South Dakota Ave

A SAFER SOUTH DAKOTA IS POSSIBLE

Bottom Line Up Front

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT), in partnership with Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker, kicked off a South Dakota Avenue Corridor Safety Project with two initial meetings on May 30 and June 1, 2024.  Here is DDOT's Presentation on the project.

DDOT is going to study a 3-mile segment of South Dakota Ave from Bladensburg Road to Riggs Road NE, develop and analyze concepts, and then select a final concept to design and build.  This project intends to reconfigure the road and make South Dakota Avenue safer.

Feedback for Round 1 of the project is closed.  We are now waiting on DDOT to assess the feedback and move to Round 2.

Personal photo from October 19, 2022 showing a Ford truck with its front end completely smashed because it rear ended a Cadillac SUV.

Personal Photo from October 19, 2022.

Why This Project

I expect every neighbor has a story of a wreck or close call on South Dakota Avenue NE.  Here's one of mine from 2022 (pictured).  They range from fender benders all the way to tragedies.

South Dakota's design incentivizes speeding, red-light running, and dangerous behaviors.  While speed cameras can help, they are expensive, only target small areas, and DC has challenges enforcing the ticketsA location on South Dakota Avenue is in the top 15 for issuing tickets.  Has it really gotten better? No!

What Are The Issues on South Dakota Ave?

The Large Word "Speeding" with a graphic of a speedometer and a speed camera.

South Dakota already has high ATE coverage (7 Speed Cameras, 1 red light camera).

The large words "Crashes at HIN intersections" with a graphic of a car hitting a post.

Intersection treatments are needed at Rhode Island and Bladensburg Road.

The words "Crash Risk" with a graphic of people.

Risk crosswalks need safety treatments, especially near schools.

The words "Quality of life" with a graphic of a house.

The Residential Community is bisected by a noisy major street. 

Image from Twitter showing a wrecked car on South Dakota Avenue right outside of the school where the DDOT in-person South Dakota safety study was kicked off on June 1, 2024.

From: https://x.com/FixCircle/status/1796900467294839088 , literally out front of the DDOT South Dakota Corridor Safety Project Kickoff Meeting on June 1, 2024.

Slide from DDOT's Presentation on South Dakota Avenue.  The slide shows the Crash History of South Dakota Avenue with Data from 2018 to 2023.  During this time it at 1,027 total crashes with 433 injuries and 3 fatalities.

DDOT Presentation on South Dakota Avenue presented on May 30 and June 1, 2024 showing 1,027 total crashes throughout the road, including fatalities, from 2018-2023.

South Dakota CAn Be Safer For All

I believe folks using South Dakota to drive to work or Costco, walk to school or church, or bicycle to nearby errands just want to get to their destinations safely.  I also believe the design of South Dakota Avenue unfortunately incentivizes UNINTENTIONAL bad behaviors from people -- drivers in particular.  Americans, and people in the DMV in particular, are experts at saving time.  We actively look for ways to shave a minute off our daily commutes.  However, we are also human and fallible, so even though a rolling-stop may be safe 90% of the time and save a few seconds, there will be one day it results in "driver error."  It does not have to be this way.  It is proven streets can be redesigned to be much safer.  

On the last point, however, how often are you inconvenienced from a wreck?  Think about it.  Wouldn't it be nice if your commute didn't get thrown off from a wreck closing the street?  Wouldn't it be nice to not suddenly have massive amounts of cut-through traffic because drivers are looking for ways around a crash?  Wouldn't it be nice for the people in the wreck not to have their lives inconvenienced or in some cases, shattered?  I think so.

The Plan is a Road Diet

Slide from the South Dakota Avenue presentation: "What is a Road Diet and why is it safer?"  It explains road diets are reconfigurations of typically 4 lane roadways to 3 or 2 lanes and extra space is repurposed.  On average after a road diet the total crash reduction is 20% for all modes of transit.  Also the slide shows South Dakota Avenue in 1962 only had 3 lanes (1 lane each direction and a center turn lane).

What Do You Do With The Extra Space?

While DDOT presented 3 possible options, no solution is without tradeoffs.  The point of the study is to work out all the details and considerations to return in the Fall to discuss the options more in depth.  Keeping in mind the technique planned is a road diet, which is a reconfiguration of a 4 lane roadway to 3 or 2 lanes and repurposing the extra space.  Rebuilding the street, reconfiguring the sidewalks and curbs, would be prohibitively expensive and a major reason other past huge efforts in DC ended up failing.  We do not have $30 or $40 million dollars on the table, we have $1 to maybe $3 million for this.  

It's either take advantage and gain safety or stick with the status quo for years.

In the meantime, the 3 options are:

3 Lanes + Parking

3 Lanes + Parking & 2-Way PBL

3 Lanes + PBL

Ah Hah, It's a Bike Project?

Okay, I ask you: what should the extra space be used for?

Sure, you could use it for parking, planters, or just let it go fallow.  However, if it isn't parking -- which is likely to be underutilized along South Dakota Avenue -- why waste the space?

DDOT themselves state, "Research shows that protected bike lanes significantly improve the safety of bicyclists and increase safety for pedestrians and drivers."  This has also been noted by Forbes, the Urban Institute, and WUSA/Channel 9.  DDOT further defines a PBL as, "having a physical separation between motor vehicle travel and the bike lane. This can be a row of parked cars, a concrete curb, and/or flex posts and wheel stops." 

It makes sense to me to repurpose the space that needs to be reduced to meet the goal of a road diet -- safety -- in order to facilitate transportation alternatives.  Feedback for Round 1 is closed.

Here is the joint letter I signed with the other Commissioners representing a large segment of the South Dakota Avenue Safety Study road diet target area on August 15, 2024.

Project Schedule

Timeline showing Round 1 Public Meetings Summer 2024, Round 2 Public Meetings Fall 2024, Round 3 Public Meetings Winter 2024/2025, NOI for Project Segment Spring 2025, and Construction Summer 2025.

HOW Did We Get Here?

While I did what I could as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and resident of the District of Columbia to move this along, I am incredibly grateful to the continued, sustained efforts by Councilmember Parker to secure the funding and ensure it was used for this project.

It would be difficult to include all the individual efforts, advocacy, and work many have done to reach this point, so I am happy to include more if you'd like to Contact Me.  

I am immensely appreciative of everything its taken to reach this point and want to emphasize: IT IS NOT YET OVER.

Note: in the below statements, emphasis has been added to key statements.

Thank you, Councilmembers Allen and Nadeau for holding this hearing on these important bills. And thank you to the many neighbors and advocates who will provide testimony. As a member of the transportation and the environment committee, I accept the challenge alongside my colleagues of facing the devastation playing out on our streets head on. We are all here because we know the district faces urgent traffic safety issues. Issues that are quite literally a matter of life and death. And we must redouble our efforts to create safer streets. According to MPD's reported traffic injuries and fatalities from 2017 to 2021, wards 5, 7 and 8 have faced the most devastating consequences of the district's failure to implement vision zero, and hold dangerous drivers accountable.

A combined 19,767 people were injured in traffic incidents in just those three wards in that time frame and a combined 116 people in those three wards alone died. That means 65% of traffic injuries and 62% of traffic fatalities occur in three wards, with the highest African-American populations in the district. Our ability to meaningfully enforce traffic laws, build safer streets through infrastructure, and hold accountable the agencies responsible for these efforts, as well as reckless drivers, is not just a matter of traffic safety, but also a public safety, racial equity, and environmental justice. So far this year, traffic fatalities in D.C. have increased by 52%.

Today the Council continues to do its part to improve traffic safety by holding a hearing on several proposals to improve traffic enforcement, as introduced the fraudulent vehicle tag enforcement amendment act will make it easier for DPW to boot and tow cars operating in and with fraudulent tags. The steer amendment act would allow us to hold reckless drivers accountable without reliance on fees and fines creating a more equitable system, and a stronger enforcement standard. I look forward to learning today about how all four of the bills we have introduced can be improved to ensure that we make the most of this opportunity to advance road safety in the district. But let me be clear, the council cannot legislate safer streets into existence. There is no replacement for robust leadership from the Executive which, quite frankly, is lacking at the moment. In a year when traffic deaths are on track to reach a 15-year high in the district, we currently have no Deputy Mayor for Operations and Infrastructure or Director of DDOT. I join Chair Allen in calling on the mayor to consider candidates from across the nation with a proven track record of transforming urban corridors, and expeditiously implementing proven safety solutions. We desperately need to treat the district's road safety crisis as the public health crisis that it is. Thank you.