395 - GSA Development of St. Elizabeths Campus

• Travel times along principal arterials are severely degraded, resulting in spill-over trafficon secondary arterials and local roadways. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenueand South Capitol Street assume additional traffic volumes from vehicles exiting I-295 inorder to avoid recurring congestion.• Most signalized intersections within the Study Area are congested during the AM andPM peak periods. In some cases, especially along Firth Sterling Avenue, SuitlandParkway, and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, queuing spills back from one intersectionto the next, resulting in a stream of continuous delays along major local corridors. It iscommon for queued traffic to wait two or more cycles at major traffic signals beforeclearing an intersection. The resulting traffic congestion reduces the accessibility of localside streets because it increases the difficulty of turning movements to and from arterialroadways.• Pedestrian traffic is heavily concentrated along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, HowardRoad, and Sumner Road. In the northern end of the Study Area, the high occurrence offoot traffic is largely due to the Anacostia Metro Station, the 11 th Street Bridges, andsurrounding land use.2.2.2 Causes of CongestionCongestion within the Study Area is due to several factors, including the limited capacity ofarterials, the lack of continuous parallel routes on the north and east portions of the Study Areaas well as connections between these routes, a highly unbalanced modal split in favor ofautomobiles, and the competing vehicular and modal demands at intersections. Several designdeficiencies within the Study Area also contribute to congested conditions, such as intersectionswith tight turning radii, locations with bottlenecks or cut-through traffic. Highlights of the mostprominent congestion areas are summarized below:• Because Suitland Parkway is the only major east-west principal arterial in Southeast DC,its operational characteristics are characterized by through volumes that achieve orexceed the capacity of the facility, as well as extensive queues and delays at two at-gradeintersections within Ward 8: Firth Sterling Avenue and Stanton Road.‣ The intersection at Suitland Parkway and Firth Sterling Avenue is one of themost congested locations within the Study Area. This intersection’s proximity tothe Anacostia Metro Station East Entrance and Metrobus transfer hub results in ahigh occurrence of buses and other transit vehicles through the intersection, aswell as a comparatively high incidence of pedestrian traffic than otherintersections in the Study Area. In addition, Firth Sterling Avenue is frequentlycongested because of its function as a primary linkage between local and regionaltransportation networks; it provides the principal connection between the BarryFarm neighborhood and the Anacostia Metro Station, and transitions into thenorthbound on-ramp to I-295 just north of the Suitland Parkway Interchange.Thus the competing demands exceed the available capacity.‣ The intersection of Suitland Parkway with Stanton Road represents one of thefirst major interruptions to free-flow speed inside the District, resulting insaturated traffic flow conditions at the traffic signal. This intersection contributesto long queues and delays because of the sheer volume of through traffic2-3