A Turn for the Better in Georgetown

Left turns onto Wisconsin Avenue from M Street coming

Drivers heading east on M Street in Georgetown will finally be able to turn left onto Wisconsin Avenue. And it only took 11 years.

The Georgetown Dish reports that District Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein announced Monday that a left turn lane for all traffic will be added at the intersection. (Currently, only trucks and buses are allowed to turn there.) A handful of M Street parking spaces will be eliminated to make room for the turn lane.

Council member Jack Evans and Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood commissioners backed the change, but the real credit apparently goes to the very patient Allan Wendt, a Georgetown resident since 1975. Wendt first asked the city to consider adding the lane back in 1999. He said Monday that in March of that year, he got a letter from DDOT promising to study the issue.

“They really dragged their feet on this,” Wendt said.

The Georgetown Metropolitan says if DDOT "were to simply to start allowing a left turn from M without any changes to the lanes, the wait time at the intersection would increase significantly." Even with the new lane, "the average wait time is predicted to make the PM rush hour a bit worse (57 seconds to 80 seconds) but the morning rush hour wait would average 193 seconds, slightly better than the 197 now."

The long-awaited turn lane should be open by the fall.

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