Notes from Second DDOT Crosstown Multimodal Transportation Workshop
(Neighbors learning more about transportation options during the workshop.)
Last night DDOT hosted their second workshop related to their Crosstown Multimodal Transportation Study. Roughly 40+ neighbors attended the workshop to learn where DDOT is in the process and see some of the suggested changes that DDOT has developed in response to the feedback they gathered at the first workshop and from the 689 comments that were submitted via the online interactive map. 
The third Crosstown workshop is scheduled for June 9th and will be held at Trinity Washington University.
Some of the quick take aways from the information gathered so far were that the highest priority of those who participated were bike connectivity (20%) followed by pedestrian connectivity (presentation materials will be posted on the Crosstown Website).
The presentation boards were split up into three areas of focus — a Western Section (west of Park Place), a Central Section (Park Place to the eastern end of Iriving), and an Eastern Section. Admittedly, I didn’t focus too much time on the Eastern Section of the study area.
The most interesting areas in the Central section were ideas to remove/reconfigure the cloverleaf at the intersection of North Capital and Irving and potential changes to the connection of Irving and Michigan Avenue. Each of the sections also had three concepts for participants to review showing possible traffic configurations.
(Concept board 3 of the Central Section.)
Where I focused much of my time was looking at the potential changes to the area where Park Place meets Kenyon, Irving, and Michigan. This is the most complicated area in need of attention and likely the first piece of the puzzle that will need to be solved before other east/west changes could be implemented.
Below are the three concepts for the Western section along with details of the problem area west of the hospitals center at the south end of Park Place. In all three scenarios, it appears that the Michigan Avenue overpass would be removed which I think is a good improvement.
Concept 1
(Click on image for larger image which includes highlights of the suggested improvements.)
In the above detail the red “X’s” indicate roads that would be removed. Arrows indicate direction of traffic.
Concept 2
(Click on image for larger image which includes highlights of the suggested improvements.)
In the above detail the red “X’s” indicate roads that would be removed. Arrows indicate direction of traffic.
Concept 3
(Click on image for larger image which includes highlights of the suggested improvements.)
In the above detail the red “X’s” indicate roads that would be removed. Arrows indicate direction of traffic.
Explore posts in the same categories: DDOT, Streets and Trees, trafficTags: Brookland, Columbia Heights, DDOT, Park View, transportation
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Park View, D.C. 
April 21, 2016 at 10:35 am
I think removing the Michigan Ave flyover would be a very bad idea. This seems like change for the sake of change. I think there are better ways to spend our tax dollars.
April 21, 2016 at 11:29 am
Honestly, all of these options look like they would be huge improvements. The neighborhood would benefit a lot if the pokey, infrequent H buses became a high-frequency, high-capacity service from Brookland to Columbia Heights and points west. I for one would love to have an easier time getting to those other neighborhoods, and it’d help revive Georgia Avenue if folks from those neighborhoods had an easier time getting here.
Option 1 and Option 3 look somewhat better from where I sit; they do a better job of cleaning up the street grid and DDOT seems to think they’d be better for crosstown transit. Something will have to be done about the perpetual traffic clot on the 1400 block of Irving, however.
April 21, 2016 at 12:43 pm
At present Columbia Road via Adams Morgan is really the only efficient way to commute by bike to upper Dupont and Georgetown. Unfortunately only Option 1 seems to connect Park View to the already-existing bike lanes in Adams Morgan along Columbia Road. I hope DDOT looks closely at this and ensures that the east-west connection facilitates transportation across the entire city — not just within this one area.
April 21, 2016 at 7:59 pm
I was there, and looked at all the options carefully. Taken in whole, I thought option 3 was clearly the best. It was the most even handed option for reductions in street parking which I know can be a contentious issue. However I talked with head of the Study, and she said they are going to study various combinations of the elements in the 3 versions. Which I think is great, and the final recommendations could include even other elements not in any of the plans. I think combing the reconfiguration of the roads just west of the hospital in option one, and as well as the cloverleaf changes in option one, with the remaining elements in option 3 would be perfect.
IT should also be noted that its possible none of these recommendations will go forward or they will be taken in piecemeal. DDOT is just conducting a study, the city is not bound to do any of this. And the sad thing is I think most of this only works if you do all of it, which could be a hard pill to swallow for Government and some residents.
April 21, 2016 at 9:01 pm
Would the proposed “All Day” bus lanes be 24/7 things, or just during the day (7am-7pm ish)? If it was just 7am-7pm (especially if it was only during weekdays) that would seem to allay the parking worries while still addressing the times when the bus mobility is most problematic now.
April 25, 2016 at 7:03 am
[…] up on last week’s post on DDOT’s Crosstown Multimodal Study Workshop#2, the materials and presentation boards from […]