On May 22nd, DDOT notified ANC 3F that the 3100 block of Albemarle Street would be getting a speed table. The ANC was given ten business days to respond, and 3F02 commissioner Teri Huet did so.
“The current design of the intersection of 32nd and Albemarle leads to excess vehicle speeds and danger to pedestrians,” Huet wrote to DDOT. “Pedestrians, including significant schoolchild and elderly populations, cross here despite no traffic calming or crosswalk infrastructure. Motorists drive fast here both because the intersection is at the bottom of a hill on all approaches, but also because of proximity to the signaled intersection with Connecticut Avenue.”
The Albemarle Street speed table was requested by an unknown community member in 2021, under the first version of a DDOT program called Transportation Safety Input (TSI). Under TSI 1.0, requests could be submitted by anyone, and were evaluated by traffic engineers on a first-come, first-served basis. Christian Piñeiro, DDOT’s Ward 3 community engagement specialist, told us the speed table moved forward after an analysis by an engineer.
Prior to the TSI system, any community member could raise the issue of safety and speed at that location, but it would have started not with a request submitted to DDOT, but with discussions with neighbors and the ANC. In 2018, three young siblings sought support for speed humps on Upton Street by getting the neighbors to sign their petition and presenting it to ANC 3F, which passed a resolution and sent the request to DDOT. Two other neighbors got DDOT to install three-way stop signs at 30th and Albemarle after a similar petition process in 2019. Though much lengthier in time and effort, the process allowed the broader community to weigh in, not just those closely impacted by the change.
Under the petitions system, there might have been community conversation about the placement of the Albemarle Street speed table. For at least a decade, community leaders and DDOT have been discussing traffic speed and pedestrian safety at the nearby intersection of 32nd and Albemarle Streets. There are no marked crosswalks at this T intersection, but pedestrians can and do legally cross here. (Here is the law on the subject.) A speed table here could also serve as a raised crosswalk.
In late 2022, DDOT announced the current version of its Transportation Safety Input system, TSI 2.0. As in TSI 1.0, anyone can submit a request (via 311 or 311.dc.gov), but gone is the first-come, first-served analysis. Each ward gets ten installations per quarter, with another 120 requests prioritized by the following criteria:
- The location’s crash patterns;
- Proximity to a Vision Zero High Injury Network corridor;
- Equity, as determined by factors including race, disability and income in the adjacent Census block;
- Proximity to schools, transit stations, senior centers, parks that attract “vulnerable road users;”
- and roadway characteristics. Does the intersection have a signal or not? Stop signs? How many travel lanes?
According to Piñeiro, the following safety improvements can be requested through the TSI system:
- Speed humps/speed tables or other vertical traffic calming measures;
- Curb extensions or other traffic calming/speed reducing measures;
- New stop signs, new crosswalks, new traffic signals, new HAWK lights, or any new physical infrastructure that impacts traffic flow or changes the integrity of roadway;
- Speed cameras, red light cameras, or stop sign cameras;
- Driver Feedback Signs (the LED signs that tell you your speed), Rapid Flashing Pedestrian Beacons (the flashing pedestrian warning signs), new flexposts (not previously installed), or new centerline pylons (not previously installed).
(Repairs or maintenance to the above infrastructure can be requested using 311, but are not part of the TSI system.)
TSI requests submitted since 2.0’s January 2023 launch can be viewed here, on the TSI dashboard.
By clicking on each of the gray tabs, you can find which projects are prioritized for the quarter, which improvements are pending or have been completed, and which requests are up for consideration. The Albemarle Street speed table is not on the dashboard, Piñeiro said, because the project was initiated prior to TSI 2.0. But a three-way stop sign at Fessenden Street and Linnean Avenue appears under the “Pending Installations” tab, as do pedestrian crossing warning signs to be installed at 4303 Reno Road.
All requests, before they are put through DDOT’s prioritization model, show up under the “TSIs for Future Consideration” tab. DDOT’s own FAQ says advisory neighborhood commissions can send a letter or email to the agency’s Community Engagement Team with comments about each request, which will be given “great weight” under its selection process. However, DDOT does not notify ANCs when TSIs come in; commissioners would have to check periodically for new additions.
DDOT does reach out to ANCs when it decides to recommend proceeding with a project. Under DDOT’s own TSI 2.0 guidance, “if the proposed recommendations change existing traffic control and/or on-street parking, a Notice of Intent (NOI) will be issued by DDOT, which includes a 30 business-day public comment period.”
However, as we noted above, Commissioner Huet was given only ten business days to comment on the Albemarle speed table, which will impact traffic control.
ANC 3F03 Commissioner Mitchell Baer said it’s not clear whether DDOT is looking at the “big picture.”
“We are losing something,” Baer told Forest Hills Connection, if the impact on the immediate area and the broader neighborhood are not taken into consideration.
“We need a comprehensive, well-thought-out, community-wide plan for the neighborhood with comments from residents,” Baer said.
ANCs also need more assistance with the TSI process, said Baer.
“DDOT should hold a special public virtual meeting to explain its TSI process; how the public can access and use it to request services, how to track existing requests and how DDOT prioritizes its implementation of public requests. And the DDOT community representative should present a monthly report of TSI requests at our ANC meetings.”
andrew orlin says
What is a speed table?
David Jonas Bardin says
Please add EXPLANATION of terms (e.g., “speed table”) to this article.
David Jonas Bardin says
Dear FHC,
PLEASE consider
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+a+speed+table&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
Charlie says
We don’t need a speed table. That would be overkill. A simpler and less expensive solution would be to put in stop signs and crosswalks.
Paul says
This is a helpful and thorough explanation. Thank you Marlene.
In our stretch of Linnean Avenue NW we have had problems with speeders for decades. My wife and I have pursued resolution of this with DDOT and MPD for 25 years. The various Council Mmbers and ANC representatives for our area, as well as DDOT and MPD, have acknowledged the issues, but did nothing. Until the ANC rep in 2021 actually stepped up to the issues on Linnean and other streets in her SMD, and convened a task force to work with DDOT. DDOT gave every appearance of being cooperative, but dragged its feet on responses for almost a year, before opening a raft of TSIs. Then the TSIs were never investigated, and finally in early 2023 Christian Pineiro informed us that all TSIs submitted prior to 1/1/2023 were cancelled and we we welcome to submit new TSIs for DDOT consideration.
So, we are back to the beginning. We’ve been sent back to the beginning over and over for 25 years, while the speeding continues and nothing happens to ameliorate it.
Good to see there’s a new process. Good luck with that.
Green Eyeshades says
Did ANC3F consider asking for three-way stop signs at 32nd & Albemarle like those in place at 30th & Albemarle?
If the 3100 block of Albemarle deserves one speed bump, it deserves two. Every kind of idiot goes screaming up the hill on 31st to the stop signs at 30th, including Secret Service Uniformed Division, MPD, FedEx, Peapod, assorted Uber and Lyft drivers, and the usual assortment of obnoxious Teslas, Mercedes and BMWs. Not to mention landscapers’ trucks.
Green Eyeshades says
Where I wrote “Every kind of idiot goes screaming up the hill on 31st,” I should have written “Every kind of idiot goes screaming up the hill going east on Albemarle to 30th ….”