ANC Grills DDOT on Wisconsin Avenue Project
Neighbors worry about overflow traffic to 37th Street once Wisconsin Avenue has fewer lanes.
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The Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission demanded that the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) study traffic on 37th Street, north of Whitehaven Parkway. The traffic study would develop a baseline to determine the eventual impact of the streetscape project on traffic in the area just north of Georgetown.
The Glover Park Streetscape Project will widen sidewalks, create a center median and reduce the number of traffic lanes on Wisconsin Avenue. After painting the medians, DDOT will wait a year to see if they cause any unintended consequences before making them permanent.
DDOT's Paul Hoffman explained that his agency had taken studies — not necessarily at the requested location on 37th Street — but they were taken after April 2 when construction began.
"You messed up," said Commissioner Ron Lewis, who had tough words for Hoffman at the ANC meeting Monday.
Lewis quoted a December email sent to DDOT in which the Georgetown ANC requested the agency do a baseline traffic study prior to construction.
"I think your baseline is inflated and not reliable," Lewis said.
He asked DDOT to study traffic during a time when there is no construction to make sure that the numbers accurately reflect what the flow of traffic is like without construction and without the changes to Wisconsin Avenue.
The numbers could be used by the ANC in the future should DDOT decide to change the painted center media into a more permanent or concrete median in the future.
"It's what we asked for months ago and that's what we want now," Lewis said.
Marina
4:16 pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Georgetown ANC needs to demand that DDOT not close any lanes or put any median on Wisconsin Avenue. DDOT cannot be relied upon to conduct an accurate traffic study about traffic impact, as they have already shown to date. Studies of Best Practices in traffic management recommend very clearly that arterials like Wisc Ave with more than 20,000 vehicles per day MUST NOT reduce lanes because the traffic will be diverted to residential streets. So why do a dangerous experiment for one year? How many children must be hit before they forget about the median?
NY2GT
11:29 pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
I can't agree more. It simply defies common sense. If you travel Wisconsin everyday like I do, I was immediately pissed off that they would even think about doing such a thing.