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Chick-fil-A (CFA) presented its preliminary traffic analysis at ANC 4B’s public meeting on February 24, 2020. You can find the presentation here and the draft comprehensive transportation review (CTR) here.

As previously reported, Chick-fil-A plans to demolish the existing Taco Bell/KFC building located at 220 Riggs Road NE and the vacant Dakota Liquor building next door and build a new building. Because this will be a new build, they must comply with the District’s Green Area Ratio regulation. Accordingly, they plan to have bioretention on site.

They scrapped their plan to have only drive-thru at the location. The new plan is for a 3,900 square foot building with 42 interior seats and 20 exterior seats. There will be 9 vehicle parking spaces and 6 bicycle spaces. There will be a dual drive-thru lane for ordering. They anticipate having space for 10 vehicles to queue in the drive-thru order lanes (5 vehicles per lane), space for 9 vehicles to queue for the payment and pickup window, and space for approximately 6 vehicles to circulate and queue on site if the drive-thru lanes are full. Commercial deliveries will be made outside of business hours.

The project is a matter-of-right project, but they will have to go through DDOT’s public space permit process because they plan to eliminate two curb cuts–the curb cut closest to the 3rd Street/Riggs Road intersection and one of the two curb cuts by Dakota Liquor. That will leave one curb cut on Riggs Road, which they will realign, and one curb cut on 3rd Street.

Site access and circulation

Turning to the details of the CTR, they anticipate that most drivers will approach the site from either South Dakota Avenue or Riggs Road. The biggest issue I see in the CTR is that CFA and DDOT know that for inbound trips, drivers will be making U-turns all over the place and apparently DDOT is fine with that.

Drivers approaching from South Dakota Avenue will either decide to turn left on Riggs to enter the access point there or continue straight onto 3rd Street only to have to make a U-turn because of the median on 3rd Street to access the site from 3rd Street. DDOT does not want to remove the median. Drivers traveling eastbound on Riggs will either make a U-turn to access the site off Riggs or turn left onto 3rd Street to then have to make a U-turn to access the site from 3rd Street. Drivers traveling west on Riggs would be able to access the site from Riggs without making a U-turn. CFA stated DDOT anticipates only 5% of vehicles will approach the site from the 3rd Street/2nd Street NE intersection, which would require no U-turns at all.

The CTR states the site will be able to accommodate all queueing on the site without spillover onto public streets. In the case that there is spillover, they plan to have additional staff to assist with order taking, delivering orders, and directing vehicles to move to the overflow queue lane.

They used data from a CFA location in Olney to support the assumptions in the traffic analysis. The CTR identified afternoon peak and Saturday peak as two periods in which vehicular travel around the site at the South Dakota Avenue/Riggs Road intersection could be impacted. The CTR states adjustment to traffic signal timing should mitigate the issue a bit. They are aware that other projects will come online in the next couple of years that will affect travel around the site, including the second phase of Art Place at Fort Totten and EYA’s Riggs Park Place townhome project. Also, the owner of the properties at 5642-5650 3rd Street NE has applied for a map amendment, so those properties will be redeveloped as well (though the owner has previously stated he has not identified an intended use yet). Once built out, more signal timing changes may be necessary.

I asked about the 3rd Street/2nd Street intersection because I did not see any reference to it in the presentation. Because of the assumption that only 5% of vehicles will approach the site from that intersection, I guess DDOT will not worry about it even though something clearly needs to be done about that intersection. Plenty of motorists use 3rd Street to avoid Riggs and so while they might not be going to CFA, there will be plenty of action happening between vehicles exiting the Walmart parking lot, vehicles making a U-turn on 3rd Street to enter the CFA, and vehicles traveling along 3rd to other destinations.

Interestingly, in the CTR, CFA identified three intersections that have higher than expected crash rates and anyone who lives in the neighborhood would not be surprised by the results: (1) South Dakota Avenue & Riggs Road/3rd Street; (2) Riggs Road and 1st Place NE; and (3) 3rd Street/2nd Street NE.

Chick-fil-A’s recommendations

CFA identified several recommended safety improvements primarily to address the South Dakota Avenue/Riggs Road intersection. DDOT does not have to undertake these improvements, but doing so would help to improve travel around the site. They include restriping, removal of two parking spaces next to the Walmart driveway on 3rd Street to improve sightlines, enforcement of no parking zones near intersection, better signage, and adjustments to signal timing.

The South Dakota Avenue/Riggs Road intersection was reconfigured in 2011 to remove the slip lanes. Even reconfigured, it is poorly designed and really does need to be fixed. The one good thing that may come out of the CFA project is that residents have previously requested a traffic study of the corridor (which has not been done). Many of CFA’s recommended safety improvements are things that residents have requested for a long time so now that a business is recommending these safety improvements, maybe they will get done. Notably the CTR identifies that existing pedestrian facilities around the site are sorely lacking, again something for which residents have previously requested action. Perhaps those missing and deficient sidewalks and missing crosswalks will be addressed.

After looking at the traffic analysis, I am a bit skeptical about how all of this will work. Of course my big wish to get rid of the drive-thru entirely is likely not an option. This project is still about a year out so there is still time for CFA to make refinements. The project is located in ANC 4B, so if you have any thoughts, please share them with ANC Commissioner Alison Brooks (4B08) at 4B08@anc.dc.gov.