Commuters have long used the one-mile stretch of Constitution Avenue Northeast, between Third and 14th streets, to make a westbound beeline across Capitol Hill on weekday mornings.
No more, Ward 6 D.C. Council Member Tommy Wells announced Friday. Starting in July, the D.C. Department of Transportation is expected to shift the road from one-way westbound in the morning to a two-way residential street at all times.
“Constitution Avenue NE is supposed to be a residential street on Capitol Hill, not a commuter throughway,” Wells said in a statement. “I want to continue shifting the emphasis away from finding ways to make commuters’ drive easier, and focus on protecting and calming residential streets for pedestrians and residents.”
DDOT officials hope the switch will make the road safer, reduce speeds and limit congestion. The decision was made as a result of the Capitol Hill Transportation Study, which examined traffic management and infrastructure in an area bounded by G Street Northeast, the Southeast Freeway, First Street and 19th Street.
The final study report, issued last August, offered dozens of recommendations, from painting new crosswalks and patching potholes to replacing street signs and adding turn arrows.
“This is really about protecting neighborhoods and making them friendlier for multiple modes of transportation versus the road simply serving as a commuting corridor,” DDOT Director Emeka Moneme said in a statement.
Nicholas Alberti, who represents the 12th to 14th blocks of Constitution on the local advisory neighborhood commission, said the shift to two-way traffic is badly needed to slow drivers on a residential street often mistaken as a commuter route. People drive too fast in the morning past Maury Elementary School at 13th and Constitution, he said, creating a “threat to children.”
“It is a traffic, calming measure,” Alberti said. “It will reduce the speed of traffic on that street in the morning.”
