After years of 311 service requests, email exchanges, pictures, and letters to the Council during performance oversight season, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) informed me on March 25, 2021, that they approved installation of flexiposts behind the crosswalk in the 400 block of Galloway Street NE near the Modern at Art Place. DDOT installed the flexiposts earlier this week. This is great news for those of us who have been nagging DDOT about the crosswalk near The Modern and the fact that drivers continuously parked in a way that blocked the sightline of pedestrians and drivers (see this post, for example).

The story of this particular crosswalk is a 3.5 year saga. Before the Modern was built in 2017, 4th Street NE used to be a through street between Galloway and Kennedy. There were marked crosswalks at the intersection of 4th and Galloway. This is important because there is not a sidewalk on the south side of Galloway Street across from the Modern. Some residents choose to walk up the inclined, wooded path on the south side of the street, but many also choose to use the sidewalk on the north side and cross at 4th Street to walk to Fort Totten Metro station.

During construction of the Modern, the crosswalk that was at 4th and Galloway was removed. After the Modern was built, 4th Street was permanently closed between Galloway and Ingraham, basically becoming the apartment community’s private driveway. Immediately after the building opened in fall 2017, we asked that the crosswalk in the 400 block of Galloway be reinstalled because again there is not a sidewalk on the other side of the street, and just because 4th Street was now closed, that did not mean that the crosswalk had to be removed.

At first, DDOT wanted us to submit a service request for a new crosswalk. We all know how long it takes the agency to install a new crosswalk though. We argued that it was not a new crosswalk, and we had already submitted a service request to restripe the crosswalk. The developer should have been required to reinstall the crosswalk that had previously been there. In the interim, we were also told that DDOT in fact instructed the developer not to reinstall the crosswalk for reasons, but who knows. Anyhow, thanks to Google street view and intervention by Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie’s office, we were able to send DDOT photographic evidence showing that we were not making it up that a crosswalk existed there for many years. So DDOT ordered the developer to install a crosswalk. But then no curb cut was installed because remember neither the developer nor DDOT intended for there to be a crosswalk. So drivers would literally park in the crosswalk all the time because I guess they thought it was an option to do so.

So we took pictures of cars parked in the crosswalk and asked that a curb cut be installed so that drivers would not park in the crosswalk. That took some time. Even then, some drivers still parked in or partially in the crosswalk (very strange behavior).

In any case, the result ended up being that there was then a crosswalk between two parked cars because there was just enough space for one car behind the crosswalk. So sometimes drivers would still park partially in the crosswalk.

The bigger issue though was that drivers could not see a pedestrian waiting to cross in the crosswalk between two parked cars and a pedestrian would have to walk out into the street to see around the car parked behind the crosswalk. None of this made any sense. We requested “no parking” signage, which DDOT put in front of the crosswalk after many months of requests, but it was placed right in front of a tree so no one could see it unless people knew to look for it.

DDOT installed high visibility pedestrian crossing signs pointing to the crosswalk so that motorists would know the crosswalk was there. For a while, DDOT told us there was only one signmaker or something so that is why it took a while to get the signs done apparently. DDOT refused to install signage indicating that no parking was allowed behind the crosswalk though because according to them the existing signage was adequate. According to them, the space behind the crosswalk was not a legal parking space because it was so close to the crosswalk and the driveway to the Modern. I suppose people were supposed to know that, but every day people would park behind the crosswalk. DDOT said it was a parking enforcement issue. And to be fair, some days DPW would ticket a car parked behind the crosswalk. I told DDOT it did not make sense to keep issuing tickets when it was clear that people thought they were allowed to legally park behind the crosswalk.

In December 2019, following multiple email exchanges among myself, the ANC, DDOT, and CM McDuffie’s office, DDOT installed a micromobility corral in front of the crosswalk to provide a buffer. Interestingly enough, that corral is actually not as big as it should be because there was a car parked behind the “no parking” sign when DDOT went to install the corral.

Still DDOT did nothing about cars parked directly behind the crosswalk. So I asked the ANC to draft a resolution requesting signage and flexiposts so that cars could not be parked behind the crosswalk. DDOT dragged its feet for many more months and told me they could not put flexiposts behind the crosswalk because it was too close to the driveway or something. So I took pictures of flexiposts installed near intersections and also sent them pictures every day of cars parked behind the crosswalk blocking the sightline of pedestrians and drivers. Finally, on March 25, 2021, DDOT informed me that installation of flexiposts was approved.

I recount all of this just because there has been a renewed focus on Vision Zero, given the completely reckless driving taking place during the pandemic. To me, it seems that DDOT would want to take care of low-hanging fruit like this situation fairly quickly while the big fights about the big projects go on. There is also this sense of urgency from the mayor’s office in getting people to return to school and office buildings, meaning soon enough there will be more pedestrians traveling along this street to get to work and school. We noted to DDOT that this crosswalk is right next to a daycare center that would be opening at some point. But it took them almost four years to adequately resolve the issue of a crosswalk that should have been reinstalled after construction of a new building. The transportation plan for this new building should have included provision for replacement of the crosswalk. Residents should not have to take pictures every day and take time out of their day to send repeated communications to DDOT, the mayor’s office, or the councilmember’s office for something that should already be in a construction plan and monitored by DDOT. There is a sort of dismissiveness from the agency that becomes really grating after a while that sometimes results in residents saying “forget it,” and that is not a good result for anyone.

I will say the one bright spot in this saga was the support of DDOT’s Ward 5 liaison Kelly Jeong-Olson, who is always awesome, and Ty’on Jones before her. They deserve kudos for actually listening to residents.

We can now finally stop talking about this crosswalk and move on to other things, like that missing sidewalk on the other side of the street.