November | 2020 | Columbia Heights Civic Association

CHCA Membership Meeting, Monday, Dec 7th, 2020, 7 pm – 9 pm
Location: ONLINE

7:00 PM President’s Update and the goals for tonight – (Ron Haddox)

7:05 PM Approval of the Meetings tonight agenda and the Nov 9th meeting minutes. (Marian and Ron)

7:10 PM Form-Based Code – Update (Juliet)

7:20 PM Updates

Newsletter (Marian)
11th Street & Edgewood – STOP sign discussion – Letter/Plan (Marian)
NC Plan Update (NCAC next project proposal & 12/10 deadline, discussion.) – Z285_Proposed Design
Affordable housing/Drew impact – (Erin & Marian)
Green Valley/Columbia Heights – Boundary Vote at CivFed.
3rd District Officer Introduction – Questions/Comments Planning for our next meeting on Jan 11th.
Vision Zero – The County Board committed the County to this issue through the adoption of a “Vision Zero” policy, charging us to develop goals and action plans toward eliminating death and serious injury from traffic collisions. We encourage advocates for safe transportation options to get engaged through the County’s Vision Zero Planning effort, https://transportation.arlingtonva.us/vision-zero/. Right now, our Vision Zero team is taking input regarding experience-based safety concerns. If you have a moment, please visit this website: https://transportation.arlingtonva.us/vision-zero/get-involved/ to learn more about this planning process.
Traffic Concerns in CHCA Review by Transportation Engineering and Operations (TE&O) team review your material and provide a status report regarding each of the following items you have indicated as incomplete or requiring follow-up.

List of Concerns/Requests:

Stop Line request for westbound approach of the intersection at 12^th Street South and S. Edgewood
1. Stop Sign Location review to address visibility concerns at this intersection. Include any information available about landscape encroachments.

Stop Line(s) request (all directions) for 13^th Street South and S. Edgewood
1. Stop Sign Location review to address visibility concerns at this intersection. Include any information available about landscape encroachments.

Crosswalk marking request at northern crossing of S. Edgewood and 11^th Street South. From my understanding, this would not be accommodated due to the fact that an accessible curb ramp does not exist at the northwest corner of this intersection. The crosswalk would be necessarily placed in direct conflict with the driveway apron at the rear of the Walgreens parking lot. A capital project would need to be identified to reengineer this location to provide an ADA accessible curb ramp. I also note from the street view at this location that the a manhole cover is almost directly aligned with a logical crosswalk location, which would complicate the work necessary to create the referenced curb ramp. As a reminder, marking a crosswalk does not create a “legal” crossing, nor does absence of a marked crosswalk represent an “illegal” crossing. A legal crosswalk exists whether it is marked or not, and pedestrians in Virginia may cross at any safe gap in traffic. Crosswalks are only marked where it is safe to do so and they meet necessary criteria, including accessible curb ramps at both ends.

Confirm location(s) of streetlights to be added along S. Edgewood – with noted location of block between 12^thSt. S. and 13^th St. S.

Confirm intent and schedule for post-construction traffic investigation and 4-way stop analysis at S. Edgewood and 11^th Street South. We may need to have a description the behavior involving illegal u-turns better to assess this concern. My understanding has been that It is legal to make u-turns within an intersection in Virginia as long as the intersection is otherwise clear of oncoming traffic and/or pedestrians. Regarding illegal parking, parking enforcement is distinct from traffic engineering, and we would advise residents or businesses to refer to Police Non-Emergency 703-558-2222 for reporting in-process traffic violations.

Regarding 4-way stops, we remind requesters that STOP controls are placed in accordance with the Federal Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), and not used as traffic calming but to control the intersection when warranted based on traffic and/or pedestrian volumes, as well as other specified criteria. Any individual or Civic Association may request an analysis of a STOP control, but there is no special treatment based on neighborhood. Each is analyzed independently and objectively based on the criteria referenced in the MUTCD.

Confirm locations and schedule, if available, for concrete projects for S. Edgewood curb ramps.

Traffic safety investigation for intersection(s) of S. Walter Reed Drive at 13^th Street South and 12^th Street South. Based on another recent complaint and request for traffic enforcement at a nearby intersection – 14^th Street S. and Walter Reed – Our Police Special Operations and Traffic Enforcement Section made a considerable effort to temporarily intervene with nearly all available enforcement methods we have available at this location. ACPD-SOS deployed a speed classifier at this location from August 25^th – 31^st, 2020, measuring over 56,000 vehicles. This classifier collects speed data, which showed that 12.8% of vehicles measured were traveling 5mph or more above the posted speed limit. 2% of vehicles were speeding at 10mph or more above the limit. While this is not an insignificant number of speeding vehicles, it does not meet the standard, County Board adopted definition of “speeding problem,” which is defined as “when the 85^th percentile speed on the affected street/s or street segment is 5 mph or more over the posted speed limit”. DES-TEO may have more information to share upon review at the locations you’ve identified.

Ben Aiken (he/his/him)

Arlington County Manager’s Office

703.228.1762

NOTE: If you didn’t receive an invite please contact Ron – “ronhaddox@aol.com”.

Columbia Heights Civic Association