DC Public Schools and Recreation Centers

Decades of Transportation Solutions for Schools and
Recreation Centers in the District of Columbia

Description

Since our founding, Gorove Slade has participated in over 40 various projects with the District Department of General Services working on DC Public Schools (DCPS) and DC Recreational Cetner projects. This includes aiding in the renovation, modernization, and new construction of many elementary, middle, high, technical schools and recreation centers across Washington, DC.

Gorove Slade has completed a broad range of assignments for these schools and recreation centers, with transportation issues typically involving arrival and dismissal operations, bus operations, site circulation, and pedestrian safety. Gorove Slade has extensive experience in identifying the primary traffic issues involved, determining alternative solutions, and providing a sound transportation management plan to implement recommended solutions. Below are three major transportation issues where we often provide insight for DCPS and DC Recreation Center projects.

Site Access and DDOT Public Space Approvals

Gorove Slade guided the development and planning teams through complex transportation issues, beginning with the initial planning stages and continuing through the creation of a master plan and the approval of each phase of construction. Our team incorporated modern features in the transportation design—including a cycle track running alongside Maine Avenue, curb extensions, shared curbless streets, and below-grade, shared parking—while evoking the context of a historic working wharf that feels as if it was always there.

The District Department of Transportation is the keeper of the public realm in DC. The DDOT access policy seeks to minimize the number of curb cuts into a school site to minimize conflicts with pedestrians, particularly when those pedestrians are children. Where curb cuts are necessary, there are requirements dictated by the DDOT Design & Engineering Manual that need to be considered. Gorove Slade will work with the design team and coordinate with DDOT on the access plan that best accommodates school needs while balancing them with DDOT policy and standards.

Student Pick-up and Drop-off

From ‘airport style ‘queuing systems, to ‘scrambles’, to modern app-based solutions, Gorove Slade has extensive experience working with schools to develop the infrastructure, operational plans, and management procedures to develop and refine an arrival and dismissal system to minimize impacts. Specific methodologies to develop systems include extensive field reviews of various systems and spreadsheet models of queuing impacts that can test various systems.

Parking Demand

A common challenge for schools is how to right-size the amount of parking on a school site to maximize green space or other school amenities. This can involve exploring using nearby on-street parking and other off-site sources of parking supply to accommodate demand and using TDM to reduce parking demand. For these analyses, Gorove Slade uses data-driven parking models that can identify needs during different times of the day to help see how parking demand varies and determine synergies with other nearby uses.

As a part of the DC community ourselves, Gorove Slade’s goal is to continue to have a lasting impact on DCPS schools and DC recreation centers so that future generations can learn successfully, play passionately, and enjoy living in the city.