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I want to thank the residents and community leaders who have contacted me about the installation of parking meters on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue in Anacostia. Let me begin by saying that I have directed our staff to remove the parking meters today. They were installed without notice to the community, an oversight I apologize for on behalf of DDOT. They were also installed prematurely: in the coming weeks DDOT will begin a streetscape project along MLK, between Good Hope and Howard Roads. It is more prudent to install the meters after the construction is completed.

Contractor Removing Meter

DDOT has been working with community leaders, the business development community, the ANC’s and DC Council staff to identify potential commercial corridors in Ward 8 that could and should be metered to encourage turnover in the spaces.  It is still our intent to add meters on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue after the streetscape project is finished next year, and after we have properly consulted with and notified the community.

Pay By Phone Parking

It is also our intent to install intelligent, networked single-space meters, multi-space meters and pay by cell technology to make the corridor user friendly for shoppers and the community in general.  These new meters will take credit cards in additon to cash. I am working with our staff to identify the funding for the new meters.

DDOT does not carry excess meter inventory; all of our assets are deployed in the field. It’s also worth noting that 60 percent of DDOT’s parking meters are considered beyond their useful life.  These are the coin only single space meters and they are deployed in commercial areas across the District. It is also standard practice for us to relocate these meters as needed and as more areas come online. The single space meters are also predominately used in what we call “normal” demand zones where the rate is $0.75 per hour, and newer, more expensive meters are deployed in “premium” demand zones where the rate is $2.00/hour.

Solar Powered, Networked Meters

Having said that, DDOT is looking at options to replace all of its older assets with new, networked, credit card accepting meters.  This will improve system reliability and customer service.

In addition, DDOT launched pay by phone service as a payment option for parking in July 2011.  The system has close to 165,000 customers already and has accounted for more than 650,000 transactions.  It has been the most successful pay by cell launch globally.  Customers are encouraged to use the system for parking on a regular basis, especially when they get to a meter that is not working or not accepting their preferred form of payment. We will expand the pay by phone service to Anacostia when the meters are installed after the construction is completed.

Again, thank you for being passionate about your community and for contacting me about this issue. It is our goal to provide equal service to every ward and every resident of the District, and we welcome your help in ensuring we do it right.

Terry Bellamy
Director

One of the highlights of the week for us was the ribbon cutting celebrating the restoration of Old Market House Square in historic Anacostia. What it lacked in fanfare and glitz, was more than made up for by the community pride on display for a job well done.

As this old photo taken a century ago shows, the park - in the median on 14^th Street, SE between U and V Streets – has been the centerpiece of the community for a long time. It has shown its age recently however, suffering from neglect and becoming more of an eyesore than a bustling neighborhood gathering place.

But rather than accept the park’s fate, a small group of church patrons, historians, community advocates, business district leaders, and residents banded together and decided to do something about it. They formed the Friends of Old Market House Square Park and began the arduous process of raising the funds and support needed to restore the park to its former glory. it was not an easy task. A generous offer from the nonprofit TKF foundation of Maryland came with a catch: it was a challenge grant which meant the Friends of Old Market House Square Park needed to raise more money to match that donation. They perservered though and got additional funding from DDOT and an Earmark from Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry.

Finally, in April of this year, all the pieces were in place and the group broke ground on their labor of love.

It took just 7 months to complete the work… but it was the culmination of a much longer effort.

At the ribbon cutting, Carolyn Johns Gray, a member of the community group, said, “Seven years of work here finally resulted in what you see here today.”

“It is really amazing to be here to see the transformation of the park from what it was when this project started to what it is today, said Donald Cryer, the Senior Warden at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church which fronts the square. “It is hard to believe this could be done.”

The park now boasts new lighting, benches, paths, handicap ramps, grass and trees. DDOT also installed new sidewalks and curbs and repaved the roadway around the square. Residents can match wits on the built-in chess tables, read to children on colorful mushroom shaped seats, or reflect quietly on a bench made from recycled 200 year old pickle barrel wood.

DDOT is very proud to have played a part in the restoration of the park. It looks great, but the lion’s share of the credit for this project belongs to the hardworking, determined community coalition – led by Marie Zackrie – that wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept after it, and kept after it, until they got it done.

Congratulations!

John Lisle
Director of Communications

It’s hard to miss the largest infrastructure project DDOT has ever undertaken – the current construction of the new 11^th Street Bridges – but there is another impressive project underway along the banks of the Anacostia River that hasn’t gotten quite as much attention. The Anacostia Riverwalk Trail is another important addition to the District’s transportation network, connecting walkers and cyclists to their homes, jobs, shopping and recreation sites.

Work on the Trail is already well underway. With more than $25 million invested, 12 of 20 miles are complete, including segments linking Diamond Teague Park, the Pumphouse, the Yards, Navy Yard, RFK Stadium, River Terrace and Anacostia Park. The rest are in planning, design or under construction in coordination with the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. DOT and other agencies.

The District trail will eventually link to 39 miles of trails in Maryland where DC Mayor Vincent Gray recently joined Governor Martin O’Malley, Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar for a ribbon cutting ceremony marking Maryland’s completion of 1.5 miles of trail near the border in Bladensburg.

The “Anacostia’s Great Outdoors” event also celebrated the progress made restoring the Anacostia River Watershed. Mayor Gray said, “Working with Maryland and our federal partners to invest in our trails and parks, we will bring new life and greater economic stability to the communities, parklands and habitat that run along the Anacostia River and in doing so, make the Anacostia a national showcase for urban parks and habitat restoration.”

The Riverwalk Trail is a key component of the larger Anacostia Waterfront Initiative (AWI) launched more than a decade ago. The trail will allow District residents and visitors to walk and bike along the river to numerous destinations including the Fish Wharf, Nationals Park, Poplar Point, the Navy Yard, historic Anacostia, RFK stadium, Kingman Island, the National Arboretum, and the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens.

By Spring 2012, construction will be complete on two new pedestrian bridges on both sides of the river connecting South Capitol Street to Benning Road. Design of the Kenilworth Gardens segment, which will connect Benning Road in the District to the Bladensburg Trail in Maryland, is 65 percent done and scheduled to conclude in the summer. Construction is planned to begin by the end of 2012.

Once completed, there will be close to 60 miles of contiguous trails in the Anacostia River Watershed, an expansive transportation network for those who prefer walking and bicycling to get around the District and beyond.

At a Council hearing on Wednesday, November 2, there was a great deal of discussion about how to make cycling safer in the District. The testimony included calls for greater protections for bicyclists, better enforcement of existing laws and the installation of more bike infrastructure. DDOT has been working to make the District more bicycle friendly for years and that effort includes studying and replicating successful strategies used in other cities and countries around the world. Below is a firsthand account by DDOT Bicycle Program Specialist Mike Goodno of his recent trip to the Netherlands with Supervisory Traffic Safety Engineeer James Cheeks. Even if we can’t implement everything they saw, they came back with some great ideas.

James Cheeks and Mike Goodno in Nijmegen

In early October, James Cheeks and I, along with city transportation officials from Chicago and Miami, attended a one-week study tour of bicycling design best practices in the Netherlands.

During our visit, we travelled to seven cities (Utrecht, Zwolle, Groningen, Nijmegen, Tilburg, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam) to meet with local planners, engineers, and elected officials about how the Dutch make their cities such inviting places for bicyclists.

From my perspective, one of a transportation planner from a car-dominated country, I saw a simple, yet utopian vision of a place that put an increased emphasis on biking: children biking to school, people cycling to work, parents biking with children, and bikes with baskets filled with groceries. And even though most bicyclists didn’t wear helmets, biking was safe: In a country where nearly everyone rides a bike, drivers (who are often riders themselves) expect to encounter bicyclists and know how to interact safely with them.

A major component in the Netherlands’ effort to encourage bicycling is its emphasis on building bicycle infrastructure, which the Dutch treat as an equal mode of transportation.

In low-speed environments, it’s generally acceptable for bikes and cars to share the road.  However, when speeds differ substantially, or bicycle volume is very high, physically separated, red-tinted bike paths are installed. At controlled intersections, cyclists usually have their own traffic signals, some of which have advance bike loop detectors, ensuring that cyclists receive a green light when they reach the intersection.

Tilburg Fietstraat ("Bike Street")

If the right-of-way is narrow, and bicycle volume is greater than that of cars, the Dutch sometimes designate a roadway as a bicycle-priority street.  Physical cues such as raised intersections, red-tined asphalt, and signs are installed with a picture of a car following a bicycle with the text, “auto is guest.”

Below are some notable observations that I took away from my time in the Netherlands:

• Nationally, 27 percent of all trips are taken by bike (in the United States, it’s 1 percent).  More than 50 percent of the trips in two of the cities were taken by bike (in the District, it’s 3 percent).
• Nearly everyone in the Netherlands is a cyclist, and there are more bicycles than people. 60 percent of the Dutch cycle at least three times a week; 80 percent cycle at least once a week.
• Most children begin learning to cycle at 3 or 4, and receive traffic education each year in primary school culminating in an on-road skills test.
• The Dutch don’t believe cyclists are dangerous, they believe cars and car drivers are a primary safety hazard.  Therefore, car drivers are almost always liable when a collision with a bicycle occurs and are required to adapt their speed when bicycles share the roads with cyclists.
• 55 percent of all cyclists are women in the Netherlands; this figure is 26 percent in the United States.

If you want to learn more about our trip, please contact me at 202-671-0681 or at Mike.Goodno@dc.gov. To see more photos please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/ddotphotos/sets/72157628044401170/.

March 7, 2012 Update: Streetfilms just posted a great video recap of this tour with interviews of the participants, including James and Mike.

From the Netherlands to America: Translating the World’s Best Bikeway Designs from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

This week we will complete the move to our new consolidated headquarters at 55 M Street, SE and begin an exciting new chapter at DDOT. I want to thank Mayor Gray for trusting me to guide this great agency as we move forward to implement his transportation priorities for the District of Columbia.

The Mayor has proclaimed this “Public Works Week” in the District to honor the men and women at DDOT and the District Department of Public Works (DPW) who deliver a wide range of services to our residents every day. We have tremendous talent at DDOT and a dedicated workforce of 900 employees. Their hard work each and every day makes this agency stand out as a model for the type of 21^st century service government agencies can and should deliver. DDOT Delivers. That’s our motto and we take pride in backing it up with action and measurable results.

We’ve also established a reputation for innovation and progressive transportation initiatives. I want to assure our residents we will continue to lead and look for new and better ways to move people around the District. We will continue to expand our bicycle infrastructure and our trail network; continue to expand our wildly successful Capital Bikeshare system; continue to launch more initiatives including LED streetlights and green alleys that create green jobs; and continue to plan and construct the DC Streetcar system. Mayor Gray has made his commitment clear and I share his vision for the District’s transportation future.

At the same time, it is important we don’t neglect the critical services we provide and our residents depend on. I want to make sure we focus on our “core business”, that we promptly respond to service requests, fill the potholes on time, maintain our roads and sidewalks, plant trees, clear the snow, keep traffic moving and ensure our pedestrians and cyclists have safe passage. These are the things that make us stand out on a daily basis, because at heart we are a service agency. If you spread yourself too thin, stray too far from your core business, then you can shoot yourself in the foot as you’re trying to race forward.

There’s no doubt DDOT is on the move – I am extremely proud of what our staff has already accomplished – I just want to ensure we are in great shape as an agency to reach our goals. I look forward to working with all of you to improve and expand our transportation system in the coming years.

Terry Bellamy

The District is going through a re-transformation, as are many cities across the United States.

People flocked to urban areas in the first half of the 20^th century, fled to the suburbs in the 2^nd half, and are rediscovering the historic beauty, convenience, and livability of our urban cores in the 21^st century.  For the first time in 40 years, Washington D.C. is growing again with 30k new residents over the last decade as of the recent census.

We saw vehicle registrations fall by 11% over the last 3 years, and in the same period saw biking grow by 82%.  [Click here for more info]

When we work to create a vibrant, livable, healthy and safe city focused on residents well-being, we go back to some aspects of a Washington D.C. with 200k more residents that many of us have just read about, or seen pictures of, but never lived in:

Whether it’s the Streetcar, the prevalence of walking and biking, or the vibrant downtown core…. It’s all coming back.  With more residents, we have a broader tax base to provide better services for all of us.  Better schools, transportation, less debt.

So what does all of this mean?  It means that the work done by thousands in DC over the last 12 years is paying off, and we are one of the cities that is now benefiting from this movement, and many cities that did not aggressively reinvent themselves are stagnating.   We are now seeing a snowball effect in the District over the last few years by all measures.  I am proud that DDOT doing its part, with streetscape reconstructions, and the introduction of many attractive, safe and low cost transportation options for our existing residents, and for our new residents that don’t bring a car (or 2) into the city.   This money that would have been spent on a capital asset/vehicle can now be put into the local economy, into savings, better housing, or starting a business in the city (AAA estimates almost $10k a yr!  That buys you a lot more housing).  We also can attract more residents because their money will go farther in the District…. if we tell the story: separating transportation and housing costs.  DC can actually be a cheaper place to live! With our improvements in schools, public safety, public spaces, and the expanded transportation options, suddenly DC has a better quality of life as well, and is a place you choose to raise a family vs. the suburbs.

Over the last few months, we started to compile our achievements for the updated Action Agenda and Annual Report.  I was actually amazed by how much the 1000 strong DDOT team has accomplished over the last 12, and 24 months.  I am pleased to announce the 2010 Action Agenda and Report:  [Click here for copy of 2010 Action Agenda Progress Report!!!]

Here are just a few of the highlights:

1. Funded and kicked off construction of the largest project in DDOT history: The 11^th Street Bridges
2. Capital Bikeshare: the largest bikesharing system in the United States
3. ARRA funding kicks off 13 additional projects for $124 million
4. Great Streets projects escalated and started: Nannie Helen Burroughs, Pennsylvania Ave SE, H/Benning
5. Facelift for the Agency: New website, Twitter (5000 followers), Facebook (1000), Scribd (documents), Flickr, Youtube in-house videos and more…
6. DTAP 2.0 launched on heels of 1.0 beta with new project portal, safety, transit, road condition, finance…
7. Continuous Process Improvement culture instilled at DDOT:  Sigma Black belt training, DTAP, DDOT University
8. Snowmageddeon: biggest storm in DC history… and we survived
9. Summer-Stormageddeon: DDOT Trees and Traffic Operations coordinate emergency response for thousands of District residents with trees down, and without power
10. Filled over 7,500 thousand potholes during potholepalooza
11. Hundreds of thousands of hours of Traffic Control and School Crossing Guard service
12. First high speed, curbside electric charging stations in the U.S.
13. Multi-Modal Station pilot for rollout in 2011 to bus shelters with Federal grant money
14. Streetcar initial line segments funded, Program Management Team hired, Progressive Transportation Services put together, 37 mile Streetcar System Plan adopted
15. Circulator Bus expanded, turnkey contract signed that rolls bus and facilities costs together
16. With a $16 million snow overrun last winter, our Finance team flexed the unified fund, we balanced the budget to +$67 for the 2010 fiscal year
17. Completed the new Farragut facility for front line workers, got $65 million lease signed for new Leed Certified office building at 55 M Street SE
18. Conducted numerous parking pilots in2010 and our advances in the parking program were noticed by Donald Shoup, the preeminent parking guru:     ”Washington is taking the lead in this country and almost throughout the world,” said UCLA professor Donald Shoup, author of “The High Cost of Free Parking.” “Washington has started its [parking] reforms at just the right time, when there’s so much new technology available.”    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062804850.html
19. Built DC’s first separated cycle tracks  as a safety initiative to protect cyclists
20. Installed 67 Leading pedestrian intervals to give pedestrians the jump on vehicular traffic at intersections
21. Rolled out the citywide “Livability Program” to address traffic calming and quality of life holistically, and systematically, using the entire tool-box
22. Rebranded Urban Forestry DDOT Trees, worked towards a “participatory model,” and planted 3,750 trees
23. Launched the online permitting system, and enhanced it so that you can now print permits in your office or at home
24. Partnered with Arlington County on a Transportation Demand Management program (goDCgo.com) and Bikesharing and Circulator Bus
25. We had fun doing it every day!

For these innovations, and hundreds of others, I am eternally grateful to the amazing DDOT team, which has new members brought in over the last two years, and teammates that have devoted a ½ century to the agency.   One of the things I am proudest of is the alignment behind a shared vision throughout the agency (that took 8 months to build, share, tweak), and an extremely fast, organized execution which shows that we all bought in.

In closing, what I have hopefully taught, and have definitely learned from the amazing team at DDOT and in the D.C. Government as a whole, is:  Never let anyone tell you “it can’t be done,” always have passion for your work (or do something that will) and tell the public what you are doing so that they can work with you.

Keep up the excellent progress D.C., and let’s make sure that DDOT continues to improve, and of course always delivers!

-Gabe Klein