Improving Penn Ave

[dasgeh]

Also, I’ve been meaning to share my solution to hitting EVERY. LIGHT. RED. on the eastern end.

Eastbound, I turn right on 6th Street (which I ALWAYS hit red), left on Constitution, then hit the sidewalk (legal there because it’s NPS land – ok because there are rarely peds). I hit 3rd St just as that light turns green, so no reds.

Westbound, I turn left on 3rd Street then right on Madison. With the timing, I hit the light at 4th green, then turn right on 7th and left again on Penn. Depending on how long it takes to turn right onto 7th, I sometimes hit the light at Constitution red, but I still think it’s faster than hitting all the reds on Penn.

[jrenaut]

It is a pretty miserable place to be. But that’s what happens when you have giant buildings with Terrorism Defense Structures all over the place streets that are way too wide. Walking down the street sucks because there are always ugly planters in your way and guards glaring at you. Walking across the street sucks because it’s too wide and they put the bike lane through the pedestrian island and pretended that wouldn’t cause problems for anyone.

It’s actually a really good example of the unfortunate state of this country – The Main Street of America is designed for cars and to get everyone else out of the way.

[americancyclo]

@dasgeh 90829 wrote:

Also, I’ve been meaning to share my solution to hitting EVERY. LIGHT. RED. on the eastern end.

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also, weird google image search for pedal faster

my solution to these lights is to take advantage of the break in traffic at 9th to catch 7th before it turns red so I can invoke the “DC Crosswalk” rule to get through 6th , 4th, and 3rd.

[Steve]

I think the problem is that people call it “Main Street.” No it’s not. You can’t just call something what you want. Main Street is the center of town, where people shop and eat and walk around. Penn is where some Government people work. It’s like saying Wall Street isn’t a good Main Street either.

To the fact that it’s too wide, or too car friendly, etc., I don’t totally disagree. But look at the other examples, such as Michican Ave in Chicago, or the Champs Elysees. Both of those are massive, wide, fast traveling, car-centric roads. The difference is in the buildings that surround it, primarily. They are multi-use, have large window storefront shopping, etc. It makes walking along the wide sidewalks pleasant. Crossing either of the previous examples equally painful to Penn.

[Greenbelt]

The avenue is too cramped by excess car lanes. I like wide lanes on the side for taxis and bus loading, and I like the bike lane in the middle. But we need a more workable anti-uturn devices and better pedestrian havens.

I think a lane diet in several places would help, and I’d use permanent pavers or pavement markings in the median to help guide pedestrians to havens without conflicting with the bike lane. Some trees would help greatly, even if they were in deep sunken planters that could be removed and filled in every four years for the parade.

[jrenaut]

You know, we could make lots of these changes without nearly the opposition if we just moved the Inaugural Parade to 395. They’d hardly have to disrupt traffic at all.

[americancyclo]

I think timing the lights to a 15 mph green wave for traffic and cyclists would go a long way towards calming traffic, but there aren’t any places that would make me want to stop and linger unless there is coffee or shopping.

If it is intended to be monumental, why don’t we let NPS put up crappy vending booths, and then ban CaBi for a few years, before relenting?

[Author]

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