ROCKVILLE — This afternoon, county councilmembers review a bill that could mean skinnier streets and more pedestrian crossings in downtown Silver Spring and Montgomery Hills.
“Many roads in Montgomery County’s neighborhoods and business districts are wider than they need to be. They are generally built to standards that focus on increasing the flow of traffic,” councilmember Nancy Floreen said in a press statement. Floreen introduced the bill in December.
“However, we have seen a rash of incidents … where wide streets contribute to injuries to pedestrians,” she added. “This new code would help protect pedestrians.”
Drivers tend to ease off the accelerator on skinnier streets, but determining how skinny a road should be is still in the works.
“The bill has evolved,” Glenn Orlin, the council’s deputy staff director, said at a transportation and pedestrian safety meeting in Silver Spring last month.
During that meeting, Orlin explained that the county executive’s arm of government could provide “spot deviations” from the recommended measurements. Broader changes would require approval from either the county planning board or the council.
The executive branch was not pleased.
“The county executive strongly objects to the transfer of authority” Edgar Gonzalez, a deputy director with the department of public works and transportation, told meeting participants.
“The shifting of authority would place design on planners and engineers who have not built, planned or designed roads,” Gonzalez said.
Lawrence Cole, with the planning department, was also sweating the idea of more work for an understaffed office. “There is a manpower concern,” Cole said.
The road measurements would apply to county but not state, municipal or private roads. According to Orlin, the council could approve the new road standards later this month.
Ronald Pace contributed to this article. Give him props, people!
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This reminds me of what I read several years ago in Wired Magazine:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html
See also:
http://www.shared-space.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space
It seems to go counter to everything we as Americans have learned so far: “build bigger roads with less obstructions so we can get where we are going faster.”
I would just like to say that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I am much more in favor of increasing traffic flow, as traffic congestion is already bad enough around here without making the roads narrower! I don’t know what the issue is, but this focus on pedestrians is getting a little ridiculous. The other friday night I went down to revitalized ss and there was a set of crossing guards! Crossing Guards! They were only serving to perplex the people who were trying to follow the crosswalk signals! They put signals there for a reason and I, for one, have never found any problems with those signals.
“wide streets contribute to injuries to pedestrians”
No, stupid pedestrians contribute to injuries to pedestrians. If they didn’t walk out in the middle of the street in front of oncoming traffic all the time, there’d be less accidents. Most pedestrian injuries occur as a result of jaywalking. It’s not that hard to walk to the end of the block.
Thanks for your comments, Sligo.
There are some very stupid peds out there. They cross at odd places, they stroll into traffic without a care, they walk in the street.
But there are just as many stupid drivers. They speed up to beat the red light, they turn right on red at intersections that forbid it, they speak on cell phones while behind the wheel.
Any ideas on a happy medium?
I agree with both of you (Jennifer & Sligo). I work very close to the intersection of GA & Colesville and unfortunately, witness the stupid/inconsiderate driver there far more often than the pedestrian. The worst are the drivers coming south on Colesville (toward DC) who want to turn left onto Georgia…they NEVER look for pedestrians in the cross walk and barrel through there at 30-50mph. Moco finally started stationing cops in the shopping center parking lot to catch them. I’m really amazed no one has been killed there yet…but I sure have seen some close calls.
Here’s a close call from that very intersection.
I was walking south one night across Georgia (the timer on the walk signal had just started its countdown), when a woman walking next to me suddenly yanked me back.
Before I knew it, I saw a car blow about two feet in front of me. The asshole driver was — as Woodsider has observed — turning left onto Georgia from southbound Colesville. The car didn’t even slow down, much less yield, to me and the other pedestrian.
The punchline: It was a Montgomery County police squad car, blue lights off.
And while the officer driving that car was in quite the hurry to beat that light on Colesville Road, he/she didn’t mind stopping for the red light at Georgia and Ellsworth (in front of Discovery).
Had I not been so shocked, I would have copied the squad car’s number.
I third the sentiments about the drivers turning left from Colesville onto Georgia. I don’t live in SS, but go over there a couple of times a month and it never fails that several drivers just come plowing through. Last month a driver came within about a foot of hitting a woman and her kid. They all just seem clueless that they are doing anything wrong. And if pedestrians wait to start crossing until the cars turning left pass, the “walk” signal switches off and it becomes very difficult to get to the other side of the street before the cars on GA get the green light (legally, they do have to stop for you if you begin crossing with the walk light, but legalities are not of much use). I don’t know how older/slower people manage to cross safely given the limited time allotted to peds.
I’ve complained to the county pedestrian coordinator several times and whenever I see a government or commercial vehicle I can identify, I complain to the agency/business. Basically, to no avail; the MoCo people do acknowledge the intersection is very dangerous for peds, and the RideOn people I complained to sent a nice note back telling me they’d spoken to the driver. It does feel good to complain. But nothing fundamentally changes. It’s nice to hear they do ticket sometimes (but they should arrest — it is a crime to fail to stop for a ped who has the right of way). It is actually much safer to cross that intersection against the light — there’s usually a lull in GA Ave traffic before the cars get their left turn arrow, and you can make it to the median, by which point the light for GA is red.
Going back to the subject(s) at hand: yes, there are stupid, inconsiderate peds and stupid, inconsiderate drivers. My theory is that they are the same people. Put a stupid, inconsiderate, evil driver in jail and you will get a stupid, inconsiderate ped off the street at the same time.
As for narrower streets, anecdotally my experience is that narrower streets are safer for peds, and more pleasant all around. A lot of drivers bring a highway mentality to any road that is more than 2-3 lines wide, and they speed without regard to the limits. But SS isn’t where I live and this is really a matter of what those of you who live there want. If you want to live in a community where people can and want to walk to the local businesses, theaters, etc., then I would think you want to make your home more ped-friendly, not more driver-passing-through-friendly. Narrowing the streets is one option to explore, along with others. OTOH, if you want to spend daily life in a car or surrounded by cars, speeding along your merry way, then obviously you may want to widen all the streets and rid yourselves of the pedestrian menace.
After having attended many of the “Growth” sessions at P & Planning, I see many experts advocate narrower streets. They also narrow with curbing that can be parked within and that allow more trees to be planted. They create separate service streets alongside through streets so one only crosses a few lanes of traffic and not 6-8 lanes. Lets see if the transportation people and planning people are paying attention to what the experts WE hired are saying.
I would love to see Colesville have a planted median down the center from the Beltway to Georgia. Sure, we’d lose the turn lane in many areas but so what…we don’t need to have the luxury of turning at every intersection. It can be managed the same way Wisconsin Ave through Bethesda. Not only would it slow down traffic, but it would be very beautiful.
We also don’t need those absurd reversible lanes. They are fine in the densely developed district, but unnecessary on Colesville.
I’m all for eliminating the reversible lanes. I think they’re dangerous. How many times have you all seen someone driving in the wrong lane at the wrong time of day?
There have been plans for years to get rid of the reversible lanes on Georgia Ave between the beltway and 16th street. This summer as an intern at the Planning Dept I will be working on Georgia Avenue corridor plans (though not in the transportation division). At the moment I’m working on figuring out which street grid system would work best in North Bethesda/White Flint (since there is none there yet) before massive development occurs there. We’re trying to figure out which street system would best promote pedestrian safety, use of mass transit (the Metro, shuttle buses/trolleys, and regional buses), while also allowing for adequate auto access for those who absolutely MUST drive.
I should also add that those reversible lanes on Georgia Ave would become a beautifully landscaped median with trees. The sidewalks on either side of the street would also become wider brick walks with planted trees. Might as well make the busiest stretch of street in the entire state nice lookin.
I don’t know what kind of influence you have Pennster, but anything you can do to improve that stretch of GA Ave in Montgomery Hills would be a blessing. It is one of the worst cluster ****s I have ever seen…ugly, dangerous and ridiculously congested. Surely someone wants to fix it soon, right?
Pennster,
Did you mean the reversible lanes on Colesville Road between Georgia and Sligo Creek as well ? The volume of traffic is now comparable in both directions, and the reversible lanes have clearly outlived their existence. Navigating that stretch on my way to work north on Colesville Road is one of the worst fuster clucks around, between new drivers confused by the lane changes, left turn wanna-bes and the buses stopping in the right lanes. My driving skills have improved, though.
No, I only meant the stretch of Georgia Avenue between 495 and 16th Street. That particular stretch of roadway (excluding highways) is the busiest in Maryland.
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