District Mayor Adrian Fenty’s 100-day plan calls for a slate of initiatives to ease the rush-hour commute, limit time spent waiting at the Department of Motor Vehicles, widen transit options and break the government’s reliance on cars.
The mayor’s blueprint, “100 Days and Beyond,” envisions an environmentally friendly and navigable city for residents and visitors. It proposes rush-hour towing and neighborhood traffic calming, reducing the District’s vehicle fleet, repairing sidewalks and conducting traffic safety audits.
“We need to recognize that our built environment directly impacts the natural environment,” reads one vision statement passage. “We can enhance our already national-level leadership in walkability, bicycle and transit access, by providing clean transportation alternatives to more District residents and neighborhoods.”
Many of the concepts included in the plan already were in the works — planting 3,000 trees, for example, or installing speed bumps in targeted neighborhoods. But other ideas are new and drawing mixed reaction.
The Department of Public Works, for instance, will contract with a private towing company to ramp up rush-hour towing operations. DPW is required to tow vehicles from curb lanes during posted rush-hour times, but it only operates 12 tow trucks per rushhour.
“We’re pretty vigorous about ticketing as well,” said William Howland, DPW director. “But there are so many violators that we cannot keep up with demand.”
The private towing company, Howland said, already works with the District and will not require a new contract. The government will slowly roll out private rush-hour towing as a pilot project.
“It’s a proposal headed in the right direction, because our streets are clogged,” said Ward 1 D.C. Council Member Jim Graham, who has council oversight of DPW. “But the question is in the details.”
Specifically, Graham asked where the towed cars would be put.
Also within 100 days, Fenty will propose legislation to extend the driver’s license renewal period to eight years and the new vehicle inspection period to four years. But for safety’s sake, vehicle inspections should remain biennial, said Council Member Carol Schwartz, who chaired the public works committee during the last council session.
“These inspections are safety-related — public safety and environmental safety,” Schwartz said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea” [to extend the inspection period to four years].
At a glance
Fenty’s plan also seeks to:
» Eliminate 150 light vehicles from the government’s 1,900-vehicle fleet.
» Convert all heavy vehicles from diesel fuel to ultra-low sulfur fuel.
» Repave 50 miles of local streets.
