More Space to Walk (and Bike?) in Georgetown

-

The Georgetown Business Improvement District instituted a cool new program earlier this year that creates more space for pedestrians in one of the city's busiest shopping neighborhoods. 

On weekends from April to November, the 3200 block of M Street NW will have widened sidewalks. Basically, a lane of automobile parking has been eliminated on the north and south sides of the street and temporary metal crowd control barriers are placed in the street, blocking a lane and separating auto traffic from pedestrians. My initial observations:

1. The extra space was noticed. I've been to Georgetown on a busy weekends and yes, I noticed the extra sidewalk space on this weekend. You can mark the difference by simply walking the 3100 and 3200 blocks of M Street back-to-back. The flow is much smoother on the 3200 block. You don't get stuck behind slow pedestrians or window shoppers, and walking two or three abreast doesn't cause pedestrian traffic jams.

2. Bikers think it's their lane, too. And I don't know how to feel about this. I heard "on your left" and/or had the familiar bikeshare bike bell rang at me several times while walking in the street portion of the expanded sidewalk. Naturally, it's a great lane for bikes. It's flat asphalt, there are no cars, and you can travel relatively fast. On the other hand, it was kind of annoying essentially having to get *back* onto the regular sidewalk as not to be an irritant or have to look over shoulder. Obviously there is need more more bike infrastructure in Georgetown, if not M street in particular.  

3. Auto traffic seemed unaffected. For the short time I observed, auto traffic seemed to move as it always does on M Street. Sure, there are horns blasting at Wisconsin and M because a driver ahead didn't proceed a millisecond after green. And yes, as a driver, you've always have to wait for pedestrians to cross before you turn, that hasn't changed. If anything, I thought traffic flowed better on the 3200 block because there were no delays/stoppages due to parallel parking, drivers slowly cruising for parking, or any illegal parking.

Overall I love the experiment and hope that data (observational and otherwise) proves useful to trying to find the ever-evolving solution of creating infrastructure that helps divers, bikers, and walkers share the limited space we have to move around.

Update:
To learn more, check out the BID's page on the program. And here's Greater Greater Washington's write up of the 2014 experiment of the same nature.
Ramps and openings in the barrier were added for bus stop access.
Simple barriers separate car traffic from pedestrians (and sometimes bikers).

Popular posts from this blog

300 Unit Tower Proposed Near Hechinger Mall

-
Image
Rendering of 1625 Benning c/o Valor Development. Valor Development is looking to construct a 303 unit apartment building across from Hechinger Mall on Benning Road NE. PGN Architects are the architects for the project. A. Morton Thomas and Associates are acting landscape architects and civil engineers. Bozzuto will ultimately mange the property. The "Valvaere" would be located at 1625 Benning Rd NE, consolidating nine parcels including what is now Trinidad Baptist Church and attached surface parking lot. The Valvaere will actually be comprised of two buildings; a nine story, 90 foot tall building facing Benning Road, and a 3 story, 38 foot tall building facing 16th St NE. About 7,000 sq ft of ground floor retail is incorporated into the plans. 100+ on-site parking spaces would be provided in a below grade parking lot. There will be over 100 bike storage spaces as well, protected, inside the building. Bird's eye view of Benning Rd. Rendered with Google Earth©...
Read more

A Langston for Langston, But Not That One

-
Image
Carver Langston has a new mural! The narrative features an abstract sort of geometric nature theme, switches to a sunglasses-decked woman representing Northeast DC, transitions to a male historical figure, then to a montage of pencils, an image of hands on a typewriter, then finally returning to the geometric nature theme to cap it all off. It's lovely, bold, colorful, and we deserve more murals like this in Carver Langston. But there's just one thing about this one... As you may know, on paper, Carver Langston is really two neighborhoods. Carver is the triangular shaped part of the neighborhood north of Maryland Ave NE, going up to the Arboretum. Langston is the part of the neighborhood south of Maryland, going down to Benning Road. Carver's namesake is a person most of us learned about in elementary school, George Washington Carver . Carver was one of America's top intellectuals and inventors of the early 20th century. Langston takes its name from the ...
Read more

Uniqlo, Juice Press Coming to Union Station

-
Image
The retail scene at Union Station has been getting quite a makeover for the past five years, having adding major brands such as Keihl's, Walgreens, H&M, and Shake Shack. Legal Seafood is building a full service restaurant on the second level, and now signage is up for two new additions. Popular Japanese casual clothing outlet Uniqlo is set to open this fall in a rather large space on the ground level. The store will be across across from Verizon; where the Swatch watch shop and FYE music stores were located. The first Uniqlo store in the U.S. only opened in 2006, and they've already grown to 48, not including this location. Tysons Corner is home to the only other in the DC area. Uniqlo enjoys a solid following and carries clothing for children (including babies), women, and men. I have heard lots of applause for the intimates/underwear selection . Juice Press is a New York City import and is opening its first DC store in Union Station, just like Uniqlo....
Read more