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Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
Morning rush hour has seemed more tedious lately on 14th Street NW: we've noticed and have gotten emails about gridlock on 14th going south from about Columbia Heights all the way to Thomas Circle, apparently without explanation. It seems to be worst from between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., and we haven't been able to figure out a reason for it—DDOT's website doesn't have anything, we haven't gotten any AlertDC notices about it, and we haven't noticed police, wrecks, or other usual suspects like water main breaks along the corridor. A reader today emailed tips(at)dcist(dot)com saying she tried taking 13th Street instead of 14th today, but it was backed up as well. So we thought we'd ask you: any idea what's going on here? Is this just the new reality of an increasingly densely populated Columbia Heights? Photo by Brian Knight Photography
What's With Traffic on 14th Street?
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Obama's doing Jäger shots at Playbill Cafe. Again.
oh damn, would mother and sayed be happy if that happened!
I traverse much of this every morning between 9 and 9:30 by foot, bike, or bus and I've noticed this too. One day was a water main break on 16, another day some vehicle in the way, this morning was gridlock on a side street. Most days there is nothing though.. just busy. I can usually walk the mile faster than the bus can drive it.
We need a dedicated bus lane!
DC could make a killing off fines for bike lane, gridlock, etc. on 14th.
I agree. DC should be killing bike lane and gridlock violators. They should be forced to read George Will's jeremiads until they rip their own heads off.
I would take no issue with this.
The lights on 14th are even more screwed up than they used to be, and this is just old-school gridlock. Ever since they finished the work on Thomas Circle it's been worse than it was before, thanks to bad light timings between I and N. They sort of fixed it so that if you're coming south from N you can at least get around the circle in only one cycle of the light, but then you sit for two cycles at L and one or two at K. If you're trying to go north, expect delays between K and the circle.
As a resident of 13th St I'd prefer it if people didn't use it as a commuter road, but I'll also mention that the lights on 13th are ALSO screwed up now, at least if you're heading south between U and Logan Circle, and thanks to that it's not any better than 14th anyway.
If they wanted to fix this they'd have to time all the lights so that each block actually cleared when it had the green. Instead what they have now is engineered gridlock, where your light is green but the next one is red. If you're "lucky" you get through without blocking the box, then repeat at the next light.
at least they took the parking restrictions off of 13th. back in the day when there were two lanes going north from logan circle in the evening rush, it was quite the freeway...
Apparently my neighbor had something to do with that. He got a parking ticket during a snow emergency and successfully argued that 13th wasn't on the map of official snow emergency routes (it wasn't) and a bunch of gears seem to have cranked into action then. A couple weeks later when they removed the snow emergency route signs, they also removed the rush hour parking restriction signs, and a few weeks after that we had parking areas actually painted off. It seemed that 13th had been reclassified as a non-commuter route some time before, and it just took a while for the right people to notice and take down the signs.
I see this everyday. The northbound problem is the new light at the pedestrian crosswalk south of the circle. The southbound problem is the L St light. The timings are such that no more than 3 cars can get through the series of lights at a time.
I should probably be a good citizen and say as much at an ANC meeting or something, but who has the time when there's blogs to be read...
I see this everyday. The northbound problem is the new light at the pedestrian crosswalk south of the circle. The southbound problem is the L St light. The timings are such that no more than 3 cars can get through the series of lights at a time.
I should probably be a good citizen and say as much at an ANC meeting or something, but who has the time when there's blogs to be read...
The lights at 15th and V and Florida at the base of Malcolm X Park are also messed up, ruining what used to be a useful uptown expressway.
The only thing that is more time consuming and frustrating than traveling through Columbia Heights on 14th Street, is signing in to DCist.
jamie: i was complaining about the sign-in problems myself, and then i realized that i could just click on the word "sign-in" without needing to take the time to type in my login and password.
i have to do it every morning, but it's a lot faster than typing the login and password every time (which is what i was doing before).
Hey guys,
So what's happening when you try to sign in? The Gothamist folks have been working on sign-in issues this week and are asking us to keep on top of any problems. Tell me a little bit more about it so I can pass it along to them.
It seems to be working now.. an hour ago or so, it was just hanging when you clicked "sign in". Didn't matter if it was a comment thread or the front page. Sometimes, you'll actually get to the sign in page, but when you hit in your info and click, it does nothing.
There have been many long periods of time this week during which it simply hangs, forever, when you click "sign in." Even when it does work, it's pretty slow.
What would also be really nice is if you used a persistent cookie, instead of a session cookie, so we don't have to sign in every single time we come to this site. I am not worried that someone may access my computer without my knowledge, and start soliciting children for sex, using my DCist account.
This way, also, it wouldn't matter so much that the sign-in process is frequently broken, since we'd remain signed in.
Actually I stand corrected about the cookie, sessions do survive. I think the problem is that the cookie expires very quickly. I just feel like I have been having to sign in a lot more since the site was "upgraded" a few weeks ago.
Four or five times this morning I clicked sign in and the little progress circle appeared, made a half loop, and then froze. I gave it a minute or so, then reloaded the page and tried again. About the fifth or sixth time, it seemed to randomly work. No idea why.
sommer: i'm not familiar with the permanence (or not) of cookies, but suffice it to say with the old design, i used to login once a week, on monday morning, when i got into work.
now, i have to log in every time after i close my browser window, and even sometimes when i only close the dcist tab. but not all the time.
for the programming people, i'm using the latest version of firefox (3.0.6) on a mac with OS 10.4.11
1) Agree with Jamie.
2) The 11th Street construction is also contributing, I think. Traffic on Mass gets backed up as does traffic on 11th and 12th, and my guess is people are looking for alternative routes.
Fedward said it. Movement from red light to red light on major thoroughfares seems inefficient. I imagine DC traffic planners know a thing or two, but I wouldn't really count on it.
Here's something weird... according to planning maps, 14th Street through Columbia Heights is NOT considered a major thoroughfare. That helps explain why the stretch going past the Target is only one lane. But that's just crazy when you consider how many people use that street, and the presence of major transit lines.
Also, cold weather used to screw up the timing of DC traffic lights (as did storms). But I think they replaced that old system some time ago.
I commute by bike, and I take 14th from S down to New York. It's particularly bad between Thomas Circle and I - poorly timed lights and a large volume of cars and trucks. When there's no one blocking your path, the lights are not an issue - on a bike I can often go from Rhode Island straight down to New York in morning rush hour without hitting any red lights. It's the sheer volume of cars that appears to be the problem.
That reminds me of another weird thing... at almost all traffic circles I can just sail through on my bike without even slowing down, regardless of traffic light status... but since Thomas Circle was redesigned, I find myself having to come to a full stop at reds, and often even having to wait til it turns green!
yeah, thomas circle has become a bit sketchy following the makeover. i don't remember what it used to be like around the exit onto M off the circle (south part of circle), but it's pretty awkward now. for pedestrians, it's a bit of a gamble with the mortality. for motorists, cars from all lanes often skirt across to catch the exit, so cyclists are undoubtedly wary of that point.
Traffic circles actually work best when there are no traffic lights at all. The only argument for having lights is to protect pedestrians, and that could be addressed by just stopping traffic in all directions at the same time to allow people to cross, but otherwise letting traffic flow freely as it does at Chevy Chase Circle.
Things were HORRIBLE this morning. At 9:30 waited 30 minutes for the 42 and then four came all at once. No cabs to speak of (or they were all in-use). Then once the bus came, the traffic was terrible.
Indeed. Columbia Road from 13th all the way to Connecticut was also a nightmare this morning, and 16th didn't look much better. MPD and Secret Service had things gummed up pretty badly around the Washington Hilton, but I can't imagine how that gets us gridlock on 14th...
16th was a mess too. No cabs, no buses, gridlock all the way. 17th wasn't too bad though.
The 42 and 16th Street problems were caused by the closure of M-H Streets on either side of 16th for the Presidential motorcade to make it to the Hilton for the National Prayer Breakfast.
I bike commute down 14th street almost every day, and the worst problem is the consistent and egregious double parking on the west side of the street between V and W. It's usually in front of Martha's Table and the adjacent storefronts. Often it is 2-3 cars long (end to end). I don't know why the police don't give them tickets and tell them to move along. It always creates a backup, and they are always parked in the bike lanes, which means that bikes have to dart out into the left lane, which is dangerous.
14th and K is always horrible if it's raining or if it's a Thursday/Friday. It's a generally unsafe intersection for pedestrians as well.
There's a real problem with Thomas circle every morning. People going north on 14th around to M street west-bound or Mass Ave north/west-bound use only the second lane and are stopped there waiting in a LONG line at the two or three lights required for their exits, LEAVING THE INSIDE LANE COMPLETELY EMPTY but always blocking it off for 75% of the damn circle. I need to get into the inside lane, but can't ever access it because the territorial west-bound people seem to think that I'll prevent them from going West. Someone messed up when they designed that; every morning that lane is both unused and inaccessible do to more[crazy desperate mean] people wanting to go west. If this is not THE problem, it is one of them. As much as I hate them, those west-bound people takign 14th street are so underserved by this awful, ugly useless circle. While we're at it, can it please get some trees for shade? And it's the hardest thing for a pedestrian to cross or go around. HATE THOMAS CIRCLE!
-Thomas Circle Resident & president of Thomas Circle Hate Society