Narrowing Pennsylvania Avenue

The recent discussion about rebuilding the Eastern Market Metro Plaza, and with it narrowing the roadway portion of Pennsylvania Avenue SE led Tom Morris & Jann Bradley to write in to the Hill Rag to ask that Pennsylvania not be narrowed. Their basis was the historical design of the Avenue.

When L’Enfant put forth his design for the “City,” he based it on the idea of broad avenues radiating from the executive mansion (now the White House) and the Capitol. These wide avenues were to provide “long vistas that would give direction and character to the City.”

I, for one, am not a fan of treating the L'Enfant plan (which was superseded by the Ellicott Plan and McMillan Plan anyway) as religious canon. He was just a guy with a plan, and he couldn't have foreseen all the ways things would change in the ensuing 200+ years. But if you want to keep three auto lanes in each direction on Pennsylvania Ave, because that's how L'Enfant wanted it, I'm listening.

Their width was such a central part of his plan that he specified their width. He wrote: “Every grand traverse avenue and every principal divergent one . . . is 160 feet in breadth, and thus divided: 10 feet of pavement on each side (20 feet); 30 feet of gravel walk, planted with trees on each side (60 feet); 80 feet in the middle for Carriage Way (80 feet).” In its entirety, this adds up to 160 feet.
The total width of Pennsylvania Avenue, SE is 145 feet.

That sounds awesome. Breaking up the 145 feet by L'Enfant's ratio, that means 72.5 feet for the roadway (down from the current 85), two 27.25 feet tree lined gravel paths (the current median is 38 feet so that could be widened to 54.5 feet and would make for a nice Pike/Allen street-style mall) and two 9 foot wide sidewalks (which would actually make the sidewalk narrower, so the mall could give some feet back).

But if the point is that there isn't enough space for carriages (cars) under the L'Enfant plan, that is false. Cars actually have more space than L'Enfant intended.

By the way he also wanted no street to be less than 110 feet wide, so we'll have to do some bulldozing.

No matter what else is done to improve the Eastern Market Plaza, the one characteristic that should be preserved first, foremost and for future generations of residents, merchants and visitors is the width of Pennsylvania Avenue, SE.

Preserving space for cars for historical purposes. That's a new one. (And really? First and Foremost? Not the view of the Capitol Dome? Or space for people? Or safety?)

Comments

[j]

In this plan, the number of "travel lanes" will NOT be reduced from 3 to 2. There will still be 3 travel lanes, but cars and bikes will be separated into dedicated lanes. (Even GGW uses the autocentric description)

The broad avenue will not be "narrowed" (not like anyone's moving any buildings).

The fact that the proposed changes are closer to the historical design isn't reason enough to do it, but impt to note that the dominance of the car was a change from previous mode share, so CHANGE IS POSSIBLE!!

[kenf]

Did this L'Enfant guy even know WTF a car is?

[Brendan]

The L'Enfant Plan is on the National Register of Historic Places, so alterations to it (vistas, widths, closures, etc.) are subject to review by the HPRB. Alteration is possible, but it's a matter of fact (not opinion) that the L'Enfant Plan is historic and that changes to it are evaluated for their effect on its historic character.

Also keep in mind, that when L'Enfant said street width, he was referring to the measurement from property line to property line, i.e. front door to front door. So a 110 foot width would include front yards (which are technically public space), sidewalks and roadways.

[W]

how about a dedicated and physically separated bikeway??

Pennsylvania Avenue would be perfect for this kind of thing.

[Washcycle]

I've been coming around to that. To make it work like Pike/Allen in NYC - which isn't done yet - you have to make left hand turns across the "mall" illegal. That won't be easy to do politically. It also helps to close some of the crossings - again not easy. In NYC there are many people in the neighborhood against the changes. Luckily the BID and other groups are for it and are working together well to answer questions.