| What's Wrong |
What the
District is Planning to Do
|
Why the District
Solution is Flawed
|
What SHOULD
be Done
|
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Street trees are missing, struggling, dying or dead.
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Plant 1-4 new trees of varying species per block, on a random basis where space
allows.
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Due to the narrow sidewalks, the crowded surface and underground conditions and
the natural soil conditions, the trees will live only 1-2 years. Furthermore,
there will never be a nice row of street trees.
|
Sidewalks should be widened to provide a new soil zone in which a consistent row of
street trees (one every 20-25 feet) could thrive.
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Street furniture and signage are a mess. Items are broken, bent, missing or
redundant.
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OGB has prepared a system of revised street furniture and signage. Samples are
already in place on M Street.
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All these elements take up too much space in the pedestrian zone.
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More
community involvement in redesigning a contiguous and to-scale streetscape
for M Street.
|
| The
new District street lights are too tall and
too close together, and only contribute to the lack of quality space.
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The District is installing new 18 foot street lights along M Street and part of Wisconsin Avenue
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The lights are 2-4 feet taller than the existing street lights and are being
placed anywhere from 20-40 feet apart. The new lights are even further out of
scale with the pedestrian and architectural landscape.
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Fewer street lights at lower levels will allow for more sidewalk space and will cost the
city much less money. As long as the lights maintain 1 foot candle, they
(along with light from stores) will be sufficient.
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Parking on M Street is a mess, due to loading, visitor parking and meter feeding.
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Install a multiple-bay parking meter on each block and shorter parking times.
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With no parking meters to indicate where parking spaces begin and end, people are
parking more arbitrarily. This leads to less actual available parking.
One alternative is to paint white guide lines, which is also out of sync with
Georgetowns urban village concept. Also, shorter
meter times would discourage meter feeding and aid short-term loading and
parking.
|
Install new (but classically designed) parking meters that fit into the contiguous
streetscape design theme as stated above.
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Sidewalks on M Street are so narrow that many areas only allow single-file passage. It
is impossible for strollers, wheelchairs, pets, families or crutches to
pleasantly navigate the sidewalks. In fact, safety is even a real issue.
|
The District will re-brick and re-curb the sidewalks in the existing configuration and
dimensions. The District will also repave the streets in the current
configuration.
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The existing sidewalk conditions are too
narrow to pass pleasantly and safely and are in violation
of drafted ADA guidelines and standards. Almost unanimously,
civic planners deem a minimum of 13'-16' from building to street
as a necessity for main street applications. Also, the District
is not paying attention to tight situations and is placing lights
3' in front of steps. | A lane of traffic/parking should be deleted
to accommodate widening the sidewalks from 11'5' to 16-5'. This
would facilitate a more comfortable, welcoming passageway, a new
soil zone for trees, and an area dedicated to street fixtures and
furniture (without interfering in pedestrian traffic). |
|
The car is king. Space allotted for commuter traffic is inhumanely
disproportionate to pedestrian space. Poor civic engineering, poor signage
and visiting drivers attempting to park retard traffic flow.
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Improve signage, cosmetic work at the M Street entry point near the Four Seasons
hotel.
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The limited on-street parking mostly serves retail employees who meter feed and
this causes further traffic disruption as vainly optimistic potential parkers
circle block after block looking for a space (and in the unlikely event a space is found,
they hold up traffic struggling to parallel park).
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Remove a lane to better balance vehicular and pedestrian spaces. Convert 2-way side streets
to 1-way to improve flow and recoup parking. Re-sequence traffic lights,
recalibrate left-turn arrows and reexamine entry point island shifts.
Continue to encourage use of the Blue bus.
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