The initial Concept C maps drawn up for DDOT show the current conditions at the top, and proposed changes at the bottom. DDOT is seeking more on-the-ground community feedback on parking and loading needs on each block.
Over the next three weeks, DDOT will be seeking on-the-ground feedback on parking and loading needs on Connecticut Avenue north of Calvert Street – from the people who know it best.
On October 3, 11 and 17, DDOT is hosting block-by-block, in-person walkthroughs along the 2.7-mile stretch between Calvert and Legation. This is for the agency’s Connecticut Avenue Reversible Lanes and Multimodal Improvement Project. The project is centered around Concept C, which was chosen by Mayor Bowser and DDOT late last year, and is in the design phase.
Concept C includes protected bike lanes on each side of Connecticut Avenue, the potential elimination of street parking on non-commercial stretches, and 24-hour parking and loading zones on one side of the avenue in the Woodley Park, Cleveland Park, Van Ness and Forest Hills business districts. (Connecticut Avenue north of Legation, which includes the Chevy Chase business district, was not part of the project study.)
The October walkthroughs will focus solely on parking and loading. Community members, the agency says, will have other opportunities to discuss concerns about pedestrian, cyclist and driver conflicts that may arise with the addition of bike lanes. Those concerns include safety for pedestrians crossing bike lanes to reach bus stops, making Connecticut Avenue crossings safer, and safety for cyclists in areas with curb cuts for cars.
Here is the walkthrough schedule, including links to DDOT’s initial concept maps:
Monday, October 3rd
8 a.m. to 9 a.m. – Calvert Street to Woodley Road
9:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. – Woodley Road to Hawthorne Street
11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. – Hawthorne Street to Macomb Street
12:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. – Macomb Street to Porter Street
Tuesday, October 11th
8 a.m. to 10 a.m. – Porter Street to Tilden Street
10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. – Tilden Street to Veazey Terrace
Noon to 2 p.m. – Veazey Terrace to Albemarle Street
2:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. – Albemarle Street to Davenport Street
Monday, October 17th
8 a.m. to 10 a.m. – Davenport Street to Nebraska Avenue
10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. – Nebraska Avenue to Jocelyn Street
11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. – Jocelyn Street to Legation Street
DDOT is asking people to register to attend here so it can communicate with participants about any time changes, and get a head count for information handouts and safety plans. Those interested can sign up for a single session, or many.
During the June 28th and 29th meetings where it revealed the first block-by-block concept designs, DDOT announced that walkthroughs like these would be among their next steps. During these walks, DDOT wants to hear concerns as well as collect and share ideas about how to address them.
Also mentioned at the public meetings: an upcoming equity report on the project by the Mayor’s Office of Racial Equity. This report is to also include equity for seniors and the disabled, and as of late June was scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer. The mayor’s office tells Forest Hills Connection that its report will not be done until the end of December. Neither the Office of Racial Equity nor DDOT could provide any information on how the report’s later completion might impact the project.
Roberta Carroll says
We need all the current parking to use the businesses on Conn. Ave. If you take it away and only allow the delivery trucks people will stop using the businesses. This plan for the bike lanes is very bad for the neighborhood and the city. Over 30,000 cars use Conn. Ave. and you probably have 10 bikers you want to accommodate. Tell the Mayor the plan is bad before it goes any further.
Green Eyeshades says
The comment posted yesterday (Sept. 29) at 5:55 pm is full of false statements. On-street parking is not the single vital ingredient that enables retail commerce in our neighborhood. We have plenty of parking in our neighborhood. There is underground parking for hundreds of cars under the Giant grocery store. Customers can park there to shop at the Giant and at businesses near the Giant, such as CVS. The liquor store on the east side of the Avenue has its own parking lot. The retail businesses moving in across the street from the Giant (not yet identified in some cases) can probably arrange to allow customers to use the underground parking under the Fannie Mae building. UDC needs to do its part as a neighborhood business to allow retail customers to park in its underground lots. There is a parking lot on the roof above Gold’s gym. There is a parking lot behind the Zip’s laundry. There is even a small parking lot behind Bread Furst. Most residents who live within two or three blocks of retail use the sidewalks to get to the retail, and don’t need parking.
The comment about “10 bikers” is brazen disinformation. It’s the kind of blatant lie that the Republican candidate for Ward 3 DC Council is using to foment hatred and violence against bicycle riders. I already rebutted that lie in this comment on December 31st, 2021 (last year):
https://www.foresthillsconnection.com/news/goodbye-reversible-lanes-hello-bike-lanes-on-connecticut-avenue/#comment-698781
On April 29, 2021 (last year) this same commenter wrote “This is making a huge mess out of Conn. Ave. for so few bikers compared to the drivers who use Conn. Ave.” and claimed that the Washington Post had not revealed the plan for protected bike lanes so that the public would react against it.
https://www.foresthillsconnection.com/news/area-ancs-vote-to-support-connecticut-avenue-bike-lanes/#comment-687705
Connection editors promptly rebutted that falsehood with a link inside that comment to the Washington Post article published on April 9, 2021.
Robin says
Thanks for setting the facts straight, Green Eyeshades! I saw earlier today there was a post in Jerry Malitz’s Chevy Chase News & Notes for October (link https://us15.campaign-archive.com/?u=01425d0f6f8c25057c2026f9f&id=ad4c945f33) that covered this and looks like the original poster was simply pulling talking points. I’d encourage any resident to go read through both of the positions outlined in Jerry’s post and draw their own conclusions on where they stand.
Green Eyeshades says
But wait! There’s more!
There is even more underground parking than the areas I mentioned. The Park Van Ness apartment building, under which the Uptown Market has the ground floor retail, has underground parking which is available to patrons of the Uptown Market and Sfoglina’s Restaurant. For some customers at some times, the underground parking lot is free. Obviously, once a customer has parked in the underground lot to visit Sfoglina’s or Uptown Market, nothing prevents them from strolling another two blocks down to the Calvert Woodley wine store or the CVS next door to Calvert Woodley, or from strolling across the Avenue to the retail businesses on the west side of the Avenue (Zip’s laundry, Bread Furst, Flavor Garden restaurant, and the pop-up shops under UDC Law School).
David Jonas Bardin says
Statistics adding up parking spaces here, there, and everywhere don’t do justice to serious fears and concerns. Protected Bike Lanes (PBLs) as now proposed by DDOT may well protect bicyclists at too high a price for others,
Take in saveconnecticutave.org, listen to the blind Cleveland Park resident, and weigh other objections raised there. Ask DDOT whether / how it can address / mitigate them.
Think critically: Rooftop parking over Gold’s Gym seems irrelevant if PBLs hurt access to apartment buildings blocks north of that Gym for fire trucks, care givers, plumbers, etc.
Green Eyeshades says
Mr. Bardin picks out only one of the multiple sites I listed where off-street parking is available in our neighborhood. Since I do “think critically,” I interpret Mr. Bardin’s reference to a single site as conceding that all the other sites do have the off-street parking I listed.
Throwing “fire trucks” and “plumbers” into the argument is literally trying to distract us with a “red fire engine.” It makes me laugh to picture a fire truck being unable to stop all traffic at will on the Avenue whenever necessary.
It’s ridiculous to claim protected bike lanes would interfere with public safety vehicles which have — and always use aggressively — legal authority to stop traffic in any direction on any street, on the Avenue or on side streets, whenever necessary.
As for “plumbers” or “care givers,” who are these service providers that can’t obtain temporary parking permits from their customers to use on-street parking off the Avenue in the neighborhoods? What apartment buildings don’t have parking lots or driveways where “plumbers” and “care givers” can park?
David Jonas Bardi n says
I concede nothing to Green Eyeshades statistical modus operandi.
Let’s ask DDOT to be practical and specific.
For example: Earlier this year I had a nurse and a physical therapist assigned to visit me and others after a medical procedure. They were on tight schedules and had to drive. Side street parking had questionable if any value for their work.. Connecticut Ave parking meant real efficiency for them. Are curbside Protected Bike Lanes (PBLs) really essential?
As to fire engines: If they disregard any DDOT Protected Bike Lanes near the curb – as Green Eyeshades assures us they will – won’t they demolish. DDOT’s protective barriers? Let’s think this through before designing PBLs.
David Jonas Bardin says
We should also ask DDOT which Protected Bike Lanes (PBLs) already installed elsewhere in DC would best illustrate what DDOT has had in mind for Connecticut Ave.
I would like to see DDOT’s before and after maps for each street where DDOT actually installed PBLs.
Green Eyeshades says
Let’s see how much concern there is about local parking in our neighborhood when this Mary Cheh bill has its public hearing October 28:
“On Friday, October 28, 2022, Councilmember Mary M. Cheh, Chairperson of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, will hold a hearing on Bill 24-433, the Rightsizing Residential Permit Parking Regulation Amendment Act of 2021. The hearing will begin at 12:00 PM and be broadcast live on DC Council Channel 13 and streamed live at http://www.dccouncil.us, facebook.com/cmmarycheh, and entertainment.dc.gov.
“Bill 24-433 would resize the Residential Parking Permit (RPP) zones to align with Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) boundaries. Setting RPP zones at this scale would focus the RPP program on prioritizing parking near a resident’s home and in their neighborhood, with the aim of encouraging residents to utilize public transit and alternative methods of transportation for routine trips to commercial districts and other destinations within their ward.”
https://dccouncil.gov/event/transportation-the-environment-public-hearing-21/
David Jonas Bardin says
Green Eyeshades posts largely accurate information about a DC Council hearing scheduled for October 28 on Bill 24-433 – which he refers to as “this Mary Cheh bill”. In fact, two other Council Members introduced and/or co-sponsor that Bill. Council Member Cheh chairs Committee which will hold the hearing. (Afterwards Committee may report Bill out to full DC Council or not, and if yes it may do so with or without amendments.)
Seems unlikely that any concerns at Bill 24-433 hearing will help DDOT do a better job in re-designing Connecticut Ave.