Uploaded to flickr by dullhunk
DDOT kicked the new year off with a January 2nd meeting of key stakeholders and community leaders discussing the conceptual design development of C Street, NE. The purpose of the meeting was to gather stakeholders, such as Council Member Wells, ANC Commissioners and representatives from local neighborhood associations, to present early-stage conceptual options and elicit feedback in advance of a public meeting on the subject, to be held January 12th, 7pm at Eliot-Hine Junior High (1830 Constitution Ave, NE).
This street, classified as a minor arterial, has been the subject of discussion for several years, with residents expressing concern about, among other things, traffic speed, unsafe pedestrian crossings and generally bad driving behavior, mostly by Maryland commuters. The street has been the subject of much research of late and even has its own blog. During the course of the meeting, Toole Design Group, the consultant engaged for the project by DDOT, presented findings from their study of current conditions on C Street, NE from the East Capitol Street bridge to, roughly, 14th street (focusing especially on the area from 21st to 17th Streets) as well as North Carolina where it splits from C Street at 17th. Bill Schultheiss, the project manager from Toole, showed that in a 24-hour period, of 14,500 cars crossing the East Capitol Street bridge from Maryland into the District, 12,000 of them initially choose C Street as their route into the city. The speed limit on the street is 25 MPH, but Schultheiss showed that cars coming from the 55 MPH zone in Maryland are not slowing down enough (as also evidenced by the almost 20,000 speeding citations given by the 19th Street mobile speed camera in the last two years). Westbound from 19th Street to North Carolina the average speed is 33 MPH and beyond that it is 29 MPH. Eastbound traffic averages in the mid- to high 30’s.
In addition to sharing findings, Schultheiss presented a range of possibilities for addressing problems, with a particular focus on sustainable design goals. Participants in the meeting were then broken into groups, given scale maps of the focal area and encouraged to mark up the maps with ideas and preferences for addressing primary concerns. The maps and other feedback will be used to sharpen the project’s focus with the ultimate outcome being three alternatives for full scenario development.
Jamie Henson, DDOT Transportation Planner and C Street, NE Project Manager, was pleased with the outcome. “I think we had a successful meeting today. We had three ANC Commissioners, representatives from the Capitol Hill Restoration Society, the Rosedale Citizens Alliance, North Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association and Council Member Wells. It was very constructive and set the groundwork for positive dialogue with the community, all the way up to the Council.” Which will ultimately be important for making the project a reality because, according to Wells, though the Council will not likely have a role in approving particular design plans, they will have to approve funding. Community support, he said, would be influential in that process.
Ken Granata, a community activist and founder of the C Street, NE Project blog, was equally happy with the meeting. Having worked for five years to help bring C Street to the attention of city leaders and planners, he is finally seeing concrete steps towards realizing his goals. “Every time I talk to Jamie [Henson] and Bill [Schultheiss] I’m always floored by the discussion, the time line and the progressiveness of the scope.”