ANC 4C approves resolution supporting proposed Grant Circle safety plan
/(Courtesy DDOT)
It’s been a long time coming.
Grant Circle has serious issues with pedestrian and bicycle safety, as well as keeping cars from driving literally INTO the parkland inside the Circle. Petworth News has been covering this topic for way too long and through many iterations of Livability Studies, ANC meetings, DDOT meetings, and so on.
At a recent meeting of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4C on February 14, 2024, the Commission approved a resolution supporting the Department of Transportation’s proposed changes to Grant Circle safety. The plan is not final (and in fact, is not even funded by the city as yet… so this is, still, in the planning phase).
The ANC’s approval resolution basically says that the ANC and the community really want updates and changes to Grant Circle to increase safety. It also supports most of DDOT’s current proposal, with some caveats. Note that the resolution is not a blanket approval of what has been presented.
Editorializing for a moment… I’ve heard from many neighbors who are concerned about the changes, from wanting these changes as soon as possible, to concerns about loss of parking in front of their own home (understandable), while others are concerned about traffic buildup by decreasing the number of lanes (personally I don’t think that will be any bigger of an issue than the traffic we have now with the Maryland drivers passing through…). We’ve been covering this issue for so long, and watched so many people hit, or almost hit, cars colliding, people avoiding the Circle out of real fear, that something has to be done. I applaud ANC 4C for trying to get as much community input as possible. (And yes, things can always go better, be more transparent, reach more people, and so on, but this process isn’t done yet.) See more articles about Grant Circle safety and traffic issues for the past 9 years…
The following proposed changes to Grant Circle, from DDOT, are:
Improving uncontrolled pedestrian crossings
Adding protection for bicyclists
Reducing vehicle speeds
Highlights of the concept design:
View DDOT’s presentation from November 2023 of their proposed changes.
Reducing the number of circulating lanes from two to one for a large portion of the circle
Installing splitter islands/pedestrian refuges to reduce pedestrian crossing distances
Implementing the features of a Dutch-style roundabout*, with improved conflict angles between entering/exiting vehicles and bicyclists
Providing pocket exit lanes at New Hampshire Ave NW (south and north) to reduce rear-end and other congestion-related conflicts
Installing an RRFB to improve pedestrian visibility and driver yielding at Varnum Street NW (West)
Installing floating bus islands to improve transit safety and running times
24 parking spaces to be removed
Next steps:
Review of Community Feedback (2023)
Preliminary Design (2024)
Final Design (2024)
Construction (2025)
* Though this BBC article is concerning… “Figures reveal collisions on Dutch-style roundabout”
A Dutch-style roundabout has seen more collisions in the three years since it was built compared to its predecessor over the previous three years. April 26, 2023
Here is the ANC resolution:
(to be updated with a final version soon)
Related Articles
