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DDOT is designing the K Street Transitway to improve on-time bus performance and reliability of the east-west bus routes across the District. K Street NW from 12th Street to 21st Street is a critical component of east-west travel. Existing bus service in this corridor extremely slow, averaging 3 to 5 miles per hour in many segments and creating a bottleneck for routes traveling through downtown. With over 35,000 daily bus passengers moving east or west through downtown, representing approximately 40 percent of people travel on K Street, there is a lot to be gained by making transit work better.

The Transitway will feature a two-way dedicated busway running in the center of K Street from 12th Street NW to 21st Street NW. The new design eliminates service lanes along K Street and places medians in the center of the roadway to protect the busway. The new medians will features bus stops, lighting, landscaping, and pedestrian amenities.

For the 50 or more WMATA and DC Circulator buses per hour that will use the Transitway during weekdays, travel times are expected to improve by 30% to 60% (depending on time of day and location). Transitway passengers will enjoy time savings and greater reliability, with benefits extending beyond the one-mile K Street Corridor.

The K Street Transitway isn’t just about moving buses. K Street NW will get a major facelift, improving pedestrian facilities and making the road operate better for vehicles too. The design eliminates the existing service lanes, making way for more efficient vehicle operations and loading activities for 28,000 vehicles using K Street every weekday. Much of the streetscape will be improved with new bioretention, landscaping, and pedestrian amenities, including Vision Zero safety improvements.

DDOT has considered improvements on this critical corridor over many years, and the K Street Transitway consistently delivers benefits to the most modes for the least cost. It provides needed streetscape improvements, a better way to move vehicles, and dedicated space for buses. After years of studies on how to improve transit downtown, this project will deliver near term results.

–DDOTVideos on YouTube

Tags: D.C., DDOT, District Department of Transportation, District of Columbia, Video, Washington, YouTube

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 1st, 2019 at 9:42 am and is filed under Public Transportation, Roads, Show Us Your Infra, Transit, Urban Planning . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.