"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.
Friendship Heights
Labels: car culture and automobility, pedestrian safety, traffic engineering, traffic safety and enforcement, urban design/placemaking
posted by Richard Layman @ 3:41 PM&Permanent Link
I am an urban/commercial district revitalization and transportation/mobility advocate and consultant. I was a principal in BicyclePASS, a bicycle facilities systems integration firm, based in Washington, DC. Now I'm in Salt Lake City for family reasons. Urban economic competitiveness is dependent on efficient transit and mixed use, compact places. Therefore, I end up writing a lot about mobility and urban design. I still own a house in DC, so I write a lot about Washington, DC issues. I try to write so that "universal lessons" are evident in the entries, regardless of the place.
Jane's (Jacobs) Walks, first weekend in May
Parking Day, 3rd Friday in September
Western Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan
Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Legislation
Cambridge, Maryland Commercial District Revitalization Framework Plan
Easy print Florida Market Directory
Florida Market Map & Directory
Urban Safeway Design Misses Mark op-ed, WBJ
Temper Walmart Glee with Planning op-ed, WBJ
ANC4B Large Tract Review Report on Walmart, 5/2011
ANC4B Large Tract Review Report on Walmart, Summary Recommendations
Bordercross Communications (Corinna Moebius)
This is None: Storytelling by Design
Capital City Market (w/Frozen Tropics)
Dr. Transit/League of Transit Doctors
5 Comments:
So what? Neither of those blocks is a problem for pedestrians. But I guess that as someone who doesn't regularly walk in that area you wouldn't know that. River Road and Tenley Circle are the upper Wisconsin Ave intersections where pedestrians have to be watchful -- and in both cases that's more a matter of engineering/visibility than of the speed limit.
FWIW, 30 mph is the default speed limit in NYC.
FWIW, 25 mph is the default speed limit in DC. It's far better for dense places and around transit than 30 mph.
If 25's the default in DC, then 30 seems utterly reasonable on this stretch of upper Wisconsin. It's a major arterial and it's signalized. Width is kept reasonable from a pedestrian POV (cf Wisconsin Ave in MoCo just north of Western) and, in both photos, the signs are located at a point where drivers are exiting the strips with the most pedestrian activity.
To belabor the point, which I guess I didn't feel necessary to outline, since I've written hundreds of relevant posts ....
pedestrian prioritized places, specifically around transit stations, and in neighborhood abutting commercial districts + in the vicinity of parks, libraries, and schools, should have a 25 mph maximum speed limit.
Slightly on a different topic, NYC, the home of your 30 mph stated speed, has introduced a "neighborhood zone" concept that may involve traffic calming measures (I'm not sure) but is mostly focused on creating a zone where the speed limit max is 20 mph.
I support lower speed limits with better enforcement. A lot of drivers are pretty reckless in DC. Higher speed limits only coaxes a higher buffer for drivers to push toward and they don't get there any faster. And they waste fuel.
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