Pershing Drive: Another Piece

BSCL Letter to the County Approving Measures
Between Arlington Boulevard and Woodrow

Dear Ms. Finotti:

At our last civic association meeting, the Barcroft School and Civic League approved by 20 to 1 vote the proposed traffic calming plan for the section of S. Pershing Drive from Arlington Blvd. down to and including the first curve at Woodrow. The approved plan includes:

• Addition of an island at the intersection with the service road to better define the turning movements;

• A "speed cushion" on Pershing near First Street;

• Textured areas in the center of the first curve that will better separate the two directions.

In addition, we strongly urge the installation of bollards to the centerline of the proposed speed cushion (and all other speed cushions in Barcroft). We also ask for staff to research whether the curve at Pershing and Woodrow can be flattened, because we believe the existing banking of that turn encourages speeders. Finally, we also request consideration of doing the textured area treatment for the second curve on Pershing (between Woodrow and S. Third Street.

BSCL looks forward to these improvements, and the completion of the remaining elements of the traffic calming plans on S. Wakefield and S. Buchanan Streets. Thank you for you continued efforts to improve traffic and pedestrian safety in Barcroft.

Sincerely,


Eric M. Harold

Barcroft School and Civic League
902 S. Buchanan Street
Arlington, VA 22204

April, 2003: Deja View All Over Again

October, 2002: Our Traffic Calming Devices are
Being Installed

See our November newsletter for three articles about the circles on Wakefield that will be installed next. The circles will be discussed once again at our monthly meeting on November 6th. In the meantime: (from Pat Williamson-Edwards, our President)

Arlington County Department of Public Works has painted circles in the 6th and 8th Street intersections with Wakefield. Please check them out prior to the Nov. 7 monthly meeting. We will have an opportunity at that meeting to meet with DPW staffer Jeff Sikes who will explain circle design and engineering and answer our questions about Traffic Calming approaches.

And here is some background on how we got there:

A letter from County Board
Vice Chairman Charles Monroe

February 7, 2002

Ms. Pat Williamson Edwards, President
Barcroft School and Civic League
O00 South Buchanan Street
Arlington, Virginia 22204

Dear Ms. Williamson Edwards:

Please share with the residents of the Barcroft community my congratulations for their hard work and tenacity in gaining Board approval at our January 26th meeting for two speed humps per street on South Abingdon, 3rd, and 4th Streets. I was honored to represent the interests of the residents who pursued these additional safety measures for the purpose of increasing safety in the neighborhood.

The residents should be proud that their determination and commitment to succeed in a cause they truly believed in led to positive changes that will make a difference in the quality of life for the entire community. I recognize that it took many hours of participating in studies, surveys, petitions, meetings, and letter-writing campaigns -- whatever it took -- to provide evidence and gain support for these additional traffic calming measures. These citizens set the example for civic participation and action at its best.

I personally want to thank the Barcroft School and Civic League, and each resident who participated in the traffic calming program, for their patience throughout the process. I hope residents find that the measures recommended by the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Committee and County Manager, as well as the additional speed llurnps approved by the Board, provide the relief you seek and certainly deserve.

Again, thank you for significant contributions made on behalf of your community. If I can be of assistance in the future, please feel free to contact me.

With warmest regards, I remain

Sincerely,

Charles P. Monroe
Vice Chairman

Mark Wigfield's report
on the County Board decision

To: Barcroft chat

From: Mark Wigfield "mark@BSCL.org"

Subject: Board Approves Traffic Calming

Here's my take on the astonishing vote by the County Board Saturday. Forgive the length, but it was a very interesting day. Response from those who saw different things welcome!

--Mark Wigfield

The Arlington County Board Saturday approved not only the traffic calming plans for S. Wakefield and S. Buchanan, but agreed to extend the plan to Third, Fourth and Abingdon Streets.

The local and county-wide significance of this 3-2 vote can’t be overstated. It represents not just the long, hard work of our traffic calming chair, Elaine Squeri. Elaine helped develop the rules county-wide for ranking traffic calming priorities as a member of the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Committee, or NTCC, while also laboring to develop the extensive factual record and popular support needed in Barcroft.

It also represents an extraordinary effort by what is probably one of the most cohesive blocks in Barcroft, S. Abingdon, where Elaine also lives. It’s a validation of good old block-party neighborhood organizing, coupled with a lot of hard work and guts.

Led by former fireman and professional lobbyist Kenny Harrell, the Abingdon/3/4 crew accomplished the difficult task of persuading the county board to go beyond the strict guidelines of the NTCC’s traffic calming priority system, which awarded relief to Buchanan and Wakefield, but not Abingdon/3/4. Anyone who lives in the neighborhood knows that much of the traffic from Buchanan and Wakefield usually ends up on Abingdon/3/4.

Neighborhood advocate Randy Swart must also be recognized for doing what he does best: Stepping in when an issue threatens to tear the neighborhood apart and fixing the problem, using his smarts, hard work, and relationships of trust with the county’s powers-that-be.

The impact on our neighborhood is both immediate and long-term.

It means that Abingdon residents who were so fed up with traffic they were threatening to leave the neighborhood will stay. Many of them contribute significantly to neighborhood causes.

The vote should bring significant relief to north-south cut-through traffic in many ways. It’s likely to make the traffic calming measures on Wakefield and Buchanan more effective, and even discourage traffic cutting through on Taylor, 8th and Fourth St. as well since all exits to Arlington Blvd through Pershing or Abingdon will have humps.

For the County, it represents recognition by a majority of the Board that the new NTCC criteria for ranking traffic calming projects fell short by failing to address cut-through traffic. While the NTCC was slated to start the first review of its guidelines in March, the vote Saturday gives them a real mandate to do so.

The vote marks the emergence in Barcroft of the board’s newest member, Charles Monroe, as a thoughtful and creative politician. Charles "got it" on the ground level as he sat with Kenny on S. Abingdon and watched the cars stream by. And he was able to effectively frame his gut reaction in a motion to amend the plan. The amendment was framed in sound legal arguments about why the board, in this case, should overrule the recommendations of its appointed traffic task force, the NTCC, and amend the sanctioned Wakefield/Buchanan plan with the streets rejected by the NTCC for calming.

Charles pointed out that while cut-through was in the county’s list of traffic problems, and underlies the legislative charter behind the program, the NTCC hadn’t sufficiently accounted for it in the speed-and-volume-driven model used to screen streets for calming measures. During the meeting, staffers acknowledged they had struggled with accounting for cut-through. This enabled Charles to effectively counter arguments by members Jay Fisette and Barbara Favola.

Jay and Barbara took the principled stand that making an exception for Abingdon/3/4 would undermine the NTCC and open the board to relentless lobbying by neighborhoods trying to get traffic calming through politics rather than merit. But Charles was backed by board member Paul Ferguson, and his reasoning swung the vote of board Chairman Chris Zimmerman. In the end, Zimmerman, up for election this year, demonstrated his signature pragmatism, casting the swing vote in favor of amending the plan.

Chris noted that a cut-through study demonstrated that we live on a commuter route, which tends to bring higher-speed, hurried drivers. He noted that drivers trying to avoid humps on Pershing would go to Abingdon. He noted the high speeds on Third and Fourth, even if traffic volumes are relatively low.

:"So in the end, we have a problem," he said. "Do we say we can’t do anything about it? I’m not willing to say that."

Saturday’s vote was also shaped by county staffer Jeff Sikes, who was key to getting the critical cut-through study done. While Sikes never promised the cut-through data could be used immediately, he realized that the information would be valuable in both reviewing the NTCC process and in shedding some light on whether cut-through commuters really are significant in Barcroft, or if our traffic problems are largely of our own making. The study itself helped defuse tensions within the neighborhood over the inequity of the initial calming solution. And it ultimately proved critical to winning the fight.

But for his efforts, he took considerable heat during the public meeting Saturday from Jay Fisette. Jay told Jeff that performing the study "was not helpful" because it raised expectations within Barcroft that the cut-through data could actually to support calming on Abingdon/3/4, even though there was no official way to crank the data through the mill.

Fortunately, other board members county manager Ron Carlee came to his defense.

At any rate, the day was a huge success for Barcroft, and another sign of what a great neighborhood this is. There is a history, work and commitment behind victories like this one that you can’t build in a day.

And a note by the Webmaster:

Most of the Board members commented on the need for more resources for the Neighborhood Traffic Calming program. That means we can probably expect the program to be expanded in the next budget cycle. I think the grassroots uprising by the 3rd/4th/Abingdon contingent led by Kenny, plus strong overall neighborhood support, did a lot to demonstrate that this is a program whose time has come, and the pressure on the Board in the future will come from those who are waiting too long for traffic calming rather than the nay sayers. Without that kind of demonstrated support they would be reluctant to move faster. The Abingdon/3/4 neighbors who appeared and cheered in the Board room yesterday probably did more to affect public policy than just get three additional streets calmed!

Here is the paper on traffic calming prepared by our traffic calming committee for a vote at the Barcroft meeting on October 4th, 2001. At that meeting the BSCL voted 39 to 2 to support the program.

Traffic Calming Proposals

For South Buchanan / Pershing

1. Speed HUMPS from 9th to 2nd. Humps are gradual rises in the pavement designed to allow cars to travel at about 25 mph. These are not the sharp speed bumps in parking lots that slow traffic to a crawl. Arlington County uses flat-top humps that an SUV could park on, 3.5 inches high and 22 feet across the roadway. (Test drive on N. 16th west of Geo. Mason Drive.)

2. Two Electronic speed indicators. These devices flash a driver's speed and will be permanently attached to a telephone pole. (See N.16th, East of Geo. Mason)

3. Edge lines. These mark the parking strip along each side of the road, effectively narrowing the street. The line will end in a right angle to mark the end of parking space in order to leave intersections with clear sight lines. (See N. Pershing, east of Glebe)

4. Imprinted, highly visible crosswalks on 6th, 8th, 9th, and 3rd at Wakefield. (See N. Park at Geo. Mason by Lubber Run Center).

For South Wakefield

For Barcroft Neighborhood as a whole (Draft 9/18/01 section)

For further information or to offer comment, call one of the Steering Committee:

Pat Williamson, BSCL President 703- 521-1082
Eric Harold, BSCL Vice President 486-0879
Elaine Squeri, Traffic Committee Chair 920-7014
Mark Wigfield, BSCL Past-President 979-0339
David Michaelson, NCAC Representative 553-3953

Note: The following will be incorporated into the final draft:

Traffic Cut-Through Study Completed

From: Elaine Squeri, Chair
Barcroft Traffic Calming Committee

Subject: Summary of items decided at Barcroft TC Working Group, Monday, September 17, 2001

2. On the application itself, in the introductory paragraph, there will be a preface offered by Bryant Monroe: "The Barcroft community is concerned about the potential impact of traffic calming measures on streets not directly addressed in this proposed plan. Streets near Wakefield and Buchanan/Pershing could well see increased traffic seeking to avoid the proposed speed humps and traffic circles. The Barcroft community considers this a significant issue and will support short and long-term measures to mitigate this impact."

3. Jeff Sikes agreed to do a traffic count on Pershing between the access road and 2nd street since none have been taken there. If anyone has suggestions at what points on that section of Pershing to do counts, please call me with the specific houses numbers in front of which the counters should be arranged. (Elaine 920-7014) If you can talk it over with others on Pershing, so much the better.

4. The humps we have now in Arlington on, e.g., Harrison between Lee Highway and 16th and on 16th itself west of George Mason are not the only kinds of humps available. Jeff introduced yet a new version called the speed cushion which must be tested and may possibly be tried on Buchanan/Pershing. Stay tuned.

5. The Petition for Support of the Measures The Steering Committee (Pat, Mark, Eric, Elaine, David), Keith Fred and Randy Swart will work on the Petition Format. Jeff Sikes will review it for approval. The Petition will be presented at the October 4 BSCL Meeting. That Meeting will be the formal presentation to the Neighborhood of the Measures and we will ask for two things: a signature of support on the Petition and a vote of support in the name of the Barcroft School and Civic League (BSCL), the whole association. Thereafter, volunteers are needed to take the petition around to the "Area of Impact" which I just received this afternoon from Jeff. It is extensive: Pershing Drive that runs between Woodrow and Pershing Court including Pershing Court itself, and streets down to and including 9th Street each side of or contiguous to Buchanan/Pershing and Wakefield. Twenty volunteers are needed to bring the petition around to sections of streets, in addition to the ten who have already signed up for specific areas. Call me to volunteer time between October 5 and October 15. (Elaine 920-7014)

If anyone has other items to add to the summary, feel free to do so. Many thanks.

Elaine Squeri

Another report from Elaine Squeri on November 10, 2001

On November 2, Randy, Pat, Tom Fitchett, and Kenny received a copy of a Nov. 1 letter that Charles Monroe wrote to the NTCC ASKING THAT ABINGDON, 3rd and 4th BE INCLUDED IN THE Barcroft TC plan. He included Tom's letter of March 15 with signatures of 12 neighbors and Kenny's notes about Barcroft traffic. Charles has monitored Abingdon with Kenny and Glenda and supported our requests before.

On November 5 the NTCC met as scheduled and the letter was distributed. Randy, Kenny and Ron French attended the meeting. Steve Sockwell was acting chair; Charlie Denny had just resigned to join the County bike/pedestrian staff.

Since I am recused from Barcroft issues, I asked Steve to have Kenny and Randy provide background. They did well. I got unrecused for the sake of discussion and asked that we await the results of the Cut-through study due by November 16, send Charles a "thank you" stating that we will consider the issue, and take time to think it through. Jeff Sikes felt that Abingdon, 3rd and 4th could be included in the TC project and, further, offered humps for Abingdon, 3rd and 4th. Nevertheless, NTCC felt that we should maintain the guidelines in the NTCC Manual & the vote was for refusal. I would have voted to table the issue until December's meeting but I uphold their thinking about the guildelines since one of the purposes of the NTCC is impartiality, applying the criteria according to the priority point system.

The NTCC was created in April 1999. The process it established was approved on March 14, 2000. We are scheduled to review the NTCC process in March 2002 at the end of its two year trial period. My hope is that we'll make meaningful adjustments as a result of the dilemmas we have encountered.

As for now, on Abingdon, 3, 4, under Kenny's leadership, a group of neighbors from the affected area is forming and will petition the neighborhood on Ab, 3, 4, 5, 6, Woodstock in support of at least one of several measures listed in the Manual for cut-through problems. I hope that Jeff will provide Kenny the cut-through results and decision on area of impact by Nov. 16 as he said. When all is completed, we will bring the petition directly to the Board, not the NTCC.

In good democratic procedure, we are questioning two Board decisions: (1) addressing invidivual streets, not the whole neighborhoodand, and (2) directing the NTCC to focus on speed and volume, not cut-through. I understand and support the first decision-- there is limited money and over 50 streets asking for relief. However, the second decision exacts a cost to neighborhoods and quality of living which, to me, is unacceptably high. Therefore, I support Ken's efforts.

For more info

And here is a link to Arlington County's own page on the program.

See also our letter to the County on Stop Signs at Schools

This page was revised on: May 12, 2005.