Tomorrow, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will host a public meeting for comments on the Environmental Assessment (EA) of the K Street Transitway Study. DDOT is currently considering two build options to address infrastructure, safety, congestion and access problems in the busy K St corridor. Tomorrow's public hearing, according to the DDOT website, will afford all interested persons the opportunity to provide comments regarding the project.
The K St Redesign will cost roughly $139 million, which DDOT hopes to cover entirely with U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) funds. Both build plans are open for public comment, which will be included in any final decision-making process. The EA rated each plan based on its effect on the community and on transportation in the corridor.
Each build option, according to the EA, would improve the travel time from end to end on K Street. Perhaps of great interest to the public is the effect each plan will have on parking and bicyclists. Alternative 2 (Two-Lane Transitway) would include 200 on-street parking spaces during off-peak hours as well as on-street loading in off-peak hours, and provide a shared lane for bikes with autos and a shared lane with parking in off-peak hours. Alternative 3 (Two-Lane Transitway with passing) has no on-street parking at any time, with loading 
available in selected locations. Alternative 3 is a bikers dream with a 5 foot paved and signed bicycle dedicated lane. Alternative 1 would be to leave the present street unchanged.
The event begins at 6 PM and is scheduled to end at 8:30 PM at the Carnegie Library at 801 K St., NW, and will feature a presentation at 7 PM and an open public testimony session beginning at 7:30 PM. The public comment period ends October 30, 2009.Washington DC commercial real estate news
11 comments:
is this any different than the meeting they had a couple months ago at the hotel at the corner of 13th and K?
IMGoph: This is a different meeting. It will have a lot of the same information, but the Environmental Assessment, released more recently that the last meetings, will give specifics on the expected effects of the various plans. Travel time, effects on businesses etc. will be presented.
Alternative 3, please. If you can afford to bring a car to K Street, you can afford a garage. K Street should be a major connecting corridor between NE and NW, not a parking lot.
Option 2 clearly makes most sense--shaving tons of time off of both bus AND car travel down the corridor.
If I read the assessment properly, the passing lane in Option 3 reduces bus travel time by one (1) measly extra minute, while potentially almost DOUBLING automobile traffic time from what we have now?
Option 2 also allows parking in off-peak times. I am a strong proponent of public transportation, but I also sometimes drive in the city. The very marginal efficiency gains of the extra bus passing lane just seem far outweighed by the extra congestion/gridlock it would cause car traffic.
Besides, why can't buses still pass in a two-lane right of way? Just stagger the stops on either side of the street so that the express busses can simply snake by.
I thought K St was getting a light-rail? Option 4?
Light rail is anticipated in both plans down the road. It's just gonna take more years to get it in there.
I do think it is worth noting that streetcars are not going to need passing lanes though...
$57 billion was asked nationwide from stimulus pool (TIGER Grant) of only $1.5 billion. Pretty unlikely DDOT is going to come out like a bandit on this!
Alternative 2! I like cars parked along the street, not because it provides parking, but because it creates a more pedestrian-friendly environment. Wide streets without parking feel like freeways.
Bogus. Why not remove all the medians entirely and make it five lanes in each direction with zero parking and loading only during off-peak hours? We make this too hard for THE major crosstown artery. Imagine how traffic would move, which is the stated goal after all, with five lanes in each direction?
Bogus, I hope you're joking. Imagine cars trying to get across five lanes from a far left lane to get to the far right lane to turn right while other cars are trying to get from the far right late to the far left. Imagine busses stopping in midst of this sea of mass confusion. It's well established that a street or boulevard with median makes for a safer and more efficient transportation corridor.
...and imagine trying to walk across ten lanes of traffic without anyplace to stop!
CAN WE JUST invest the money in getting all the bums off the K Street corridor? Watching them openly piss and defaecate in the parks I'm paying for is disgusting. It's like living in the third world. Until we solve that problem, all the new bricks and rails won't matter in the slightest.
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