4104863 Emergency and Proposed Rulemaking increasing the speed limits on DC Route 295 and Benning Road.

DISTRICT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

 

NOTICE OF EMERGENCY AND PROPOSED RULEMAKING

 

 

The Director of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), pursuant to the authority set forth in sections 5(3)(A) (providing for a safe transportation system),  6(b) (transferring to the Department the traffic management function previously delegated to the Department of Public Works (DPW) under section III (H) of Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1983), and 7 (making Director of DDOT the successor to transportation related authority delegated to the Director of DPW) of the Department of Transportation Establishment Act of 2002, effective May 21, 2002 (D.C. Law 14-137; D.C. Official Code §§ 50-921.04(3)(D), 50-921.05(b), and 50-921.06 (2009 Repl. & 2012 Supp.)), Mayor’s Order 77-127, dated August 3, 1977, and 18 DCMR 2200.2, hereby gives notice of the intent to amend Chapter 40 of the Vehicle and Traffic Regulations (18 DCMR).   The proposed rulemaking would set new speed limits on DC Route 295 in both directions of travel from 45 mph to 50 mph and Benning Road, NE between Oklahoma Avenue, NE and 36th Street, NE in both directions of travel from 30 mph to 35 mph. 

 

The emergency and proposed rulemaking will specifically remove Benning Road, NE between Oklahoma Avenue, NE and 36th Street, NE from the subsection that lists those streets with a speed limit of 30 mph and add that road to the subsection that lists the streets with a speed limit of 35 mph.  It will also specifically remove DC Route 295 from the subsection that lists those streets with a speed limit of 45 mph and add that road to the subsection that lists the streets with a speed limit of 50 mph.

 

This emergency rulemaking is necessitated by the immediate need to address the threat to the public welfare posed by vehicles travelling at unequal and subsequently unsafe speeds on these specific streets in the District and causing accidents.  DDOT officials have surveyed these streets and determined a safer speed limit.  The emergency rulemaking will allow DDOT and the Metropolitan Police Department to better maintain – through education and enforcement of the new speed limits – safe travel on these roads in the District.

 

This emergency rule was adopted on December 3, 2012, and became effective immediately. This emergency rule will remain in effect until April 2, 2013, one hundred twenty (120) days from the date it became effective, unless earlier superseded by a notice of final rulemaking.

 

Final rulemaking action shall not be taken in less than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice in the D.C. Register. 

 

The following rulemaking action is proposed:

 

Title 18 DCMR, Section 4011, SPEED LIMITS, is amended as follows:

 

Subsection 4011.2 is amended by striking Benning Road, NE between Oklahoma Avenue, NE and 36th Street, NE from the list.

 

Subsection 4011.3 is amended by adding Benning Road, NE between Oklahoma Avenue, NE and 36th Street, NE to the list.

 

Subsection 4011.5 is amended by striking DC Route 295 from the list.

 

Subsection 4011.6 is amended by adding DC Route 295 to the list. 

 

Any person interested in commenting on the subject matter in this proposed rulemaking action

may file comments in writing, not later than thirty (30) days after publication of this notice in the

D.C. Register, with Sam Zimbabwe, Associate Director, PPSA, District Department of

Transportation, 55 M Street, SE, 5^th Floor, Washington, DC 20003.  Comments may also be sent

electronically to [e-mail].  Additional copies of this proposal are available, at cost,

by writing to the above address, and are available electronically, at no cost, on the Department’s

website at www.ddot.dc.gov.