TBD’s John Hendel rounds up D.C.’s bike projects set for spring, including bike tracks to make commuting easier for new cyclists. And more, more, more bike lanes:

DDOT has stepped up its game this spring to help complete the biking plans set forth a few years back. How? After spending much of 2011 idle, D.C. jumped into action this spring by completing four miles and revealing intentions to exceed the 5.5 miles initially planned for 2012. New lanes have appeared on 4th Street, SW; I Street, SW and SE; Columbia Road, NW, New York Avenue, NW; Tilden Street, NW; and Upshur Street, NW, along with new lanes and sharrows on R and on Oklahoma Ave, SE. There are now about 55 bike lanes total, according to DDOT. In March, DDOT announced 20 miles’ worth of trail marked to connect different paths. The city installed 750 sign plates at 255 locations in recent months, and the District has stated it wants to add 10 miles’ worth of bike signs a year up through 2015.

“We hope to install another mile before Bike to Work Day on May 18,” DDOT director Terry Bellamy wrote late last Friday afternoon, “and we’re planning for an additional four to five miles of bike lanes and shared lanes for installation during the summer and fall. That will include the eagerly awaited crosstown cycletrack on L Street, NW.”

I’m less concerned about bike lanes and cycle tracks as I am about roads that are wide enough to let cyclists get out of the “door zone” without being sideswiped. But anything that will get more people on their bikes is a good idea to me.

Photo by Thisisbossi via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License