On the calendar: Peds, bikes, transit budgets, and art

Budget

On the calendar: Peds, bikes, transit budgets, and art

by David Alpert • March 5, 2010 11:27 am

Image via WashCycle.

Big plans for DC streets: DDOT is getting into high gear on making streets better for pedestrians and cyclists. They now have a Capital City Fellow working full-time on bike lanes. There are three upcoming public meetings:

Fort Totten: On Monday, they're discussing access to Fort Totten Metro, resdesigning 1st and Galloway to be safer and more welcoming to all users. Weigh in for better ped and bike access and the missing crosswalk at Riggs and South Dakota. It's March 8th, 6:30-8:00 pm at the WMATA police substation at Fort Totten Metro.
M Street SE/SW: The next day, Tommy Wells is hosting a forum on M Street SE/SW, where he and DDOT want to create a "complete street" that better accommodates pedestrians, cyclists, buses and the future streetcars as well as cars. That's Tuesday, March 9th, 6:00-7:30 pm at the MPD First District station, 101 M Street, SW.
Protected bike lanes: Rounding out the DDOT bonanza, they're discussing their larger plan for protected bicycle lanes like the one on 15th on Thursday, March 18th, 6:00-8:00 pm at the Heritage Center of the U.S. Navy Memorial, 701 Pennsylvania Ave, NW (but the entrance is really on the 8th Street side of the building facing the plaza). Plans for lanes include ones on I and L, 15th down to the Mall, and 9th.

Photo by thisisbossi.

WMATA hearings: WMATA will hold 6 public hearings on the FY2011 budget options approved yesterday. They are:

Fairfax: Monday, March 22nd at Oakton High School Lecture Hall, 2900 Sutton Road, Vienna, VA.
DC (SE): Wednesday, March 24th at St. Francis Xavier Church, Bailey Room, 2800 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC.
Prince George's: Monday, March 29th at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, 5120 Whitfield Chapel Road, Lanham, MD.
Arlington: Wednesday, March 31st at Arlington County Board Room, 3rd Floor, 2100 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, VA.
DC (NW): Thursday, April 1 at All Souls Unitarian Church, Pierce Hall, 1500 Harvard Street, NW, Washington, DC.
Montgomery: Thursday, April 1 at Montgomery County Executive Office Building, Cafeteria, 101 Monroe Street, Rockville, MD.

All hearings begin at 7:00 pm. There's an "open house" at 6:30 pm where they will probably have display boards like last time.

Anyone is welcome to speak at any hearing; if you live in Prince George's County but work in Arlington, you can speak at the Arlington one instead of the Lanham one.

Local budget hearings: The WMATA budget hearings will be critical, but even more important is pressuring the local jurisdictions to fund adequate levels of service. Virginia jurisdictions are holding their budget hearings in the next few weeks:

Alexandria: Wednesday, March 10th, 4 pm at the Council Chambers, City Hall, 301 King Street. Sign up by calling 703-746-4550 or submit comments online.
Falls Church: Monday, March 22nd and Monday, April 12th.
City of Fairfax: Tuesday, March 23rd.
Arlington: March 23rd and 24th, 7pm at County Board Room 307, 2100 Clarendon Boulevard. You can sign up beginning one week before the hearing. Our happy hour will coincide with the second day of hearings.
Fairfax County: April 6 at 6 pm, April 7 at 3 pm, and April 8 at 3 pm. Sign up to speak or submit comments online.

DC has individual budget hearings for each department; the one for WMATA is Thursday, April 15, 2 pm in the Council Chamber, Room 500, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW.

Go M.V. go!: Our photographer extraordinaire M.V. Jantzen is having an art show! It's at go mama go!, 1809 14th Street NW, which is sadly closing soon. But first, they'll show off M.V.'s art. The opening reception is tonight, 6-8 pm.

3 comments Share	— tags: 15th Street bike lane, arts, bike lanes, budget, DC, DDOT, events, M Street, photography, Virginia, WMATA, WMATA budget

WMATA Board approves public hearings (Mar 4, 2010)
Happy hour and budget hearing in Arlington March 24th (Mar 2, 2010)
Sign up to testify at Wednesday's WMATA budget hearing (Jan 22, 2010)
Zimmerman, Hudgins pushed for public discussion of budget (Dec 23, 2009)
On the calendar: Fort Totten, Virginia streetcars, and ballpark performance parking (Nov 17, 2009)

Comments

One missing from your calendar: the Alexandria Transportaion Commission is having their monthly meeting on Monday.

by Froggie on Mar 5, 2010 11:31 am

Hopefully they'll discuss the non-continuous bicycle lane problem. All over D.C., we're stuck with segmented sections of bike lanes that run for only a couple blocks at a time, only to reappear several blocks down the road. Why is this? I also hope they plan on installing a bicycle lane on Rhode Island Avenue NW / NE. There is plenty of room to do so (the majority of the road has a grass median which serves little to no purpose)... But even if they did, it'd probably only run for 4 blocks or so.

by Joshua on Mar 5, 2010 12:26 pm

The link to M.V.'s posts is broken.

by Scott F on Mar 7, 2010 3:04 am