February 7, 2007
You Were Planning to Walk, Right?
Good news for all you pedestrians out there. As we mentioned on Monday, the good people who run this city have decided they want you to walk more! And the District is going to encourage you to do it with its first Pedestrian Master Plan, which will lay out a series of improvements to everything from sidewalks to streetlights, speed bumps to intersections.
The plan is nothing more then a web site right now, along with a short survey and plans for upcoming meetings to further discuss the plan with the public. The city government has allocated $250 million $250,000 to conduct the study and produce the plan, but no further funding has been set aside to implement its recommendations.
The city's stated goal behind the initiative is increasing the quality of life in the District - reducing traffic, cutting fuel consumption, and promoting public safety. Seventeen pedestrians were killed in accidents last year, 16 the year before, and no one wants the omnipresent drone of New York- or Boston-style traffic coming to every corner of D.C.
However, there is a clear economic interest here as well.
Photo by keerkeer.
In order to maintain its economic momentum, D.C. must also maintain its reputation as a thriving urban center. As retail and commercial centers expand father away from transit centers, it will be important to make sure people are willing to walk to these areas. To many, cars make such areas louder and less attractive aesthetically, suck up valuable land area with parking lots, and generally lead to a tenser atmosphere. Simple changes to sidewalks, the timing of traffic lights, and landscaping can help make people feel like a neighborhood has been built for humans rather than for automobiles. Greater pedestrian traffic increases the viability of the retail and commercial activity that helps drive D.C.'s economic engine. If people don't feel comfortable on foot, they'll happily jump in their cars and drive, possibly right out of the city.
Creating a more pedestrian-friendly city is an appropriate focus for the District. However, it is problematic that the survey focuses almost exclusively on infrastructure. It is true that bigger, more attractive sidewalks, safer crossings, and better lighting and landscaping are important components of a walkable city. However, there is a large and neglected role in this equation for the enforcement of basic traffic laws — on both sides of the crosswalk.
As comment threads on this site have repeatedly demonstrated, there is little love between drivers and pedestrians. Both are guilty of bending or breaking the simple rules that keep everyone moving safely and freely. There is an argument that cops should not waste their time enforcing traffic laws. But when police ignore people blatantly crossing against the light or cars blowing through a crosswalk right under their nose, it reinforces the maddeningly dangerous free-for-all that many of our busiest streets can sometimes feel like. A little enforcement could go a long way toward making people safer, happier, and more willing to get out of their cars and walk.
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People from Maryland (who dominate the number of cars on DC streets) simply do not know how to drive.
They have no sense of what a crosswalk means.
Or a turnsignal.
Or a stop sign.
Or what the lines in the road mean.
Do they make you take driving tets in Maryland?
marylanders- by the same token, I work in Pentagon City, and your virginians down here run red lights, honk at pedestrians in crosswalks, and speed like crazy down the area's overly-wide roads
Everyone please use that survey and complain about the narrow sidewalks in Georgetown and Adams Morgan. Anyone who ever shops in Georgetown knows what a hazard it can be walking down the sidewalk. DC's central meter test is a good start, but wider sidewalks are desperately needed in the area (likely at the expense of a lane of M St traffic (because removing the parallel parking would just endanger pedestrians). Likewise, anyone who's ever gone out in Adams Morgan knows how crowded the sidewalks get at night there. Especially post-smoking ban, the streets are always packed, and this causes people to accidentally run into others, which starts fights. Indeed, I've heard people say 'the next *expletive* who brushes me is gonna get his *expletive* beat' and then try to follow through on it. At least in these two neighborhoods, it has become an issue of pedestrian safety.
Everyone please use that survey and complain about the narrow sidewalks in Georgetown and Adams Morgan. Anyone who ever shops in Georgetown knows what a hazard it can be walking down the sidewalk. DC's central meter test is a good start, but wider sidewalks are desperately needed in the area (likely at the expense of a lane of M St traffic (because removing the parallel parking would just endanger pedestrians). Likewise, anyone who's ever gone out in Adams Morgan knows how crowded the sidewalks get at night there. Especially post-smoking ban, the streets are always packed, and this causes people to accidentally run into others, which starts fights. Indeed, I've heard people say 'the next *expletive* who brushes me is gonna get his *expletive* beat' and then try to follow through on it. At least in these two neighborhoods, it has become an issue of pedestrian safety.
Ohh great another VA Vrs MD driver war.
Ohh great another VA Vrs MD driver war.
Indeed it is great, maybe they'll all kill each other and stop driving like lunatics in DC.
$250 mil for the study alone, and no dedicated funding to execute the recomendations? Can't we do the study for $10 mil, and have $240 mil left to work with?
Hell, give me the $10 mil, and I'll give you the recomendations right now:
1) Enforce the cellphone ban (cops too!)
2) Red light cameras + huge fines
3) Calm traffic by widening sidewalks and thinning streets
4) Reduce crime to encourage more walking after business hours
5) More UNIQUE retail, to give us a reason to explore on foot (CVS, Starbucks, and banks don't count)
Done. Can I have my $10 million please?
I took their little survey, and I was unimpressed. It felt like the questions were slanted to lead to a conclusion that "DC pedestrians want better sidewalks." True enough, but it plays down the most important point, which is that if things are close, people will walk. If they are far, they will not. Huge, forbidding intersections are mostly found in parts of the city where things are too far apart to walk to them, anyway (heading out on US 50, for example). The hard work of urban planning is creating walkable neighborhoods, and the study is not so ambitious.
As for car/driver tension, I actually think that drivers are pretty good to pedestrians in areas of DC that function as an urban planner might hope. Even in rush hour downtown, drivers are respectful. If anything, it's the average pedestrian's sense of entitlement (and I'm guilty as charged) that causes accidents. This is all to be expected, as the density of the downtown core forces cars to slow down and take a backseat to pedestrians, which are everywhere.
Ironically, while Maryland drivers beat out Jersey drivers for the worst on the planet in interactions with other drivers, they can be pretty good about pedestrians. I surmise that this is because you have to stop for pedestrians in MD. Virginia drivers are better in traffic, but they will run through a crosswalk like they own it. Presumably because they connote walking with poverty, which they spit upon. I kid, I kid.
RJ's got it right.
This is not about who drives badly and who doesn't. VA, MD, and DC all have their share of bad drivers, and also bad walkers. The point is that both groups need to slow down and realize that they are not the only ones with a claim to city streets. To the extent that the DC government can reinforce that behavior with both infrastructure improvements and traffic enforcement, it should.
eh, EVERYONE from EVERYWHERE drives like a bunch of apes. Most pedestrians are vigilantes. Nobody's innocent. But urban walking is a righteous joy. Whatever the "authorities" can do to improve that experience will be most welcome.
1) Enforce the cellphone ban (cops too!)
Amazingly, I actually saw a cop pulled to the side of the road whilst talking on the phone the other night. I realize that one instance does not a trend make, but it's a start.
I retract all comments about various states' drivers. I don't have a dog in that fight, and would rather discuss whether the survey can really have much use.
maybe it's because I came from a car-dependent culture before moving to DC but I do not understand why there is little traffic enforcement in this city. Hell, in the suburban world I used to live in, traffic enforcement was a money maker for the cops.
another thing this city could do it is cut down on all the fracking permits it gives to construction companies to close down sidewalks. if you obeyed all the laws, there are some streets in the city where you'd be walking back and forth from side of the street to the other like a ping pong ball.
The survey may be slanted one way or the other but I think the value of the survey is to get people interested. For $250 million I'd expect some real surveys out of the consultants.
250 thousand?
Actually, the Post article says that the District has set aside $250,000 - not $250 million.
$250 mil for the study alone, and no dedicated funding to execute the recomendations? Can't we do the study for $10 mil, and have $240 mil left to work with?
I'm with Chris L. on this, $250M to conduct a study and make some recommendations? That seems excessive even by DC boondoggle standards.
I think it's $250K, not $250 million.
I think it's $250K, not $250 million.
OK, that's a lot more reasonable.
Saying "Drivers and Pedestrians just need to be nicer to each other and follow the rules" does not make any sense. It is a crime against humanity that our societies' urban centers are held captive to a minority class of 2000 pound killing machine owners.
Pedestrians are not a drain on society as cars are, and are not dangerous either, so it is only right for us to travel as we please. Crosswalks are usefull, but should not be legally enforced by laws.
Amen to more street lights.
This just strikes me as one of those things that people approve of because it will get everyone else off the road. i.e: "We'll make it better to walk, so everyone walks around town, so there's less traffic for me." Reducing obesity and crime are just side effects, included as a tagline, because everyone hates obesity and crime.
This just strikes me as one of those things that people approve of because it will get everyone else off the road. i.e: "We'll make it better to walk, so everyone walks around town, so there's less traffic for me." Reducing obesity and crime are just side effects, included as a tagline, because everyone hates obesity and crime.
NYC may be taking an interesting, yet worthless, approach. Banning the use of earphones (iPods, etc.) and cell phones while crossing the street. I guess a few pedestrians have been killed this year because they were oblivious to their surroundings thanks to iPods and phone use. I'm surprised I haven't seen that happen around here. I've seen some close calls, but fortunately no impacts or fatalities. But seems like a hard one to enforce and an easy one to ignore.
Actually, Mat888, a large number of DC residents are pedestrians and in certain neighborhoods I would say walkers are the majority (even if they only walk to the Metro or bus). Making the pedestrian experience safer and more attractive is essential to improving DC's livability. When walking is safe and convenient, people really do it!
Also, walking is great exercise (obesity) and the more bodies on the street, the more eyes on the street, the more likely there are to be witnesses to crime (therefore, crimes of opportunity are less likely to occur).
Mike B., I was once that idiot pedestrian who was more interested in what was playing on his iPod than what was happening in the cross walk. I almost got creamed by a car going through a yellow light because I wasn't paying attention. Thankfully, the driver was paying closer attention than I was. All it took was once. Lesson learned.
Blogging about this subject at: dcsidewalks.blogspot.com
"It is a crime against humanity that our societies' urban centers are held captive to a minority class of 2000 pound killing machine owners."
Indulge in wild hyperbole much?
Anyway, the highly reliable wikipedia says that "Of those that work in Washington, D.C., 44.8% drive alone to work, 21.2% take Metro, 14.4% carpool, 8.8% use Metrobus, 4.5% walk to work, 2.7% travel by commuter rail, and 0.6% ride their bicycle to work."
So drivers are a plurality.
Minor correction to my previous comment. It's a state senator in NY who wants to impose the iPod/blackberry/cell phone ban on peds crossing the street. The proposed law would apply in NYC and other major cities in the state.
Thanks to everyone who corrected me on $250M vs. $250K. Sorry for the error, which has been corrected.
bikes
bikes
"I guess a few pedestrians have been killed this year because they were oblivious to their surroundings thanks to iPods and phone use." Darwin at work. It should happen more often.
"Of those that work in Washington, D.C., 44.8% drive alone to work, 21.2% take Metro, 14.4% carpool, 8.8% use Metrobus, 4.5% walk to work, 2.7% travel by commuter rail, and 0.6% ride their bicycle to work."
I find this highly unlikely. Right off the bat i'm sure metro has higher stats then 2.7%.
Read it again, Colleen. Metrorail is at 21.2%. Add Metrobus and total metro use is at an even 30%. Commuter rail is a different animal.
"I find this highly unlikely. Right off the bat i'm sure metro has higher stats then 2.7%."
Correct. The cite say 21.2%. I would imagine that the 2.7% is MARC and VRE. Sort of like the difference between the NYC subway and LIRR.
And if you count both solo commuters and carpoolers, you get a simple majority.
Not that I like cars, but clearly we're faced with considering pedestrian needs in a car culture, and not vice versa, commuter friendly though DC generally is.
A one line correction DCist? Your numbers were off by $249,750,000 in the second paragraph in your story and all you offer is one line of "oops"? Given the number of comments that focused on the wrong cost (which was completely DCist's error) - shouldn't DDOT get more than an "oops"?
I agree - the situation will not be solved by being "nicer." One way to reduce that 44.8% who drive alone to work is to shift them to other ways. Walking is a start, but I doubt the ped plan will dare say that some streets, like 7th St. in Chinatown, should be shut down to traffic, period.
Two things stand out about that stat.
-One, way more than a pathetic .6% could be biking. This could easily be 20% withe the right moves.
-Two, that only 21% take metro and especially only 8.8% use bus is a tell-tale sign that this city caters to drivers way too much.
It would be interesting to see where the car-driving 44.8 percent are coming from.
Your numbers were off by $249,750,000 in the second paragraph in your story and all you offer is one line of "oops"?
Hey, c'mon, they were only off by zero. Three times.
"Of those that work in Washington, D.C., 44.8% drive alone to work, 21.2% take Metro, 14.4% carpool, 8.8% use Metrobus, 4.5% walk to work, 2.7% travel by commuter rail, and 0.6% ride their bicycle to work."
Sorry, we don't care about "those that work in Washington". Give us the stats for DC residents.
Also, I've found that a good way to enforce respect for a given crosswalk is to cross while carrying a cinder-block, or similar heavy item. If an oncoming car fails to yield, this object can be dropped on the hood of the offender as you scurry out of the way. Much more effective than those little orange flags they have in Chevy Chase.
As someone who has daily staredowns with jerks in cars who don't want to let me cross the street in crosswalks, I hope they crack down on traffic law breaking! It's so frustrating to have to deal with all these maniacs in cars!! I wish they'd make the city pedestrian only.