The Great Streets DC initiative "is a multidisciplinary approach to corridor improvement, comprised of public realm investments, strategic land use plans, public safety strategies, and economic development assistance." The idea is to improve neighborhoods by focusing on streets in the hope that great cities come from great neighborhoods. There are six corridors that the city is focusing on:
- Georgia Avenue NW and 7th Street NW from Eastern Avenue to Mt. Vernon Square
- H Street NE and Benning Road NE from North Capitol Street to Southern Avenue
- Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE from Kenilworth Avenue to Eastern Avenue
- Minnesota Avenue NE/SE from Sheriff Road NE to Good Hope Road SE
- Pennsylvania Avenue SE from the Sousa Bridge to Southern Avenue
- Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE and South Capitol Street from Good Hope Road to Southern Avenue.
The Great Streets Initiative has five principles of which one is Move, which includes:
Continuous and unobstructed pedestrian/bicycle access on sidewalks and roadways
as part of its vision (I read that as pedestrians on sidewalks and bikes on roadways, but it should be clearer). Each Corridor has a transportation corridor concept plan as shown below for Pennsylvania Avenue SE. For some reason, the transportation maps on the Corridor Concept plans is different from that in the reports. That's annoying, I'm not sure which is "correct."
Bike facilities planned include:
Bike lanes and signed routes on
1.Benning Road NE from Minnesota Avenue to Maryland.
2. 7th Street NW from Mt. Vernon Square to Florida Avenue
3. Pennsylvania SE from 295 to Maryland
4.On Piney Branch to 13th NW, 13th to Harvard & Columbia, Harvard & Columbia to 4th and 4th to Mt Vernon Square
5.On Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue from Alabama Avenue to Atlantic Avenue
Additional signed bike route on Branch Avenue
Bike parking
including "artistic" bike parking
I hope they do better than they did with Barracks Row. While the street has really been reborn, the diagonal parking has made the street a little too narrow in my opinion (I think adding parking to an area with a metro station and frequent bus service in a walkable and bikeable neighborhood was a mistake).
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