Eckington DC Traffic Calming Petition

The Eckington community of Northeast Washington, DC experiences a high level of “cut through” traffic from the major surrounding corridors along Q Street, NE, Quincy Place NE, and R Street NE between Lincoln Roads and 3rd Streets.

This includes cars and large commercial vehicles that use our primarily residential streets as short cuts between major routes (ie. New York Avenue to North Capitol Street and New York Avenue to Rhode Island Avenue).

This traffic impacts both residents and an increasing number of school-age pedestrians attending our neighborhood schools. DDOT studied traffic patterns in our neighborhood in 2004 and recommended that:

1. Green and white advisory truck direction signs be installed along Harry Thomas Way, 3rd St to S St, and 4th Street to guide trucks throughout to Rhode Island Avenue

2. Speed humps and signage be installed on Q St NE and Quincy Place NE

3. School Zone signs be installed along R Street NE

4. A raised crosswalk and signage be installed along R Street at the intersection of 1st Street

5. “No Through Trucks Over 1 ¼ Ton Capacity” restriction signs be installed at the intersections of Eckington Place with Q and Quincy NE

6. The Northwest gate of FedEx Center be opened for in and out truck traffic.

The estimated cost of these measures was $16,269. To our knowledge none of these measures has been implemented. Additional background is available at in the Department of Transportation’s Traffic Calming Study Eckington St, NE dated January 2004.