DDOT's latest plan to destroy traffic, Georgia Avenue edition

[Anonymous]

The main problem with traffic on Georgia Avenue is the astounding number of people who double park. That's what makes traffic bad and forces drivers to constantly change lanes. It would be simpler/cheaper/easier to just have the police ticket everyone who double parks until drivers get the message. Traffic would move better for buses and cars alike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love it; bring it to more of the major streets. Thanks DDOT!

Seems like this makes the streets more dangerous, not less.

Drivers aren't going to sit in traffic, and they're not going to switch to the bus. This will just shift traffic onto all the smaller streets around Georgia Avenue. How is that better?

Seems like it's better to focus traffic on big roads where everyone expects there to be lots of cars. I would be pissed if I lived in a neighborhood near Georgia.

One more lane of cars commutting through DC; that will solve it. DC is not (and should not) widen roads.

The area's population is growing. Even if fully devoted to cars and their drivers, the local road system will eventually be at capacity with no room for growth. Devoting lanes to transit is the only longterm solution to handle surface travel through these corridors. Adoption of dedicated bus lanes has resulted in an increased adoption of bus ridership and a reduction in travel time for bus riders.

[Anonymous]

If they’re going to have dedicated bus lanes, I hope they increase the number of buses that they’re running.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love it; bring it to more of the major streets. Thanks DDOT!

Seems like this makes the streets more dangerous, not less.

Drivers aren't going to sit in traffic, and they're not going to switch to the bus. This will just shift traffic onto all the smaller streets around Georgia Avenue. How is that better?

Seems like it's better to focus traffic on big roads where everyone expects there to be lots of cars. I would be pissed if I lived in a neighborhood near Georgia.

One more lane of cars commutting through DC; that will solve it. DC is not (and should not) widen roads.

The area's population is growing. Even if fully devoted to cars and their drivers, the local road system will eventually be at capacity with no room for growth. Devoting lanes to transit is the only longterm solution to handle surface travel through these corridors. Adoption of dedicated bus lanes has resulted in an increased adoption of bus ridership and a reduction in travel time for bus riders.

Uh, DC is actually a lot smaller than it used to be. Currently we have about 670,000 people. In the 1970s, we had more than 750,000 people. In the 1950s, we had more than 800,000. DC's population has shrunk pretty dramatically from when I was a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they’re going to have dedicated bus lanes, I hope they increase the number of buses that they’re running.

pretty unlikely given the budget straits they're in. wmata has been talking about reducing bus service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love it; bring it to more of the major streets. Thanks DDOT!

Seems like this makes the streets more dangerous, not less.

Drivers aren't going to sit in traffic, and they're not going to switch to the bus. This will just shift traffic onto all the smaller streets around Georgia Avenue. How is that better?

Seems like it's better to focus traffic on big roads where everyone expects there to be lots of cars. I would be pissed if I lived in a neighborhood near Georgia.

It might seem that way to you, but in reality, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is proposing to reduce Georgia Avenue to single lane in each direction because they want to make the other lanes bus-only.

In the understatement of the year, DDOT says "current peak traffic volumes cannot be accommodated by a single lane of traffic" and "there will be increased travel times."

The obvious problems here are:

1. Georgia Avenue will become gridlocked, always

2. Very few people ride the bus, and this isn't going to change that.

3. If you live within a half mile of Georgia Avenue in either direction, you can expect an enormous increase in traffic on your street as tens of thousands of drivers cut through side streets to avoid Georgia Avenue.

4. The city says this is needed to reduce speeding. It's worth nothing that a grand total of 9 people in Washington DC were killed by speeding drivers in 2022, the latest year from the police statistics.

https://buspriority.ddot.dc.gov/pages/georgiaavenw

Hi - a bus moves on average 20 to 25 people at a time. It takes us the same physical space as 2.5 SUVs. The 2.5 SUVs move 2.5 people at a time, because most trips in the city using a personal vehicle are single occupancy for work commutes.

Also, the effects of dangerous drivers can be measured more than just by how many people were killed. How about by how many were injured, many with llife-alterating injuries?

You motorists are the most entitled people in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I ride the Georgia Ave bus (70/79). They’re often packed to the gills. Where are your stats that no one is riding this bus?

I also drive on Georgia. In my opinion the gridlock is because (1) the lights are very poorly timed/out of sync and (2) cars are always double parked in the right lane.

There's fewer people on buses today than there were 25 years ago. I used to ride the bus. The problem with the bus isn't traffic. It's that there are bus stops every nine feet. It's ridiculous.

The 79 stops are quite far apart. If your stats are anecdotal and you stopped riding the bus, then they’re probably not very accurate. Though I will say, very few people swipe their cards on the 70/79, so if that’s how you’re counting ridership, then I would say it doesn’t reflect actual number of bodies moved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is proposing to reduce Georgia Avenue to single lane in each direction because they want to make the other lanes bus-only.

In the understatement of the year, DDOT says "current peak traffic volumes cannot be accommodated by a single lane of traffic" and "there will be increased travel times."

The obvious problems here are:

1. Georgia Avenue will become gridlocked, always

2. Very few people ride the bus, and this isn't going to change that.

3. If you live within a half mile of Georgia Avenue in either direction, you can expect an enormous increase in traffic on your street as tens of thousands of drivers cut through side streets to avoid Georgia Avenue.

4. The city says this is needed to reduce speeding. It's worth nothing that a grand total of 9 people in Washington DC were killed by speeding drivers in 2022, the latest year from the police statistics.

https://buspriority.ddot.dc.gov/pages/georgiaavenw

What's missing in all this is actual enforcement of traffic laws. What the DC government loves to do is screw the 99% of us rather than change the behavior of the 1% or can seem to abide by the rules of society.

[Anonymous]

NIMBY plan to get in the way of needed improvements because it does not personally benefit them and they were not personally consulted by the mayor, edition # 100000003

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I would actually ride a bike more to get to places. Cars suck. The only reason I don't ride is because major roads are so, sooooo dangerous. People go 80 mph on 35 mph roads. There are tons of stupid drivers. They should make one lane roads everywhere and have bike lanes and bus lanes taking up the rest. People would stop being fat too.

Or - and this might be a novel idea - we could enforce traffic laws. I know it's never been tried before, so who knows how that would work. Perhaps there are other jurisdictions that have tried this novel approach we could look to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Georgia Avenue will become gridlocked, always

- Georgia Ave has been increasingly gridlocked since the removal of the streetcar system in DC. Eventually there is a limit to what the road can handle and we are very close to it already. This means that at some point there will need to be an alternative which brings me to…

2. Very few people ride the bus, and this isn't going to change that.

- many people ride the bus already and you don’t care about them at all so why should they care about you? If you want to sit in traffic then go ahead. Other people will choose to ride the bus.

3. If you live within a half mile of Georgia Avenue in either direction, you can expect an enormous increase in traffic on your street as tens of thousands of drivers cut through side streets to avoid Georgia Avenue.

- Good point. We should increase red zones and limit access to those side streets during key hours.

4. The city says this is needed to reduce speeding. It's worth nothing that a grand total of 9 people in Washington DC were killed by speeding drivers in 2022, the latest year from the police statistics.

- 9 people that should not have died. You seem ok with the loss of life. I’m sure that you assume it’s someone else so not your problem? But why should we make policy based on such a cold and heartless thought process?

https://buspriority.ddot.dc.gov/pages/georgiaavenw

It sounds like the plan is to make driving so miserable that even the bus sounds like a good option. This tracks with the MOCO attainable housing plan to make every neighborhood equally miserable so as to bring down average housing costs (property values) in nice neighborhoods while still raising housing costs in neighborhoods that are currently affordable.

Or, you know, people might start taking the metro again. The reality is that Maryland and Virginia drivers commuting through DC have become reckless since the end of the pandemic. Much more so than before. I'm in favor of anything needed to get them to stop driving into DC. If you don't live in the city, I'm less concerned about what you think since your kids don't play on or cross our streets anyhow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I would actually ride a bike more to get to places. Cars suck. The only reason I don't ride is because major roads are so, sooooo dangerous. People go 80 mph on 35 mph roads. There are tons of stupid drivers. They should make one lane roads everywhere and have bike lanes and bus lanes taking up the rest. People would stop being fat too.

Or - and this might be a novel idea - we could enforce traffic laws. I know it's never been tried before, so who knows how that would work. Perhaps there are other jurisdictions that have tried this novel approach we could look to.

Do you see a lot of cars getting pulled over in Manhattan? In downtown Seattle? In downtown Orlando? No? Gee. Wonder why. Urban gridlock makes pulling people over less than idea.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it, but a variety of different strategies need to come into play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is proposing to reduce Georgia Avenue to single lane in each direction because they want to make the other lanes bus-only.

In the understatement of the year, DDOT says "current peak traffic volumes cannot be accommodated by a single lane of traffic" and "there will be increased travel times."

The obvious problems here are:

1. Georgia Avenue will become gridlocked, always

2. Very few people ride the bus, and this isn't going to change that.

3. If you live within a half mile of Georgia Avenue in either direction, you can expect an enormous increase in traffic on your street as tens of thousands of drivers cut through side streets to avoid Georgia Avenue.

4. The city says this is needed to reduce speeding. It's worth nothing that a grand total of 9 people in Washington DC were killed by speeding drivers in 2022, the latest year from the police statistics.

https://buspriority.ddot.dc.gov/pages/georgiaavenw

What's missing in all this is actual enforcement of traffic laws. What the DC government loves to do is screw the 99% of us rather than change the behavior of the 1% or can seem to abide by the rules of society.

This, though I'd say 85/15 at this point, as lack of enforcement towards bad behaviors over recent decades has promoted lack of consideration for others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The main problem with traffic on Georgia Avenue is the astounding number of people who double park. That's what makes traffic bad and forces drivers to constantly change lanes. It would be simpler/cheaper/easier to just have the police ticket everyone who double parks until drivers get the message. Traffic would move better for buses and cars alike.

Can't do that. Might be racist. Or something.