Mayor’s representative, DDOT tour neighborhood traffic trouble spots

by Marlene Berlin

Sally Gresham and Mary Beth Ray accomplished a great deal while serving on ANC 3F for the past four years, and though their terms ended in January, they are still working to complete some unfinished business. They are especially determined to resolve streetscape safety issues, and earlier this month, they showed some off the trouble spots to Ian Maggard, a representative for the mayor, DDOT Safe Routes to School Coordinator Derrick Hardy and Kajaz Safarian, of the DDOT Transportation Services Team.

One stop on the Thursday, February 2nd tour has been a longtime focus of the ANC: the intersection of Albemarle and 32nd Streets, NW, one block east of Connecticut Avenue. This intersection is not controlled by stop signs and it is a legal crossing, though it is not marked.

This intersection gets heavy use in the morning by pedestrians on their way to the Metro and children heading to school. Ray and Gresham are pushing for a three-way stop sign and a marked crosswalk, as well as other improvements as detailed in ANC 3F’s December 20th resolution (link opens PDF).

The tour included other trouble spots on heavily-used pedestrian routes to schools, public transit, shops and restaurants. Gresham and Ray pointed out concerns about:

Sidewalks on Connecticut Avenue and surrounding neighborhood streets

Potholes and the eroding hillside on Brandywine Street east of Connecticut

Lack of sidewalk/street lighting along parts of Connecticut Avenue at Van Ness

The public alley exit between Park Van Ness (4455) and the Park Connecticut (4411) apartment buildings on the east side of Connecticut

The lack of a Connecticut Avenue crosswalk on the south side of Windom Place

Sally Gresham and Mary Beth Ray will continue to follow up with DDOT on these and other safety issues, and we thank them for it.