Comments on Take action: Rhode Island Avenue deserves decent sidewalks - Greater Greater Washington

Comment by LaShawn

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:44:42 EDT

Someone also needs to address the safety issues at the Rhode Island Ave. metro station. My nephew and his friend were walking a young lady to the station, so that she could get home on Saturday, October 9, 2010 and walked passed a group of guys as they were approaching the station. On their way back they passed these same guys again, and an individual on a bicycle stated to them that those guys were up to no good. Before my nephew and his friend could attempt to do anything, possibly run they were beaten down by a group of approximately 20 young men, some of which whom were on bicycles. As construction is being taken place, people need to be made aware that these incidents are occurring so that they may take heed to their safety.

Comment by ed

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:52:02 EDT

hey, wait- I thought no one liked sidewalks in DC! :-)

Comment by alexbaca

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 08:04:19 EDT

At the CSG walking tour of the Rhode Island Avenue metro station back in May, I recall the sidewalk issue being raised, but I can't remember if there was an answer as to why DDOT wouldn't be widening it. I don't want to say this is a "real" reason, but I think the DDOT representative mentioned some concern over the fact that people park along the sidewalk for church on Sundays.

Comment by Matt

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:57:04 EDT

Oops. Ignore the above. The links are just broken in google reader.

Comment by Matt

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:55:38 EDT

The links to the petition are broken.

Comment by J.D. Hammond

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:41:14 EDT

Given that I have a storage unit in that neighborhood but no car, I regularly have to traverse this underpass with hand-carts. It's a rather daunting task, especially during church services, when the sidewalks (and parking lane) can be really quite crowded.

Comment by kk

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:21:45 EDT

Good luck trying to get a wheelchair through there. I saw a person in a wheelchair using the sidewalk and the people in the other direction had to get into the street for the wheelchair to pass.

I can not think of one section of the sidewalk on RI Ave longer than a block that does not have a crack sidewalk, narrow sidewalk or a tree blocking part of the sidewalk. What the hell is going on with the planning and or thinking of the future when the design sidewalks especially when they have small trees right next to them did they forget the tree is going to grow.

Comment by Froggie

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:50:12 EDT

The lanes through the underpass appear to be 12ft width. From what I've seen, narrowing the median width is out of the question due to the bridge supports located there, so the only way you're going to get more sidewalk width is by narrowing the lanes. DDOT could probably get away with narrowing the inside and center lanes in each direction to 11ft...I'd leave the outside lane 12ft in order to accommodate future streetcars (this being a future streetcar corridor after all). This would at least give the opportunity to widen each sidewalk by 2ft.