Opinion: DDOT can make its safety projects more impactful by keeping ANCs’ “great weight” in mind

by Marlene Berlin

DDOT is making traffic and pedestrian safety improvements in the Forest Hills neighborhood under two of its programs and a green infrastructure project. The agency would maximize efficiency and impact by coordinating with the local ANC as well.

ANC 3F, through its Streets and Sidewalks Committee as well as its commissioners, has block-by-block and big-picture views of all the various pain points. It can help DDOT prioritize projects such as filling in missing pieces of the sidewalk network, installing crosswalks, and slowing traffic through speed humps and other infrastructure.

DDOT, like other DC agencies, is also required to give “great weight” to ANC input. In practice, the record is mixed.
 
Filling in the (sidewalk) gaps

DDOT’s Sidewalk Gap Program is a multiyear effort to build 233 miles of sidewalks where pedestrian infrastructure is currently missing, either on one side of the street or on both sides. The agency plans to fill 8.4 miles of sidewalk gaps this year.

One of the gaps on the 2024 to-do list is a .42-mile segment of Albemarle Street between 29th and 32nd Streets. There’s already a sidewalk on the north side of Albemarle, but in DDOT’s scoring system, the south side ranks as a high priority, in part because Albemarle is classified as a relatively high-traffic collector street, and it connects pedestrians to the bus and Metro.

This stretch of Albemarle would not have been ANC 3F’s first choice. As recently as 2022, the commission unanimously passed a resolution urging DDOT to make several improvements listed in this memorandum, including the construction of a sidewalk on either side of 32nd Street between Ellicott and Fessenden Streets, and along segments of Fessenden between Linnean Avenue and 34th Street.

These are walking routes to Murch Elementary and Forest Hills Playground, and residents including now-Commissioner Courtney Carlson were separately petitioning DDOT for similar improvements.

At one time, DDOT’s prioritization scoring system gave the highest number of points to streets without sidewalks on either side. This somehow has gotten lost in the agency’s current system, even though the law is clear that such sidewalks gaps have priority, as mentioned in the 2022 ANC 3F memorandum. 

DDOT’s scorecard does take into consideration the “functional classification” of roadways, such as arterials (like Connecticut Avenue), collectors (which collect car traffic from local roads and lead them to arterials), and less busy local streets. Also considered is transportation need (equity), and the proximity of transit, schools, recreation areas. Here is how the segments of Albemarle and Fessenden Streets compare in DDOT scoring: 

The other DDOT safety infrastructure programs

Albemarle got two new speed humps and a raised crosswalk in 2023 thanks, in part, to the District’s Traffic Safety Input (TSI) system. A community member had put in a 311 request specifying car speed as an issue.

(Anyone can put in a TSI request. Simply call 311 or click here. You will be given a service request number, which you can use to check on progress.)

The raised crosswalk was not part of DDOT’s original response plan. It had informed ANC 3F in May 2023 that one speed hump would be installed on the 3100 block of Albemarle. Not addressed was a years-old ANC request for a marked crosswalk at a popular pedestrian crossing at 32nd and Albemarle.

This time, during DDOT’s ten-day public comment period, ANC requested a raised crosswalk here. And this time, its request was heard.
  
Another DDOT program that would benefit from closer coordination with ANCs is the Broad Branch and Spring Valley Stormwater Retrofit Project. Its primary purpose is the use of green infrastructure to reduce stormwater runoff and prevent or reduce pollution and flooding. 

A side benefit of some of these stormwater control features is roadway narrowing via planters and curb extensions that also give pedestrians shorter crossings. The design for this green infrastructure project is expected to be completed soon. 
 
ANC 3F has provided input to DDOT that – through all three of the agency’s programs – could reduce traffic speeds and make Fessenden Street at Broad Branch Terrace safer for pedestrians. Under the stormwater retrofit project, curb extension bioretention could narrow the roadway and make it safer to cross the street. Through the TSI request system, a raised crosswalk could be installed. And through the Sidewalk Gap Program, sidewalks could be built on either side.  

When DDOT takes the ANC’s “great weight” into account

ANC 3F’s advocacy for safer pedestrian access to neighborhood streets and destinations has not been for nothing. After taking the commission’s input into consideration, DDOT is adding the Fessenden and the Ellicott-to-Fessenden 32nd Street sidewalk gaps to its 2024 work plan. (The Albemarle sidewalk work stays.) And, the agency will use the stormwater retrofit project to narrow the crossing at the intersection of Fessenden and Broad Branch Terrace.