This January, as mandated by the FY2010 Budget passed by the DC Council and signed by Mayor Adrian Fenty, the District will no longer have free parking at meters on Saturdays. District Department of Transportation (DDOT) crews will begin updating the more than 100,000 parking regulatory signs and nearly 17,000 meters to reflect the change immediately.  Enforcement is effective once the signage is changed.  Motorists should carefully check the days and hours of enforcement posted on the parking meters and curbside signs. The conversion of all signage and meter decals is expected to be completed by January 19.

In addition to the Saturday enforcement, DDOT is also simplifying the District’s parking meter rates. To comply with the new legislation, there will now be only two types of parking meter pricing zones -- premium demand zones and normal demand zones -- the U Street Corridor is considered a premium demand zone:

• It will cost $2.00/hour to park in premium demand zones, which include the busiest commercial districts.
• It will cost $0.75/hour to park in normal demand zones.

The District’s premium demand zone rate is comparable or lower than the premium rates in other major cities across the nation including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore and Philadelphia where rates are $3 an hour or more.

DDOT will also change the hours of enforcement for parking meters in the city’s busiest commercial districts where on-street parking is often scarce.  Nighttime parking enforcement hours will be extended to 10 pm in the following “premium demand zones:”

• U Street, NW Corridor
• Adams Morgan
• Georgetown Historic District*
• Penn Quarter/Chinatown*
• Downtown Central Business District
• Maine and Water Streets, NW
• The National Mall
• Wisconsin Avenue, NW (from Van Ness Street to Western Avenue)
  

 

The Metro board will be holding a special session January 7, 2010 to consider staff recommendations to address a projected $40 million budget shortfall. 

 

Among the cost saving measures being considered is the weekend closure of Metro mezzanines, including U Street East (at 10th and U Streets, NW) and Shaw-Howard University South (at 8th and R Streets, NW).

 

Additional cost-saving measures are reported by The Washington Post.

 

The DC Circulator will keep rolling right into 2010 - find out when the next bus is here . The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will run the Circulator extended service to accommodate passengers returning home from New Year’s Eve festivities.On January 1, 2010, the Circulator will operate on its regular Friday schedule.

Additional night service will be provided on Thursday, December 31 on the Woodley Park-Adams Morgan-McPherson Square (which serves the 14th and U Street Corridors) and the Georgetown-Union Station Metro route. Both routes will operate on a weekend schedule that night:

Woodley Park – Adams Morgan – McPherson Square Metro Route

• December 31: Extended Service, from 7 am to 3:30 am

Georgetown – Union Station Route

• December 31: Extended Night Service between Whitehaven and 17th and K Streets, NW, from 9 pm to 2 am

For more information about Circulator routes and schedules, please visit www.dccirculator.com.

Today Metro announced that the U Street Metrorail station will receive a major cleanup and sprucing up between January and June of this year. 42 Metrorail stations will receive a thorough cleaning as part of the agency’s station enhancement program.

 

The station enhancement program, initiated in April 1991, was designed to restore the appearance of Metrorail stations. The $7.5 million program sees each station restored about every four years.

“Because of the work involved, all station cleaning activities occur in the middle of the night when the system closes and this allows us to conduct a full press on that station,” said Paul Gillum, Metro’s Director of Plant Maintenance. “Our dedicated employees take tremendous pride in restoring our train stations to like new conditions and the work involved is meticulous because of what needs to be done.”

A mini enhancement includes the cleaning of masonry surfaces, painting interior surfaces, repairing interior masonry surfaces, painting exterior surfaces, fabricating, installing or repairing signs, refinishing bus and station platform shelter benches and spot finishing bronze surfaces such as railings. A major station enhancement includes all responsibilities under a mini enhancement but also includes pressure washing the ceilings and walls, and painting interior surfaces.

A major station enhancement takes three months, which is approximately 25 percent longer than the mini-enhancement.

The full list of stations slated to receive a mini or major cleaning enhancement through June 2011 is available on Metro's website.