The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is considering placing a roundabout at the 2nd Street/3rd Street NE intersection just north of Riggs Road NE, along with a few other modifications, to deal with the longstanding issues of U-turns and left turns out of Walmart’s parking garage on 3rd Street. (View NOI-23-110-TESD). Submit comments on the proposal to kornelius.anderson@dc.gov by July 7, 2023.
DDOT proposes the following modifications:
- Conversion of the intersection of 2nd and 3rd Streets NE to a roundabout configuration;
- Installation of a raised lane separator with vertical flexible posts on 3rd Street NE between 2nd Street NE and the 310 Riggs Road NE (Walmart) parking garage on 3rd Street NW; and,
- Installation of crosswalks at the intersection of 2nd and 3rd Streets NE.
The Notice of Intent (NOI) states:
[F]ield observations indicate that motorists frequently turn left from the Walmart garage or make U-turns to access southbound 3rd Street NE. In support of Washington DC’s commitment to the Vision Zero goal, DDOT conducted a safety and operations study of 3rd Street NE between Riggs Road and 2nd Street NE, to develop the proposed recommendations identified above and improve safety for all users.
As a result of the study, DDOT determined that the most effective way to address the mid-block safety issues is to install a raised lane separator with vertical posts from the raised median on 3rd Street NE to the intersection of 2nd and 3rd Street NE. To facilitate U-turns, DDOT will convert the intersection of 2nd and 3rd Streets NE to a roundabout configuration. Following the conversion, approximately 19 parking spaces will be removed from 2nd and 3rd Streets NE to accommodate the roundabout. Figure 1 shows the proposed signs, pavement markings and the raised lane separator along 3rd St NE.
Background
A bit of background on this proposal. Back in early 2018 when I served as president of the Lamond-Riggs Citizens Association, I created a spreadsheet of issues along the Riggs Road/South Dakota Avenue NE corridor and arranged a walkthrough of the corridor with representatives from DDOT, MOCRs, ANC commissioners, and representatives from councilmember offices. I suggested the idea of a roundabout for the 2nd/3rd Street intersection (even though roundabouts make me nervous) and asked for a bunch of other longstanding requests, such as crosswalks at 2nd/3rd Street, removal of parking near Walmart’s driveway, blocking left turns out of Walmart’s driveway, all-way stop at 3rd & Chillum Place NE, and blocking parking near the southwest corner of 3rd and Chillum. I opened service requests for all of these issues, kept track of communications with District officials, and gave that information to ANC 4B. ANC 4B in turn created resolutions regarding these issues.
So it has taken some years to get to this point and several issues remain unaddressed. DDOT did install a no parking sign close to Walmart’s driveway last year, but of course people ignore the sign and still park right up to the driveway. I think DDOT needs to physically prevent the ability to park there because right now drivers exiting the driveway still need to pull out pretty far to see if there is oncoming traffic. We also need a way to prevent people from parking right near the intersection close to 300 Riggs Road NE where a Wing Stop will replace the coffee shop. The parking shenanigans will only get worse once that restaurant opens. And the intersection at 3rd & Chillum needs to be addressed.
As for this NOI, with respect to the proposed lengthy raised lane separator, I was told that DDOT is taking this action because it is faster to install this separator than to actually extend the median. I was told that perhaps in the future the separator could be converted into an extended median.
The only other thing I will say about this is that it really does highlight the deficiencies in the large tract review process for projects that do not go through the planned unit development process. Much of this should have been taken care of during the design and construction of Fort Totten Square when we raised these issues. I raise shortcomings with the large tract review process whenever I can with District officials, also to point out why the constant changes to the traffic safety investigation process are kind of bogus.
In any case, ANC 4B has developed a draft resolution in support of the proposed modifications in this NOI.
Be sure to submit comments on the proposed modifications for NOI-23-110-TESD to kornelius.anderson@dc.gov by July 7, 2023.
Next Stop...Riggs Park 
Great job as always. I suggest organizing a comment writing party to ensure as many responses as possible are forwarded to DDOT. Many good ideas are never acted upon since low community participation is read as apathy.
Hopefully, these necessary changes will be implemented in a reasonable timeframe. As alway, the removal of parking will be a major concern and a source of pushback.
Thank you for the summary and background.
As part of the reconfiguration, DDOT needs to lengthen the timing of the left turn arrow at Riggs and South Dakota Avenue for cars heading toward Maryland. The queuing space for cars making the left turn only allows about three cars and the arrow timing is very short. More cars will likely be turning left at the intersection because they will no longer be able to enter the Walmart garage from 3rd Street. (More cars may make a U-Turn on Riggs Road to enter the Walmart parking garage. This is a smaller issue but may be worth watching.)
Hi Deb, Some drivers are used to coming down 3rd and making a left into the garage on 3rd. Those drivers could just enter the garage via the entrance on Riggs Road. That maybe requires them making a left from 3rd onto Chillum (or a street before Chillum) & then right on Riggs but that doesn’t seem that hard and especially seems easier than potentially trying to make a U-turn on 3rd to get into the garage via 3rd or coming down 3rd, making a left onto Riggs, then making a U-turn on Riggs to get into the garage entrance on Riggs (or bypassing that one and going to the one on 3rd). Those drivers (used to turning left from 3rd into the 3rd Street entrance) seem to be the only ones that would be affected by this proposed lane separator. You’re right, the traffic signal to turn left from 3rd onto eastbound Riggs is pretty short (& also, people seem not to fully register that the arrow has turned green so they sit for a while). But again I don’t know why people wouldn’t just turn from 3rd to Chillum (or a street before Chillum) to Riggs to enter via Riggs. I suppose people have their reasons for doing what seems strange in my mind (honestly that entering/exit situation on 3rd always looks so stressful to me whenever I pass through there). And I can imagine people wouldn’t love even more traffic coming down Chillum (or another side street).
For drivers heading east on Riggs towards Maryland, they would still be able to turn left onto 3rd from Riggs & enter the garage on 3rd. For drivers heading north on South Dakota Avenue, they could keep straight onto 3rd & enter the garage on 3rd. They wouldn’t need to turn right onto Riggs & make a U-turn.
To be honest, I’m not sure why drivers even make that U-turn in the middle of Riggs now to get into Walmart’s garage via Riggs. I think sometimes people may not know they can turn left from Riggs to enter the garage via the 3rd so they bypass 3rd & make the U-turn on Riggs.
I also noticed that people turning left onto 3rd/South Dakota Avenue from Riggs in both directions do not see the green left turn arrow immediately, so there too fewer cars are able to make the left turn onto 3rd/South Dakota. I’ve been beating the drum that that intersection should be reconfigured (again) because I think it is too wide & I don’t know if visually the traffic signals just seem far away. Or maybe because the green left arrows to turn onto 3rd/South Dakota do not come at the beginning of the green cycle, but rather at the end, maybe drivers aren’t expecting to get the green arrow. But they do tend to sit there even with the green arrow until drivers behind them start honking their horns.
Anyways, all stuff worth pointing out to DDOT (oof, sorry for the novel length response).
Any updates on this? A deeply unsafe intersection.
Hi there, I’ll ask the ANC Commissioner & DDOT liaison.
You might have seen that they started work on this.
great news!