Category Archives: Transportation

March 27, 2012 · 10:00 am

Group Wants K and Wisconsin Intersection Named in Honor of Waterfront Park Patron

The Friends of the Georgetown Waterfront Park are petitioning the District government to name the intersection of K and Wisconsin after the late Senator Charles Percy, of Illinois. While Senator, Percy took a keen interest in the state of the Georgetown waterfront. He ultimately chaired the Georgetown Waterfront Commission that was the primary force that lead to the reinvention of the formerly industrial strip as a wonderful public park. In a poignant series of events, Percy passed away after a long bout with Alzheimer’s just days after the final phase of the park was opened last September. Continue reading →

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March 9, 2012 · 10:00 am

Georgetowners Continue to Get to Work More and More Without Driving

Last year, GM took a look at the then new Census numbers which for the first time produced reams of datasets for communities as small as Georgetown. One of those data sets GM took a particular interest in was the dataset stating how Georgetowners get to work. Here’s what GM found last year about the daily transportation choices Georgetowners make:

  • Drive to work – 40%
    • 35% drive alone
    • 4% carpool
  • Transit – 22%
  • Bike – 3%
  • Walk – 25%
  • Other – 10% (mostly people who work at home)

This data came from the American Community Survey, which uses samples to arrive at their results. Unlike the Census itself, which is a snapshot every ten years, this data represents an average over five years. So last years numbers essentially were saying that on an average day between 2005 and 2009, this is how Georgetowners traveled.

Last December the new numbers were released. These are also averages over five years, but now it’s 2006 to 2010. So while it’s not a snapshop, comparing the numbers to the previous year shows which direction the numbers are going. So without further ado, here are the updated numbers: Continue reading →

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March 6, 2012 · 10:00 am

Fixing O & P Streets

Nice video from DDOT showing work that’s being done on O & P streets. The work is really coming along, and the completed blocks look great.

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February 21, 2012 · 10:00 am

Five Minutes at Just One Corner

GM parked himself at the corner of P St. and Wisconsin over the weekend for just five minutes. Here’s what he saw:

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January 27, 2012 · 10:00 am

This Is How Bad Transportation Decisions Are Made

At the last ANC meeting, the issue of the south exit of the Safeway was discussed. GM discussed this after the meeting, but he thinks it’s worthwhile to walk through the story of the changes to this intersection because it demonstrates how too often bad transportation decisions are made.

Prior to the construction of the new Safeway, and shortly after it opened, there were three different phases for the lights and crosswalks of this intersection:

During the first phase (which is 60 seconds), car traffic on Wisconsin Ave. had a green light and pedestrians were allowed to cross the curbcut at the Safeway exit. Cars leaving Safeway and pedestrians crossing Wisconsin were shown a red light.

During the second phase (which is 20 seconds now, but was much shorter before the changes), pedestrians were allowed to cross Wisconsin, but pedestrians were not allowed to cross the curbcut, nor were cars allowed to exit the Safeway, either north or southbound. Car traffic on Wisconsin was obviously also stopped. Continue reading →

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January 23, 2012 · 10:00 am

Georgetown Needs a Master Transportation Plan

Someday Georgetown is going to have its own Metro stop. GM might be old and retired by then, but it is going to happen. It will revolutionize how people get to and leave Georgetown, finally erasing a decades old short-sighted mistake by Metro planners.

But Georgetown can’t wait until then to better manage its transportation network. And the thing is, people aren’t waiting. Several different groups are working to bring transportation changes to Georgetown. The problem is that they’re not working together and there’s no overarching plan to organize the efforts.

For example, the BID and CAG are working with DDOT on how the streetcar will come to the neighborhood. A completely different working group is working towards bringing performance parking to Georgetown. Yet another group has long term plans to widen the sidewalks along Wisconsin Ave. and possibly M St.

One plan calls for the construction of an in-fill Metro stop between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom (the idea being that using a ventilation duct as the backbone of a new station would be much less expensive than a new Metro line). Others want to tear down the Whitehurst. Yet others want more bike lanes. Others still want transit-only lanes.  Continue reading →

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December 28, 2011 · 10:00 am

Georgetown Adds Fifth Bikeshare Station

As wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Solstice gift, Georgetown received its fifth Capital Bikeshare station, this one located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Ave. and M St.

This is a perfect location for a bikeshare station, and GM expects it to be used heavily. This use will likely increase even more once DDOT installs the M St. cycletrack. And as Lydia DePillis over at Citypaper dug up, a large chunk of Bikeshare use is attributable to tourists. So it’s likely that once tourism season ramps up next spring, lots of tourists will target this station as their destination. Which is great! GM just hopes that the Bikeshare workers are ready to manage the shifts in demand for the station. Continue reading →

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December 15, 2011 · 10:00 am

M St. Cycletrack Will Extend to Georgetown

Photo by Ajfroggie.

Last week, DDOT presented to the Bicycle Advisory Committee its map of bike lanes that it expects to construct in 2012. In the map released by the BAC, it showed the highly anticipated M St. bicycle track (it’s a two way, separated bike lane that looks like the lanes on 15th st., shown above). But the version released on Monday showed the lane not going west of New Hampshire Ave. in the West End.

GM followed up with DDOT to ask why the lane won’t make it all the way to Georgetown. Turns out the map was wrong; the bicycle track will extend right up to Pennsylvania Ave.

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December 14, 2011 · 10:00 am

How Georgetown Would’ve Looked if Metro Never Built

As reported by several outlets, WMATA just put out an interesting study that looked at what DC would look like if Metro were never built.  While the focus elsewhere has been on how devastated a neighborhood like Mt. Vernon Triangle would be in this alternate universe, Georgetown wouldn’t fare that well either.

The study estimated what the road network would have to look like in order to deliver the same number of workers downtown. Here are what roads would have to be expanded:

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December 5, 2011 · 10:00 am

NPS Supports Keeping Rose Park Path as Multipurpose

Photo by Csuspect.

As discussed a while back in connection with the possible placement of a Capital Bikeshare station in Rose Park, there has been a long simmering fight in Rose Park over the use of a path that travels from P st. down to M st.

The National Park Service has periodically floated plans to improve the path, widen it and maintain it as a multiuse path (i.e., able to be used by walkers and bikers). The Friends of Rose Park would also like to see the path improved, but doesn’t want it widened, and wants bike riding banned from the park.

NPS has consistently refused to assent to FORP’s requests, both in the plans for the physical design of the path and the allowed uses. But recently Rock Creek Park (which includes Rose Park) came under the control of a new superintendent. With that change, some hoped that NPS would reconsider its stance on the Rose Park path.

Last week, however, NPS issued an environmental impact statement for the long-planned improvements to the path (both in Rose Park and throughout Rock Creek Park). The report comes out in favor of widening the Rose Park path to six feet (it’s currently varies in width from five to six feet). The report rejects the request to simply repave the path at its current width: “Because the existing trail is too narrow, this option was dismissed. Trail users routinely leave the paved trail surface in order to walk side by side or pass other users.” Continue reading →

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