Fears that Metro’s SafeTrack maintenance blitz would send rail riders piling into cars and further clogging downtown Washington streets may have been misplaced, at least according to early traffic volume data compiled in D.C. and Northern Virginia.

The anecdotal evidence differs. Some commuters are complaining of nightmarish gridlock turning short drives into slow crawls, even if it is not clear whether reduced service on the Orange and Silver Lines is to blame. After all, traffic is terrible in and around Washington on normal days for an array of reasons. But what is clear after just a few days of Metro’s historic reconstruction program is the District is not being paralyzed by epic amounts of new traffic.

More traffic? Maybe.

Traffic counts on major corridors entering the city were about the same on Tuesday, June 7, as the prior two Tuesdays in May, according to data released by the District Department of Transportation. At some locations, traffic was lighter.

On the I-395 bridge, volume was 196,000 vehicles on June 7, about 10,000 cars fewer than crossed the bridge on May 24. On May 17, the figure was 192,000.

On the Roosevelt Bridge, traffic volume reached close to 89,000 on June 7, about the same as it was on May 24. On the previous Tuesday — two weeks before SafeTrack — volume was higher: 93,000.

Fewer cars also were counted on K Street between 18th and 19th Streets and 13th Street between I and K Streets on June 7 than on the prior two dates, but not by much.

Overall, traffic in the four corridors is roughly flat, but DDOT reported longer travel times in the “downtown core.” During morning rush hour, the average trip took 21 minutes compared to the usual of 15 minutes, and in the afternoon rush hour it trip time expanded from 15 to 20 minutes.

In NoVa, accidents or SafeTrack?

Major roads in Northern Virginia saw small yet significant increases in traffic volume on Tuesday, although Virginia officials cautioned accidents and other factors may have caused congestion, not necessarily SafeTrack.

On Rt. 29 at Shreve Road traffic volume increased 13 percent in the 7 a.m. hour on June 7 compared to the same day the previous week (from 1548 cars to 1740), according to data released by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Volume was up five percent in the afternoon rush hour.

Rt. 50 at Graham Drive, Rt. 7 at Idylwood Road, I-66 at mile marker 72, Rt. 123 at George Washington Parkway, and Rt. 123 at Georgetown Pike all saw increases of between 3 and 6 percent in morning and afternoon rush hour.

“Since it has only been a few days, there are other factors to consider also, such as impacts from accidents,” said VDOT spokeswoman Jennifer McCord.

“An accident on I-66 at Route 50 around 6:30 am [Wednesday] resulted in additional delays west of 50. I-395 continued to experience heavy congestion this morning, similar to [Tuesday]. On both days, there were accidents on either the D.C. or Va. side.”

Blocking the box

On Twitter and the WAMU Metropocalypse Facebook group, motorists are complaining about what they believe is worsening gridlock.

One commuter, Nicole Kaeding, said traffic was so awful outside her downtown office building on Tuesday afternoon that it took her 15 minutes just to get out of the garage.

In an interview, she speculated that new car commuters unfamiliar with downtown streets could be the culprits.

“I noticed when I was in one of the traffic circles,” said the mom of two as she steered her SUV up 13th Street Northwest. “Most people who tend to drive every day know what lane they should be in when they enter the traffic circles for their exits, and I got cut off three or four times by people who were [in the wrong lane] trying to get out of the circle.”

Not all the anecdotal evidence is doom and gloom.

“We don’t see evidence of an increased amount of blocking of the box or gridlock,” said Neil Albert, the president of the DowntownDC Business Improvement District.

Gridlock often happens at intersections without DDOT’s traffic control officers (TCOs), and the agency concedes it does not have enough personnel for the typical rush hour, let alone the post-SafeTrack reality.

Months ago Mayor Muriel Bowser requested funding for 20 more TCOs for the fiscal year starting in October, but after Metro released the SafeTrack project schedule the administration decided to accelerate the hiring process.

“We commissioned a study with the Federal City Council and Accenture that revealed the need for additional TCOs,” said DDOT spokesman Terry Owens, referring to a report that was produced last year.

“We plan to have the people hired over the next several weeks, hopefully by the end of June. Training should take about a four weeks,” Owens said.

DDOT currently has about 35 TCOs on the payroll. They are deployed at 10 downtown locations, but each location covers multiple intersections.

“We’re definitely on board with getting more TCOs,” Albert said. “But we also want to make sure they are placed strategically. Not every intersection downtown needs TCOs. They are not the only solution. DDOT has done a fantastic job of using better timing on their traffic signals.”

The limits of driving

As traffic ebbs and flows over the next year of reduced Metrorail service, transit advocates say SafeTrack is providing the region a can’t-miss opportunity to make better use of the existing road space.

“What it is showing is a modern, great city can’t survive by car alone. You need a successful transit network to allow for a city to thrive,” said Stewart Schwartz, the head of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

The group has been calling on D.C. and its suburbs to at last install temporary, dedicated bus lanes to move commuters around Metro’s rail work zones. And it has been encouraging people to carpool, bike, or walk to work.

“Hopefully in the coming months we can drive some dedicated bus lanes. The city has been studying 16th Street Northwest for a while, and based upon our recommendations and their detailed analysis, they are finding they can do peak-hour bus lanes on 16th Street,” Schwartz said.

“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste, and we should use this to test out creating a redundant and effective transit network using buses,” he added.

At a news conference last week, Mayor Bowser downplayed the possibility of installing temporary bus lanes on short notice. Starting June 18, Metro will deploy dozens of buses to bridge commuters between Eastern Market and Minnesota Avenue/Benning Road rail stations during the first line segment shutdown of SafeTrack, but those “bus bridges” will have to share lanes with everyone else.

“We are still in the early rounds, but we would like to see more,” Schwartz said.

Photo courtesy of Martin Di Caro. Click here to read the original story.

The popular tiny-house movement may get a big boost in the District this fall when significantly looser restrictions regarding “accessory dwelling units” — the technical name for the trendy residences — go into effect.

Under provisions in the city’s new zoning code, from Sept. 6, homeowners will have an easier time getting the necessary approval to build and rent out tiny houses. Given the lack of affordable housing in the District, advocates say they think they’ll see a dramatic increase in the number of rentable tiny homes, micro-homes or two-story carriage houses popping up alongside gardens, tree houses and swing sets behind homes all over the city.

Previously, owners seeking to rent out the units were required to argue their cases before the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) to receive an exception. Under the new rule, the structures will be permitted in some neighborhoods as a matter of right: Once homeowners acquire building permits from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), they will be free to build and then rent out the units.

The changes are not applicable citywide: They are largely limited to R-1, R-2 and R-3 zones, which cover outer neighborhoods such as Brookland, Chevy Chase and American University Park, where there are larger single-family homes.

Other regulations restrict size and alley access: The tiny houses cannot be more than 35 percent of the gross floor area of the primary home, which must be at minimum 1,200 square feet in most zones and 2,000 square feet in R-1 zones.They must be adjacent to either a 24-foot-wide alley, or a 15-foot-wide alley and at most 300 feet from a main road for fire safety. And the principal dwelling must be owner-occupied.

Still, advocates say they think that the rules are not overly restrictive and that many homeowners will jump at the opportunity to create rental units.

“We are really, really pleased,” said Cheryl Cort, policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “It’ll lead to the diversification of neighborhoods that are largely single-family homes. This provides an opportunity to provide rental housing and smaller-sized homes. Maybe a single mom and a kid would like to live in a neighborhood where they can walk to school, or empty-nesters could rent a home to young people who could mow the lawn and keep an eye on things.”

Between the height restriction and other physical limitations, the District has been struggling to add housing stock to accommodate a population that is growing by about 1,000 residents per month, with average home prices and rents rising steadily. In addition to accommodating in-laws, an au pair or a grown child, a backyard home could help to broaden rental options in the city.

“The changes open the door for D.C. to become more like Portland, [Ore.],” said Brian Levy, owner of a “micro-home” and a longtime lobbyist for less-restrictive zoning rules for accessory dwellings.

Portland and Seattle have some of the most liberal rules regarding detached accessory dwellings. Companies such as Hammer & Hand and Backyard Box have sprung up to capitalize on the consumer demand for ready-designed backyard accessory dwellings there.

In the District, some architects are preparing for a possible hot market here.

Michael Cross, founder of R. Michael Cross Design Group, says he hopes his team will be among the first local firms to prepare a D.C.-specific product. His team has been analyzing the zoning and building codes and the city’s housing stock, and plans to have a set of prototypes ready when potential clients start inquiring in the fall.

“What we’re trying to make is super functional and, hopefully, affordable,” Cross said. The prototypes can facilitate the affordability, he said, because clients will not have to pay for a custom design.

“We’ve seen these little tiny houses and little jewel boxes that get thrown up on blogs, but they are astronomically expensive compared to their tract-home peer,” Cross said. “The goal here is to be cost-effective by having a product that is low-frills and is likely not even all that sophisticated in the way that it’s manufactured.”

In looking at the details of the code, such as setback requirements, alley widths and average lot sizes, Cross found that his company could build cottages of 450 to 550 square feet, comparable to small apartments around the city.

Early prototypes include a two-bedroom cottage with a loft; a two-car garage with a one-bedroom apartment on top; and a one-car garage with a studio apartment on top.

For potential landlords, the costs are something to consider. Preparing a tiny house to rent could be more expensive than, say, renovating a basement into a legal apartment. A foundation has to be laid. The unit has to be hooked up to city utilities. And the unit has to be built or purchased.

Cross said he isn’t ready to put a price on the prototypes. But a 2013 survey of 200 owners of accessory dwellings conducted by Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality put the average cost of a tiny house in Portland at $78,000, with many hovering around $100,000 and a few reaching as high as $300,000.

In the District, it remains to be seen what the typical rental income on such a property will be.

Emily Bacher, an architect at Cross’s company who has taken the lead on accessory dwellings, says the designs will maximize privacy between primary home and tiny home; windows will be arranged to avoid direct views into the main house; and some kind of landscape block may be designed.

Although the code has become less restrictive and homeowners operating by matter-of-right don’t need community approval, Bacher says she’s still concerned that there will be a neighborhood backlash when construction of these dwellings begins.

“I’m a little surprised that they passed it,” Bacher said. “I wonder if it’s something people didn’t pay attention to, and then they’ll say, ‘What have we done?’”

Cort, however, says that naysayers were active during the code-revision process and that many of their concerns have been taken into account.

In the code, said Cort, “the secondary doorway has to be discreet, and you can’t have a balcony or a roof deck. The zoning regulations have been designed to address some of the concerns that were raised. I don’t think there will be a backlash.”

Cross and Bacher also say they hope that the new backyard structures will lead to a more vibrant alley life, adding more “eyes on the street,” Bacher said.

“One alley [accessory dwelling] on a block may be seen as a detriment to the community,” Cross said, “but if you have a couple of them, all of a sudden the alleys are activated and clean and thriving with activity.”

The city’s current carriage houses in alleys — many of which were built about 100 years ago and were grandfathered into the last zoning code — are often hot properties, and the changes could lead to a modern addition to alley life.