“Dear PoPville,

The neighbors in central Shaw could use your help seeking advice from the community on how to deal with a dangerous intersection in our neighborhood:

There was another accident at the one-way stop at 8th and Q NW on Monday–this time, an SUV ended up on the sidewalk and mangled a treebox and another vehicle. Both drivers were thankfully OK. An SUV traveling south on 8th (turning left onto Q) hit a Prius traveling east on Q. (8th St. traffic has a stop sign; Q St. traffic does not.) The driver of the SUV said she did not realize cross traffic doesn’t have a stop sign, so she entered the intersection expecting the Prius to stop.

This intersection has long been a hazard, with accidents and daily near-misses between vehicles, bicycles, scooters, and pedestrians. Residents have made multiple appeals to the city to install a stop sign on Q St. to improve the safety of the intersection. In March, at the request of the local neighborhood association, Councilmember Allen wrote a letter to Director Marootian requesting conversion of this intersection to an all-way stop, but we have yet to receive a reply from DDOT regarding this. We also brought this to the attention of the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations & Service, during two walk-through visits and multiple emails over the past few years, also to no avail. Vision Zero? More like Zero Vision.

A few additional factors make this one-way stop particularly hazardous: (more…)