Now’s your chance to push for dedicated streetcar lanes

TransitBy Dan Malouff (Editorial Board) February 5, 2014

Should potential future streetcars on Georgia Avenue have dedicated lanes? DDOT is hosting a series of public meetings this month to help plan that route. The meetings will be a good opportunity to voice support for dedicating street space to transit.

The North-South Corridor, including 16th Street, 14th Street, and Georgia Avenue.

Image from DDOT.

DDOT’s North-South Corridor will run from somewhere near the baseball stadium north to either Takoma or Silver Spring, right through the heart of Mid City DC. Planners are still working on the exact route, but the line will probably run on some combination of Georgia Avenue and 14th Street. It could also be a bus or a streetcar.

One big question is whether it will have any dedicated lanes. If you think it should, it’s important to attend one of the meetings and communicate that to DDOT.

The meetings are:

There are many benefits to streetcars regardless of whether they have dedicated lanes or not. But giving them lanes absolutely increases their usefulness, especially in a corridor with such high transit demand.

As part of any good corridor planning, it’s important to figure out where dedicating space makes the most sense. It’s also a good time to advocate for terminating the line at Silver Spring, where there are more potential riders than at Takoma. This is exactly the time and place for transit activists to show up.

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.