The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) rolled out a new “Traffic Safety Input (TSI)” process for handling what were previously known as traffic safety investigation requests. (DDOT informed ANC commisssioners of this change in December 2022).

View the Traffic Safety Input Frequently Asked Questions page and TSI flyer for more information.

Use Traffic Safety Input requests in 311 to identify:

• Safety concerns for pedestrians, people biking, or taking transit.
• Unmarked or marked crosswalks that appear unsafe (Maintenance for existing markings should be put in under the  311 request , Roadway Striping / Markings).
• Traffic safety issues around schools.
• Concerns about speeding drivers or speed limits in general (Note: DDOT’s policy on speed limits is 20 MPH for local roads and may vary for Arterial and Collector roadways).

Do Not use Traffic Safety Input requests in 311 for:

• EMERGENCIES: Dial 9-1-1 for immediate fire, police, or medical response.
• URGENT MAINTENANCE: Call 311 for immediate response to matters requiring urgent maintenance.
• MAINTENANCE OF EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE: Use the 311 maintenance request type for issues related to existing Roadway Signs, Traffic Signal Issues, Sidewalk Repair, Roadway Markings, Tree Pruning, or Roadway Repair (including speed hump repair requests).

DDOT will prioritize around 200 traffic safety input requests each quarter for further investigation.

According to DDOT’s website:

Residents should not request maintenance of existing assets through the Traffic Safety Input program; instead, please use the appropriate 311 categories (e.g. Roadway Signs, Roadway Striping/Markings, Sidewalk Repair, Traffic Signal Issue). Maintenance requests submitted as Traffic Safety Inputs will not be addressed.

A Traffic Safety Input can be submitted via 311 by a resident, ANC, or other community member or organization and will be prioritized based on objective factors such as roadway characteristics, crash patterns, equity, proximity to Vision Zero High Injury Network corridors, and locations utilized by vulnerable road users such as schools, Metro rails stations, and bus stops. Based on these factors, DDOT’s Traffic Safety Branch will develop a work plan for 800 prioritized locations per year (200 each quarter) to evaluate the safety concerns expressed and determine if any action is needed. All TSI submissions that are not included in the quarterly work plan will remain in the system for prioritization in following quarters.

Once a request is selected for prioritization, DDOT can take up to 130 days for further action. From DDOT’s website:

TSI evaluation and production of the corresponding engineering design (work order) for prioritized TSIs takes approximately 130 business days to complete following prioritization. DDOT’s findings for each prioritized TSI will be posted on the TSI Dashboard. If a safety treatment is necessary, DDOT will provide the details of the proposed improvements. If no changes are recommended, we will provide an explanation for our decision. 

• Upon evaluation, if the proposed recommendations change existing traffic control and/or on-street parking, a Notice of Intent (NOI) will be issued by DDOT, which includes a 30 business-day public comment period. 
• The timeline for installation of improvements varies based on the safety treatment identified. 
• For most treatments that do not require an NOI, installation typically occurs in the next calendar quarter after the TSI is completed; for example, a TSI evaluation that is completed in Quarter 1 will be implemented in Quarter 2. 

Residents can visit  https://arcg.is/Dqe8T for updates on work order installation.

For more information about vertical traffic calming infrastructure (e.g., speed humps, speed tables, raised crosswalks), including criteria used by DDOT to evaluate implementation on roadways within the District, as well as design specifications for these devices, please refer to  DDOT Vertical Traffic Calming Guidelines.

On the TSI dashboard, you can filter by ANC/SMD to see the requests that are being priortized for first quarter 2023. Looks like fewer than 10 requests were prioritized for the Lamond-Riggs area for the first quarter. Without knowing how many were submitted in the first place or what the nonprioritized requests were for, hard to say much else about DDOT’s prioritization for this area.

The next set of prioritizations will be posted in April 2023.