Pedestrians - Greater Greater Washington

Southern access

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:33:00 EDT

Many who live close to Southern Ave. Metro drive instead of walking or biking to the station. Metro blames the station's poor connectivity and a pedestrian-unfriendly Southern Ave. Can fixes encourage people to walk or bike? (PlanItMetro)

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BIDs get real-time

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:24:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Screens showing real-time transit information are likely on the way for Ballston and Georgetown. Both areas' BIDs have agreed to fund the screens to help visitors find transit and reduce pedestrian crowding. (Elevation DC)

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Pedestrian "sting" finds frequent driver lawlessness

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:41:00 EDT

by Ben Ross

So many drivers don't yield to pedestrians that catching them is "like shooting fish in a barrel," a surprised Montgomery County police officer remarked Wednesday. The police ticketed 72 violators in 2½ hours—one every two minutes—at a single crosswalk on Veirs Mill Road.

Photo by Montgomery County police.

The operation, a first for the county, was advertised as a sting. But it was not very covert. The police announced in advance that their plainclothes officers would ticket between 11 am and 3 pm while wearing brightly-colored outfits.

Capt. Thomas Didone, head of the police traffic enforcement division, explained the reasoning behind the "sting" to the Patch. "Officers would typically attempt to enforce that kind of law by driving around a high-traffic area and looking for drivers not following the rules," he said. "That's not very efficient."

Inefficiency is the least of the problems with this style of law enforcement. Police who drive all day don't understand the reality of walking on the county's roadways. When you get out of the squad car and join the thousands who cross Veirs Mill every day (it's among the county's busiest bus corridors), you suddenly learn that "it's kind of scary."

All of this raises the question: in an increasingly urbanized county, where is the cop on the beat? Downtown Bethesda throngs with people on weekend evenings, and the police sit in parked squad cars behind rolled-up windows. If they were on foot, they would have plenty to do—especially in the late evening when drivers often zoom through the emptying streets.

Foot patrols succeeded in calming downtown Silver Spring after a series of brawls in 2010. But they ended once the brawls went away.

Street fighting is hardly Montgomery County's biggest law enforcement problem. Driver violations of pedestrian rights are ubiquitous, and they do far more harm. There are as many pedestrian deaths per year in the county as homicides.

Where people walk, we need police on foot. Not just on a few not-so-secret "stings"—Capt. Didone said these operations will continue only through the end of the month—and not just in response to occasional outbreaks of crime.

Police should be walking every day, in Aspen Hill and Germantown as well as Bethesda and Silver Spring, protecting the rights of pedestrians as a routine element of law enforcement. Drivers need to understand that they can be ticketed any time they break the law, not just between 11:00 and 3:00 during the month of May.

102 comments

Rediscover Columbus Circle

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:54:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Construction work on Columbus Circle in front of Union Station is finished. The plaza now features wider sidewalks, bike lanes, and a simpler traffic pattern. (WTOP)

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Landmark Mall forgets peds, bikes

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:36:00 EDT

by Jereme Altendorf

An Alexandria Transportation Commission representative opposes the current redevelopment plans for Landmark Mall, saying it lacks safe pedestrian and bicycling access from surrounding areas. (Patch)

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Walk the long way to VRE

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:37:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

VRE is warning people not to cross the railroad tracks in Burke. The shortcut shaves a several-block detour and Fairfax hopes to build a pedestrian bridge, but that won't happen for years. (WTOP)

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Army Navy cycle track

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:33:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Arlington is considering a cycle track on Army Navy Drive since the current arrangement of the street is "inhospitable" for cyclists. The plan also includes pedestrian improvements and room for a streetcar. (ARLnow)

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Safe at night

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:27:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

A new Gallup poll shows that 72% of area residents feel safe walking by themselves at night, making the area about average when compared to the rest of the country. (DCist)

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Crosswalks are the danger zone

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:06:00 EDT

by Peter James

A study of injured pedestrians at New York hospital found that 44% were struck while legally using crosswalks, while 23% were crossing midblock. 40% of bicycle crashes involved taxicabs. (NYT, Ben Ross)

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And...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 08:41:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Donald Shoup talks about the SFPark experiment. (Freakonomics, Thad) ... The Washington Times is getting its own cable channel. (DCist) ... Ever get annoyed with other pedestrians? How about issuing them penalty cards? (Atlantic Cities)

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Silly other states

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:53:00 EDT

by David Alpert

A Washington State legislator said cyclists emit CO2 when they exhale, so they're polluting, too. He later apologized. ... Ohio is considering a law requiring pedestrians to yield to cars at the start of a walk signal. (Streetsblog, BikePortland)

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The premature burial of pedestrian safety

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:43:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Pedestrian deaths declined in Montgomery County, but it is not doing enough to solve the underlying problem: the county and state are not designing and operating streets for pedestrians as well as drivers. (WTOP)

Comment

Prince George's worst in Maryland for pedestrian safety (Jan 3, 2013)
Jury finds Maryland liable for failing to include a sidewalk (Mar 11, 2011)
Crossing the street often unsafe in Fairfax (Nov 12, 2009)
Is this pedestrian safety or just pedestrian removal? (Jan 10, 2012)
Silver Spring construction shuts sidewalks, violating policy (Feb 16, 2011)

Is ped enforcement campaign "blaming the victim"?

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:46:00 EDT

by David Alpert

District agencies are running a much-needed, but brief, sting operation today to enforce the laws against making U-turns across the Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes. Meanwhile, a number of readers have written in with worries that a pedestrian enforcement campaign is targeting the wrong people for the wrong behavior.

Reader @Akido37 tweeted this photograph, of a bus shelter ad the District Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Police Department have posted near Farragut Square warning pedestrians about a stepped-up enforcement campaign. He wrote, "Talk about blaming the victim."

Certainly, pedestrians can do a lot to make themselves more safe, or take more risks. Walking while texting or reading emails removes one line of defense against a driver hitting a pedestrian.

On the other hand, pedestrians can suffer even when they do nothing wrong, but a driver's attention lapses for moment. Some readers feel MPD is not doing enough about far more unsafe driver actions. Reader David Joseph wrote:

I walk this intersection twice a day and without fail drivers make illegal turns, pull into the crosswalk, or otherwise endanger pedestrians. I recently asked an MPD officer who was giving warnings to pedestrians why they werent talking to drivers who are the real danger. His answer was simply that they were given orders to talk to pedestrians and issue tickets for jay walking, and he was following those orders.

Ben Ross said in an email:

I work at that intersection, and the pedestrian signals there forbid pedestrians to make crossings that are absolutely safe. You are told not to cross the turn lane on westbound 17th between the traffic island and the Red Line entrance even when traffic in the lane you are crossing has a red light. You can only cross when the main part of K Street has a red light, which comes 32 seconds later. Obviously, no one waits to cross the turn lane when the cars are stopped in front of them.

In a similar vein, during a past enforcement campaign police stopped people crossing the one-lane side roadway of Connecticut Avenue at Q Street, where the main road passes under in an underpass. While not lawful, there are plenty of times when there are no cars approaching, or even a bus at the bus stop blocking the road entirely. It doesn't advance safety to ticket people for crossing at these times.

Everyone should follow laws. The ideal solution to these problems would be to redesign the intersection to better accommodate pedestrians' own needs and not forbid doing things that aren't really dangerous. However, we're not realistically going to change most of these intersections anytime soon.

With driver speeding, especially with the latest speed camera bill, we've made a decision to tolerate a certain amount of unlawful speeding (10 mph over the limit), and recently cut down on penalties for those who speed more. Mayor Gray also raised speed limits in a few places where many drivers, perhaps rightly at least in some cases, argued they were too low.

The District needs to focus on the most unsafe behavior. Sometimes, that's pedestrian behavior, but more often it's not. Do you think this campaign is blaming the victim? Or does it attack a real safety problem, and some people just don't want to follow the law?

76 comments

Speed kills. Traffic cameras save lives. (Mar 27, 2012)
To reduce enforcement errors, MPD wants traffic division (Mar 17, 2011)
Don't start dancing yet, Georgetown: Barnes Dance not always the answer (May 12, 2010)
Let's talk about enforcement (Apr 28, 2009)
Enforce bicycle laws, but the right laws (Jan 16, 2009)

8½ minutes to cross the street

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:09:00 EDT

by Ben Ross

When you get off the northbound bus at Route 355 and Shady Grove Road in Rockville, it takes 8½ minutes to cross legally to the other side of the street. Along the way, you traverse 28 traffic lanes.

Photo from Bing.

Just last week, two pedestrians were severely injured crossing the street at this intersection. I went there Saturday to look around. When I explained what I was interested in, people waiting for the southbound bus immediately pointed me to the bus stop on the other side.

I walked there, taking care to obey the law, and timed the return trip. It took 8½ minutes one way.

From the northbound bus stop (off the picture past point A on the picture below), I proceeded along the Route 355 sidewalk and reached the intersection at B. There I walked across a wide turn lane designed for high speeds that has no traffic signal—fortunately weekend traffic in the turn lane is light—and reached the traffic island at C.

Photo from Google Earth.

There is no crosswalk across the south side of the intersection (because there's a traffic light here, there's no unmarked crosswalk). Therefore, I had to wait for the walk signal to cross the 9 lanes of Shady Grove Road. The wait was substantial, because this is a slow light; the signal cycle is 2½ minutes.

When I reached the next traffic island at D, I found a "beg button"—a button that you press to get a walk signal. Cars made left turns for a little while, the through lanes began to move, and I got my signal to proceed across the 8 lanes of Route 355. The walk and flashing don't-walk phases, together, lasted 23 seconds.

I walk briskly, so I was able to finish the 104-foot crossing before the signal became a solid don't-walk. But a slower, and strictly law-abiding, pedestrian would have had to stop in the median. There is no beg button in the median, so they would have had to wait—who knows how long—until another pedestrian came along who follows traffic rules so punctiliously that they bother to push beg buttons.

Having finally reached point E, I had to wait again for a walk signal. This time I had 10 lanes to cross, but here there is a long green that gives you plenty of time. Finally, I walked along the sidewalk from F to G, and after 8½ minutes I arrived at the southbound bus stop.

New beg button at "C." Photo by the author.

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation is not ignoring this troubled intersection. It has installed 4 new beg buttons, not yet operational. But the way MCDOT is using these devices almost flaunts the low priority it assigns to pedestrian safety and convenience.

One of the new buttons is at location C. That's where pedestrians cross a high-speed turn lane that has no traffic light. The turn lane won't change at all. It still won't have a light; you will still take your life in your hands to cross during rush hour. The beg button will only control the through lanes, making you wait through the 2½ minute light cycle if you arrive when the light is already green. Walking will be even slower; a few more cars will get through.

MCDOT is willing enough to spend money on walk signals. Here and there, as at this intersection, it will make traffic islands prettier and improve curb cuts. But getting people where they want to go on foot, quickly and safely, is never as important to the department as moving cars.

Route 355 and Shady Grove Road, as envisioned in the 2006 master plan and as it is today. Left, rendering from MNCPPC; right, photo from Google Earth.

Ironically, this is a place the county has designated for transit-oriented land use. It is only ¾ of a mile from the Shady Grove Metro station and on a future Bus Rapid Transit route. According to the master plan for this area, "Residents will find walking along tree-lined streets and using bike paths as convenient as driving."

The master plan, which the County Council enacted in 2006, specifies that road builders must "provide four-way crosswalks at all intersections." Seven years have passed, and MCDOT can't seem to find a can of paint. It takes as long to cross the street, at Shady Grove and 355, as the Purple Line will take to go from Silver Spring to Bethesda.

41 comments

Montgomery DOT tells children: Don't cross the street (Nov 13, 2012)
Crossing Route 7 will mean long waits in Tysons (Jun 14, 2010)
Gaithersburg police target people in the way of cars (Oct 4, 2010)
What can we learn from the 7th/Georgia bus errors? (May 21, 2010)
More details on New Hampshire Ave contraflow bike lanes (Aug 8, 2008)

Traffic and pedestrian deaths hit new low

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:33:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

DC saw the fewest pedestrian and traffic deaths last year since such data was initially recorded over 80 years ago. (Examiner)

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Talk ped safety in upcounty MoCo

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 08:37:00 EDT

by David Alpert

After 2 pedestrians were killed crossing streets in upper Montgomery County and the county DOT refused to mark a crosswalk, ACT is organizing a forum on upcounty pedestrian safety for January 26.

Comment

Is this pedestrian safety or just pedestrian removal? (Jan 10, 2012)
Pedestrian safety slogan exhorts but does not educate (Apr 6, 2012)
Fairfax, PG worst for pedestrian safety (Apr 23, 2008)
Montgomery DOT tells children: Don't cross the street (Nov 13, 2012)
Montgomery continues "pedestrian removal" in Wheaton (Mar 21, 2012)

Tregoning, Sebastian, Alpert talk bike/ped issues live

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:00:00 EDT

by David Alpert

I'm on a panel at this morning's Washington Post "Conquering the Commute" symposium to talk about how people get around on foot and by bike, along with DC planning director Harriet Tregoning and chief DDOT bike planner Jim Sebastian.

You can watch the panel live here:

Immediately afterward, Stewart Schwartz from the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the most influential smart growth group in the Washington region and a small charity I hope you will support financially, will debate lifelong Outer Beltway booster Bob Chase on a panel with Transportation Planning Board head Ron Kirby. It should be exciting so stick around!

After the event, I will replace this live stream with embedded videos as soon as the Post gets them up.

3 comments

Watch me & many others at Greening Greater Washington (Sep 10, 2011)
LaHood, Black, Fox and Alpert, live from Las Vegas (Jul 22, 2010)
Right on, Harriet Tregoning! (Mar 4, 2008)
Support the Coalition for Smarter Growth (Dec 12, 2012)
Tregoning may be Committee of 100's best friend (Mar 9, 2012)

Count on it

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:36:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

The Federal Highway Administration has issued guidelines on how to count cyclists and pedestrians which should improve the quality of data localities collect. Better data should make getting performance-based funding easier.

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Fairfax gets friendlier to bikes, peds

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:31:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Fairfax will add clear bike and pedestrian paths to its new Silver Line stations and might even bring bike sharing surrounding areas, though they haven't necessarily settled on using CaBi. (WTOP)

Comment

Capital Bikeshare, launching today, will change everything (Sep 20, 2010)
Fairfax Silver Line names are boring and repetitive (Mar 29, 2011)
Fairfax, PG worst for pedestrian safety (Apr 23, 2008)
Park Service will allow CaBi on the Mall (Sep 6, 2011)
Readers finding success bridging Metro gap with CaBi (Oct 10, 2010)

We can learn from Barcelona

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 08:29:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Barcelona can be a model for other cities around the world on topics such as encouraging walking and biking, how to build with varying street widths, and where to build tall buildings. (Atlantic Cities)

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And...

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 08:20:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Halloween is the second most dangerous holiday for pedestrians, mainly thanks to drunk drivers. (Patch) ... WMATA adds a disclaimer to the controversial "Defeat Jihad" ad. (DCist) ... Is it possible to build a green downtown parking garage? (Grid Chicago)

Comment

Pedestrian safety slogan exhorts but does not educate (Apr 6, 2012)
WMATA reaches agreement to use DC USA garage (Apr 21, 2010)
Metro plans to share parking with Marriott hotel (Nov 17, 2008)
Pedestrians and drivers: Can't we all just get along? (Oct 6, 2008)
Council passes fine for blocking bike lane (Sep 16, 2008)

Unmarked crosswalks get noticed

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 08:24:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Too few news stories about collisions between pedestrians and cars acknowledge the existence of unmarked crosswalks. This omission can shape perceptions of who is at fault. (Stop and Move, Ben Ross)

Comment

Pedestrian safety slogan exhorts but does not educate (Apr 6, 2012)
Washington Circle getting many more crosswalks (Mar 29, 2012)
How pedestrians "interfere with traffic" (Feb 28, 2011)
Is this pedestrian safety or just pedestrian removal? (Jan 10, 2012)
6,400 bike boxes overnight (Oct 20, 2009)

DDOT helps "complete" Florida Avenue

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:21:00 EDT

by Eric Fidler

A section of Florida Avenue NW will soon better provide for all its users, including drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. The street will get wider sidewalks, street trees, and bike lanes after residents and DDOT collaborated to redesign it.

Photo by the author.

This section of Florida Avenue has enjoyed significant population growth over the past decade. New condo towers went up on both sides of the street and more are on the way.

The street's wide, auto-oriented roadway may have been appropriate for the area's previous use a warehouse district. Today, however, most of the industrial uses are gone and old shops and parking lots are turning into mixed-use residential and commercial buildings.

The project area encompasses 9th Street NW from U Street to Florida Avenue, and Florida Avenue NW to just past Sherman Avenue. The project also includes the southernmost block of Sherman Avenue and the northernmost block of Vermont Avenue.

Project area. Click for an interactive map.

More crosswalks and better sidewalks

Increasing the share of trips taken by means other than an automobile is an important goal for the District and especially for the U Street area, which is already at its car-carrying capacity. Making walking safer and more enjoyable is a good way to encourage people to shift from driving to walking for more of their trips.

The agency's designs call for widening the sidewalks and installing a planting strip buffer between the sidewalk and the roadway. Separating pedestrians from high-speed traffic with a row of parked cars or a planting strip improves pedestrian comfort. Few people want to walk within 2 feet of speeding traffic.

Crossing Florida Avenue today is a daunting task. The road's width encourages speeding and provides no median refuge for pedestrians. The new design resolves this problem with a median, a few bulb-outs, a narrowed roadway, striped crosswalks, and a new traffic light.

One of the more notable changes is that DDOT intends to turn the intersection of 9th Street, V Street, and Florida Avenue into a signalized intersection. Regular concertgoers know this intersection as the location of the 9:30 Club. The intersection's current form requires concertgoers to cross a wide section of Florida Avenue while hoping that motorists will stop for them at the crosswalks. The new signal will provide more order to this process.

Intersection of Florida Avenue, V Street, and 9th Street NW.

DDOT plans to reconfigure the intersection of Florida Avenue and Vermont Avenue to slow traffic turning from southbound Florida Avenue to Vermont Avenue. Currently, the intersection is designed like a highway ramp for southbound traffic. The new design will force motorists to make a sharper right turn, which will cause them to slow down. This reduces the chance that a pedestrian will suffer severe injury or death if struck while crossing the street.

Intersection of Florida Avenue and Vermont Avenue NW.

New bike lanes, bike boxes, and sharrows

The new street will receive bike lanes in some stretches and sharrows in others. DDOT will also implement some of its new bike practices here. The agency will place bike boxes on Florida Avenue at Vermont Avenue to aid turning and merging movements. A new southbound bike lane on Vermont Avenue will connect the Florida Avenue bike lanes with the V Street lane, which stretches to the foot of Adams Morgan 10 blocks west.

The District is now starting to paint green bike lanes to help differentiate the lanes from regular street lanes. The agency will apply the same treatment to assist cyclists who wish to continue on Florida Avenue beyond Sherman Avenue.

Intersection of Florida Avenue and Sherman Avenue NW.

More trees, less impervious pavement

The proposal calls for adding 57 street trees, one of the most notable visual and environmental changes. At the first community meeting a year ago, DDOT planner Gabriela Vega noted that her agency was under a mandate to increase the District's tree canopy.

Trees reduce the urban heat island effect, raise property values, and reduce stormwater flow into the sewers. Converting some of the asphalt pavement into grassy planting strips and medians will help the soil absorb rainwater and reduce the pressure on the combined sewer system.

Reducing stormwater volume is especially important in light of recent storms that caused minor flooding in one of the condo buildings on Florida Avenue. This section of Florida Avenue drains to the Northeast Boundary Tunnel, the massive century-old combined sewer that has backed up and caused flooding several times this summer in the LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale neighborhoods.

In their conversations with DDOT, residents suggested adding a median with street trees and planting strips along the curbs. In response, DDOT plans to widen the sidewalks, many of which are too narrow for wheelchairs today, and add planting strips to both sides of the street. A tree-studded median will stretch from Vermont Avenue to W Street.

Proposed median and street trees along Florida Avenue from Vermont Avenue to W Street NW.

Missed opportunities

Though DDOT added nearly all of the ANC's requested improvements, the agency was unable to add two important features. First, the ANC requested striped crosswalks for the intersection of Florida Avenue and W Street to aid people crossing Florida Avenue.

Richard Kenney of DDOT explained that the two lanes of southbound traffic make a crosswalk at W Street difficult. If a motorist in one lane stops for a pedestrian in the crosswalk, it would be too likely for a motorist in the second lane to continue moving.

Though a traffic signal at W Street could bring all traffic to a stop, DDOT's engineers worried that traffic would back up along Florida Avenue and block the intersection at Sherman Avenue.

The ANC also requested the addition of a striped crosswalk across Florida Avenue on the south side of the intersection with Sherman Avenue. The agency rejected this request, fearing that the left-turning traffic volumes from Sherman Avenue would be too high and cause drivers to block the intersection while waiting for pedestrians to cross.

Vega, DDOT's planner, was sympathetic to the ANC's desire to add every pedestrian accommodation possible, but said that the design process is a negotiation to balance numerous interests.

Even without these ANC-suggested changes, the project will widen sidewalks, add street trees, reduce the size of intersection corners, add bike lanes and bike boxes, remove curb cuts, and add a new traffic signal. It will create a street that is vastly better for residents on foot and on bikes.

Policy matters in the creation of complete streets

The ANC was instrumental in adding these complete street elements to the design. I volunteer as chair of the ANC's Transportation Committee and was happy to see residents, including a road engineer, mark up the original designs to add complete street elements I had not even considered.

The elected commissioners passed the list of requests and DDOT incorporated the vast majority of the requests into its design. The ANC did not get everything it wanted, but it got the majority.

Adding street trees and improving the quality of the walking experience are explicit District policy objectives that both Mayors Fenty and Gray have embraced. Though skeptics may dismiss these policy statements as electioneering, these official guidelines are critical in advocating improvements in new public projects. They provide political force for planners and citizens as they advocate for complete streets.

24 comments

Florida Avenue gets closer to a "complete street" (Aug 22, 2011)
New paint helps makes Florida Avenue NE a safer road (Nov 21, 2011)
Adams Morgan streetscape will make pedestrians welcome (Jul 30, 2009)
Sidewalks, median, and two-way streets among Glover Park recommendations (Nov 23, 2009)
More details on New Hampshire Ave contraflow bike lanes (Aug 8, 2008)

And...

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:14:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Virginia gets high-speed rail money in the nick of time. (Examiner) ... A Bethesda pedestrian detour is dangerous at night. (RD@BR) ... A proposed hotel near Nationals Park will have neither ground-floor retail nor on-site parking. (JDLand)

Comment

Guess the location: pedestrian street (Oct 21, 2008)
Our transportation priorities (Jun 17, 2008)
Rein's "OMG $15 billion" Tysons costs include transportation far from Tysons (Oct 30, 2009)
Maryland worried about new transit-hostile FTA (Feb 8, 2008)
Time to fast-track the southern Bethesda Metro entrance (Nov 2, 2010)

Lanier talks tickets

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 08:32:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Last year, pedestrians and bicyclists in DC received 3,500 tickets, said Chief Lanier. Also, starting in December, drivers will have to look out for enforcement cameras at stop signs. (WTOP)

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Path will be too narrow

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 08:32:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

The Maryland SHA wants to narrow a proposed path on Wisconsin Avenue to 5 feet, even though it is supposed to serve both bikes and pedestrians. The path will also have no buffer along Wisconsin. (Cycle MoCo)

Comment

Silver Spring bike/ped connection nixes trees, ruffles feathers (Mar 10, 2011)
On-street Crescent Trail may be better for bikes and peds (Nov 17, 2011)
Montgomery Planning Board to hear recommendations about Capital Crescent Trail (Nov 16, 2011)
Closed sidewalks force pedestrians into dangerous spots (Aug 3, 2011)
Rather than close Ellsworth Drive, narrow Georgia Avenue (Dec 21, 2010)

Windy City wants safer walking

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 08:32:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Gabe Klein released details on Chicago's plan to reduce pedestrian deaths to zero in 10 years through traffic calming, longer pedestrian crossing times, better connectivity. (Streetsblog)

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And...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 08:32:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

DC is officially a Walk Friendly Community (Post) ... DC is looking for a developer for Barry Farm. (WBJ) ... The Washington area is one of the country's most diverse. (Post) ... Ever bored waiting at crosswalks? Try playing a game. (Atlantic Cities)

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Safer than that

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:40:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Some reports make walking look unsafe in DC, but traffic fatalities and pedestrian deaths are on the decline, though there is still work to be done. (d.ish)

Comment

Struck in DC this week: 6 pedestrians, 4 cyclists (Sep 14, 2010)
14th and U construction site tests temporary sidewalk policy (Apr 17, 2012)
Don't start dancing yet, Georgetown: Barnes Dance not always the answer (May 12, 2010)
Struck in DC this week: 5 pedestrians, 1 cyclist (Oct 3, 2010)
How to improve pedestrian safety on Connecticut Avenue? (Oct 3, 2008)

And...

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 08:37:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Americans are walking more but there's still much room for improvement. (Streetsblog) ... A lawsuit against the Alexandria Waterfront plan had been dismissed by the Circuit Court. (Patch) ... Is it better to rent or buy? (NYT)

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More or less money?

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 08:37:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Some unspent transportation earmark money has been freed up for states to use. While this means more money could be going to bike and pedestrian projects, some of that money was previously committed to such projects. (WashCycle)

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