Beach Drive is an important north-south artery in the congested DC region that also facilitates connections between destinations west and east of Rock Creek Park. Additionally, it is a key means of egress from the surrounding neighborhoods for not only commuting but also grocery shopping, seeking medical care, and dropping kids off at school. With Oregon Avenue closed ongoing for roadwork and the removal of the E6 and other bus routes during the COVID 19 pandemic, many neighborhoods now have no public transit and increased automobile pressure on the roads. While we would all like to rely less on cars, the reality is that currently we do, and particularly so in these now bus-less neighborhoods.

We do appreciate the desire from bike commuters to be able to take Beach Drive to work (though also acknowledge that not everyone has the privilege of working within bike commute distance or the physical ability to bike commute). We agree that it is very difficult to share the road safely. However, that is true of other roads in the city, and the solution has never been to shut them down to auto traffic. It is to find a way to make the roads work for everyone who needs them. We believe that should be the case with Beach Drive as well. Adding new bike paths, widening existing bike paths, and considering off-peak closures to auto traffic would allow for safe bike use and recreation while preserving what is a critical artery for moving about the city, not only for getting to jobs but, for folks in adjacent neighborhoods, for grocery shopping, accessing medical care, and driving children to school.

Additionally, there seems to be an impression among some that recreational (bike, running, etc.) use is the only way to enjoy the park. However, In a recent conversation with Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, several residents shared that they enjoy driving on the parkway and get great joy from driving through the trees and observing the changing seasons in their cars. People who find fulfillment in engaging with nature with their car windows down are still park patrons. And some of them are seniors who would not be able to enjoy the park but from their cars. To this point, too, it seems that it is not an appropriate assumption that recreation would continue at the same volume in post-pandemic times, when many people will return to offices and those who continue to work from home will likely have more structure around their work days and a decreased ability to recreate during rush hour on a week day.

Thirdly, it seems that the data supporting this proposal, at least in part, are flawed in that the DDOT study commonly cited by those proposing or in support of the measure did not incorporate impacts on streets in Hawthorne connecting Wise Road to Western Avenue and other points west. As many attendees mentioned during the meeting with the councilmember, this is an obvious oversight, as previous Beach Road closures have turned Chestnut Street and Western Avenue into commuting thoroughfares, which Chestnut in particular is not well suited to sustain, and caused severe traffic backups. Furthermore, the decreased traffic on some other streets during the study period was in advance of the massive service cuts WMATA has made during the pandemic, many of which, like the E6 bus route, are likely to remain permanent and to increase auto traffic by those who do return to their offices in the post-pandemic period. Closure would also increase emergency response times for residents, some of whom live in wards without hospital facilities.

In summary, we implore you to obtain comprehensive data on traffic impacts in surrounding neighborhoods, to work with both auto and bike commuters to gain a full sense of the roles Beach Drive has served and could serve in the future, and to think creatively about strategies (increased and widened bike paths, off-peak auto traffic closures) that would make Beach Drive accessible for all to enjoy. We appreciate the councilmember’s cited concerns about safety and pedestrian traffic fatalities, but diverting commuter traffic to the residential streets in Hawthorne and other neighborhoods surrounding the park does not make children safer. Rather, it diverts traffic from an area with majority animal inhabitants to one with numerous young children, some of whom in areas like Hawthorne must walk and run in the street because they do not have sidewalks on which to travel (including to and from school during peak commute hours, in light of bus route discontinuation) safely.

Thank you for your time and consideration. We deeply appreciate it and look forward to continued engagement on this issue.