What is a Boulevard?

Boulevards can take many forms from pedestrian-oriented main streets to higher capacity downtown thoroughfares. Some boulevards like State Street in Madison, WI function as pedestrian-oriented main streets with bicycles, transit, and vehicles sharing lanes and traveling at low speeds. On the other hand, downtown boulevards like the Bonaventure Expressway in Montreal have a dedicated right-of-way for transit and wide medians that serve as parks and bike share station locations. However regardless of their context, boulevards have a few important things in common.

Common features of a boulevard include:

• Multimodal travel lanes

• Wide range of vehicle capacity

• Frequent crossings to maximize connections

• Traffic calming measures like crossing islands, curb extensions, and visible crosswalks

• Mixed commercial and residential development on one or both sides

Together, these features prioritize people over cars. This section considers typical boulevard elements in the context of the Anacostia River Corridor to imagine what a boulevard in place of DC-295 could look like. One common element across segments would be a new high-capacity transit option. A new bus rapid transit system, for instance, could run north and south between Anacostia and Deanwood Metro stations, filling in existing transit gaps and providing new ways to travel along the corridor without needing to get in a car. For more information on bus rapid transit (BRT) systems and why one could work well in the Anacostia River Corridor, check out the “Bus Rapid Transit” deep dive.

The local conditions differ throughout the Anacostia River Corridor, which suggests the boulevard will have a different configuration depending on the corridor segment.