D.C. Residents’ Frustrations Run High About Reckless Driving

Throughout the District, sentiments about traffic safety often fall along a spectrum. While some residents continue to rally for traffic-calming measures, others are jumping behind the wheel and flouting the law with reckless abandon.

Near the intersection of Alabama Avenue and Stanton Road in Southeast, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Amanda Beale (8C08) continues to press for traffic safety measures — including signage that turns nearby Stanton Terrace into a one-way street during times of the day when parents pick up and drop off their children at Turner Elementary School. 

Beale embarked on this endeavor in February, first by submitting a request for a traffic safety investigation to the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) and later emailing DDOT representatives about her concerns. 

As Beale recalled, a DDOT representative who took on the request in April demonstrated a lack of knowledge about the traffic flow on Stanton Terrace near Henson Ridge when she said that the corridor had ample space and proper signage. 

That assessment, Beale told The Informer, misaligned with her experiences with drivers from the District and surrounding suburbs who often sped down Stanton Terrace to enter Suitland Parkway while parents double parked and crossed the street with their children to enter Turner Elementary School. 

Beale said that DDOT would later reject her request for one-way traffic signage, telling her that it was unlikely that drivers would obey it. Since then, Beale has continued to advocate for additional traffic-calming measures. With school out for the summer, there are no crossing guards present, meaning that pedestrians are left to fend for themselves at the height of morning and evening rush hour. 

For Beale, such an outcome shows total disregard for what she thought would be a high-priority area for DDOT since it was located near a school. 

“To tell me you can’t … make traffic flow better because of the low rate of compliance is crazy,” Beale said. “You don’t create traffic rules based on compliance. You [just do it] and let law enforcement decide whether someone needs to get a ticket.” 

Vision Zero Continues to Draw Criticism 

DDOT’s Crash Data Dashboard shows more than 3,000 traffic-related injuries so far this year, 45% of which affected drivers and nearly 30% of which affected bikers and pedestrians.

District is also on target to surpass the year-end total of 35 fatalities recorded during the previous year. 

As of July 25, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) recorded 30 traffic fatalities for the year — a 32% increase from what had been recorded at the same time in 2022. 

More than half of those fatalities took place in Wards 7 and 8, including along Alabama Avenue SE, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Southeast, Benning Road near Minnesota Avenue and Kenilworth Avenue in Northeast, Eastern Avenue in Northeast, and South Capitol Street. 

In 2015, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) launched Vision Zero with the goal of reaching zero traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries on District streets. Strategies include collaboration with residents and designs that ensure safety for drivers, pedestrians, bikers and others who share the roadways. 

Some of these strategies have been under scrutiny, especially in light of traffic fatalities that have happened since Vision Zero started. Between 2015 and 2018, there has been a significant increase in the year-end totals for traffic fatalities in the District.  

Although MPD recorded a slight drop in fatalities in 2019, the numbers increased once again in the following years. In 2021, MPD recorded 40 fatalities, an amount not seen since 2008. That year, a Jeep Grand Cherokee struck a father and his two daughters after they entered the crosswalk at Wheeler Road and Mississippi Avenue in Southeast. 

Traffic-safety advocates further coalesced around their mission in the aftermath of a collision that claimed three lives on Rock Creek Parkway in May. That incident revealed communications gaps between the D.C. court system and D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles that prevented the license revocation of Nakita Marie Walker, the alleged drunk driver who had three previous DUI convictions. 

D.C. resident Benjamin Robertson was recently charged with second-degree murder after allegedly running a red light and fatally striking a tourist in a crosswalk at 17th Street and Constitution Avenue in Northwest earlier this month.

Some people, like Joseph Oschrin, said it has become entirely too easy for drivers to navigate District streets that function as highways. 

Oschrin, a Columbia Heights resident of four years, often takes buses along 14th Street and 16th Street in Northwest. When he’s not doing that, he can be found riding his bike along 11th Street. While on those corridors, Oschrin is often mindful of drivers who speed and make illegal U-turns.   

In recent weeks, Oschrin has mulled over requesting a speed bump for his block, located just around the corner from 14th Street and blocks away from Columbia Heights Metro Station in Northwest. 

For Oschrin, a saving grace for his Columbia Heights experience has been frequenting restaurants and bars where outdoor seating has replaced street parking. He lamented not seeing similar restrictions on cars similarly implemented on U Street, Black Lives Matter Plaza and other communities that have the potential to become more walkable. 

That’s why Oschrin expressed a desire for Bowser and other city officials to make efforts to increase access to other modes of transportation while reducing opportunities for driving. Examples he highlighted were increasing the frequency of underserved Metro routes near DC-295 and expanding trolley access between H Street and RFK Stadium. 

Oschrin said such innovations would especially benefit residents east of the Anacostia River who might feel compelled to drive because of gaps in the public transportation infrastructure.

 “My experience is nothing different from anywhere else in the city,” Oschrin said. “Roads like North Capitol Street and Rhode Island Avenue don’t benefit anyone except out-of-town commuters. When it’s harder for cars to drive dangerously, it’s safer for everyone else.” 

D.C. Council Pursues Accountability Measures 

Since taking the helm of the D.C. Council Committee on Transportation and the Environment, Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) has counted traffic safety among his top priorities. 

In June, toward the end of budget season, the council passed Allen’s amendment to the Budget Support Act that funds the implementation of traffic safety legislation with excess traffic camera revenue. 

This milestone ended a battle between Allen and Bowser about how to allocate the revenue collected from automated traffic enforcement. Another hot-button traffic-related topic during budget-season concerned Bowser’s proposal for the K Street Transitway that critics said would further embolden reckless driving and marginalize bikers. 

Weeks prior to the June 13 council vote, Allen conducted a public hearing where residents and agency leaders alike pointed to a dearth of traffic-calming infrastructure, impaired drivers, drivers who haven’t paid tickets, and cars with fake or expired tags as primary factors that have spurred traffic-related injuries and fatalities this year. 

In response to those concerns, Allen and Council members Christina Henderson (I-At large) and Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) introduced legislation earlier in July intended to tackle gross driver negligence.   

Allen’s legislation, titled the Strengthening Traffic Enforcement, Education and Responsibility (STEER) Amendment Act, would enhance booting, towing and impounding of offenders’ vehicles after repeated or serious traffic violations within a six-month period if passed. It would also authorize the D.C. Office of the Attorney General to bring civil suits against drivers or vehicles, and impose stronger and more streamlined license revocation procedures for those who drive under the influence. 

Henderson’s bills are titled the License Suspension Reform Amendment Act and the Automatic Traffic Enforcement Effectiveness Amendment Act. The former sets out to suspend the license and registration of vehicles involved in negligent homicide, driving under the influence, and hit and runs, while the latter places points against driving records for moving violations detected on traffic cameras, like what’s already done when officers personally dole out tickets. 

Meanwhile, Nadeau’s bill, titled Fraudulent Vehicle Tag Enforcement Amendment Act, would allow the Department of Public Works and other enforcement agencies to immediately tow and impound vehicles with counterfeit, obscured and long-expired license plates and tags.

On July 19, Allen joined Bowser, Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), DDOT Director Everett Lott and other local officials at Dave Thomas Circle in Northeast. They, along with several community members, witnessed the demolition of the shuttered Wendy’s franchise that marked the beginning of a $41 million infrastructural revamp.  

For decades, the area often called “Dave Thomas Circle,” sat at the center of the intersection of Florida Avenue, New York Avenue, First Street that gained notoriety as a labyrinth of rush-hour congestion and traffic fatalities. So much so, that even Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Joe Bishop-Henchmen (5F06), who represents the nearby Eckington community, counted among those who weighed in on the redesign of the intersection where his friend lost his life years prior. 

By the end of 2024, the redesigned intersection will realign and add two-way traffic to First Street in Northeast, restore two-way traffic on Florida Avenue in Northeast, and include protected bike lanes and three new public parks. 

While there was cause for celebration, Allen, along with Bowser and Lott, acknowledged that the goals of Vision Zero have not come to fruition.

“Projects like [the revamp of Dave Thomas Circle] will be part of how we turn that around,” Allen said. “There are [also] shorter term and legislative fixes. The different branches [of government] will work together to make [this] a higher priority.” 

Differing Perspectives on What Works East of the Anacostia River 

By the end of 2022, DDOT had started bus lane projects along Pennsylvania Avenue and Minnesota Avenue in Southeast and H Street and 16th Street in Northwest. Agency officials said they also installed more than 800 speed humps, conducted more than 100 Vision Zero improvements, repaved 88 miles of roadway, improved 54 miles of sidewalks, restored 26 alleyways, and installed nearly 8 miles of bike lanes and more than 1,000 bike racks. 

As it relates to communities located east of the Anacostia River, Lott said that traffic fatalities and accidents have decreased along Alabama Avenue and Minnesota Avenue, due in part to traffic-calming measures that DDOT installed along those roadways and relationships he has fostered with residents and business owners. 

“Those streets were built for commuter traffic to come into downtown and those streets are wide so cars can drive faster,” Lott said. “We work on those high-injury networks to reign in dangerous driving. We’re a data-based agency and we have data points to gauge the effectiveness [of our tools].” 

Even so, some people, like Council member Trayon White (D-Ward 8), question whether DDOT has levied resources effectively to curb traffic fatalities. 

In early July, White rushed to Children’s National Medical Center in Northwest after a car jumped a curb near Oxon Run Pool on Mississippi Avenue in Southeast and trapped a child and her father underneath it. Weeks before the accident, White told The Informer that addressing traffic safety would require a change in the attitudes of reckless drivers, more so than narrow roads, raised intersections and other changes implemented by DDOT.  

During deliberations around the fiscal year 2024 budget earlier this year, White clashed with some of his council colleagues about amendments he introduced that diverted $155 million from Ward 8 DDOT projects to fund the construction of a recreation center at Bard High School Early College DC. 

Some of the funds in question had been intended for roadway safety projects on Wheeler Road and Alabama Avenue in Southeast. During the May 31 hearing, White questioned how the money would be used, telling his council colleagues that, according to members of his staff who took photos, that traffic-calming measures for those areas had already been installed. 

He later doubled down on his assertion, telling The Informer that DDOT hasn’t spent funds prudently to ensure that his constituents can safely travel throughout their communities. 

“A lot of development companies are getting rich … putting all these infrastructures in the street that haven’t equated to traffic safety,” White told The Informer. “People are still getting [and] still driving on curbs. In fact, we’ve seen cars flip over in front of infrastructures. Residents oppose traffic-calming measures, and we have people coming in the District who are leading agencies [without] the cultural sensitivities and what it takes to actually get a solution.”