“No Parking – Taxi Stand at Convention Center. What is going on here?”

“Dear PoPville,

When 9th Street was restriped/redone a couple of years ago, near the Convention Center at K/New York Avenue the lanes south shifted, creating a parking area for cars/taxis at L Street by the Marriott Marquis. Previously, there was a taxi stand/waiting area at the corner of K Street, but that was eliminated as it was blocking traffic going south and creating a bottleneck. Then, sometime later a new sign was added, putting the taxi stand back, which to no surprise, again created a bottleneck that was, during rush hour blocks long as two lanes needed to merge to one specifically and only because of the location of the taxi stand. I noticed this week those signs were again eliminated and only the no parking sign (pictured) was present, but that cones from the construction across the street were put in place, blocking a lane, plus taxi cabs are parking where this sign is, illegally.

I suspect it is only a matter of time before this will come to a head, either with the taxis all getting tickets and the drivers getting pissed off, or the sign will be put back allowing for a taxi stand, or some kind of vigilante placement of cones by the drivers.

Maybe the taxis are “taking back” what they think is rightfully theirs, and that this is the only good place to see people leaving the main convention center entrance, but there are other places/ways to have taxis wait than blocking a major travel lane on a major thoroughfare.

What is going on here? Many people traveling to work (or to daycare, in my case) find this frustrating and annoying, adding significantly to the travel time of hundreds upon hundreds of people each day… perhaps you could do a walk to see this, as well as progress with the construction along 9th at the Convention Center and check out some of the new businesses that have opened up on the public side of the Convention Center?

Would be interested in your thoughts and that of others (except those who want to turn this 9th Street into a 100% pedestrian/bike walkway).”