They’re four for four now.
The four advisory neighborhood commissions in the Connecticut Avenue reversible lane study area have passed resolutions in support of a concept that removes the rush-hour lanes and adds bike lanes north of Calvert Street NW.
The Chevy Chase ANC held the fourth and final vote. On Monday, April 26th, five ANC 3/4G commissioners voted for their resolution, one voted against, and one abstained.
Earlier this month in Cleveland Park, ANC 3C commissioners voted 7-1-1 for their own resolution supporting Concept C. Commissioners on ANC 3E, which represents Tenleytown, and ANC 3F in Van Ness/Forest Hills voted unanimously to approve theirs.
ANC 3/4G Commissioner Lisa Gore noted that communities have a lot of time to work with DDOT on the design, which is also to include left-turn lanes and 24-hour parking on one side of the commercial areas.
A Connecticut Avenue street layout, as laid out in DDOT’s March 30 and April 1 presentation.
“If we take this vote tonight, it’s not the end, just the beginning,” Gore said. “We’re letting DDOT know where our priorities lie.”
ANC 3F first presented its draft resolution at its March meeting and asked the community for feedback. At its April 20th meeting, commissioner Stan Wall said the ANC received a significant amount of feedback both for and against bike lanes, and that the resolution sought to balance the varying views. The draft resolution was revised, in part, to address residents’ concerns that removing the reversible lanes and adding bike lanes would divert more traffic to adjacent streets. DDOT projects an additional 100 vehicles per peak hour on Broad Branch Road, and 50 on Reno Road, for example.
“[DDOT] presented that diversion as fairly insignificant in their view of their study, but we heard from you all and we recognize very clearly that that is a significant diversion,” Wall said at the April 20th meeting. “We understand that it will have impacts to you, to our neighborhoods, to us.
Wall mentioned the cut-through drivers already speeding on some neighborhood streets. The final version of the resolution urges DDOT, Mayor Muriel Bowser and Council member Mary Cheh to immediately fund and and implement traffic safety and calming measures on Connecticut Avenue and adjacent streets.
“We’re not wanting to wait until the implementation of these new changes of the corridor… because we do have some of these issues today,” Wall said.
DDOT estimates that Concept C would cost $4.6 million, and Concept B, which does away with reversible rush-hour lanes and does not include bike lanes, would cost $1.9 million. After the public comment period ends on May 1st, DDOT staff will spend six weeks collecting the comments and preparing their recommendation, which they are to present to DDOT management by June 30th.
If a concept is selected, DDOT will proceed with developing a 10 percent design, then compile the environmental documentation. The next public meeting, DDOT says, is planned for this fall.
Tony Domenico says
This is the worst possible outcome. It will lead to increase pollution, more frustration, and a general mess. All of this for a small number of bicycleist. Less than 4% of the population.
Roberta Carroll says
Totally agree. This is making a huge mess out of Conn. Ave. for so few bikers compared to the drivers who use Conn. Ave. There is no other road to push the traffic to and taking away space for so few is ridiculous. It is not worth pursuing. The ANC’s have not gotten full public opinion during this covid period. No mention of this plan has been in the Washington Post many people are unaware of the plan. It does not serve the community
Ed. note: Here’s the Washington Post article on the Connecticut Avenue safety study.
Paul says
My ANC (3F) does not represent me. This misguided and ill-conceived change will become a case of “be careful what you ask for”. Simple, obvious errors in judgment. For one, reducing capacity on Connecticut Avenue by 50% at rush hour times will severely impact neighborhoods abutting Connecticut Avenue. DDOT did not study the impact. Said it didn’t need to. Assumed the traffic will automatically flow a mile to the west onto Wisconsin or Massachusetts. The ANCs ignored citizens who pointed out the flaw.
Second, the ANCs supported DDOT’s fantasy that one can cram multiple service into the curbside lanes: protected bicycle lanes, turn lanes, bus drop off and pickup, commercial deliveries, and (they say) some limited amount of parking. The problem was punted to “we’ll handle that in the design phase”.
Diana Hart says
Remember Wisconsin Ave thru Glover Park a few years ago. Colossal DDOT fail
Green Eyeshades says
Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh tweeted her support of Build Concept C and protected bike lanes last Friday!
https://mobile.twitter.com/marycheh/status/1395704231060025344
Our Councilmember tweeted thanks to @foresthillsnews for covering development of Build Concept C.
She also wrote this:
“Concept C does more than install protected bike lanes along the corridor–it also re-engineers the road to eliminate the dangerous reversible lane configuration among other changes.
“For a brief summary of the project and my letter of support, please see: http://marycheh.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-04-27-Edward-Stollof-re-CT-Ave-Conept-C.pdf”
https://mobile.twitter.com/marycheh/status/1395706335598088194
Green Eyeshades says
It has now been one month since Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh sent this letter to the project manager of DDOT, who is now acting director of DDOT:
http://marycheh.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-04-27-Edward-Stollof-re-CT-Ave-Conept-C.pdf
Our Councilmember wrote several paragraphs that we should keep in mind as DC Council responds to the Mayor’s budget proposal that came out yesterday:
“As you know, in 2014,Mayor Bowser released her Vision Zero Action plan for the District. The plan sets the goal of eliminating traffic fatalities in the District by 2024. To accomplish this, we must take bold steps to create safe spaces for allroad users to travel. At present, Connecticut Avenue is not a safe place for cars, pedestrians, or cyclists. From 2015 to 2019, Connecticut Avenue had 1,507 vehicle crashes, an average of nearly one per day. It is important, as we attempt to realize Vision Zero, that we ensure each user has a protected space: cars in safely-designed driving lanes, cyclists in protected bike lanes, and pedestrians on the sidewalk. Concept C gets us closest to that by eliminating the reversible lanes that are currently in use, increasing driver safety, and creating a protected bike lane, increasing safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
“Moreover, there is broad community support for Concept C. Resolutions supporting that design have now been adopted byANCs 3C, 3E, 3F, and 3/4G. Indeed, 24 of the 27 Commissioners from the affected Ward 3 ANCs voted for Concept C. It is not often that the community speaks with such a unified voice, and I would like to add mine to that chorus.”
[snip]
“I have long supported a protected bike lane on Connecticut Avenue, especially as we seek to build the infrastructure necessary to support the District that we want to see. It is critical that we build out a bicycle network in Ward 3 to ensure that residents and visitors alike can safely travel by means other than vehicles. As such, I am excited to express my support for Concept C and to hopefully see Connecticut Avenue finally become a safe route for all road users. I also hope the executive includes the continuation of the design in the budget the Mayor will transmit to the Council on May 27th.”