Where the Streets Have No Shame

After moving our offices to the east side of Georgetown, we are happy to have the opportunity to get closer to another part of town. Besides checking out different businesses and meeting other nearby neighbors, this new perspective brings up some questions about east side traffic. Before, we watched cars leaving Georgetown. Now, we see cars entering from downtown.

As we all know, Georgetown can be a mix of obstructions, whether a quick motorcade to the Four Seasons or construction vehicles and tour buses going down the wrong street. There are the multiplying dumpsters for those renovating homes (yet again), meaning more parking spaces lost (yet again). These hulking metal boxes are scattered east to west in town.
Streets are routinely blocked by D.C. Water or Pepco crews redigging, retooling, rewiring thing beneath them. It seemed a crew was renting a place on Olive Street for awhile. Now, they are also at 30th and R Streets and elsewhere.

And those dump trucks: expect to see more of those as Georgetown University, Holy Trinity School and Duke Ellington School rev up their construction projects for the summer. Prospect Street is never short of any kind of vehicle. It seems there’s nothing else to do.

Yet traffic patterns or arrangements are always subject to change. Sometimes, things are turned back to the way they were. Witness the return of the set-up for Wisconsin Avenue in Glover Park. Newly installed traffic lights are trying to rustle vehicles around Washington Circle, while New Hampshire Avenue between M Street and the circle is now a two-way street. A new traffic light at 35th Street and Wisconsin Avenue will slow down traffic and help pedestrians cross the street. It’s a sensible idea, long overdue.

Here is one suggestion from your newcomers to tight 28th Street. As most drivers turn right coming from downtown, make it one-way north. How many more car mirrors must be maimed? Then make 29th Street one-way south, from R Street to M Street. We are looking at 30th and 31st Streets, too. Which one-way should they be? (Remember 30th is already one-way south, from M Street to K Street.)

It is time to rethink some of our streets’ direction. It could be a question of safety, too. Let us know what you think.