Champlain Street Residents Look to Slow Down Speeding Cars

THOSE WHO DRIVE in Adams Morgan regularly likely know Champlain Street NW well. The two-lane road, which runs parallel to 18th Street and dead ends at the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center, is typically used as speedy cut-through for motorists in the area — and residents have had enough.

A group of neighbors has organized a petition to get the D.C. Department of Transportation to conduct a transportation audit — part of a process they hope will help to get speeding on the busy backstreet under control. Drivers blow through the street at such a clip, they say, that it's dangerous for those walking nearby with children or pets.

Michal Kisilevitz, a Champlain street resident, is working with her Advisory Neighborhood Commission rep, Wilson Reynolds to gather support for the effort. The two have set up an email address through an Adams Morgan Yahoo group that allows residents to send in their electronic signatures. According to DDOT, the neighborhood has to prove at least 50 percent of the street's residents are in support of the audit for the agency to proceed.

Kisilevitz estimates that that means she needs roughly 100 signatures; as of Wednesday, she's racked up 20.

"We've had a bit of a slow start. Our biggest challenge right now is reaching people," Kisilevitz said. "We tried the electronic version first, and this weekend we're going to be walking down the street and talking to people, and getting them to sign."

According to Kisilevitz, residents are open to suggestions from DDOT as to how to decrease the street's speeders.

"When we originally started this, we were thinking of something like speed bumps. We'd like them to do something where we could see a measurable decrease in the speed at which people travel down that street," she said.

Kisilevitz realizes that her street isn't going to become a less popular shortcut — especially as business on nearby 18th Street continues to boom.

"We're not talking about reducing the traffic," she said. "The traffic is only going to increase, so we're just looking for a way to make it safer."