Comments on: One Way Street Coming to Girard or Euclid?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:14:36 +0000

POP? Anyone? If you have the flyer please tell us when/where the meeting is….
thanks.

By: fedward

fedward — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:54:32 +0000

I lived on 13th between Fairmont and Girard for ten years. During that time 13th went from being a snow emergency/official commuter route to a street with full-time residential parking and stop signs at the intersections with both Fairmont and Girard. During rush hour, despite the parking lanes drivers still commute up 13th, with evening backups from the light at Irving stretching all the way to Euclid. Once traffic eases up, people race from one stop sign to the next, and there’s a lot of high-speed cross traffic on Fairmont and Girard both. Every couple months there’s a bad t-bone collision at 13th & Fairmont when somebody (possibly both cars) runs the stop signs (anecdotally I’d say Fairmont is worse in this regard than Girard, but I’m not sure why or if that’s even correct).

I can’t help but think that one-way designation would make speeds on Fairmont and Girard worse, and accidents at 13th more common. And Girard is one-way westbound from 14th, so would it also be westbound on the 1300 block, or would it be eastbound with no access to 14th?

And Euclid is essentially an arterial there, with lights every block between 13th and 16th and parking on only one side of the 1300 block. Making it one-way would REALLY change the traffic around the whole neighborhood.

By: Drewlove

Drewlove — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:38:26 +0000

I live on the 700 block of Girard St and have had a speed hump directly in front of my house for about two years. I can attest that they only slow down the people who are abiding the speed limit. We still get the crazy speeders who fly over the humps at 40-50 mph. If they make Girard St one way it needs to be eastbound as the adjacent 700 blocks of Fairmont and Gresham are already one-way westbound. Personally I think more one-way streets will lead to more congestion as it gives motorist fewer options.

By: Ray Swore

Ray Swore — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:14:54 +0000

I guess the intention is to make it easier for 14th st traffic to dump onto 13th or Georgia. One Way means cars passing through faster, right? What’s the benefit to residents?

By: mh

mh — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:05:59 +0000

The traffic is terrible going west between 11th & 16th on Columbia Rd & Park Rd – the only decent alternative is Euclid. I’d be very sad if Euclid was made one-way going East! Honestly, the development of Columbia Heights does not seem to have included a workable traffic solution leaving people who need to go through there with a 10 to 20 minute traffic jam during heavy times.

Re speed – I, at least, don’t go fast on Euclid and I don’t see that many other cars going fast, either.

By: Stretch

Stretch — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:47:40 +0000

While we’re at it, I think we should also make the Beltway one-way, with speed humps. I honestly believe that rush-hour traffic would move faster if we did that.

By: Raymo in LeDroit

Raymo in LeDroit — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:54:19 +0000

There should be almost no streets in DC that are not one-way, with speed humps.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:36:57 +0000

@Eli. 3:18 here, I do realize that making a street one-way makes cars go faster. I don’t think I would support making Euclid One-way, unless making it one-way also included plans for speed humps or something. If it were one-way west that would be better b/c most of the speeding is going east (i.e. downhill). I think that was not clear in my original message.

I live on Euclid but have seen no info on the plan or any meeting. If you have the information, please post. Thanks.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:24:29 +0000

Average speed of cars on Girard between 11th and 14th is probably around 45-50 mph. This is also true of the (at minimum) 25 cop cars that generally use this street per day. It’s a great street!

By: Eli

Eli — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:14:44 +0000

@3:18 – you do realize that making a street one way *increases* the speed at which cars can travel (absent other measures), because they no longer have to deal with oncoming traffic. I generally oppose one-way streets.