Washington D.C. Bike Lanes Have a New Mascot: June the Broom (and Friends)

From Bicycling

• The D.C. Department of Transformation, a “tactical urbanist” organization dedicated to improving road safety and urban planning in Washington D.C., has installed a series of decorated brooms in bike lanes across the city.

• Sporting big eyes, bright colors, and a message, the brooms are there to encourage drivers to respect bike lanes and find parking elsewhere.

Cyclists in Washington D.C. may have noticed some funny new additions to several bike lanes around the city: colorful, crazy-eyed brooms. Part-bike lane guardian and part-safety mascot, the series of brooms were installed by volunteers from the D.C. Department of Transformation (DCDOTRA).

According to its Twitter bio, the organization is a “tactical urbanist org that believes that cities should be designed for people, not cars.” It’s enacted bike lane projects like this before, like setting up traffic cones and installing a wooden foot- and hand-rest structure for cyclists at a traffic light.

Despite the presence of bike lanes—even protected ones at that—cyclists may often find themselves still having to navigate around cars, and parked cars in particular. It’s as though bike lanes are invisible to some, or not taken seriously.

That’s exactly why the brooms have been installed; they bring greater visibility to bike lanes and remind drivers why the bike lanes are there in the first place. As told to WAMU by a DCDOTRA representative, the brooms serve to “humanize the cost of blocking the bike lane.”

As reported by WAMU, June the Broom was the first to make an appearance on November 11. June was installed at a spot notorious for being blocked on First Street Northeast outside Union Station, where she stood vigilant for 10 days before being broom-napped. (She was last seen holding a sign saying, “Please don’t run me over!”)

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June the Broom proved effective, too, during that time. The organization found that drivers no longer blocked that lane. Since then, seven more brooms have gone up. According to DCDOTRA, some of the brooms were placed at other trouble spots, while the others simply serve “to brighten up the path for bicyclists and make biking a more whimsical and fun experience.” It’s also encouraging other bike advocates to install their own brooms, in a way that won’t damage city property.

“I think it’s a very clever way to get drivers to think twice before parking in bike lanes, which has been a big issue here,” Martin Austermuhle, a D.C. resident and avid cyclist, told Bicycling.

You can find Bobby the Broom, pictured above, and the others on Google Maps under “Broom Protectors of D.C.”

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