Save Klingle Valley

The washed out section of Klingle Road is a steep, narrow, winding, unlighted ½-mile road running between Woodley Road and Porter Street. It does not cross Rock Creek Park, but connects to Porter, which does. Even before it washed out, Klingle Road carried less than 2 percent of the east-west traffic, according to DC DOT head Dan Tangherlini. DPW's traffic consultant recently concluded that Klingle Road "is incapable of relieving traffic or reducing the current level of service at surrounding intersections."

A government consultant, the Berger group, released a massive, 300 page study that addresses almost all questions surrounding the road. On traffic, the Berger report said: "Reopening Klingle Road would produce negligible long-term beneficial impacts to traffic congestion or safety at surrounding intersections. Given the limited size of the ROW [Right Of Way], reopening Klingle Road would only lead to minor improvements in relieving congestion at surrounding intersections."

A 1995 DPW traffic study (pdf 97k) showed that there was relatively little overall impact from closing Klingle - around 300 vehicles per hour (p/h). Other traffic studies put this in the context of true east-west arteries and other streets.

The closest match for volume would be the Zoo road with 300 per hour. This does not really come close to the "artery" status claimed by the road advocates.

The only significant benefit of re-building Klingle appears to be as a handy shortcut for parents living on the east side of Rock Creek with children in one of the five upscale elementary and secondary schools at the terminus of old Klingle Road. Washington International School, Maret School, John Eaton School, Beauvoir School, and National Cathedral School for Girls.

1990 traffic volumes (both ways) Source - Rock Creek Park traffic study	Vehicles per hour
Klingle	300
Porter	1,300
Calvert	2,200
Tilden	700
Zoo Road	300
Connecticut Bridge	3,200
Massachusetts Bridge	3,900
Cathedral	1,300
Broad Branch	600
Wise Road	1,100

The Roadies claim that because Klingle has been closed since 1991, there has been an "unfair burden placed on other residential streets." This allegation is at the core of the argument for rebuilding the road, and resonates with our collective frustration at the delays and traffic we all experience when trying to get anywhere in DC these days. The data, however, does not suggest that there has been such an effect, or that rebuilding Klingle will bring any significant relief.

The best data on this is from the Berger report traffic study data. They studied the alternate parallel routes to Klingle: Cleveland Ave, Woodley Road, Cathedral Ave, and Porter Street, and made predictions for how many cars would be diverted from them if Klingle Road were rebuilt. By reversing it around, we can predict how much traffic was diverted to these "unfairly burdened" roads. The average rush-hour volume increased 7% on average (see data). This "unfair burden" of 7% peak volume increase could be relieved for only $6.25 million dollars over the cost of just a trail (assuming, as the Cropp bill does, that both a road and trail are built and the cost of a required EIS).

The recent Cropp bill assumes that the only way to relieve this "burden" would be to build a new road, however this is a dubious assumption. It is more likely that traffic calming measures on these residential streets would divert more traffic to the arterials that are designed to handle it, and it would cost considerably less than $6.25 million.

Q: Would rebuilding Klingle Road for motor vehicles relieve traffic congestion on east-west roads in Washington?
A: A traffic study conducted for DPW in 2000 by the Louis Berger Group, Inc. concluded that "severe traffic congestion on east-west cross-town roadways . . . is expected to worsen over the years due to ever-increasing traffic volumes throughout the metro area, regardless of whether Klingle Road is to remain closed or rebuilt for vehicular traffic" (November 30, 2000 DPW "Progress Report: The Klingle Road Project," p. 9)

Q: Would rebuilding Klingle Road for motor vehicles relieve traffic congestion at intersections in Cleveland Park and Woodley Park, such as Connecticut Ave. @ Porter St. and Cleveland Ave. @ Garfield St.?
A: The Berger traffic study concluded that if Klingle were rebuilt for cars, "the minor improvements to the studied intersections will not relieve the current vehicular traffic congestion associated in the study area." The Berger study also noted that "any reopening of Klingle Road will lead to some delay reduction on Porter Street and on Cleveland Avenue and Garfield Street; although, most of the already failed approaches at the studied intersections will continue to operate with unacceptable level of service (LOS)" (Progress Report, p. 9) (emphasis added).

Q: Why won't rebuilding Klingle Road for cars relieve traffic congestion?
A: Primarily because Klingle is too narrow. The final sentence of the Berger traffic study states that "The opening of Klingle Road under any of build scenarios would result in only minor improvements to traffic operations due to the fact that the road size is incapable of relieving traffic or reducing the current LOS at surrounding intersections" (Progress Report, p. 9)

Q: Could Klingle Road be widened?

A: No. The right-of-way is barely wide enough to carry one lane of traffic in each direction, and the National Park Service has publicly stated that they will not grant a wider right-of-way.

Q: Was Klingle Road ever an east-west artery?

A: No, it was just a shortcut from Rock Creek Park. It is not listed as an arterial road but as a collector on the DC Functional Classification map of city streets. Traffic studies before it was closed in 1990 record that it was one of the most lightly used routes across Rock Creek Park.

As far as bike traffic goes, apparently one of the main reasons the City decided in 1995 to permanently close Klingle to cars is because it links two major bicycle routes - Woodley road and Rock Creek Park.