Mid-block crosswalks, L'Enfant and Jane Jacobs and the eastern quadrants

Midblock Crosswalk, Seattle. Flickr Photo by Paradise Found.

A piece in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the transportation column "Getting There: Midblock crosswalks give driver pause," is about mid-block crosswalks and some problems, that drivers are not always conscious of the need to stop.

But it reminds me about midblock crosswalks as a way to break down superblocks to a more manageable walking experience.

The only DC mid-block crosswalk that readily comes to mind is on the 1300 block of F Street NW. (On a related but unrelated matter, there is a good letter to the editor yesterday about pedestrianism and DC in the Post, "A Deadly Crossing," by Stephanie Faul.)

In the L'enfant Plan in the eastern quadrants, the 600 and 1200 blocks are double-sized, and the 1300 block is triple-sized compared to the average block. (This is an issue in the western quadrants too, but I am not as familiar with the issue there, plus the major retail corridors there, except for U Street, tend to be north-south, whereas in the eastern quadrants (except for 8th Street SE and 12th Street NE in Brookland) they are east-west.
Ourisman Chevrolet, north side, 600 block of H Street NE, 1948. Horyczdak Photo, Library of Congress.

Photo of H Street NE by Preston Keres, Washington Post.

Jane Jacobs writes in Death and Life of Great American Cities about the necessity of small blocks to provide multiple paths in the city and to maximize the pedestrian nature of the city. Perhaps Portland, Oregon takes this the furthest, because their blocks are 200x200 meaning that in the distance of three average-sized blocks in DC, they fit in four blocks, and four more higher-rent corner spots at the same time.

On H Street NE, these blocks are tough for retail. The same goes for Pennsylvania Avenue SE, at least for the 600 block, which like the 600 block of H Street NE, is also "troubled" by some super-buildings which suck up some of the life off the street.

The student urban design studio from Catholic University in 2004 had some ideas about this for the 600 block of H Street NE for sure (I can't remember if they discussed this issue for the 1300 block as well).
609 H Street. Photo from A9.

In the context of the H Street streetscape project, adding mid-block crosswalks should be considered for the 600 and 1300 blocks at a minimum. And because there is a proposal to convert the two hulking office buildings on the south side of the 600 block of H Street into a mixed-use site as opposed to the virtually all office that it is today (one check cashing place and one hot dog vendor comprises the retail), now is the time to bring this up. (See "Developer to turn H Street site into mixed-use project," by Sean Madigan from the Washington Business Journal.)
Flickr photo by Elise Bernard.

It can also be done in the 1300 block, perhaps in the vicinity of the Atlas Performing Arts Center. If there was a better way to bring people across the street, perhaps the storefronts on the north side of H Street would start getting leased up (although this is impacted by property owners often unrealistic expectation for how much the spaces are worth, their condition, and the pending opening of the theater spaces in the Atlas, which until they open, reduce significantly the number of patrons coming to the block for evening events).

It's also a natural for the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking; walking