Gordon Chaffin is a freelance journalist who focuses on infrastructure and traffic news and insights for Street Justice. You can support independent journalism by subscribing to Gordon’s Street Justice newsletter: He’s offering a 20% discount to THIH readers. See more information below. –Maria Helena Carey
Prince George’s Getting Some Lower Speeds
Now that Prince George’s County has committed to a Vision Zero goal — zero traffic deaths — residents should expect engineering changes to improve safety on heavier trafficked roads. Prince George’s Vision Zero effort will probably include all of the Es. The collaboration of Maryland’s State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) is required to improve the County’s safety record. Already in 2019, SHA implemented changes to calm traffic and increase safety. In March, the state agency made speed reductions, narrowed lanes to induce slower car speeds, and implemented safer pedestrian crossings. in March. Lowering speed limits is a mix of engineering and enforcement, but in practice mostly the latter. Without a design change, you need something to change driver behavior; and that’s a cop or camera. [Full Story]
DC Water Adding Temporary Safety to 2nd St NW in Bloomingdale
Thursday night, DC Water, their contractors, and a representative from DDOT presented plans to improve safety conditions on 2nd Street NW in Bloomingdale, DC. Residents have observed increased traffic on the road. The additional travel is most likely diverted from DC Water projects disrupting traffic nearby”: Rhode Island at 1st NW; the junction of Rhode Island, 3rd, and Florida NW; and the 6th/R/Rhode Island NW project. These changes include the addition of two new speed humps on 2nd NW: one between Florida and Rhode Island Avenues, and one north of Rhode Island Avenue. Also, between those two Avenues, DC Water will be upgrading crosswalks to the high-visibility continental/ladder design. [Full Story]
Motorist Hits Me on Bike for Fourth Time in 2019
For the fourth time in 2019, a driver hit me this afternoon while riding a bike. Today at 2:45 PM, I was traveling on the unprotected, contra-flow bike lane on I Street NE. The driver seemed to not know there was a bike lane there. They were confused I was coming from “the wrong direction” and didn’t understand what the double-yellow line meant. They were apologetic and gave me their information. This year, I’ve been hit by motorists while riding a scooter, my own bike, and Capital Bikeshare. Two crashes while I was using unprotected bike lanes and two on Franklin Street NE in Edgewood where DDOT refuses to take sparsely-used on-street parking and convert to bike facilities. Ward 6 has a lot of bike lanes in part because Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen is supportive. Ward 5’s Kenyan McDuffie does little-to-nothing to promote more people cycling and doing so on safer streets. [Full Story]
Hyattsvile PARKing Day Features Local Businesses
Friday, September 20th, I rode out to Hyattsville, MD to see the city’s PARK(ING) Day exhibits and talk with county residents about transportation in Prince George’s County. The County website says that: “PARK(ing) Day is an annual, international event where citizens, artists, and businesses collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into PARK(ing) spaces: pop-up public places.” Park(ing) Day was a good time for Prince George’s County residents to think about that trade-off. We need space for cars to travel on roads, and space on the road for them to park. But, how should Prince George’s reconsider the allocation of road space for safer, faster travel and more plentiful storage of buses, bikes, scooters, and anything else that reduces the environmental damage of our travel? [Full Story]
Oversight Hearings on DC ANC Operations
Starting this week, DC At-Large Councilmember Robert White is hosting several oversight hearings of DC’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. ANC 4B (Takoma/Lamond Riggs) and several others across the city have been organizing letters to submit for these oversight hearings. The gatherings address operations of ANCs, specifically procurement, funding, and other key logistics. Here is the schedule for CM Robert White’s ANC oversight hearings… [Full Story]
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