8th and Pennsylvania Avenue, Thursday, September 7, circa 4:30pm.
8th Street SE Bus Priority Plan Gets Chilly Reception from ANC6B Transportation Committee
By Larry Janezich
Posted September 7, 2023
Last night, ANC6B’s Transportation Committee got the first look at DDOT’s plan to install the southern portion (East Capitol to M Street, SE) of the 8th Street SE Bus Priority Project. It’s fair to say it was not well received either by the ANC or by a number of vocal residents, some who spoke in favor of preserving a car-centric transportation model for the immediate community.
Andrew Grinberg, DDOT Transportation Planner Project Manager, introduced the project to the community. The timeline anticipates incorporating feedback, refining and finalizing the concept, with the goal of having a final design by summer of 2024 and construction beginning by the fall of 2024.
The concept presented to the Committee last night aims to address issues defined in the needs assessment and advance project goals of improved bus service, safety and access. The project is in accordance with the Mayor and City Council’s desire to move commuters and other drivers from the roads on to public transportation or other modes of travel including bikes.
The key findings of the needs assessment for the project are:
Improve bus performance by addressing:
- Barracks Row’s overall slow speed
- Congestion hot spot at 8th between Pennsylvania Avenue and E Street, in both directions
- Slow speed of buses on Barracks Row
- Bus stops often blocked
Safety issues for the pedestrian/bike environment
- Commercial and drop off double parking
- Angled parking hazards
- Inadequate visibility at intersections
Some of the main proposed solutions are:
- An offset bus lane from D Street to L Street for southbound busses on Barracks Row
- Convert angled parking on Barracks Row to parallel parking
- Establish a northbound curbside bus lane on Barracks Row
- Reverse the one way traffic on D Streets both segments, north and south of Pennsylvania Avenue
- Add contraflow bike lane on D Street north of Pennsylvania Avenue, modify cross walks, loading zones and short term parking
- (No change is anticipated regarding Barracks Row streateries)
What raised the ire of the Committee was the proposal to reverse the flow of traffic on D Streets. The Committee had come out solidly opposed to the same proposal floated by DGS in 2015 in connection with reconfiguring the traffic flow around the Eastern Market Metro Station in connection with its $21 million renovation. The ANC’s opposition killed that proposal then. One Committee member remarked that he was surprised to see this come up again given the ANC’s previous reception of the proposal and urged DDOT to think harder and more creatively on this. The plan was also criticized for being too optimistic that short term illegal parkers would be ticketed out of this behavior by a new bus camera ticketing program launching next month.
What raised the hackles of the Barracks Row businesses and some residents was the reduction in the number of parking spaces on Barracks Row and 8th Street, amounting to 8% of 660 available spots – about 52 spaces. Concerns included lack of parking not only for patrons, but also for workers.
Then there were the objections from the car-centric crowd who loudly and angrily proclaimed that the plan would only make traffic and congestion on Barracks Row worse…wasting the taxpayers’ money…a “liberal” plan that would end up creating gridlock, and an assertion that “people are not giving up cars and you better start planning for that.”
Grinberg took the heat, replying, “Anytime you’ve got cars you have the cost of them which are congestion, traffic and pollution. So what we’re trying to do is mitigate that with the primary goal of improving bus service and along with that the walking and livability environment.
Grinberg will come back next Tuesday to make a presentation to the full ANC6B Commission at its regular September meeting.
DDOT will accept comment on the plan through October 10. Here’s the link to offer comment: http://buspriority.ddot.dc.gov/pages/8thstse
For a CHC profile on how car-loving former ANC6B Chair Dan Ridge became an anti-car radical, see here: https://bit.ly/44MSehg
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 
The folks that take the time to come to these meetings are certainly not a representative sampling of the community’s preferences. Barrack’s row is a mess for pedestrians, cyclists, and local businesses that would benefit greatly from increased pedestrian traffic. Change is always going to piss off some folks.
We don’t have professionals running DDOT anymore, we have a bunch of pie-eyed activists who only have one answer to everything – get rid of cars.
The simplest solution to congestion is enforcement of double parking violations in the 400 block. The city would make a mint in fines, and the traffic flow would improve.
I’m a car owner who lives and parks on 8th Street SE. I was listening to the meeting and was dismayed to hear how anti-bus some of my neighbors are. Before I switched to bike commuting I took the 90 bus from 8th Street SE to its terminus at Anacostia. The buses are a great way to get around and are heavily used (ridership is lighter through Capitol Hill but picks up significantly before and after). Their speed and arrival times are highly unpredictable due to the issues DDOT is trying to address. The proposed mitigations are modest and will hardly affect drivers at all, but will greatly help people like me who work on the other side of the city get to work on time.
I would suggest sharing this proposal with the business owners on Barracks row. Something tells me that they will echo opinions of the local residents. And it has nothing to do with being anti-bus. Restaurants on Barracks row cannot survive by relying on just on local patronage, they need people from other parts of town as well as MD and VA. And let me tell you, no one is coming to Rose’s Luxury or Ambar by bus. No one. As of late, people prefer not to walk the two blocks from the metro – because it is not a nice walk to the restaurant but a treacherous journey through trash, drug dealing, aggressive and verbally abusive panhandling, and all matter human discharge. Urine in DD cups, anyone? So the solution to the problem is not as simple as less parking and bus lanes. It requires a multi-prone approach: from addressing drug-dealing, trash and public urination on Barracks row sideways to ticketing double-parked cars (often without anyone in the driver’s seat) to assisting employees of local business (who come from all over the DMV) with discount parking options under the highway (for example). The city is in an overall decline. Bus lanes are not a solution.
(Ed. note: DDOT is committed to a meeting with Barracks Row business owners which will be coordinated by Barracks Row MainStreet. In addition, the ANC6B Transportation Committee is circulating among its members a resolution for consideration at the full ANC6B meeting next Tuesday. The Resolution urging DDOT to seek support from Barracks Row business for the Project.)
Why wouldn’t someone get to restaurants by bus?
I would refer you to an article in today’s Post on safety and security in DC. Capitol Hill is not an exception. Many people refuse to use public transportation in DC because of safety concerns: stabbings and shootings on public transportation and metro and bus stops (which are usually close to each other), physical and verbal assaults, open drug use, trash and public urination and defecation…etc. etc. one does not need to be very observant to notice that Barracks’ row patrons prefer driving and or Uber and Lyft to public transportation. No one is walking alone 400 block or across the Eastern Market plaza if they can help it. EM plaza is an open drug market today. The days when people came to the Barracks row before the Nats games are long gone…
What are they planning to do with the covid-inspired restaurant encroachments? There is no way the new bus and bike lanes can coexist with the jersey-barriers that guard the tables on the street. (Ed. Note: DDOT says streaterys will not be affected and will remain in place.)