Will Speed on Rock Creek Church Rd Ever Be Checked?

This is disheartening to me, but perhaps its only a metaphorical speed bump. In less that two weeks time, MPD has gone from the portable speed equipment on Rock Creek Church Rd, to the smaller black box with the cable across the road, to nothing.

To me, there can only be two reasons … but as has happened before, others may know more and be able to provide a better answer.

1. The temporary monitoring on speed was merely to calm residents complaints about the problem, and the data they collected did not support neighborhood concerns, or,
2. The data collected in the two week period overwhelmingly showed there was a problem and there was no further need for monitoring. I would hope this was the case.

What I do know is this is a major concern, and a difficult problem to address. Starting with the intersection at RCCR and 5th/Park Place, speed accelerates east on RCCR and south on Park Place. That means that to truly solve this, it will take multiple jurisdictions to coordinate and work together, and that isn’t easy.

Petworth Community Effort to Replace RCCR Street Trees

One of the newest residents of Rock Creek Church Road (RCCR) in Petworth is making a huge impact. In the short time he and his wife have lived in their home, Rob Mandle has shown a community spirit that’s unheard of.

His latest project involves replacing the dead and missing street trees on RCCR between Park Place and Webster. In addition to working with Carol Herwig and Casey Trees, Rob has been able to rally no fewer than ten households willing to participate with time, hoses, and water to keep new trees well cared for and healthy.

The vast majority of the missing trees are along the narrow easement along the Old Soldiers’ Home, between the sidewalk and the street.

In the effort to replace the lost tree canopy, Rob put together the map included here, which identifies that there are approximately 21 existing empty tree pits and 1 with a dead tree in it. While replacing the trees will naturally add beauty, there is the additional impact of helping to address the issue of speeding along RCCR by tapping the natural tenancy of drivers to react to a narrowing or constricted right-of-way (tunnel effect).

Lastly, tree replacement would contribute to Mayor Fenty’s efforts to increasing the urban tree canopy within the District to 40%, part of the City’s Green DC Agenda.

Rock Creek Church Road Speed Being Monitored

As I posted on May 19th, MPD has finally decided to respond to complaints that speeding has gotten out of control on Rock Creek Church Road, NW.

While I’d been hoping for more, they did install one of their devices that alerts drivers of their speed on Rock Creek Church Road at Illinois Avenue. I’ve learned that these devices do more than just that, however. They also gather and store information about how many cars go by and what speeds they are clocking at the time. Those signs are not just for reinforcement of the speed limit.

While I was there, many cars were traveling around 30 mph, as you can see. I saw one clocked at 42, with the interesting thing on that one being that it was traveling northbound, meaning it was going uphill.

Rock Creek Church Rd Traffic Getting Attention

I learned today that MPD will be taking enforcement action along Rock Creek Church Road, NW, over the next few weeks.  DDOT is also looking into more long term solutions per direction from the Mayor. Action may include a police cruiser or a speed camera set-up.

As anyone that lives along Rock Creek Church Road can tell you, vehicles frequently travel well over the speed limit and this has caused several accidents due to blind corners and sharp curves. The area between the intersections of 5th Street, NW and Illinois Street are particularly bad.

The light at 5th Street does anything but calm traffic, as yellow means step on it. In fact, I watch people run the light on a daily basis, one driver going so far as to merely lay on the horn to let people know he was coming through.

I’m hopeful that this will lead to some long term results rather than just be a temporary patch to calm neighbors’ outrage.