The wacked street barrier at Perry and 31st Streets in Mount Rainier

I am not a big fan of typical neighborhood "traffic calming" efforts, not because I think that residents don't warrant protection and assistance, but because usually resident perceptions aren't borne out by reality.

For some reason, residents on Perry Street in Mount Rainier strongly believe that people used their street as a diversion to get from Rhode Island Ave. to DC a little more quickly, even though this part of Perry dumps into a little sliver of Woodridge that has very indirect connections to Ward 5.

(Frankly, if you want to divert, you'd get off at Bunker Hill at 37th Street, which provides a straight connection to Randolph Road/Bunker Hill Road in DC. But yes, there are a lot of stop signs.)

I never rigorously observed it, but I never believed, just like I don't believe people in the H Street neighborhood who complain about the rampant stop sign runners on 5th Street south of H (there is hardly any traffic at all), the people who argue against my suggestion for changing the traffic patterns on G and I Streets to two way even though neither street carries much traffic at all, or the people on 7th St. NE who state that their block is blocked most times of the day by emergency vehicles at the nursing home across the street.

Even though I don't live in the H Street neighborhood, I still ride those streets every week, and observe traffic behavior there in an almost rigorous fashion. But, as a friend says (most) people aren't empiricists.

I think you can't yield to assertions if they aren't factually based. Which is why I am really intrigued by the way they go about things in Somerville, Massachusetts. According to this article in the Boston Globe, "Just the facts: City hands the public data, and influence," before responding to resident complaints--and they do respond--they actually do field research and test (this isn't that odd, Depts. of Transportation for years have relied upon traffic counts and related studies to support or not support the installation of traffic devices, including stop signs).

From the article:

Residents wanted something done about a dangerous intersection near Union Square, and told city officials about it at a neighborhood meeting last spring.

At a meeting in October, Somerville's director of traffic and parking was there to discuss the intersection - Dane Street and Dane Avenue. The discussion led to the Police Department's installing a speed board on Dane Street. Traffic and Parking put up a sign warning cars to slow down. And Inspectional Services asked a property owner to trim his bushes to improve visibility at the intersection.

Last month, the city completed a study that found most drivers weren't exceeding the speed limit, but that it was too high. Officials also have determined that the design of the Dane Street Bridge was a major cause of traffic problems.

The city's response is part of a program called ResiStat, an arm of the SomerStat program, which was launched in 2004 with the intent of using hard data to make decisions and hold city officials accountable for what they accomplish.

Until last year, SomerStat was mainly an internal management tool, setting goals for departments and adapting the annual budget to reflect ideas that have been discussed through the program's regular meetings with department heads.

Under ResiStat, which was funded with grant money, residents are provided with information relevant to their community or interest group. Their suggestions are later discussed with city staff, and SomerStat staffers are kept up-to-date on their status so that they can inform the community.