September 20, 2007
Transit on Thursday: Safety Dance Edition
This week on Transit on Thursday, good news from DDOT for people who don't like getting hit by cars, and Metro plans on fixin' some things that really need fixin'.
Score One For Pedestrians:
We will soon get to say farewell to annoying sidewalk closures caused by those greedy development projects. No more braving the fury of cars as we find a way around. And no more crossing to the other side.
Builders will instead be required to work around pedestrians by constructing covered walkways much like they do in (where else?) New York City, DDOT spokesperson Erik Linden tells DCist.
"New York is actually the national role model for this issue because there's so much development in and they build covered walkways to keep sidewalks open," he said.
Photo by billadler
Current DDOT construction regulations allow developers to get a permit to close the sidewalk so long as the one on the other side of the street is open and clear. The new regulations, set to be unveiled this month at the end of October, will be much stricter, Linden says, and will require covered walkways instead of closures with virtually no some exceptions.
Some projects already use the walkway system. A good example is M Street SE at Half Street, directly across from the new U.S. Department of Transportation. But the majority don't, and people in D.C., it turns out, like to live through their walking experience. Maybe there's something to this "livable, walkable city" bit? Walking, after all, seems to be a good alternative for people who want to avoid the nation's second worst traffic.
DDOT says they want to encourage such a notion.
"Back in the 1990s, everyone drove and everybody was happy about driving," Linden says. "But now people want to walk and we want to be able to accommodate that."
This new regulation, of course, won't end all sidewalk problems. For example, closures caused by road and walkway construction, such as the work on P Street Northwest between 20th and 23rd Streets that has resulted in serious losses for business that rely on daily foot traffic, would remain.
Metro Has Good News, Too:
If you and your shoes manage to survive the rush hour station escalator ride, your chances of standing on the train with your face crammed into the back of the guy in front of you will soon go down.
By the end of this month, Metro will run only six car trains on the Blue and Yellow lines during morning and evening rush hour, instead of the four car trains passengers are currently forced to deal with, reports The Post.
The Examiner also reports that WMATA plans upgrades to their admittedly spastic electrical system on which they've blamed many of this summer's firey delays. The system is on the receiving end of $35 million in congressional funds for the coming fiscal year, and officials plan to put it towards the much needed repairs.
If all goes well the electrical fixes won't only mean fewer delays –- they will allow the system to run more eight car trains on about a third of the lines during rush hour. That upgrade should hit by next July.
We Saw the Signs:
If you haven't already gotten the memo that Metro hates your ugly shoes, they've got new signs and audio announcements to remind you.
The signs – depicting an croc alligator, warn riders to lift their feet when exiting the escalator.
"You wouldn't know by looking at it, but an escalator — like an alligator — can do some pretty serious damage to whatever gets in its way. Without warning. Without mercy. So don't be fooled by an escalator's mild-mannered appearance," the signs say. You can check them out near the entrance to the station where Metro officials say they are posted.
The new audio announcements carry a similar message – you think the escalator is your friend, but it's not.
Weekend closures and delays:
Games at both RFK and FedEx Field this Sunday are likely to cause some serious insanity on the Orange and Blue Lines. Metro will run six-car trains leading up to each event and six-car and eight-car trains afterwards. The extra cars will run from the Morgan Boulevard and Largo Town Center stations on the Blue Line, from the Landover station on the Orange Line for the Redskins game and from the Stadium-Armory station after the Nationals game.
Due to a time change for the Nationals' last game at RFK (originally scheduled for after 1 p.m.) fans will likely be leaving as Redskins fans are coming. But the double-game means empty cars Metro usually has waiting for fans as they leave RFK won't be there.
If you plan to park at the Morgan Boulevard and Largo Town Center stations anytime between 1 p.m. and two hours after the game Sunday, you'll be shelling out a hefty $25 for the privilege, 'Skins fan or not. And don't forget your SmarTrip card.
Also:
The Red Line will single track because of track work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday between Grosvenor-Strathmore and Medical Center stations. Add up to 15 minutes of travel time to your trip.
The Orange Line will single track, also for track work, between the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU and West Falls Church-VT/UVA stations from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. To make things faster into downtown, every other Orange Line train will terminate at the West Falls Church-VT/UVA and return to New Carrollton. Add up to 30 minutes of travel time to your trip.
Delays continue on the Green Line thanks to new continued new railcar testing. Trains will single track between Greenbelt and College Park from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and you should add 10 to 15 minutes of time to your trip.
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It's about time they forced these developers to accomodate foot traffic as any other civilized city would. But still, I'm a bit curious of:
"will require covered walkways instead of closures with virtually no exceptions."
The word "virtually" is a bullshit, liability-shedding term used by advertisers and the like. I wonder what the caveat here is.
This may be the single most useful thing DDOT has done since I moved to the city 10 years ago. I do quite a bit of walking and am very glad to finally see the city recognize that sidewalks are not just for developers to gobble us and use as private parking areas.
Thank you DDOT for finally waking up to the fact that walking is a form of transportation...about time I say!
Making construction companies use covered walkways instead of commandeering sidewalk space is long overdue.
What I've always found funny is that more often than not they are using their newly-commandeered sidewalk space to park their personal vehicles.
I'm sortof astonished to see the city on the ball on this one.
Is it a new day for DC?
But I do have to say, the term 'greedy developers' is a bit, well, stupid. Come now. Aren't we all out to make a buck? Why is it when building developers are out to make a profit they are 'greedy' and evil, but when the rest of us want a raise or more money for something we do we damn well deserve it?
I take the yellow line for part of my trip to work in the mornings. While 4 car trains suck, it's not awful. I think it would be better if they used those extra cars to run more 8 car trains on the orange and red lines during rush hour. Those trains are completely packed.
Unfortunately the new ordinance requiring covered walkways instead of closures doesn't apply to those construction projects already underway. So all of us working on L between 13 & 14 still have to deal with not having a sidewalk :(
I saw the title fully expecting to finally read a thorough analysis of Metro service and Men Without Hats from a transgender perspective.
Needless to say, I was disappointed.
They are greedy not because they are doing construction -- two points to them for making the city look good -- but because they hog pedestrian space. The new regulations will largely fix that.
Amy - thanks for the clarification. But your original story doesn't make that distinction. And given DCist's fairly long history of developer-hatin', it's fair to say that many readers wouldn't make that distinction either.
Finally! I've only been whining about this since I moved here... and occasionally posting about it here and here.
Two questions for the contributor(if she's lurking). Will the new sidewalk cover be retroactive to projects already happening (one can only hope).
And two, when they say "virtually no exceptions," does that mean all Jemal projects will get exceptions because we all know abou the love/love relationship between D.C. and Doug.
I will shortly move on from my lurking, but while I'm still here -- it will not be retroactive as those developers have already received permits for closures.
And as for Jemal, I must profess ignorance.
I would assume the "virtually" clause would cover cases such as what is happening on 7th ST SW at the old DOT Building where a giant crane is parked on what used to the be the sidewalk and is dangling massive steel beams overhead. In a case like that, I would hope that DDOT would allow the developer to close the sidewalk rather than have people walk through an enclosure that wouldn't be safe or feasible.
Ah, some fresh Doug Jemal hatin'. So, Guest 10, would you prefer that the Jemal properties revert back to what they were - crack houses? And would you prefer that Chinatown go back to what it was - a festering swamp of crime and crap?
How do I enable the guest comments? Clicking "Show Guest Comments" does nothing... (?)
It seems that the greedy developers over in Arlington County are already required to build such walkways.
Am I the only one not excited by the Blue Line getting extra cars? That line is NEVER crowded. Just another example of Metro management not having a clue what's going on in its system. I take the Orange Line every day. For some ridiculous reason, they run just as many Blue Line trains as Orange Line, and yet 100% of the time, the platform is crowded, in comes a Blue Line train with seats still available, and nobody gets on it. 5 minutes later comes an Orange Line, filled to the brim, and everybody tries to crowd in. Now they have extra cars, and instead of adding them to the Orange Line for more 8-cars (which have pretty much disappeared, by the way), we'll get to see even emptier Blue Line trains. If Metro management actually had a clue what was going on, they'd reduce Blue Line trains to 3 cars, and run them half as often, and move those unneeded cars to the Orange Line and run it twice as often.
C'mon, pre-Jemal Gallery Place wasn't that bad. And he still has quite a few properties that seem to be in a perpetual state of "development." He's got a nasty habit of sitting on properties long after the rest of the neighborhood has caught up.
The real problem is that there has to be a development option between "crackhouse" and "Tunetown." Because if people wanted to live in a generic stripmall, they'd choose Arlandria or Fairlington, not Chinablock.
Actually pre-Jemal Gallery Place was the center of the DC arts community. With galleries and artists studios and lofts. If they city had put its money and efforts in the right place, encouraging what was there to stay there and invest, it could have ended up with a SoHo instead of a second-rate Chinese-themed Atlanta.
Chinablock - that's a good one.
Wasn't that area the home of dc space? And wasn't that venue's demise due to the gentrification of China...er, Block? As I recall, dc space is now a... Starbucks.
Guest 16, are you on crack? What time of day are you riding? Because this Blue Line rider has exactly the opposite experience. In the morning from King Street, Blue trains run once every, oh, 7-10 minutes, and they are usually 4 cars. And they are already standing-room only -- at KING STREET. In the evening at Farragut West, there are frequently 2 Orange trains for every Blue, and those are usually 6 or 8 car trains to the Blue's 4. That's 14 Orange cars to 4 Blue cars, or 3.5 times the capacity. And the 2nd Orange train in a row is usually desolate, while there is always a crowd on Blue. They say Orange has more ridership, which I believe, but 3.5 times more ridership? Not a chance. It's absolutely ridiculous on the Blue line. And don't get me started (don't even get me started!) on the 10 MINUTES it takes to get between National and Braddock Road most days.
Monkey:
You raise a fairly valid point. But if I recall Jemal begged local businesses to open up in his properties in Chinatown. Supposedly he was offering fairly competitive rents (I'm not a commercial real estate broker, so I don't know if that's actually true).
So his choice was to lose money or rent to Fuddruckers.
Chinatown pre-Jemal wasn't suck-ass? That's not my recollection. It was pretty crappy, with a huge amount of thuggery and mayhem. Was it the absolute worst slum in town? Nope. But it was not exactly safe. Far from it.
As for the city 'putting its money and efforts in the right place' - does that mean using taxpayer funds to prop up nonprofits and money-losing 'local' ventures? Or artificially keep trendy lofts at some arbitrary dollar amount? Based on what criteria?
"Back in the 1990s, everyone drove and everybody was happy about driving," Linden says. "But now people want to walk and we want to be able to accommodate that."
What crack has this man been smoking? Everybody drove? Since when? Hello, it's a city, lots of people walk, and have been walking, since well before DDOT decided to get a clue and provide for pedestrian safety. Moron.
IHateParis - I agree completely on all counts (especially the incredibly slow trip from National to Braddock) except for the morning commute - I don't recall the last time I rode a 4-car train from Franconia-Springfield into town in the morning. On the other hand, the number of 4-cars running consecutively (but sporadically) through Farragut West during evening rush hour is simply inexcusable! I've pretty much accepted the fact that I won't be able to board the first train that arrives while I'm waiting at the platform, which makes me less in any sort of a hurry to get down the platform these days.
Thank you Hillman. Pre-Jemal Chinatown was basically a wasteland for artistic frontiersmen/squatters and a generally scary homeless population.
The new chinatown might not be all that, but I don't know how anyone could think it is worse than it was before.
I have been walking to work for five years. This Monday was the first time in all that time that I have not had to switch blocks or walk in the road because of a sidewalk closure...
So this would have been nicer a little sooner.
Blue at Pentagon around 5pm and is a 4 car train...forget about getting on, it is a zoo. I am just glad that they can go full speed between braddock and national again. But 4 car trains on the blue line is pure hell at rush hour.
Chinablock's development history is a case study in how DC treats its arts community: zone a rundown part of town an "arts overlay;" artists and nonprofits move in, clean up, and push out most of the junkies and hookers; developers buy up vacant properities and turn them into condo/office space; taxes go up and the artists move elsewhere. Repeat. It's worked in Columbia Heights, U Street, Chinablock, and at some point H Street NE. Fortunately, it seems like DC has plenty of other areas full of "thuggery and mahem" where artists can migrate and nest.
I guess my memories of Chinablock are tainted by visions of Skinny Puppy at the original 9:30 Club, negativland at DCSpace, and greasy slop at the original Whitlows. And there was that flat rat in the alley next to 9:30, the one that everyone used to take a leak on after shows.
Yeah, both money and time behave like loose quicksilver in a nest of cracks; once they're gone, you wonder where they went, and what the devil you did with them.
My job and my house are a 7-minute walk apart from each other on M Street in SE, so I can attest to the helpfulness of the walkway. Prior to it being built, I had to cross the street three times during my walk to because of all the construction. Now it's a lot safer and faster for me to get to and from work.
Also, the walkway has little square windows that the construction workers poke their heads through in order to check me out as I walk by. It's kinda hilarious and cute to see a row of little heads saying "hola" to me as I go through the walkway.
Next, I'd like to see Arlington get on the case of the developer of the building next to Key Bridge for screwing up the traffic patterns there every damn morning. And the cops? Do they help? As Ted Stevens would say, NO! They sit there on the corner waiting for some hapless motorist to get caught blocking the box so they can ticket them. Protect and serve my butt.