H Street NE is a dangerous corridor that has harmed our residents, local businesses, and visitors to our neighborhoods. The unsafe design of H St NE has directly inflicted pain on families with the loss of Jewel Lewis Hall, 62; Oren Dorrel, 53; Malik Habib, 19; and Brad Hinds, 39 to traffic violence.

Drivers of speeding cars have destroyed storefronts of our local businesses, such as the October 2020 crash into a storefront at 6th St NE; the November 2020 crash into Taqueria Rosticeria at 7th St NE; the December 2020 crash into the Atlas Performing Arts Center and the Joy of Motion Dance Center on the 1300 block; and the February 2021 crash into Mozzeria’s streatery at 13th St NE. 

We request that DDOT and the Office of Planning implement both immediate and long-term fixes for the H Street NE corridor. We ask for:

1. Bus/streetcar-only lanes
2. Wider sidewalks
3. Pick up and drop off zones
4. Frequent and safe pedestrian crossings

We envision a H St NE redesign that protects the lives of our neighbors and visitors, allows our local business to flourish and grow, celebrates our neighborhood history, provides predictable and reliable bus service for transit-dependent neighbors, and is environmentally sustainable. And we welcome the opportunity to work with DDOT and Office of Planning to leverage its staff expertise to develop solutions together in partnership—especially as H Street NE will become the main corridor between two transformative redevelopment projects at Union Station and Hechinger Mall.

Creating a transit lane will bring more reliable bus and streetcar service, contributing to transit equity for all of us who rely on the bus and streetcar, recognizing that half of bus riders make under $35k and most are transit-dependent. Also, because transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases, making H St NE more walkable and making bus and streetcar service more reliable will contribute to DC meeting its own climate goals and mode-share goals.

Letter from 25 H St NE small businesses asking for the same fixes: https://bit.ly/hstnesmallbusinesses

Letter from ANCs 6A and 6C asking for the same fixes: https://anc6a.org/wp-content/uploads/ANC6A-and-6C_-Request-for-partnership-to-develop-solutions-for-H-Street-NE.pdf

Join Friends of the DC Streetcar: https://bit.ly/friendsofdcstreetcar