Medians - Greater Greater Washington

DDOT bows to pressure, removes Wisconsin Ave. median

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 11:03:00 EDT

Last week, DC officials quietly reversed their recent traffic calming project in Glover Park and began removing a new median on Wisconsin Avenue.

New left-turn lanes in Glover Park. Photo from DDOT.

With the Glover Park ANC's support, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) replaced one lane on Wisconsin between 35th and Garfield streets with a painted median in January to calm traffic and improve pedestrian safety. However, a number of residents who drive through Glover Park, including Councilmember Jack Evans (Ward 2, including Georgetown), pushed to reverse the move.

DDOT previously said their plan was to leave the median in place long enough to study it, but in the face of pressure, the agency suddenly began removing the median between Calvert and Garfield streets. Drivers struck 2 pedestrians each year in this stretch between 2008 and 2010. DDOT spokesperson Monica Hernandez says the change is "permanent" and that "the plan is to monitor pedestrian safety going forward."

Community supported median on Wisconsin Avenue

ANC 3B, which contains Glover Park, endorsed the median after a long vetting process. In June 2009, DDOT and its consultants at Toole Design Group recommended replacing one through lane with a center left turn median lane. Studies from the Office of Planning and DDOT found that it would increase pedestrian safety, calm traffic and direct it to the commercial strip by removing turning cars from the through lanes.

While DDOT originally proposed a raised median, ANC 3B advocated to start with painted medians so DDOT could study their effect and make changes if needed. After multiple ANC meetings and ample discussion on the Glover Park listserv, DDOT finally completed the painted median in January. Some neighbors immediately began to question the new median's impact on local businesses and whether it had just pushed traffic onto other streets.

Despite some complaints, most Glover Park residents agreed that the new configuration made it safer to move around Wisconsin Avenue, whether by car, foot or transit. The Glover Park ANC was also supportive, though they advocated for continued study and tweaks to reduce congestion.

Political pressure trumps collecting data

DDOT offered to study traffic delays for a year and look at ways to change the light timing, signage and enforcement to reduce congestion, but opponents said that was too long to wait.

Evans kept pressure up on the issue, including railing against it at public forums. He made regular phone calls to Councilmember Mary Cheh (Ward 3, which includes Glover Park) while driving through the area, which he traverses several times a day to take his kids to and from their home in Georgetown.

When DDOT presented preliminary results of traffic studies showing that the median only added 1-2 minutes to driving time, Evans was incredulous. "If we were talking about just a couple minutes, we wouldn't be here," he said.

Last week, DDOT quietly began removing part of the median. The agency made this decision without telling residents of Glover Park or ANC 3B. DDOT spokesperson Monica Hernandez says they acted based on "direction provided by those at the May 1 hearing."

ANC members are disappointed in DDOT's change of heart. "It's outrageous that DDOT would make this change without considering its impacts on pedestrian safety and traffic flow and without consulting with the community most affected by the modifications," said ANC 3B chair Brian Cohen.

Cohen also says Evans' involvement shifted the decision from safety-focused to political. "The change from data-gathering to simply reversing DDOT clearly happened when Councilmember Evans inserted himself into the issue," said Cohen. "Jack Evans hasn't shown the slightest interest in the well-being and safety of the people who live, work, and play in Glover Park. ... It's galling that he's been given carte blanche to make decisions that undermine pedestrian safety in our community."

The Wisconsin Avenue median was the result of extensive study, community discussion, and eventually community buy-in. It's disappointing that DDOT would subvert its own process and put pedestrians at risk based on political pressure. Glover Park residents deserve better treatment from their officials and elected leaders.

47 comments

Work done on Wisconsin

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:26:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

DDOT has declared that the Wisconsin Avenue Streetscape Project in Glover Park is "substantially complete". The project widened sidewalks, added a median, and reduced the number of traffic lanes. (Patch)

Comment

Sidewalks, median, and two-way streets among Glover Park recommendations (Nov 23, 2009)
Positive resident activism: C Street, NE (Feb 5, 2009)
Adams Morgan streetscape will make pedestrians welcome (Jul 30, 2009)
Glover Park organizes neighborhood snow shovel team (Jan 20, 2011)
New Hampshire Avenue latest to get 2-way and bike lanes (Aug 30, 2012)

DC streets get greener

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:42:00 EDT

by David Alpert

With stimulus money, DDOT removed a lot of impervious surface. They enlarged tree boxes or added new ones, made medians green instead of concrete, and even created a few large grassy areas. (d.ish)

Comment

And...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:59:00 EDT

by David Edmondson

Inside the world of taxicab "hack" inspectors. (Post) ... The Connecticut Avenue median will be extended 600 feet this spring. (DCMud) ... Costco breaks ground in Northeast DC. (City Paper)

Comment

Sherman Avenue to get Complete treatment

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:15:00 EDT

by Erik Weber

DDOT will soon begin transforming Sherman Avenue NW, a wide drag strip through Columbia Heights, into a proper residential street, complete with bike lanes and a tree-studded median with an irrigation system. (Housing Complex, Eric Fidler)

Comment

Beautification coming to New Hampshire Avenue median

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:28:00 EDT

by Kent Boese

Petworth residents who walk along New Hampshire Avenue will have noticed that the medians on the blocks closet to the Metro station have recently been mulched. However, according to area resident Jeff Green, there are much more exciting plans in the works.

The medians on the 3900 block of New Hampshire Avenue (between Randolph and Shepherd) have finally gotten approval to move forward with plantings between the trees. Work is scheduled to commence on July 10.

The project was made possible due to a grant from the ANC 4C for the plant material. Tom Cater from Petworth-based Terra, Inc. will be donating the mulch.

Buckets and funnels are also available to anyone who is willing to adopt 2-3 trees and water them on New Hampshire Ave. during the summer months.

Depending upon future funding and community support, the long-term plan is to increase median beautification by about one to two blocks per spring/summer. Volunteers for either can get involved by sending an email to nhmedians@gmail.com.

Profile of planned plantings between median trees.

Plan view of plantings between trees, indicating yucca, Russian sage, creeping juniper, coreopsis, and sedum.

3 comments

Median proposed for Conn. Ave. streetscape (Jul 3, 2008)
Middle Georgia Avenue getting "Great Streets" treatment (Jun 9, 2010)
New Hampshire Avenue contraflow design (Nov 13, 2008)
Next stop, Georgia Ave-Petworth-Park View? (Apr 29, 2010)
Then and Now: New Hampshire and Rock Creek Church Rd. (Dec 11, 2010)

Plans envision "green street" for C Street, NE

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:36:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Capitol Hill residents recently reviewed traffic-calming options for C Street, NE including separated bike paths ("cycle tracks"), reducing lanes, bulb-outs, "chicanes" where the road curves from side to side, reconfigured intersections, medians, stormwater bioretention araes, and more.

From Toole Design.

C Street, NE through northeastern Capitol Hill serves two roles. It's a neighborhood street with houses and a school, but it's also a major westbound route from the East Capitol Street bridge toward the Capitol and downtown.

In the morning peak, it carries high volumes of traffic. At other times, it has many fewer cars, but the wide configuration encourages them to speed.

At the request of residents, DDOT engaged Toole Design, one of the best local transportation firms, to study alternatives. They found that the wide roadway could become much more, even preserving the ability of the street to move many cars.

Current (top) and three alternatives for C Street, NE between 17th and 19th.

All options maintain the existing treebox areas, then place protected bike lanes inside the current curbs, but elevated to sidewalk level. Additional pedestrian and/or planted spaces (in red on the diagrams) then protect the lanes from traffic and parking.

North Carolina Avenue would get an eastbound cycle track and retain its westbound bike lane, while the westbound cycle track would continue on the one-way portion of C Street west of 16th Street and transition to a standard bike lane as the road narrows past 15th.

The largest difference between options is in the numbers of vehicular lanes. All reduce the eastbound lanes to one, as there is little eastbound traffic. Instead, drivers generally use Independence Avenue. For westbound cars, option A preserves the current three lanes and parking. B would preserve the three lanes in the peak but use the space for off-peak parking only, and C reduces the travel lanes to two with full-time parking.

In the center, a planted median would separate the two directions of traffic and provide left turn pockets. Each alternative includes a chicane, gently curving the road back and forth, either at a gentle 3000-foot radius or a narrower and more traffic-slowing 600-foot radius. The medians also prevent cars from crossing over C on smaller cross streets such as 17th Place, 18th Street, and 20th Street.

Raised crosswalks would slow traffic on cross streets to assist pedestrians. To the west, there is an option to reconfigure the intersection of Constitution and North Carolina to create one large island instead of several small ones.

Options for the intersection of Constitution and North Carolina Avenues.

Finally, the proposals contain significant "green streets" elements. The cycle tracks and new pedestrian paces in red would use permeable paving to minimize stormwater runoff. In addition, where there are large bulb-outs (also in red), Toole proposes bioretention areas, planted areas that are left more wild than manicured and can hold water like miniature wetlands during and after storms, letting it slowly drain into the ground rather than overloading storm sewers.

This project could create DC's first real "green street" and show how good design can do so much more with public spaces. I'm just disappointed we aren't getting the same for projects like 17th Street, NW, now under construction. Fortunately, the new DDOT is using Toole for several other ongoing projects, boding well for more designs like this to come.

13 comments

Positive resident activism: C Street, NE (Feb 5, 2009)
DDOT moves planned I Street cycle track to M Street (May 4, 2010)
Plans envision multimodal "crossroads" at Mt. Vernon Square (Dec 10, 2009)
U Street reconstruction rev-U (Aug 12, 2008)
Dupont's 18th Street next for reconstruction (May 16, 2008)

Great Streets construction

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:56:00 EDT

by Stephen Miller

Construction on Pennsylvania Avenue was scheduled to begin this morning, covering two miles from 27th Street to Southern Avenue in Southeast. Among other improvements, one of the avenue's lanes will be turned into a median. View DDOT's Pennsylvania Avenue Great Streets project page for more information. (DDOT)

Comment

Sidewalks, median, and two-way streets among Glover Park recommendations

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:24:00 EDT

by Ben Thielen

DDOT is recommending pedestrian improvements, bike lanes, consolidating bus stops, two-way streets, a Wisconsin Avenue median, performance parking and more in their recently-completed Glover Park Transportation Study.

Photo by Toole Design.

Toole Design Group conducted the study on behalf of DDOT. They conducted a survey of residents, which found that 33% commute by bus compared to 20% by car, and 75% walk to shops along Wisconsin Avenue compared to 25% driving. Here are some of their most important recommendations:

Pedestrian improvements: The study provides recommendations to improve pedestrian safety at various intersections, especially along busy Massachusetts Avenue. They include new graphic "turning vehicles yield to pedestrians" and "stop for pedestrians in crosswalks" signs, leading pedestrian intervals that let people start crossing before turning traffic, new crosswalks near bus stops, and HAWK pedestrian signals.

Sidewalks: The report also recommends completing sidewalks on both sides of every street, starting with parts of Cathedral Avenue, Watson Place, and Fulton Street.

Bike lanes: The report proposes creating new bike lanes on New Mexico Avenue and Tunlaw Road. A bike lane on the northbound side of New Mexico Avenue heading towards American University would let cyclists more comfortably climb the steep hill more slowly than traffic, while southbound cyclists can merge with traffic as they go downhill at comparable speeds.

Another recommendation is creating a new bicycle route from 39th Street to Idaho Avenue and Porter Street. Additionally, the report recommends adding new bike racks along the Wisconsin Avenue commercial corridor and other key locations in Glover Park.

Consolidate bus stops: The study recommends consolidating some duplicate bus stops on Wisconsin Avenue. This could greatly improve the reliability of the 30s buses. It suggests repositioning "the bus stop on the southbound side at the Chevron gas station to the near side of the intersection with Calvert Street. Northbound and southbound bus stops on Wisconsin Avenue between Edmunds Street and Davis Street (adjacent to the Russian Embassy) should then be eliminated."

Currently, along the 30s line routes, some locations have multiple bus stops on the same block. This reduces the operating speeds of the buses as they have to merge into/out of the curbside lane to pick up passengers. Frequently, the buses also get stuck at traffic lights after picking up just one or two passengers at these redundant stops. Additionally, the merging buses create congestion for other vehicles in the traffic flow, further slowing down other buses along Wisconsin Avenue.

Combining these stops in Glover Park would also result in a higher number of riders at the newly consolidated locations. This would justify improved passenger infrastructure like covered bus shelters at these stops, further encouraging new ridership.

Off-board fare collection: Another important transit recommendation is to work with WMATA to install off-board fare collection equipment at busy bus stops. Such locations include all stops at the Massachusetts/Wisconsin Avenue intersection and all stops within the Glover Park commercial district on Wisconsin Avenue. Cities with successful bus rapid transit have installed ways to pay prior to boarding the bus, improving the operational efficiency of these routes.

Two-way streets: The Glover Park study also recommends converting one-way streets into two-way streets. In more suburban neighborhoods, cul-de-sacs increase vehicle miles traveled and walking distance by prohibiting direct access to major arterial streets. One-way streets create the same issue. Motorists have to drive farther with one-way streets since more direct routes to their destinations are not possible. Additionally, the study notes that the one-way streets in Glover Park create wider lane widths, encouraging people to drive faster than they would with two-way streets and narrower lanes.

Photo by MattHurst.

Wisconsin Avenue median: Wisconsin Avenue through Glover Park ranges from 55 to 65 feet wide, striped except in the narrowest areas as six lanes with no median. Toole Design studied a number of alternatives for the road, and settled on a configuration adding a median along the entire length, with the median ranging from 6' without trees to 10-11' with trees, and 4 travel lanes in most sections with some non-rush-hour parking, some full-time parking, and some center turn lanes.

Performance parking: To strengthen the commercial district, the report suggests a performance parking district for Glover Park. Residential streets would be resident-only (no 2-hour free parking for non-residents) on one side and metered on the other, while commercial streets would be metered on both sides.

27 comments

DDOT may restore two-way traffic on 15th Street (Jan 10, 2008)
Residents, DDOT work on livability, mobility east of the river (Dec 8, 2010)
Median proposed for Conn. Ave. streetscape (Jul 3, 2008)
Metro plans 99 express bus on new route to Dupont (Sep 27, 2010)
DDOT shares downtown bicycle facility plans (Mar 19, 2010)

Adams Morgan streetscape will make pedestrians welcome

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:55:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Tonight, DDOT will discuss the planned Adams Morgan streetscape project, which will reconstruct 18th Street from Florida Avenue to Columbia Road. The project would widen sidewalks, repair and replace tree boxes, streetlights, and sidewalk pavement. It would also reconfigure the roadway from two travel lanes in each direction and angled parking on one side to one travel lane each way, parallel parking on both sides, and a center median for turns. The single lane would also contain "sharrows" reminding drivers that cyclists are welcome to share the road. At each intersection, bulb-outs would narrow the pedestrian crossing distance.

18th Street around Kalorama Street before (above) and after (below) the proposed streetscape
reconstruction. North is to the left.

Original plans suggested a raised median or one made out of special materials that create more of a pedestrian refuge in the center. However, a median which can accommodate vehicles could allow trucks to stop for loading, and DDOT is leery of different materials that may pose greater maintenance costs or headaches. Therefore, the current plan calls for the utilitarian, simpler, but less attractive striped paint.

18th Street and Florida Avenue after the proposed reconstruction. North is to the top.

The plan will also improve the intersection of Florida Avenue and 18th Street, where pedestrians on the east side of 18th have to cross three separate roadways and where cars race through in many different directions. The current plan consolidates the two islands into one, larger island. Southbound traffic on 18th will have to continue farther south to turn left onto U or Florida instead of swinging through the existing slip lane. An earlier iteration would have moved the islands entirely and created an even larger pedestrian plaza at the northeast corner, but that didn't survive to the final plan.

Businesses and residents support this plan, though many are concerned with the impact of construction. DDOT has not done a good job in recent years of managing these streetscape projects. Work has stretched far beyond the promised end date, temporary closures have impacted businesses, and the unwelcoming appearance of construction has driven people away. However, once completed, 18th Street Adams Morgan will be much more pleasant for walking or biking along.

Tonight, members of the community will decide if they're willing to accept the short-term pain, and DDOT will try to convince them that it can handle the job. The meeting is at 7 pm at the 3rd District police station, 1620 V St, NW.

19 comments

Adams Morgan intersection update (Jun 21, 2008)
Crossable intersections in Adams Morgan (Jun 2, 2008)
Positive resident activism: C Street, NE (Feb 5, 2009)
Champlain St under Marie Reed to reopen with contraflow bike lane (Feb 19, 2009)
DDOT's pedestrian safety improvements forget the part that protects pedestrians (Jul 13, 2009)

Making the median

Thu, 21 May 2009 07:47:00 EDT

New Hampshire Avenue in Petworth is getting its long-awaited median. (Petworth News)

Comment

Then and Now and Future: Park View/Petworth commercial corner (May 1, 2009)
Median proposed for Conn. Ave. streetscape (Jul 3, 2008)
DDOT planning contraflow bike lanes on New Hampshire (Aug 7, 2008)
Donatelli builds what investors will fund (Mar 10, 2008)

Residents suggest more walkable intersection designs at 7th and Maryland

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:56:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Greater Capitol Hill's residents proudly lead the city in promoting a vision of our streets as welcoming and safe places for pedestrians, bicycles, transit, and cars alike. Not only did they elect DC's most pro-walkability, pro-complete streets Councilmember, but multiple groups of residents have created designs and blogs for improving their particular corners of the neighborhood.

We've already seen the C Street, NE group's ideas in the Rosedale area. Now, Tommy Wells' blog highlights some suggestions for improving pedestrian safety at the busy corner of Maryland Avenue and 7th and D Streets, NE drawn up by resident and ANC Commissioner Bill Schultheiss.

As Wells' staff member and Schultheiss' fellow ANC 6A Commissioner Anne Phelps writes, "This has long been a dangerous and troublesome junction," with long pedestrian crossing distances and poor visibility at a major intersection right in front of the library. Schultheiss created drawings of the current conditions as well as three options.

All options add curb extensions ("bulb-outs") to shorten pedestrian crossing distances, extending the existing median on Maryland, and realign D Street at the corner to a 60 degree intersection with Maryland. B also limits northbound 7th Street traffic to turning right onto Maryland, blocking off left turns which expose drivers to the greatest collision danger. C closes 7th off from Maryland entirely, forcing northbound traffic on 7th to turn right onto D and expanding the park space right across from the library.

Current intersection of 7th, Maryland, and D. Click for larger version (PDF).

Option A for redesigning the intersection. Click for larger version (PDF).

Option C reclaims the most space, maximizes pedestrian safety, and would expand the park. That option seems best as long as it wouldn't create unreasonable traffic problems. All three would improve conditions by shortening pedestrian crossing distances and keeping parked cars out of the key sight lines.

Options A and B do remove a crosswalk on the west side of 7th. That's probably safest for pedestrians, as long as they stick to crosswalks, but in reality people generally don't. It seems likely that people will cross there anyway, especially with the library on the west side of 7th.

I also wonder about safety for the bicycle lane on D. Bikes continuing east on D will have to first turn onto Maryland, possibly conflicting with the cars also coming out from D. Perhaps D Street should also include a bike box where it hits Maryland, so that the bicycles can get into the right lane on Maryland in front of any cars. Drivers can certainly go around bikes by using the left lane, but will see them as they make the turn.

What do you think of these options?

We needn't wait for a major reconstruction of this intersection. DDOT could try out one of these designs very quickly. They could place plastic curbs and bollards to cordon off the bulb-out areas, shown in green on the diagrams, and paint the new crosswalks. That wouldn't cost a lot of money, but would let drivers, pedestrians and cyclists acclimate to the new pattern, and neighbors see the effects.

If it works, then DDOT can schedule the intersection for a permanent reconstruction. If, instead, we discover an unforeseen problem with bike, pedestrian or traffic conflicts, it's easy to move the curbs and modify the design to find something that does work. Let's do it!

9 comments

Finding the right buffer (Apr 11, 2008)
Now those are bulb-outs (Jun 27, 2008)
Plans envision "green street" for C Street, NE (Mar 9, 2010)
DDOT completes temporary bulb-outs at 15th and W (Jul 16, 2009)
Positive resident activism: C Street, NE (Feb 5, 2009)

Positive resident activism: C Street, NE

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:02:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Like Dupont's 15th Street and many others around DC, C Street, NE in the Rosedale section of Capitol Hill is a neighborhood street that traffic engineers turned into a high-speed traffic raceway. After crossing the Anacostia on East Capitol Street, the freeway-like road passing RFK Stadium dumps traffic onto C Street. According to the 2005 Capitol Hill transportation study , drivers regularly speed on this portion, making it unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The high-speed portion of C Street, NE.

Instead of waiting for a streetscape project from DDOT, residents are proactively designing a better C Street. Resident Ken Granata created a blog for the street that explores potential redesigns. Granata, who also maintains the Rosedale Citizens' Alliance neighborhood site, advocates removing one lane between 16th and 22nd Streets. On this stretch, C is a divided highway of three lanes in each direction. Heading west on C, the road divides at 16th, with C continuing west as a narrower road and North Carolina Avenue heading southwest to Lincoln Park. This creates a bottleneck around 16th.

Instead, Granata argues, a narrow C Street will move the bottleneck to the ramps around RFK, out of the residential areas. Instead, the C Street site shows potential designs (16th Street, 17th Street, 17th Place, 18th Street, 18th Place). The proposals include bulb-outs at the corners and a widened median containing a two-way bicycle path in the center:

Residents arranged for a walkthrough of C Street with DDOT Ward 6 Transportation Planner Allan Fye on January 5th. Fye suggested also considering a physically separated bike lane on one side of the street, similar to those NYC recently added on Eighth and Ninth Avenues or one proposal for 15th Street.

Such a lane would allow cyclists to enter and exit without crossing half of C Street. On the other hand, there may not be enough space on C Street for one of these on each side including the landscaped buffers between parked cars and the bicycle lanes, whereas a two-way path in the median occupies less space. It also adds pedestrian refuges for people to stop in if they can't cross the entire street on one light cycle. Area resident Lance Brown also suggested widening the sidewalks, writing that "Many streets, including the north side of C Street [in this area], have sidewalks that are much too narrow."

Often, some residents reflexively oppose bulb-outs or medians because of ingrained habits through years of designing streets for cars above all else. It's good to see residents of the Rosedale part of Capitol Hill thinking about creative solutions to reorient their streets for the benefit of all users.

12 comments

Plans envision "green street" for C Street, NE (Mar 9, 2010)
U Street reconstruction rev-U (Aug 12, 2008)
Support two-way 15th Street today (Jun 19, 2008)
Adams Morgan streetscape will make pedestrians welcome (Jul 30, 2009)
DDOT may restore two-way traffic on 15th Street (Jan 10, 2008)

Breakfast links: Two sides of many coins

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:59:42 EDT

by David Alpert

Photo by takomabiblelot on Flickr.

Adams Morgan ANC commissioner arrested: Nancy Shia, representing northeastern Adams Morgan on ANC 1C, was arrested Sunday for taking pictures of a crime scene. Shia claims she was "just trying to document the scene," while police claim she was "impeding a police investigation" and opened the door of a police vehicle to get a picture of a juvenile suspect.

Petworth median parking compromise: The Petworth ANC, community and DDOT have reached a compromise about church parking on New Hampshire Avenue. DDOT wanted to replace a concrete median with a landscaped median, but a nearby church has been using it for parking on Sundays. Under the plan, the median will go in, but one of the travel lanes will become a parking lane on Sundays only.

Nobody's enforcing Capitol Hill meters: What good is having market-rate performance parking meters (which still aren't actually market rate, yet) when most of the cars parked at them haven't paid? (Infosnack)

Falls Church kinda-sorta-semi-urban-ish: A resident of Falls Church praises his "bucolic suburban village"'s transition "towards [a] quasi-urban place" by building some denser, mixed-use buildings on Route 7. Via Planetizen.

Ride-and-drive in Chicago: CTA is creating a unified fare card that's also an access card for I-GO car sharing services. This coincides with new shared cars that will be parked at CTA lots. (Apparently we have some Zipcars in WMATA lots too).

Comment

Adams Morgan streetscape will make pedestrians welcome (Jul 30, 2009)
Show me the (performance parking) money! (Sep 18, 2008)
Adams Morgan intersection update (Jun 21, 2008)
DDOT releases ballpark parking report (Jan 25, 2010)
Breakfast links: Frustrated about driving edition (Sep 8, 2008)

MoCo road code, AAA oppose tree-lined medians

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:47:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Montgomery County is finalizing a new "road code" to define basic standards for roads of different types across the county. It's a good idea to update the standards, but in the hands of MoCo's traffic engineers and some county leaders, it's become a blindly pro-traffic sledgehammer that will force pedestrian-unfriendly design throughout the county.

~~MoCo Road Code~~ Mojo Jojo.

Unveiled by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett during Pedestrian Safety Week, the road code actually works against pedestrian safety. It sets a minimum speed of 30 mph for all streets, even those in urban areas (like downtown Bethesda) that should be 25. Arterial streets like Wisconsin or Georgia have even higher minimums, whether or not that's appropriate.

"We're very disappointed that the road code revisions didn't focus enough on pedestrian safety and putting a greater priority on making our vibrant urban areas safe and walkable," Cheryl Cort of the Coalition for Smarter Growth told the Gazette. The environmental provisions are more laudable, requiring all roads to absorb stormwater runoff, though, according to the Gazette article, environmentalists feel the absorption requirements don't go far enough.

The Planning Board wasn't pleased either, writing that the proposed minimum speeds are too high, the minimum widths too large for pedestrian safety and important traffic calming, the bicycle facility requirements too vague, and the standards too devoid of trees along the edges and in the medians.

That upset AAA spokesperson Lon Anderson, who participated in the working group that formulated the initial proposals. Anderson, whose organization consistently advocates for devoting as much public space as possible to cars, slammed the Planning Board and its non-car-centric ideas:

"Park and Planning thinks if every road was 20 mph or 25 mph that'd be great and every road should be tree-lined," Anderson said. ... "'It's our way or the highway' is an old maxim that apparently planners at the Montgomery County Planning Board take very seriously," said Anderson, who called the decision by the planners to offer separate recommendations "an outrageous and arrogant attempt to circumvent an appropriate study process."

Of course, Anderson's way is the highway. But while not every street should be 20 or 25 mph, some should, and many should be tree-lined. The road code prevents that. Anderson, though, thinks no streets should have tree medians. Commenting on an article in Just Up the Pike, Anderson wrote:

We are all for trees, but want them set back adequately to ensure they don't limit motorists' and pedestrians' site[sic] distances, and obscure things like traffic signals, stop signs, and pedestrians and children preparing to enter the roadway. Additionally, trees set too close to roads can kill motorists who run off the roads.
Please know that AAA has long played a role as a leader in the fight for pedestrian safety, and sponors over 36,000 children as AAA School Safety Patrols in the DC area, and I served on Doug Duncan's Pedestrian Safety Task Force a couple of years ago. We must design our roads in ways that encourage pedestrians, bikers and all users, but in the safest possible ways, and that's what I worked for in my efforts on the Road Design Study Commission.

If Anderson is sincere, he's woefully misinformed about traffic safety. "Blocking sight lines hurts safety" is a 1950s concept. But, in truth, when sight lines are blocked, motorists drive slower; when they're wide open, they drive faster. And since a pedestrian is 85% likely to die if hit by a car at 40 mph but only 5% likely at 20 mph, we do more for safety by slowing down the cars in areas where pedestrians will be crossing. A narrower street without sight lines, therefore, is often the safest kind precisely because the driver can't see everything and has to proceed with care.

There are two ways to keep pedestrians safe. One is to keep all the pedestrians far away from the main roads, build big barriers against crossing roads and locate buildings far apart, and giving the cars lots of room to run off the road without hitting anything. Problem is, then nobody can get anywhere without driving, we get crushing traffic (which Anderson professionally complains about), high rates of car crash injuries, asthma-inducing pollution, and depressingly sprawly communities. Or, we design our environment for cars, people and bicycles to coexist smoothly and, in the denser areas, at slow speeds. The Planning Board wants more of the latter, while Anderson, Leggett, and the rest of the authors of the Road Code want the former. That's only a recipe for more sprawl, which helps nobody except, perhaps, AAA Mid-Atlantic.

P.S. Remember that if you belong to AAA, part of your money goes to lobby against tree-lined streets and against pedestrian safety. There's a better choice.

11 comments

MoCoCo agrees with Planning Board on Road Code (Oct 7, 2008)
Design for speed, collect the dough (Feb 12, 2009)
MoCo planners considering congestion pricing (May 27, 2008)
Wall in White Flint endangers pedestrians (Aug 18, 2010)
Gaithersburg police target people in the way of cars (Oct 4, 2010)