DDOT looking at ways to improve transportation safety at Grant Circle and Twining Square

DDOT has a pair of meetings coming up to discuss ways to improve transportation safety at a couple of tricky areas.

First of all, on Thursday, DDOT will hold a public meeting on the Pennsylvania Avenue and Minnesota Avenue, SE, Intersection Improvement Project. [Near and dear to my heart, this happens to be the place where I lost my front teeth earlier this year] 

The project is designed to enhance safety at the intersection for pedestrians and transit users. It also provides a consolidated green space at Twining Square by reconfiguring the existing split roadway system, which comprises two complex intersections into a conventional intersection.

To get off subject just a bit... that this is called Twining Square makes absolutely no sense. The road along the NE and NW sides of the square is called L'Enfant Square SE. Pick one. That's the first thing I'd fix. 

The Twining Square reconfiguration was something started back at least in 2012, and then kind of stalled, so maybe they're picking it back up again. They say they're doing the "conventional intersection" as opposed to the ellipse or one of the traffic squares proposed. That's probably the easiest.

It's mildly disconcerting that the project description doesn't mention trying to make this safer for cyclists. But the design above would likely do that anyway. The meeting will be at Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood Library, 3660 Alabama Avenue, SE at 6:30pm on Thursday.

The other meeting coming us is on Grant Circle. A meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 2 from 6:30-8:00 PM in the gymnasium at EL Haynes Public Charter School, Kansas Avenue Campus, 4501 Kansas Avenue NW.  The purpose of the meeting is to discuss ways to improve transportation safety at Grant Circle. 

This is also been bouncing around for awhile, here's the plans from 2009.

In 2015, they painted new lane markings to improve safety, but I'm not sure how much it matched the design above. But clearly it didn't solve all the problems since an ANC commissioner got DDOT Director Dormsjo to meet him at the Circle to discuss pedestrian safety last fall. For starters they should rename the street around Grant Circle to L'Enfant Circle. That name goes good everywhere.

Finally, tonight there's Public Meeting #2 of the New York Avenue Streetscape and Trail Project. They will discuss design improvement concepts.

Comments

[darren]

Penn/Minn would widen the Penn southern sidewalk to make it more bikeable, like the section south of this intersection. A separate project in design will widen the sidewalk from here to the bridge