14th Street NW Corridor Gets Another Look

Typical 14th activity
Image: Google

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will hold a meeting to discuss how to make “lower, middle 14th Street NW” more attractive and accommodating to all users.

The meeting will be held Thursday, February 22, 2018 between 6:30pm to 8:30pm in the Community Room of the National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW.

According to DDOT, the project supports moveDC plan and the Mayor’s Vision Zero Initiative to help create a safer, more livable, sustainable and attractive corridor. The objective of the project is to increase multimodal safety and accessibility, improve mobility and pedestrian safety with ADA compliance, and improve the corridor with the new streetscape.

As 14th Street is a major travel corridor, the mile long 14th Street NW Streetscape Project hopefully addresses concerns that bicyclists have noted for years. On social media, bicyclists complain that they are at risk as vehicles force them from the bike lane to the roadway or they are doored by unsuspecting vehicle occupants. Vehicles routinely double park in the roadway or bike lane and use the bike lane as a location to discharge passengers. There are also conflict with buses as they transition from the roadway to bus stops, making moving past them on bikes risky.

Typical improvements in the 2010 version of 14th Street project
Image: DDOT

The current iteration of this project was listed in the draft D.C. Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) in 2015 but a plan for this area was underway by DDOT as early as 2007. The 2010 14th Street Transportation and Streetscape Improvements plan, created before Vision Zero and other planning initiatives, focused on adding multimodal features to the corridor to include street resurfacing, bulb outs to add sidewalk space, additional bike parking at transit stops, decorative pavement, and other amenities to help improve pedestrian safety.

Since then, DDOT implemented certain elements of that project at key intersections and presumably, the current project will reexamine certain traffic elements, including making improvements to the bicycle infrastructure. As of the 2015 STIP, the total amount obligated to this project totals $10.6 million.

Specifically, the project scope of work will include, but will not be limited to the following:

Preparation of plans, estimates, and specifications for roadway resurfacing;
Resetting or reconstructing curbs;
Reconstructing wheelchair ramps and sidewalks;
Upgrading streetlights; traffic signal and drainage system;
Removal of dead trees and planting of new trees;
Improving pavement marking and signage;
and other work deemed appropriate.

This section of 14th Street also contains one of the District’s high crash intersections at 14th and U Street NW. DDOT issued a report in 2017 that suggested providing additional enforcement to reduce double parking, green paint through the intersection, and a redesign of the bus bulbouts as they create bus/bike conflicts – all of which may be included in this project.

Webinar on Safety Evaluation of Bicycling and Walking Improvements

Learn how to speak Transportation Professionalese
Image: Author

The District has installed biking and walking infrastructure throughout the city with the hopes of reducing injuries and fatalities and making moving about safer for the most vulerable road users.

However, what are the steps or standards that transporation professionals use to analyze data collected from improvements? How do they use this information to evaluate if an improvement should be expanded or or removed? How can someone who isn’t a transportation professional understand what it all means?

Hoping to shead light on these questions, the Pedestrian and Bicycling Information Center (PBIC) will hold a webinar: Determining the Safety Impacts of Bicycling and Walking Investments, Monday, December 11, 2017 between 1:00-2:30pm.

According to the PBIC, the webinar will discuss the complexities of analyzing data to deterime if pedestrians and bicyclists infrastructure safety improvements, or countermeasures, are actually achieved. While transportation professionals typically look to a toolbox of countermeasures that are proven to reduce crashes, the determination of the safety effectiveness of improvements is a complex process.

Presentations will be led by Daniel Carter and Raghavan Srinivasan, Senior Research Associates at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Highway Safety Research Center. During the webinar, the researchers will discuss the value of crash modification factors, which quantify a countermeasure’s ability to reduce crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians. Panelists will explore methods for conducting high-quality safety evaluations and provide tips for determining the effects of safety improvements. Following their presentations, panelists will respond to questions from attendees.

The webinar is free but participants must register.

WABA to Hold a Charrette to Discuss How to Diversify Bicycling

Bicycling is already diverse, how can it be improved?
Image: Author

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) sent an email to certain members and organizations asking:

“What would it take to make bicycling more diverse? More inclusive? More equitable?”

Sunday, December 10, 2017, WABA is hoping to bring together regional bicycling groups at the Bellevue (William O. Lockridge) Neighborhood Library, 115 Atlantic Street SW from 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm to conduct a charrette, which is an intensive planning session that brings citizens, designers and others together to collaborate on a vision for development. It also provides a space for participants to discuss possibilities, problems and think, creatively about moving people or people moving.

The event is free but participants should register online.

The charrette project partners include advisers Charles Brown of Equitable Cities and Mike Lydon of Open Streets Project and is supported by a grant from the Office of Planning and the Kresge Foundation.

From the WABA email:

Bicycling locally and nationally is overly represented by individuals who are white, male, educated, and with above average incomes. How can we as a community start to change that? How can local bicycling groups, clubs and organizations collaborate to make bicycling more inclusive? How can the city support this goal?

The charette hopes to help foster new ideas regarding the generation and refinement of future programs, events, or initiatives that would help increase diversity in bicycling. The meeting will also provide an opportunity for groups, club, and organization to discuss what they are doing to make bicycling more inclusive as well as discuss their experiences and perspective with people who are typically undeserved.

WABA is inviting several groups to discuss how to meet people of color where they are with regard to bicycling and give them the tools to make their own decisions on how to bike and what bicycling looks like in areas traditionally undeserved. According to the email, the following groups were invited:

Color of Cycling
Slow Roll DC
Kidical Mass DC
Black Women Bike DC
Gearin’ Up Bicycles
Artemis
WABA’s Women and Bicycles
Capital Bikeshare
All Walks DC
Getting it in Cycling
Oxon Hill Bike and Trail Club
Anacostia Bicyclist Association
Safe Routes to School National Partnership
Tour de Bike Lane
dVELO

Cycling Without Age
Peace in the Streets Ride
Streetwize Foundation
Jews on Bikes
Red, Bike, Green
Phoenix Bikes
E. L. Haynes PCS
Latin American Youth Center
DC Bike Polo
DC Bilingual PCS
Office of Planning
Department of Parks and Recreation

If there is a group that could potentially contribute, email Greg Billing at greg@waba.org with additional names and groups.

Light snacks and drink provided. All participants will receive a thank you gift of goodies for your participation.

ANCs in Ward 6 Want to Make K Street NE Safer for Bicyclists and Pedestrians

K Street Makes Moves. Image: Author

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) discussed the K Street NE Traffic Study at the 6C Advisory Neighborhood Commission’s (ANC) September meeting. One alternative would add bicycle lanes along K Street NE, potentially creating what would be one of the few direct, crosstown bicycle routes in the city. As expected, there were concerns about the loss of vehicle parking for all 4 presented alternatives, however; DDOT will continue its study.

As reported by Elizabeth O’Gorek of the HillRag, Washcycle, and WABA, ANC 6C contacted DDOT requesting that it initiate a study to determine how to create safer streets for pedestrians and bicyclists. The corridor, from approximately North Capitol Street to Florida Avenue NE, is prone to speeding and other forms of aggressive driving.

In May of this year, ANC 6C and 6A jointly requested that DDOT examine bicycling along K Street. DDOT presented preliminary findings in August as part of its K Street Corridor Safety Assessment to analyze safety concerns. The assessment included the evaluation of vehicular crash history and existing traffic operations along the corridor. The assessment also discussed the potential impact of the NoMa Bicycle Network study currently underway. That study will review existing transportation plans to determine how they relate to the current and planned bicycle network, overall travel demand, and safety road user safety.

Community Response

According to HillRag, the committee noted it had received considerable feedback, particularly from residents of K Street and especially regarding to the parking aspects of proposals. The committee’s representative said they were sensitive to parking concerns but, as the overall purpose of the study was to enhance safety, felt bike lanes were the most important addition to K Street, the only corridor proceeding both east and west for that distance.

The committee chair noted that cyclists will continue to use K Street regardless or what actions are eventually taken, it was thought. The representative emphasized that this was only a preliminary study and would also affect ANC 6A.Community members voiced opposition to the four proposed plans, especially option four. Concerns about the elimination of parking safety and the necessity for bike lanes were expressed, especially by residents of the 600 block of K Street NE.

Presented Alternatives

The HillRag states that while the study is ongoing, DDOT presented four traffic-calming measures, each instituting a road diet: removing rush-hour no parking restrictions and making parking full-time for residents, among other actions.

Study Corridor. Image: DDOT

Alternatives 1 through 3 are generally car-specific options that provide increasingly longer vehicle turning queues. They include a reduction in the total number of travel lanes from 2 peak lanes in each direction to one in each direction at all times, adding left-turn lanes along the corridor. These alternative reduce current off-peak parking from a total of 216 to 171 full‐time on‐street parking spaces in alternative 1, a total of 155 full-time spaces in alternative 2, and 144 full time spaces in alternative 3. The alternatives also adds protective bulb outs also called curb extensions to reduce the crossing distances for pedestrians and an school drop‐off zone at the 600 block of K Street.

Road Diet Alternative #4 – Bike Lanes. Image: DDOT

Alternative 4, recommended by the study and moveDC, adds east and west bicycle lanes along the corridor. This option eliminates on‐street parking on south side of street and retains the fewest number of parking, 110 full-time spaces. This option maintains school parking and a drop‐off zone on north side of the street, curb extensions or on north side of roadway as seen in the other alternatives, but appears to eliminate turning queues that appear in alternatives 1 through 3.

Typical cross section of K Street NE. Image: DDOT

Other Alternatives

NoMa Bike Study looks at the feasibility of bike route through the area. Image: DDOT

While the K Street option is attractive, other bike-related studies being evaluated. Related to the K Street safety review, the NoMa Bicycle Network Study currently underway is examining existing and planned bike facilities through and to this area. The study is also examining the feasibility of creating new or extending current bike routes from east-to-west along M, N, L, and K Streets. Just as K Street is in the MoveDC plan with bike lanes, the plan also anticipates the extension of the L Street protected bike lanes from their current terminus at Massachusetts Avenue NW to 1st Street NE. While currently not a fully-realized bike route under consideration, L Street NE is used by bicyclists as an alternative to K Street as it generally sees fewer cars moving at high speeds.

In the East West Corridor Feasibility and Barriers to Cycling image above, DDOT identifies impediments to connecting NoMa to its eastern neighbors. DDOT seems to suggest that an L street bike lane from east to west might be marginally more feasible. South of K Street, I (eye) street has shared lanes or contraflow bike lanes. Containing less vehicle traffic and fewer stop lights it provides an alternative to the busier K Street but ends at 2nd Street NE.

VRE Storage Plans Along New York Avenue Corridor Provide Space for Bikes and Pedestrians

Project Location
Image: VRE

Virginia Railway Express (VRE) held a meeting Tuesday, June 27 to discuss preliminary plans for its Midday Storage Facility project. The VRE plans displayed at this meeting now include space for District Department of Transportation’s (DDOT) proposal, which potentially allows for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure along the emerging New York Avenue corridor.

The meeting provided a project update and allowed the public to comment on the proposed plan, which is at 30 percent of design. It also was an opportunity to view new sample renderings of “urban design options”. Now in the preliminary design phase of the project, the planners use the information gathered at this meeting to work with DDOT, Amtrak, other stake holders and the community to complete an environmental analysis, develop a cost estimate, and adopt a prefered alternative.

Specifically, the project includes planning, designing, and constructing a permanent midday storage facility for VRE trains that travel to the District. The proposed facility will be used to store commuter trains on weekdays between the inbound morning commute and the outbound afternoon commute. The project would replace the current storage space leased from Amtrak at its Ivy City Yard, allowing for longer trains and eventually, an increase in service.

Last year, the initial proposal was unclear with regard to how it would impact plans proposed by DDOT, which had proposed a bike and pedestrian trail adjacent to the yard. VRE plan appeared to use of the entire Amtrak-right-of-way for train storage, leaving little room for pedestrian and bike improvements.

A DDOT alternative for the rehabilitation of New York Avenue, from an urban freeway to a city street. Plans call for creating a bike and pedestrian amenities along this section of the street with alternatives on the “southern” side that runs along the new Hecht Company Warehouse development and the “northern” side, which is adjacent to the proposed VRE yard. A trail on the northern side would allow for a continuous bike route from the West Virginia Avenue circle to 4th Street NE, where DDOT’s early plans proposed connecting the trail with an abandoned 1500-foot tunnel that empties near Union Market.

While VRE still plans to use the Union Market tunnel to connect to the yard, VRE clarified its preliminary design regarding the relationship between the yard and New York Avenue by apparently reducing the required space. The image below shows what would likely be a wall or fence separating the yard from the street in areas where the yard is at ground level to the street, generally between Fairview Avenue NE (just east of 9th Street) and the Quality Inn hotel (near 16th Street NE).

The area available for a multi-use trail is listed nominally at 30 feet wide from the curb to Amtrak’s property. This could be reduced as it approaches the 9th Street Bridge. Below are artistic renderings of how the yard wall could appear along New York Avenue.

Image: VRE

VRE also provided examples of buffering along the New York Avenue corridor, which could include vegetation fencing, artwork or other decorative barrier. A wall was suggested as both a safety measure to reduce the potential for vandalism or attempts trespass, and a way to reduce sound and pollution from rail operations.

Image: VRE

For the area west of the Ninth Street Bridge, the grade of New York Avenue begins to gradually increase. In this section, the wall is eliminated.

While the total costs of this proposal was not specified, the VRE System Plan 2040 allocates $3 million (in 2013 dollars) for near term improvements (those made between 2014 to 2020), and do not include land acquisition costs. These costs do not include improvements to be made by DDOT as it relates to its project. Long-term improvements (made between 2031-2040) could total over $40 million and include a deck to allow for the construction of buildings over the area west of 9th street.