Project History

C Street NE is a Minor Arterial in the District’s Functional Classification system, but historically, the C Street NE Corridor has functioned as a neighborhood street as well as a major westbound route toward the Capitol and Downtown. Eliot-Hine Middle School and the Eliot Recreation Center are located on C Street, which means there are large numbers of children crossing the corridor at various times of day. The recent reconstruction of the 11th Street Bridge has created an interchange that establishes a link between I-295 to Capitol Hill, thus reducing travel demand on C Street NE and opening up the opportunity to reallocate street space to improve safety and livability for the neighborhood and provide more viable options for multimodal travel.

The C Street NE corridor has been evaluated through two previous planning studies: the Capitol Hill Transportation Study in 2006 and the C Street Traffic Calming Study in 2010. The Capitol Hill Transportation Study was a year-long effort to document a full range of transportation characteristics, identify issues and problems, and propose short-, medium-, and long-term improvements for the Capitol Hill area of the District of Columbia. C Street, NE was identified as one of 13 priority locations as it included high speeds and high volumes. Preliminary recommendations included a bike lane (which had already been proposed in the 2005 Bike Master Plan) as well as traffic calming to improve pedestrian safety concerns. Some of the recommendations from the study have already been implemented, including bike lanes on C Street NE, the two-way conversion of Constitution Avenue NE, and recent upgrades to ramps, sidewalks, and median pedestrian refuges.

The C Street Traffic Calming Study, a similar effort to this ongoing Multimodal Corridor Study, developed three concepts for C Street NE in close consultation with the community and relevant stakeholders. This previous study was completed at a time when several major construction projects were taking place in the District, specifically Benning Road and the 11th Street Bridge. These projects likely impacted how residents and commuters were using C Street NE at the time, particularly compared to how it is used today. Traffic volumes have decreased substantially on C Street since these construction projects were completed, and therefore it is necessary to revisit the previous concepts to better understand how they may operate in future conditions.

The previous study identified three concepts, of which this study will review and revise accordingly based on community input, new data, and multimodal traffic impacts in the study area:

Download Full-Size Project Concepts (Adobe PDF)

Concept A: Eliminate one travel lane in the eastbound direction of C Street NE.

Concept B: Eliminate one travel lane in the eastbound direction of C Street NE and allow parking in the northernmost westbound travel lane except during the AM peak period.

Concept C: Eliminate one travel lane in both directions of C Street NE.

The previous concepts also incorporated various options, including left-turn lanes, protected bike facilities (i.e., “cycle tracks”), enhanced green infrastructure, and streetcaping.