On Thursday night, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) kicked off its two-week blitz of streetcar open house meetings across the city with its first meeting in Ward 6.  In a brief presentation, Scott Kubly, who is leading DDOT’s streetcar project, unveiled a map of a proposed 37-mile network of streetcars across the city and spoke of the many benefits streetcars would bring to the District.  DDOT Director Gabe Klein, told attendees that since DDOT reinvigorated the streetcar project over the summer, the agency has been working 3-4 times faster on this project than it was previously.

Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, who has been the leading proponent of streetcars on the D.C. Council, called streetcars the “next generation” of transit.  He said streetcars would be a vast improvement of our transit network and would be much better for the city than simply making incremental improvements to existing bus service.

DDOT is holding meetings in the other seven wards between now and November 4 (Beyond DC has a handy map of all the meeting locations).  The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 26 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm in Ward 1 at the Columbia Heights Education Campus, 3101 16th Street, NW.

The Ward 6 meeting also was covered in a thorough blog post on Greater Greater Washington (which includes a good map) and in a brief segment on WAMU radio this morning.

In an October 14th press release, the District Department of Transportation announced that over the coming weeks the agency will launch a “public outreach tour,” holding open houses in all eight wards to “engage residents and businesses in the implementation of improvements proposed for the transit system for the city, including streetcars.”

At these meetings, DDOT will present its DC’s Transit Future study, which studied short- and long-term transit improvements to enhance the District’s existing transit network, including streetcars, bus rapid transit (BRT) and limited-stop rapid bus such as the Metrobus Express routes already running on Georgia Avenue/7th Street, 16th Street, and on the 30′s line.  DDOT will also update residents on construction of the first two streetcar lines on H Street-Benning Road NE and in Anacostia, which is already in progress.

According to the press release, the program for the open house meetings will consist of “display boards, maps, information about the proposed system, and opportunities for participants to speak individually with and ask questions of project team members.”

Open House Schedule:

Ward 6: Thursday, October 22, 2009, 7 pm – 8:30 pm

J.O. Wilson Elementary, 660 K Street, NE

Ward 1: Monday, October 26, 2009, 7 pm – 8:30 pm

Columbia Heights Education Campus, 3101 16th Street, NW

Ward 4: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 7 pm – 8:30 pm

Brightwood Elementary, 1300 Nicholson Street, NW

Ward 2: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 7 pm – 8:30 pm

NEW LOCATION: Hyde Elementary at 3219 O Street NW

Ward 7: Thursday, October 29, 2009, 7 pm – 8:30 pm

Thomas Elementary, 650 Anacostia Avenue, NE

Ward 8: Monday, November 2, 2009, 7 pm – 8:30 pm

Savoy Elementary, 2400 Shannon Place, SE

Ward 5: Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 7 pm – 8:30 pm

Luke Moore Academy , 1001 Monroe Street, NE

Ward 3: Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 7 pm – 8:30 pm

Stoddert Elementary, 4001 Calvert Street, NW

For more information about the streetcar project and the upcoming open house meetings, you may visit DDOT’s Streetcar webpage or call the project hotline at 703-682-5060.