Description

Immediately after passing through the 395/4th signal, WB NY Ave gains a lane on the left side & at the same time drops a lane on the right onto M St. Parked cars along the right side regularly cause this right lane to drop immediately beyond the 395/4th signal.

Lane shifts are preferred in lieu of such drop/add scenarios whenever feasible. I believe such a shift could fit in here: the leftmost lane in the 2-lane section shifting into the leftmost lane in the 3-lane section; and the rightmost lane shifting into the center lane rather than the rightmost lane. This would maintain through continuity on toward Mt Vernon Sq whilst still enabling easy right-turns onto L Street (which is the route I take).

This might be easy to accomplish with just some marking changes if DDOT is OK with a somewhat sharper shift (which DC certainly has no shortage of). Though if designing by AASHTO guidelines, one would probably have to shorten the parking area a bit or possibly lengthen the taper in the median... the former potentially a more political issue and the latter a bit more pricey; but it's likely just some minor restriping might be able to do it without having to worry about parking or geometry.

[NOTE: I have emailed DDOT regarding this issue on 5 separate occasions & received no response.]