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Special
Alert for
November 6, 2002
especially residents along
Loughboro
- Striping on Loughboro
- Traffic Calming
- Neighborhood Plans
1.
Striping on Loughboro
At its meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 7:30p in
Sibley Memorial Hospital's auditorium, ANC3D will discuss a proposal
from DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) to change the striping on
Loughboro to permit parking and restrict traffic lanes. The proposal
calls for:
# establishing non-rush hour parking zone on Loughboro between Arizona and Foxhall.
# Between Arizona and Maud, installing striping
for parking lanes along the curb. The result would be to reduce traffic
to two lanes in what DDOT likes to call a "traffic calming measure."
The proposal resembles the striping for parking
employed on Western Avenue between Westmoreland Circle and River Road.
Particularly on the stretch of Loughboro between Arizona and Maud, where
the traffic is lighter but tends to move at high speeds, I think it
would be a good step in reducing speed and protecting cars parked in the
curb lane. But I do not think DDOT should take such a step without first
getting reaction from residents along Loughboro.
So do come to the ANC3D meeting to register your views; and if you can't
come, e-mail your views to
colleen.smith@dc.gov.(
Colleen, a bright,
enthusiastic Capitol Fellow in DDOT's planning office, will be at the
ANC meeting.)
You can find details of the striping proposals on
page 54 in recently issued The Palisades Traffic Impact Study. A copy of
the study is in the Palisades Library; or you can find it on the Web at
http://ddot.dc.gov/information/documents/transportation/palisades_study.shtm.
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2. Traffic Calming
Talking of traffic calming, DDOT has just issued
a report on various measures it is willing to consider–from speed humps
to two-laning traffic as proposed for Loughboro-- to slow down traffic,
particularly on residential streets. That is quite a policy switch for
DDOT, which earlier found speed humps an abomination because they
unhinged snow plows. But you still can't call up and say "I want a speed
hump." The new regulations set up rather demanding procedures for a
neighborhood petition for a "traffic calming study. If you want to look
at The Traffic Calming Report, you can go to: http://www.ddot.dc.gov/services/traffic_calming/index.shtm.
Incidentally, don't confuse "traffic calming" with "traffic control."
By DDOT definition, a stop sign is traffic control; a hump is traffic
calming.
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3. Neighborhood Plans for the Future
The D.C. Office of Planning has just issued an
ambitious Neighborhood Action Plan for ANC3D's jurisdiction,
encompassing the Palisades, Spring Valley, Wesley Heights, Foxhall
Crescents, Foxhall Village and Georgetown Reservoir. It is an ambitious
blueprint for our neighborhood, ranging from traffic management to
protecting the environment. Worth reading for those interested in
improving our neighborhoods. You can read it on the Web by going to
www.neighborhoodaction.dc.gov
and
then look under "information" and select "citywide Strategic Plan", then
select "Strategic Neighborhood Action Plans by Cluster" and proceed to
"Cluster 13".
(One of these days, with the help of Robert
Andrew, our ANC is going to have its own Web site, and then you will
just have to hit a link to get all these studies. I hope that will be an
improvement. After decades of reporting on the national scene and two
years as an ANC commissioner, I have come to the conclusion that in
terms of an informed citizenry, communicating at the grass roots level
is much more difficult than at the national level. Maybe if we use the
internet creatively, we can correct that.)
Please come to the ANC3D meeting Wednesday
evening. If strips on Loughboro don't grab you, then maybe you would be
interested in what is being done to curb the sewer stench along the tow
path. And there is always "Community Concerns" time at the outset to
unload your ideas–as well as your gripes.
John Finney
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