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The
Cause
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Transportation
Impact
The benefits do not only impact Klingle Road.
The
Transportation Study (Appendix D) concluded that opening Klingle Road
would provide significant transportation benefits overall. These
benefits accrue to the entire area considered in the Transportation
Study. This area includes major arteries in Cleveland Park and Woodley
Park, such as Connecticut Avenue, Porter Street, Woodley Road, Cleveland
Avenue, etc., and congested intersections such as Connecticut and
Porter.
Klingle Road is one of the few non-grade crossings of Connecticut
Avenue that we have. Non-grade crossings have special status in the
realm of transportation system design, because they avoid the need for
intersections and control systems.
If Klingle Road were reopened, there would be a reduction in stop delays at
the intersection of Porter Street and Connecticut Avenue, thereby improving
travel speeds along Porter Street. Berger D-8.
Although most of the intersection approaches would continue to operate
with the same level of service as under the no build condition, average
vehicle delays and volume to capacity (v/c) ratio would be significantly
reduced. Berger D-8
Within the Berger report study area, traffic accidents overall will
be reduced, traffic delays will be reduced and levels of
service overall will be improved. Berger D-10.
In fact, only one of the studied intersections, namely
Woodley and 34th, will see any increase in traffic, due to the shift in
the traffic patterns which will return traffic levels to where the
were before. Nevertheless, even with Klingle Road open, according to
the Transportation Study, Woodley and 34th will operate at a better
level of service than any of the other intersections in the study
area.
Klingle Road is an important and
necessary cross-town artery -- this has been true historically for over
a century and continues to be true today -- rather than being
"unnecessary," Klingle Road has become increasingly more
necessary in recent years. The
closing
of Klingle Road has impacted Porter Street and its intersection with
Connecticut Avenue. Before and after turning movement counts at the
intersection of Porter Street and Connecticut Avenue show an increase of
traffic turning onto Connecticut Avenue.... traffic oriented
southbound on Connecticut Avenue increase more than 100 percent. (Exhibit
14)
Klingle Road is a significant cross-town route for many DC citizens,
and is particularly important for the elderly and those who depend on
automobiles for their transportation needs. In 1990, Klingle Road
carried an average 3,200 vehicles per day.
Without Klingle Road, traffic is increased on Porter Street, Connecticut
Avenue, Devonshire, Tilden, Calvert, Macomb, Newark, Cathedral, Ordway,
and through the National Zoo.
In order to make up for the lost transportation capacity of Klingle
Road, it will become necessary to widen other cross-town routes, such as
Porter Street.
Klingle Road passes underneath Connecticut Avenue, avoiding the
bottleneck at Connecticut Avenue and Porter Street.
Repairing Klingle Road will alleviate the bottleneck and increase
pedestrian and motorist safety at Connecticut Avenue and Porter Street.
Repairing Klingle Road will reduce lines of traffic headed West up the
hill on Porter Street to Connecticut Avenue and will reduce the
associated idling while cars wait to get through the bottleneck.
Public transportation across town is insufficient.
Repairing Klingle Road will significantly reduce driving time between
nearby neighborhoods and across town.
The rhetoric that repairing Klingle Road will become
choked with commuter traffic has no factual basis -- on the contrary, anecdotal
evidence reveals that Klingle Road was never crowded during rush hours.
Further, assuming commuter traffic becomes a problem, there are many
ways to address this short of closing the street. Nevertheless,
the Klingle Road Feasibility Study shows that opening Klingle Road will
divert traffic from the intersection of Porter Street and Connecticut
Avenue sufficient to immediately improve the Level of Service (LOS) for
morning traffic on southbound Connecticut Avenue from a B to an A.
With Klingle Road opened, the
approach will continue to operate at LOS A through 2017; however, with
Klingle Road closed, this approach will deteriorate to LOS C by 2017.
Similarly, all of the signalized intersections studied will be improved
overall by opening Klingle Road.
The enclave surrounding the upper end of Klingle Road (Klingle and
Woodley) already is replete with limited access, one-way streets,
including Devonshire Place, Cortland Place, 28th Street, 29th Street.
It is without precedent to close a section of an improved thoroughfare
in the middle of it's route, give it over to a park, and thereby make
the street discontinuous.
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