Updated Street & Sidewalk Improvements for Reservoir Hill

DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS

Street & Sidewalk Improvements in Reservoir Hill

The following priorities were initially developed from Housing & Development Team and School & Recreation Team discussions and a tour of the community with Department of Transportation personnel on 7 June 2012.  The outline was further developed at a March 2013 Reservoir Hill Community Meeting.  This is a working document and we encourage everyone to provide feedback on these suggestions. In addition, we would like to participate in meetings of Reservoir Hill’s neighborhood associations in April and May 2013 to further refine the document.

Please send comments to Rick Gwynallen at rgwynallen@reservoirhill.net

Park Avenue & Reservoir Street

• Poor alignment of roads and sidewalks.
• Community members would like DOT to consider installing crosswalks at all intersections at this location. Community representatives site heavy pedestrian traffic, and the presence of a nearby pre-school.

Mt. Royal Terrace

•  Presence of the 83 South on ramp makes this neighborhood street feel like a highway.  Community made recommendations for a Green buffer/road diet/bike lane. Reduce number of travel lanes, maintain parking on both sides of streets, green right of way in order to slow traffic, improve livability and encourage property sales.
• Remove the designation of Mt Royal Terrace as an on-ramp, and re-direct the traffic from Druid Park Lake Drive to wrap around to 29th Street via 28th Street and Sisson Street.   Once this is done, you can close Mt Royal off from DPLD traffic, or put a stop sign up, or narrow the road, etc.  But step one would be to remove the on-ramp designation.
• Stop signs or speed bumps can be placed on Mt Royal Terrace until the on ramp designation is removed.  Should be closed off on north end so sidewalk is continuous to 28th Street.

Lennox & Brookfield Ave

• Irregular alignment of streets and sidewalks.
• Community members are pleased with recent Art in the Public Right of Way Installation
• Busy intersection with pedestrian foot traffic, and the presence of the neighborhood recreational center. Community members would like to see new crosswalks added. Adapt crosswalks to the ways residents use the intersection. There is considerable diagonal crossings. Include pedestrian paddles with crosswalks.
• Lane markings (Mr. Habib from Traffic communicated that intersection could use pavement markings. He noted that there are no markings currently present at this intersection)
• Shorten the distance people have to cross. Mark communicated that planted medians for traffic calming could be researched for feasibility.

Linden & Lennox

• Located on south side of John Eager Howard School. Buses load and unload just north of this intersection. Speeding cars have been a long standing problem
• There are no crosswalks at this intersection though crossing here is significant.
• The Community would like an east-west crosswalk painted here across Linden.  The community would also like a pedestrian island considered for this location.

Ducatel/ Linden Ave

• Community members cite heavy traffic at this intersection. Would like DOT to consider options for slowing traffic and creating a pedestrian friendly street. Possibilities discussed were cutting off Ducatel northbound with a green strip, green pedestrian islands at Linden and Brookfield and Linden and Ducatel, and bump outs.. John Eager Elementary School is located in extremely close proximity to the intersection.  The school proposes creating a bus loop once a modular building bordering Linden is removed.

Linden & Whitelock Ave

• Community members would like Pedestrian paddles added at this intersection (Traffic)
• Is it is a viable option to convert the 2400 Blk of Linden from one way to two way conversion? ( Traffic)

Linden & Brooks

• 4-way stop
• Speed bump on Brooks Lane between the alley on Brooks Lane and Linden Avenue.

Brooks Lane

• Improved lighting on Brooks Lane

Whitelock Street

• Community would like DOT to investigate all intersections for potential traffic calming treatments to make the area safer for pedestrians and children ( Traffic)
• This might call for a traffic calming study for Whitelock Street from Park Avenue west to Madison Avenue.
• Whitelock is a broad street. Shorten the distance people have to cross Whitelock, which could include pedestrian islands or bump outs.

Whitelock & Brookfield

• Community would like to see crosswalks installed at the intersection, and the presence of pedestrian paddles.  ( Traffic)
• Sidewalk/curb repair is needed on the south side of Whitlock Street, including the Westside of the block of Brookfield immediately south of Whitelock Street. ( TEC)
• In addition to repairing the sidewalk along the south side of Whitelock and east side of Brookfield, the community requests assistance with its plan to rehabilitate the vacant lots along the south side of the 900 block of Whitelock into a resident-built community park. Neighbors designed a site plan in which the portion of the sidewalk nearest the intersection with Brookfield would be converted into a bio-retention area for storm water runoff coming down Whitelock. As a result, the community requests DOT assistance with approving the design and assisting with the sidewalk re-route through the future park site.

 900 Blk of Chauncey

• Sidewalks and footways in need of repair.
• Would like two crosswalks added at the 2400 Blk of Linden in front of the Linden Market on Linden Avenue north and south of Chauncey.

Chauncey Avenue

• Improved lighting on Chauncey Avenue

Linden & Druid Park Lake Drive

• This is an important entrance to the community, and an important crossing for residents accessing Druid Hill Park.
• Would like DOT to consider making this Intersection safer for pedestrians, and make the area more comfortable to improve access to Druid Hill Park.
• This might call for a traffic calming study for Druid Park Lake Drive from Madison Avenue east to Brookfield Avenue.
•  Improve appearance of existing cross walk.
• Extend pedestrian crossing time. It’s only 18 seconds. ( Traffic)
• Would like DOT to consider Planting/widening the median on Druid Park Lake Drive
• 825- 900 Blks of Druid Park Lake Drive ( sidewalks and footways in need of repair). These are many vacant properties along this stretch. ( TEC)

Newington Avenue

• Improved lighting on all Newington Avenue blocks, particularly on the even side near Brookfield Avenue.

2400 Block of Callow Avenue

• Existing speed bumps too high.

Madison Avenue

• Speed of buses is significant issue
• DOT Speed test needed
• Temporary police officer placement with speed camera

Make North Avenue More Pedestrian Friendly

North Avenue is too wide to be pedestrian friendly. There is no reason it needs to be six lanes (three in each direction) in front of our neighborhood.  At a previous Team meeting the suggestion was made to narrowing it to two lanes in each direction.  This would make the intersections to cross North Avenue to Bolton Hill safer, and encourage more cross-neighborhood walking traffic to Bolton Hill, MICA, and the rest of downtown.

North Ave needs to be narrowed on the sides rather than expanding median, to connect Bolton Hill and Reservoir Hill. Widened median won't lessen psychological barrier.  Also, that was the original configuration, and would make more land available possibly on the north and south sides.  Really, it could be two lanes in rush hour and one driving plus one parking lane on off hours. There isn't enough traffic to justify it, and I think traffic studies will back that up.  Westbound North Avenue lanes would have two leftmost lanes as right turn only, or else make an island so pedestrians can cross eastern side of Mt Royal across North without fear of death.