ANC 3F Forest Hills/North Cleveland Park
 

ANC 3F welcomed the Mayor’s initiative to form a Ward 3 Traffic Task Force under the auspices of the Department of Public Works.   The task force has met on a monthly basis.  The meetings have been informative, leading us to identify areas of common problems and those where D.C. policy needs to be developed.

Initially, the task force prepared a spreadsheet of problem areas.  DPW assigned each of these short-term, medium, and long-term timeframes.  We have made progress, especially on short-term issues.  Key to this progress has been assignment of Clarissa Bird as the traffic engineer for Ward 3.  Clarissa has spent many hours familiarizing herself with Ward 3 streets and has been quick to do such things as replace missing and deteriorating street signs.  She also identified other traffic and pedestrian safety problems within our area and is helping us work to find solutions.

This has been a good start, but much more needs to be done.  In May, ANC 3F identified three major goals:
1. Improved traffic flow on Connecticut Avenue between Albemarle and Van Ness Street       (modified subsequently to between Albemarle Street and Tilden Street, N.W.).
2. Enforcement of traffic and parking infractions.
3. Accessibility and safety of streets for the young, elderly, and those with disabilities.

From the beginning we recognized that most of these issues cannot be resolved with “quick-fixes”.  They are complex, requiring study, funding, experimentation, and a longer time-frame in order to find positive solutions.  In fact, most of the traffic issues ANC 3F has identified have been classified as "medium–" and "long-term".  Progress on the major goals of ANC 3F seems to have been limited at best.  Complicating our assessment is the fact that we lack meaningful information on their status:  what steps will be needed to resolve them; what, if any, progress has been made to date; and what the expected dates are for completion.

Several factors appear to be impeding progress.  Failure to find funding to conduct the work has stalled the traffic study needed to improve traffic flow on Connecticut Avenue.  Too few police officers have been assigned to traffic enforcement in ANC 3F.  Traffic enforcement, including at night and on weekends, is given very low priority.  Out of state vehicles continue to park in restricted residential zones with impugnity, yet DPW has not hired and trained the additional parking enforcement personnel.    ANC 3F has repeatedly been promised additional parking enforcement even by existing enforcement personnel, yet they rarely visit our area.

Another source of frustration for ANC 3F is that many of our issues cannot be addressed until the District has developed and adopted underlying policies.  We are aware that the District has contracted with Howard University to prepare a much needed manual on traffic calming and urge that this be made available without delay.  At the moment, the District has not established truck routes and has no policy regulating delivery trucks and acceptable hours for deliveries.  A policy regulating deliveries is particularly important for commercial areas bordering residential neighborhoods, where in some places delivery trucks arrive during the night and idle for hours.   A policy regulating tour bus routing and parking is also needed, as tour buses visiting schools and other institutions continue to park on residential streets at all hours, block traffic, and make noise.

We do appreciate the new "yield to pedestrians" pylons being installed on city streets.  None have been installed to date in ANC 3F, but several are on order.  Once these are installed, they will help make the streets safer for the young, elderly, and disabled.  We still await other measures requested, like retiming of traffic signals on Connecticut Avenue, to make the streets truly easier to negotiate.

New issues continue to arise.  ANC 3F is pleased that many of our streets are being repaired and resurfaced, but we are experiencing some problems with the results.  In one case, a contractor removed an asphalt curb on an "unimproved" street, but replaced it with nothing.  As a result, the treebox area is now eroding seriously, and the city may ultimately lose two magnificent street trees.  We expect this problem to be widespread in ANC 3F because many of our streets are similarly "unimproved".  In another instance, road markings and no parking signs have never been replaced on a street resurfaced two years ago.  We urge that DPW inspect work soon after reconstruction to ensure that signage and striping have been restored and to adopt a policy that asphalt curbs on unimproved streets either be retained or replaced during resurfacing.
 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Give high priority to completing the traffic calming manual being prepared by Howard University.  Many residents have been    requesting traffic calming for their neighborhoods.

Implement ANC 3F request for a traffic study of the area of Connecticut Avenue from Tilden Street to Albemarle Street.   This area continues to be gridlocked at all times of day throughout the week and weekends.

Implement other requested studies like the study of unsafe intersections along Albemarle Street from 39th Street to Wisconsin Avenue.

Retime traffic signals on Connecticut Avenue to afford pedestrians enough time to cross.

Require contractors resurfacing unimproved streets to retain and/or replace asphalt curbing to prevent erosion of District-owned land in the treebox area.

Immediately hire and train additional DPW parking enforcement personnel to enforce no parking signs and residential permit parking zones.  Enforcement should be maintained during the evenings and on weekends.

Increase enforcement of rush hour parking violations, including delivery trucks, on major arteries and reinstate towing.

Increase enforcement of speeding, red-light and stop-sign running, and blocked intersection  violations.  Speeding is a particular problem on Reno Road and Nebraska Avenue.

Install red light camera at Connecticut and Van Ness and at Connecticut and Nebraska Avenue, as requested in May.