Tuesday, June 14, 2011

What's Wrong With the Connecticut Avenue Service Lane? Take a Look at This Photo and You'll Know

Blind man forced off narrow sidewalk on
Connecticut Ave between Macomb and Ordway Streets
The hot issue on our companion email list, the Cleveland Park Listserv, has been whether to turn the service lane into a pedestrian-friendly sidewalk. The service lane is on the east side of Connecticut Avenue between Macomb and Ordway Streets.

We've written about this before, but today we wanted to do the "picture is worth a thousand words" thing: We photographed a blind man being forced to walk in the service lane because the sidewalk is too narrow, dangerously narrow. People are routinely forced to walk where cars go, as this blind man did. Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic at the time. But fate could have treated things differently.

The service lane between Macomb and Ordway Streets should be replaced with a wide, pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

Connecticut Avenue's west side is a pleasure to walk along, and has inviting outdoor cafes. The east side of Connecticut Avenue is crowded, cramped and pedestrian-unfriendly. The service lane, especially where cars turn at Connecticut and Ordway, is dangerous. A fix is needed and that fix is to to return the block to the way it was originally, before the sidewalk was narrowed to make room for parking.

You can sign the petition to restore the Connecticut Avenue Boulevard here. And read about the Connecticut Avenue "I Wish I Was a Sidewalk" campaign here.

The service lane is an anomaly; there isn't another service lane along Connecticut Avenue between Calvert Street and Chevy Chase. It doesn't belong.

In a post, a Cleveland Park Listserv member wrote: "I have been frustrated by the inability to walk along the strip doing errands or getting to the Metro because the sidewalk is so narrow at places....I have seen dangerous situations where people step off (or are forced off) the sidewalk -- sometimes into the path of oncoming traffic on the service lane. This is a particular problem for older or mobility-impaired persons....The aesthetics are also lacking -- all the trees are on the other side of the service lane, leaving our commercial strip bare and without shade or shelter."

In a recent survey conducted on the Cleveland Park Listserv, people want to do away with the service lane by an overwhelming two-to-one margin (65% to 31%).

We have a choice. And the best possible choice is to return the service lane to pedestrians.


16 comments:

  1. As you can see, the sidewalk was not blocked with tables and chairs or things like that, but with some people that would have stepped aside if they were aware of him. That is, it was not the narrow sidewalk that made him walk in the street but his deciding that because he heard no sound of approaching auto tires that it was easier to do so.

    Leaders from the CPCA and the ANC that have actually looked at the issues involved in removing the Connecticut Avenue Service Road have all concluded that it is interconnected to other problems and must be decided as part of a comprehensive plan rather than by a simple petition. I agree.

    Removing /revamping the Service Road is an issue that seems to come up every two or three years. Nothing ever comes of it because it is the type of problem that gets more complex the more you examine it (including short term parking, rush hour lanes, deliveries, the metro vents and exit, ripping out the trees and pedestrian concerns). There are so many issues on all sides (four or five sides) that there is never a consensus. Even if the locals could agree, the District Department of Transportation needs to concur and we would have to make a case that a change was not only logical and nice, but needed.

    It makes reopening Klingle Road to cars simple and straight forward (which it is).

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  2. Those who don't want a wide sidewalk couch their opposition with phrases like it's "interconnected to other problems and must be decided as part of a comprehensive plan" and "it is the type of problem that gets more complex the more you examine it."

    It's not complicated at all. Just look at Connecticut Avenue from the White House to Chevy Chase Circle. No service lanes. Nada. Not a single one. And nobody is asking for anywhere else. Why? Because narrow sidewalks impede pedestrians, because they are ugly, because they stymie local businesses (foot traffic is much better for most local businesses than cars), because they are not historic, because they are pedestrian dangers.

    What makes this one block strip in Cleveland Park so special that the service lane needs to be preserved? Nothing, except the fear of change.

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  3. I have to agree with Gabe on this one. The sidewalk wasn't impassible at all. Far from it, really, consider there are maybe a half dozen people visible in the photo (and that includes the blind guy). It just looks like the blind dude chose the path of least resistance, rather than bother others to move out of his way. I probably would have done likewise if no traffic was coming.

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  4. I can't imagine what it's like to be blind. And I won't presume to know what happened to cause that man to have to step into the road. But it's a problem that can and should be fixed. And as anyone who's walked the service lane sidewalk knows, things are a A LOT worse on weekends.

    But there are a lot of other reasons to make the sidewalk wider. It's the HISTORIC way things were. The service lane isn't historic at all. And this is an HISTORIC district. A wide sidewalk is a lot more visual pleasing than a line of cars. I walk along the service lane a lot and I'm often treated to cars hoking at other cars that have stopped to wait for somebody who's run into a store for "just a second."

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  5. I have lived in the neighborhood for 15 years, and I avoid the businesses along that stretch because I find the sidewalk too narrow and annoying to navigate, especially evenings and weekends.

    I like the idea of a European-style shared street. Raise the service lane to sidewalk level, make it clear that cars must share the way with pedestrians, and limit parking to 15-30 minutes.

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  6. That has more to do with people who see nothing wrong with walking with walking 3 or 4 abreast on a sidewalk than it does with the service lane configuration. As someone who walks wide swathes of DC on a regular basis, thereby seeing a diverse range of sidewalk widths (not to mention working as an urban planner in approximately 20-30 communities across the country per year and seeing a pretty wide variation of streetscape design), I think the larger issue is sidewalk etiquette and the ignorance/obliviousness of some people. This is no different than the people blithely standing on the left side of a metro escalator. It's about common courtesy and a minimal level of spatial awareness.

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  7. On Cleveland Park Day last October, I commented to former CPCA president John Chelen that Connecticut Avenue should be a boulevard all year long. He replied that it would cost $100,000 from the D.C. city government and that, in this economy, rasing such funds is unlikely.

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  8. The other issue is that, if parking spots are eliminated or restricted to shorter times, those who park on the service road and on the opposite side of the island will then seek parking on the residential streets - primarily Ordway and McComb. It's difficult enough for residents to park close to their homes on certain evenings (i.e. Thursday through Saturday) and eliminating those Conn Ave spots for the sake of outdoor dining or slightly more walking room would cause enormous headaches. I'd love to have a more pedstrian friendly walkway, but unless sufficient replacement parking can a part of the plan, it's not going to be an easy sell.

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  9. Parking, parking, parking. Maybe, just maybe, when people learn that there's no longer a service lane available for parking, they'll think to themselves, "We'd better take Metro." Fewer spaces does not automatically mean that there will be more congestion on nearby streets: It may turn out to be just the opposite. We may see fewer cars in Cleveland Park.

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  10. Or maybe those who park on the service road should consider some other way of getting around besides their car. Walking, for instance. Or biking. Or taking a bus. Or taking a train. Cleveland Park isn't, you know, Gainesville or Damascus. It's an urban neighborhood that is extraordinarily walkable and well-served by public transit.

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  11. Fix the name of the campaign and I'll sign: I wish I WERE a sidewalk! :)

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  12. The poster who indicated that she rarely finds an available space among the access lane parking spaces highlights the problem with the Cleveland Park business district at present -- there is not enough parking at present. And, during the morning and evening rush hours, the parking in the access lane is the ONLY available parking, other than side streets and the ParkNShop lot. During the day, during evenings, and on weekends, the parking demand outstrips the supply, including the thirty spaces contributed by the access lane.

    As another poster indicated, the businesses on the access lane side of the strip are the ones that need short-term convenient parking: dry cleaners, the bank, etc. And, unlike the other business strips along Connecticut Avenue, the Cleveland Park section does not have blocks of residential streets immediately behind the shopping strip where customers can park for a few minutes. The Cleveland Park strip thus lacks the neighborhood parking support that is available further up Connecticut Avenue.

    Those who say, "Let them walk" are ignoring reality. People with young children, the elderly, etc. cannot walk to the Connecticut Avenue business district to do any major shopping. If you are pushing a stroller and perhaps attending to a young child, you cannot feasibly walk even two blocks with dry cleaning and laundry in tow or to do grocery shopping.

    Moreover, like it or not, the majority of Cleveland Park is suburban-style housing. We have rigorous historic district protections designed to keep it that way. It is not Dupont Circle. While the apartment buildings along Connecticut Avenue help somewhat, overall the neighborhood does not have the population density to support a vibrant commercial district that relies exclusively on foot traffic.

    All this leads to one inevitable conclusion: it would be nuts to remove/reduce the existing parking that is already insufficient to support the current parking demand. That will only makes things less convenient for shoppers and will harm the businesses that require short-term convenient parking. And, removing parking spaces will not increase pedestrian traffic. If people cannot drive and park to patronize the shops, they will generally just drive elsewhere where there is convenient parking.

    The parking situation on the Wisconsin Avenue business strip has given a major advantage to those businesses located there. That advantage is about to disappear because Giant's development plan was approved even though it does not provide the minimum amount of parking required by the zoning code. Thus, the parking shortage on Connecticut Avenue will soon be duplicated on Wisconsin Avenue. Stay tuned for that one.

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  13. Is the fear of change higher in Cleveland Park than other neighborhoods? I'm not sure. But what I am sure about is that there's nothing special about Cleveland Park or that block that requires a service lane.

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  14. To the 11:22am poster who said that the name of the campaign should be "I wish I WERE a sidewalk": There's some disagreement among grammarians about the use of the subjunctive following the word "wish." English-at-home.com says that a simple past tense is correct: See http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/using-wish/ I've also read that the subjunctive is preferred when the situation is improbable (e.g., If I WERE you -- since I can never become you). But if the outcome is something that could actually occur, then the simple past tense is preferred (e.g., If the service lane WAS to become a sidewalk...) That could certainly happen, and so "was" may be used in this case.

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  15. The poster who indicated that she rarely finds an available space among the access lane parking spaces highlights the problem with the Cleveland Park business district at present -- there is not enough parking at present. And, during the morning and evening rush hours, the parking in the access lane is the ONLY available parking, other than side streets and the ParkNShop lot. During the day, during evenings, and on weekends, the parking demand outstrips the supply, including the thirty spaces contributed by the access lane.

    As another poster indicated, the businesses on the access lane side of the strip are the ones that need short-term convenient parking: dry cleaners, the bank, etc. And, unlike the other business strips along Connecticut Avenue, the Cleveland Park section does not have blocks of residential streets immediately behind the shopping strip where customers can park for a few minutes. The Cleveland Park strip thus lacks the neighborhood parking support that is available further up Connecticut Avenue.

    Those who say, "Let them walk" are ignoring reality. People with young children, the elderly, etc. cannot walk to the Connecticut Avenue business district to do any major shopping. If you are pushing a stroller and perhaps attending to a young child, you cannot feasibly walk even two blocks with dry cleaning and laundry in tow or to do grocery shopping.

    Moreover, like it or not, the majority of Cleveland Park is suburban-style housing. We have rigorous historic district protections designed to keep it that way. It is not Dupont Circle. While the apartment buildings along Connecticut Avenue help somewhat, overall the neighborhood does not have the population density to support a vibrant commercial district that relies exclusively on foot traffic.

    All this leads to one inevitable conclusion: it would be nuts to remove/reduce the existing parking that is already insufficient to support the current parking demand. That will only makes things less convenient for shoppers and will harm the businesses that require short-term convenient parking. And, removing parking spaces will not increase pedestrian traffic. If people cannot drive and park to patronize the shops, they will generally just drive elsewhere where there is convenient parking.

    The parking situation on the Wisconsin Avenue business strip has given a major advantage to those businesses located there. That advantage is about to disappear because Giant's development plan was approved even though it does not provide the minimum amount of parking required by the zoning code. Thus, the parking shortage on Connecticut Avenue will soon be duplicated on Wisconsin Avenue. Stay tuned for that one.

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  16. Gabe Fineman is correct. While I would like to see a different configuration here, the issue IS complicated, requires a lot of thought and hopefully will result in a community consensus (including by the businesses). I try to walk to the Conn. Ave. strip whenever I can, but the fact is that there are a lot of neighbors for whom walking any distance is a challenge. Add to that the fact that many customers going to businesses like the dry cleaner, the vacuum store, etc., need the ability to park briefly nearby. I welcome the diversity of businesses in Cleveland Park, but would willingly trade off having another wine bar to two so that I don't have to drive to the Rockville Pike to repair an appliance or buy vacuum bags. We want those "ordinary", neighborhood-serving businesses to stay.

    Parking in Cleveland Park is limited. While one hopes that a lot of people walk or take transit, the fact that the restaurants want valet parking is pretty good evidence that even vibrant urban hipsters drive (or that not all restaurant patrons take public transit). The Chevy Chase DC commercial strip has wide sidewalks and is the closest analogy to Cleveland Park, many of those businesses have ample parking lots. With the exception of the Park'n'Shop, Cleveland Park businesses do not.

    I would think that an altenative to the current service road might be to replace the current median between Connecticut Avenue and the service road with a dedicated channel of parking that would not go away at rush hour. Add to this a few spaces to be gained on Macomb and Ordway by the closure of the service road. Set the parking meters so that spaces turn over rapidly during the day, so that short-term parking is more availabe. The result would be a sidewalk that is almost as wide as the west side, with some dedicated parking all the time. The problem, of course, is that while only a few spaces would be lost at rush hour, the new configuration would result in many fewer spaces than present during non-rush hours. Moreover, the placement of Metro vents would preclude some parking spots and existing lighting and (mostly small) trees would have to be replaced. There is obviously cost involved, and further study is warranted.

    In the meantime, though, can't we try to get rid of the outdoor soda vending machines and the free paper/flyer boxes, which result in physical (and visual) clutter on the present narrow sidewalks?

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