Pedestrians and Bikes Only on 18th Street? More Proposals Emerge to Calm Traffic in Adams Morgan

• February 13, 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

In December, Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 1C in Adams Morgan proposed enacting a pilot program that would limit vehicular traffic along the busiest strip of 18th Street NW on weekend nights. Now, the commission is moving forward to engage with the community, and more options are already on the table.

Community members have added a suite of proposals for the 18th Street corridor in addition to an initial proposal to convert five existing parking zones between Columbia Road and Florida Avenue NW into designated pick-up and drop-off zones between 8pm and 4am on Friday and Saturday nights. Additional proposals for those hours now include:

• Designating a portion of 18th Street as a pedestrian- and bicyclist-only zone. The zone would start at Columbia Road and end at either Kalorama Road, Belmont Road or Colonial Parking Lot 462. This option would also incorporate geo-fencing to restrict passenger loading to the perimeter of the zone.
• Designating the existing parking on a stretch of 18th Street as vehicular loading-only zones, starting at Columbia Road and ending at either Kalorama Road, Belmont Road or Colonial Parking Lot 462.
• Using geo-fence technology to steer passenger loading to higher-capacity streets like Columbia Road and off 18th Street and side streets.
• Extending the "sidewalk" area to include the parking lane along stretches of 18th Street.
• Rerouting Metrobus lines 90, 96 and X3 to push them onto Columbia Road, T Street and Florida Avenue.
• Installing traffic calming measures like rumble strips, lower speed limits and improved lighting.
• Implementing sobriety checkpoints on the perimeter of the main corridor.

ANC 1C plans to continue engaging the community on their preferences for the corridor through the spring; a vote for a proposal could come as early as June.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/more-proposals-emerge-to-calm-traffic-in-adams-morgan/13563