Where DC is Implementing Its First Slow Streets

• June 8th 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

NOTE: The article has been updated for consistency in how blocks are calculated. Streets that do not intersect but dead-end on the designated street are not counted.

While DC closed out May with blanket speed limit reductions across many "local" streets, Mayor Bowser and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) are now taking another incremental step toward making streets more hospitable for residents to be outside while maintaining distancing recommendations.

Today, the first seven locations subject to the Slow Streets initiative were announced for the following locations:

• The roughly 8 blocks of 19th Street NW between Dupont Circle and Biltmore Street, as well as "most of" the blocks of Biltmore Street and Cliffbourne Place NW;
• The roughly 10 blocks of 36th Street NW between Connecticut Avenue and Reno Road NW;
• The roughly 12 blocks of 8th Street NW between Piney Branch Road and Missouri Avenue NW;
• The roughly 8 blocks of Newton Street NE between 12th Street and South Dakota Avenue NE;
• The roughly 9 blocks of 12th Street NE between K and East Capitol Streets NE;
• The roughly 3 blocks of Grant Street NE between 46th Street and Minnesota Avenue NE;
• The roughly 2 blocks of 15th Street SE between Mississippi Avenue and Savanah Street SE, and the roughly 5 blocks of 15th Place SE between Alabama Avenue and Bruce Place SE.

These streets will have a speed limit of 15 miles per hour, and drivers are meant to only use the designated streets if their destination is within two blocks. Additional Slow Streets are expected to be designated over the next 12 weeks.

“Mayor Bowser’s DC Slow Streets initiative makes our streets safer, and as the weather continues to improve, this gives residents needed additional space to exercise in support of overall physical and mental health during the pandemic,” DDOT Director Jeff Marootian said in a statement. 

Thumbnail is a GoogleMaps image of 19th Street NW.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/where-dc-is-implementing-its-first-slow-streets/16928.