reminder when people are riding beyond 15 mph to slow down will work.”
Agency leaders, Kershbaum said, suspect people who see it will slow down, “but we really want to use data to test if that’s the case.”
The technology uses sensors to detect speed. The signage is being used along the trail at Alethia Tanner Park and the Rhode Island Avenue Metro entrance.
The signs don’t use cameras and nothing gets recorded, Kershbaum said. The agency isn’t issuing tickets either, instead just testing whether live feedback is effective in changing behavior.
The sensors started collecting data in October and will stop at the end of December. Then, the agency will review the data and issue a report.
The technology is being funded through a donation agreement, Kershbaum said, “so it’s not costing us anything.”
“We often have families with young kids,” Kershbaum said. “If they’re on their bikes, they’re moving slow. We see dog walkers, and we are having those slower users of the trail coming up against people on e-bikes that are going 15-20 miles an hour, and that congestion is of concern. We’re hoping that this will be a new tactic we can use to remind the fast speeders to slow down.”
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