Posts about Loading Zones

Square corners at 17th. On the northeast corner of 17th and U, which is the back of the police station, the sidewalk angles toward the building instead of making a complete square corner. Coming south on 17th there is only one lane, which oddly widens as cars approach the intersection even though there's still only one arrow.

We should straighten the sidewalk to shorten the crossing distance and provide more space at that corner. It might not be utterly needed right now, but that block, on a high-traffic street in a major commercial district, should one day be redeveloped to create a new police and fire station inside a larger mixed-use complex with retail fronting on U. If that's done, the new building could use some of the dead area alongside the police station on 17th, maybe for a sidewalk cafe, and a straighter sidewalk expands the possibilities.

More bulb-outs and bus bulbs. 17th has a bulb-out on the northwest corner (above) and 14th has a bus bulb. But why only those intersections? The eastbound corner at 14th is one with two lanes, one straight and left, and one straight and right. Clearly, DDOT is willing to block the straight and right lane as long as the left lane also allows cars to go straight.

That same condition applies eastbound at 15th and 13th, 11th, 10th, and 9th, and westbound at Vermont Avenue, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th. Why did DDOT decide to put in a bus bulb in just that one spot and not at any of these others?

Longer sidewalk widening east of 14th. The mid-block bulb-out between 14th and 13th (above) is pretty short, and it looks like there's not much room to go around the stairways on each end. Why not make it longer? For that matter, what about making it go all the way west to 14th? That's an extremely crowded section, and with the alley, there aren't that many parking spaces over there (maybe 5 or 6).

Here are some other potential improvements to the current plan. DDOT may have good reason for not doing these, or it may simply have been easier not to spend time thinking about them. I'd love to hear more about whether these could have been possible (or still could be):

Far side bus stops. The trend in bus stop location is toward ones on the far side of intersections. And when we add signal priority for buses, having the stops at the far side lets them gain more speed with signal priority. This reconstruction is a good opportunity to move the stops.

Bicycle infrastructure. U Street could use more bike racks. And how about some bike boxes? Maybe we want people to use T and V instead of U, and I can understand that, but some people ride on U and some need to, to get to and from businesses or residences near U (especially if you want to obey the law and not ride wrong way on 15th, for example). Bike boxes don't cost us much when we're already rebuilding the street.

Loading zones. Many of the businesses have trucks double parking on U to load and unload. Instead, how about a few loading zones, maybe one per block, to serve the businesses and keep trucks out of the travel lanes?

More trees. The south side between 15th and 16th has no trees at all, and some other areas have sparser trees than they should. Trees would make the street much more welcoming. If the sidewalk is too narrow, we could put a mini-bulb-out just wide enough for a tree in the parking area, between two parking spaces. That would only take away a foot or two, and a whole block of them could probably go in at the cost of only one car parking space.

Tree grates. The plan calls for tree boxes all along the street. A tree grate lets pedestrians use more of the sidewalk and allows the tree box to be even larger, giving the tree more soil. These could be great on narrower sidewalks.

Straighten inside curve of mega-bulb-outs. The bulb-outs on 16th look cute from above with their circular shape, but there's some wasted dead space along the inside curve on New Hampshire. Cars will just come straight diagonally from the entrance way. If that inside edge were straight, pedestrians could walk more directly to and from intersection along New Hampshire. Most likely they will step down into the street and back up again.

Overall, this reconstruction will improve U Street, and in a few cases like 16th, improve it tremendously. If we spend too much time arguing about every street, nothing may get done. Still, we only rebuild a street once a generation, if that, and we should take the opportunity to make a street the best it can be.

Dear Gridlock Sam,

I own/operate a commercial vehicle used to deliver to grocery stores in the Bronx. Things have gotten tricky with new bike lanes on both sides of the street (ex: Franklin St.) ... This makes it nearly impossible to make a delivery.

If I double-park next to it, I'm guilty of blocking traffic since my truck would be in the middle of the street. With no loading/unloading zones, finding a parking spot plus additional room to unload is nearly impossible. I'm all for bike lanes, but where does that leave those trying to make a living?

Sam's answer: it's legal for commercial vehicles to double park outside the bike lane (except in Midtown). Sam continues, "It's illegal to double-park on a traffic island, but [DOT would] prefer motorists use the island rather than double-park in a moving lane; DOT is considering changing the rules."

Only inside the weird bubble of NYC traffic land does this make any sense. Let's back up. New York's parking is hard to find. But trucks need to make deliveries. There aren't enough loading zones. But residents of many neighborhoods see being able to park in every possible space, for free, as a "right." So instead of allocating a couple spaces per block to loading zones (which is the case on commercial streets in DC, including in front of my apartment building), we instead make it legal for trucks to double-park. This has the side effect of making congestion worse, since now many travel lanes become blocked.

The swarm of double-parked trucks creates a hazard for bicyclists, so DOT creates bike lanes. But now, the bike lanes interfere with double parking, and when trucks double park in the remaining space, it blocks traffic. So what's the solution? Clearly, parking on medians! Huh?

The hole keeps getting deeper. But the solution is simple. Stop assuming that residents are inherently entitled to every curbside space. There is plenty of room for trucks to park on the side of the road to make deliveries—it's just that today, it's always full.