As you may recall, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) approached Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2F with a proposal to modify the traffic pattern on 10th Street, NW between L Street and New York Avenue from one-way southbound to two-way traffic.  As the commissioner for single member district (SMD) 2F06—the SMD most effected—ANC 2F directed me to chair a committee to deliberate the merits of the proposed change and to communicate the neighborhood’s opinion regarding the proposal to DDOT.

You may also recall one problem with the subject proposal was that the recommending party could not be identified.  It was initially thought that the Circulator Bus suggested the change to “smooth out” one of its routes.  Although they denied making the suggestion for quite sometime, it turns out that it was actually the Circulator who made the initial proposal.  Subsequently, the Circulator dropped its support for the modification.

In my opinion, the fact that no party was in full support of the proposal highlighted the fact that it was being made in a vacuum without any consideration of other nearby current and future traffic patterns.  The opening of the convention center hotel and the planned redevelopment of the old conversion center site will certainly have an impact on traffic in the immediate vicinity of 10th Street between New York Avenue and L Street.  There were no traffic studies completed to support the project. 

Representing area residents, the ANC asked DDOT to suspend the project until there is a comprehensive master strategy that explains the reasons behind proposed projects and describes how they will fit in to a larger, forward-looking plan.  DDOT agreed with the ANC’s request and will not move forward with the proposed project at this time.