How about some traffic calming between Monroe and Braddock? Trying to cross that stretch is like playing frogger.

Great to hear the City is looking into measures to reduce speeding and commercial traffice 'east' of Mt Vernon Avenue on Howell and Custis. It'd be great to see the enforcement area extended 1 block 'east' and 'west' of Mt Vernon from Commonwealth to Monroe. This area is the heart of the Avenue and enforcing the speed limit would go a long way to enhancing a pedestrian friendly environment and lilmiting commercial vehicles to stopping in designated loading areas would help elevate congestion and traffic back up. This is a great opportunity for the City to engage citizens to help develop a proactive traffic calming and enforcement plan. Call us! We want to be part of the solution!

Remember....speed bumps limit where EMS vehicles can transport patients (affects IV administration) and snow plows are prone to destroying them. More stop signs and more police presence are better solutions with the emphasis on the latter.

E Bellefonte has the same problem. I vote for speed humps and to reduce the speed to 15mph

Changing the signage isn't going to slow anyone down. You need physical limits. I don't care for speed bumps/humps. I find bump outs/ s curves to be far more effective. And they have the advantage of not creating excess noise. I expect the city will do nothing though.

The original vote to reroute traffic from Monroe Avenue to East Howell and East Custis was the tipping point in Council's relationship with developers versus Council's responsibility to Alexandria citizens. This vote was taken solely to allow the Potomac Yard developers their maximum foot print on the Yard property. In voting to do this, the then Council drove a stake through the Golden Promise of all candidates for Council had tradionally made to the citizens - to protect residential neighborhoods from the problems generated by new development. In short, they gave the Potomac Yard developers two of the oldest and narrowest streets in Del Ray to send traffic down and in doing so, made these two streets traffic collectors in violation of the City's own Code. This vote has long been overlooked. BRAC came as no surprise to those of us living on Howell and Custis. This is now how business is being done in this City. Council's "shock" that traffic is zooming up and down these two streets is as disingenuous as Claude Raines' character in Casablanca being "shocked, shocked that gambling was going on at Rick's". For your information the vote to reroute traffic to Howell and Custis was: Yes - Euille, Krupicka, Smedburg, Pepper, Wilson, and Lovain; No - McDonald.

I would like to know which specific vote she is referring to, at which specific Council meeting. I'm not aware that such a vote even took place. Traffic detours did occur when Monroe Avenue was temporarily closed during construction of the new Monroe Avenue/Route 1 bridge, and people on Howell and Custis were disproportionately affected. We need to act like grown-ups and work out practical solutions to our traffic problems. A tirade like this isn't helpful.

What "tirade"?

I disagree with seeking measures on Mt. Vernon between Braddock and Monroe. I live on Mt. Vernon directly across from GWMS. The traffic signal and walk light have worked out well. The major problem--and a potential cash-cow for the city--is drivers who ignore the No Turn on Red signs. That is not enforced.

Overall, the City has not endorsed a rule to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, as exists in Massachusetts. Maybe an approach like that would be a good plan.

Leslie: I did not participate in the vote you refer to. I was not on the City Council at that point.

As you may recall, I was elected on July 17, 2007 to replace Andrew MacDonald upon his resignation, so it would be impossible for both of us to have participated in a vote together.

Also, you forgot about Councilman Gaines, who served from 2003 to 2009.

Justin, I do apologize if I was in error. I will, as Bill requested go back to check the date of the vote. It was a difficult time for our neighborhood. I would also like to mention that there is a committee of residents of Custis and Howell who are working very hard to come up with solutions for this traffic issue. My concern is that Howell and Custis should never have been used as substitutes for traffic that needed and will continue to need even more the use of a four lane street and not a street so narrow that it does not meet current Code standards. As they exist now, neither Howell nor Custis can withstand the volume of traffic they are currently handling. We have had numerous water main breaks and gas leaks due to the vibration of the vehicles. The existing road beds are not even a third so deep as the one on Monroe.

Justin, I do stand corrected. I clearly had crossed two votes with the Council members who had voted. The action I was referring to occurred on February 25, 2006. It was a unanimous aye vote: Krupicka, Pepper, Gaines, Macdonald, Euille, Smedberg, and Woodson. I apologize to both you, Justin, and Tim Lovain. I would also point out that not only did Bill Hendrickson attend the Feb 25 meeting, he spoke at it being in favor of the reconfiguration of the Monroe Avenue Bridge. Further, prior to the Council's vote, Mr. Hendrickson had served for some time on a committee of the DRCA that specifically studied the issue of the bridge configuration so he was already quite familiar with the problems that Howell and
Custis would incur. I would refer anyone with further questions to go to the City Council archives and read the minutes of the Feb 25, 2006 meeting. Council had a number of further discussions and votes on the issue of this reconfiguration and other Potomac Yard issues but this was the defining vote that set the stage for all that has happened with developments City wide since that time.

What about East Glebe. I believe they raised the posted speed to 55mph, or motorists think that it has. Traffic has become so bad on this road that you can no longer leave your windows open if you live on this street. The noise created by HD trucks and cars with loud radios is so bad you can't hear your TV, talk on the phone, or have a normal discussion in your house.

It sounds to me like the Police Department should apply more attention to DelRay: speed traps on Howell and Custis; watching for violators who do not yield to pedestrians once the cars get on to Mt. Vernon Ave.; and adding efforts to stop people who dis-regard the "No Turn on Red" at Mt. Vernon and Braddock Rds.

At the light by GWMS, when I turn into the school lot to circle back and park in front of my house on Mt. Vernon, drivers seems to treat it as an optional stop light. Last week, someone nearly plowed into me as they were all set to go flying up the street.

I used to tell my kids that they have the largest front yard in Alexandria (Braddock Fields). Now, I hesitate to let them cross the street.

I just finished reading all of the comments on this article. Putting aside personal remarks and just taking all the descriptions of various traffic issues, it is truly a very bad sign of things to come as Potomac Yard is not yet open to give a real picture of what we are looking at. If one were to take a city map and draw in the problem areas that exist already, we have a pretty good idea of just how dire these traffic problems are going to be when Potomac Yard traffic is added into the mix. The potential for dead lock not only on weekdays but on weekends as well, is going to have major effects on anyone trying to get in or out of the Del Ray area. Another factor I would add to BG's observations is that if one is travelling on Russell from Duke or King on weekend afternoons, the traffic on Russell comes to a major slow down if not stop about 4-5 blocks before Monroe Avenue as the traffic problems BG mentioned slow the traffic flow all the way from Rt 1 to Russell. Why on earth were 3 soccer fields built without additional parking. I once asked that question and, as usual, received no answer. I do not understand where City Staff and Council think cars will go. We are not handling the traffic load of today. We will certainly never be able to handle the traffic load that will be in just a few years. Long range planning is clearly not important to anyone but the citizens.

How about traffic calming on East Glebe Road? There is a bus stop for children at a 5-way intersection of Montrose-Ashby-E Glebe and commercial trucks fly down that road traveling to Route 1 or 395. They need to get their priorities straight on the city council, way off on where traffic calming needs to occur.