Yesterday's letter from the Committee of 100 calling for DDOT Director Gabe Klein and OOP Director Hariet Tregoning started a series of letters on the future of the two.
David Alpert, who endorsed Gray, of GGW replied with his own letter asking Gray to keep them.
Under Gabe Klein's leadership, DDOT has developed an unprecedented level of competence and efficiency while still including many opportunities for public involvement. DDOT is successfully completing more projects with fewer staff than ever before.
Meanwhile the Executive Board of the Ward Three Democratic Committee issued its own letter calling for them to be fired.
DDOT traffic management policies under the leadership of Gabe Klein have created more road congestion throughout the city.
New lane configurations, including the introduction of bike lanes, on downtown and neighborhood streets have contributed to the increasing congestion and have created more conflicts among drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists leading to more safety risks.
Both of these statements are patently false.
First of all, since Klein came on the job in early 2009, there is absolutely no data on the change of congestion in that time. The last data I could find is from 2009. So how they know that congestion went up (and that it isn't caused by a rebounding economy), when no one else does, is a mystery to me. I'd love to see what they base that on - especially since I've never seen a study of DC proper. It's always the DC region in which all of the top 10 most congested areas are in VA and MD.
So their second claim that bike lanes have contributed to this congestion immediately comes into doubt. Then throw in the fact that of 50 miles of bike lane, only ~2 miles have reduced the amount of space for cars (on E street and on 15th Street NW). And in each of those cases, DDOT determined that the road was overbuilt and drivers were routinely speeding. So bike lanes led to congestion if and only if you define congestion as inducing drivers to drive at or below the speed limit.
Their letter, like the Committee of 100's, is heavy on statement, and light on the facts to back it up.
Both parties (which I suspect have some overlap) complain about a lack of input from the public, but as David Alpert points out
[The Office of Planning has] already conducted 166 public sessions on just the zoning rewrite, and already have 32 more scheduled in the next 6 months.
Which further undermines their legitmacy.
It may be that Klein and/or Tregoning do not match Gray's vision for the District and he would like to replace them. That's fine. Elections have consequences. But the claim that they are incompetent or disengaged does not match with facts on the ground. If Mr. Gray agrees with the principles in the DDOT action agenda, he would be hard pressed to find someone who could institute it as quickly as Mr. Klein. Any new appointment would bring with a transaction cost (in learning curve time) that would be hard to justify.
It would also mesh with his "one city" vision to try and hang on to some people whom Fenty supporters like. Tim Craig of the Post gives reason to hope for this.
Gray has also shown a continued willingness to win over skeptics who fear that he would reverse Fenty's push to build more bicycle lanes and mass-transit option
Comments