DDOT details Minnesota Avenue Southeast bus-priority and pedestrian-safety plans; construction planned for 2026

The Department of Transportation (DDOT) presented concept designs on Minnesota Avenue Southeast on a bus-priority and pedestrian-safety corridor that staff say will move into final design in 2025 and into construction in 2026.

Maya Comenotira, of the DDOT Best Priority team, said the project covers Minnesota Avenue from Pennsylvania Avenue to Mary Barry Avenue and aims to improve bus operations and pedestrian safety. "The goal of the program is to improve, bus operations on various projects throughout, the district," Comenotira said, adding the project grew from the Best Priority plan published in 2021.

The project team is proposing a package of bus-priority and safety treatments, including queue jumps, stop consolidation and amenity reallocation, pedestrian islands, medians, curb extensions and enhanced crosswalks. Comenotira said the plans also call for relocating an existing westbound stop at Eighteenth Street to clear the intersection, keeping the shelter but moving the stop a few hundred feet so buses do not block crosswalks. "There is an existing queue jump at the intersection of Minnesota Avenue, and 20 Second Street. So having both of these key jumps should really improve, bus speeds and reliability," she said.

The presentation emphasized safety near schools and intersections that community members identified as problematic. Comenotira said the project includes a curb extension in front of Boone Elementary and signal-timing adjustments and new stop bars at the Minnesota Avenue and Eighteenth Street Southeast intersection after concerns from the Fairlawn Citizen Association about visibility and confusing intersection movements. "Safety is always, at the core of every DDOT project," Comenotira said.

Comenotira also said the project does not include dedicated bus lanes or bike lanes and would have minimal parking impacts, limited to daylighting at intersections where signs already prohibit parking. "I do wanna note that this project does not include bus lanes or bike lanes, and there's minimal parking impacts," she said.

A public commenter, identified in the meeting transcript as Seth Grama, asked whether planners had considered dedicated bus or bike lanes. Comenotira responded that the corridor was not a candidate for bus lanes and that bike lanes were not part of this phase; she said the corridor lacks the existing infrastructure for bus lanes and noted DDOT does have bus lanes on MLK. "No. There was no consideration for a bus or bike lanes in this project," she said.

Timeline and next steps: Comenotira said DDOT finalized concept plans last fall, moved into design in 2024 and will issue a notice of intent on 65 percent design plans anticipated in summer 2025; construction is planned for 2026. The project team will post the concept selection letter and plans to the Best Priority project web page and invited additional public comments for minor design tweaks during the design phase.

The presentation and concept-selection materials describe site-specific proposals such as the S Street closure using flexible posts or planters to reduce vehicle conflicts, painted medians and ADA-compliant ramp extensions, consolidation of the Nineteenth Street bus stops because of low ridership at those stops, and relocating existing shelters to higher-ridership stops such as the stop at Boone Elementary and the Triangle Park stop at Minnesota and Seventeenth Street. The project also proposes a new queue jump at Eighteenth Street to work with the existing queue jump at 20 Second Street.

The meeting did not record any formal votes or adopted motions; the project remains in the design phase with DDOT staff presenting next procedural steps. Comenotira provided contact information on the project website for additional feedback and said staff would consider small design changes during the remaining design process.