Transit center stalls ped-safety study (Sep 16, 2008)

Got a ped-safety hazard that’s really working your nerves? Holler at the county’s department of transportation, or hit the monthly transportation and pedestrian safety committee meeting in downtown Silver Spring.

I live at Summit Hills, and every night I have to walk across East-West Highway in the dark. The S1-S2-S3 bus line has a stop directly across from the main gate to the SH complex at this point. Not only is this area VERY dimly lit, but the amount of vehicle traffic here at night is very heavy to have a pedestrian crosswalk with no signal. When you cross the road, you have to be extremely careful, usually having to run across the street, because there is very little chance that a car would be able to see you. To compound the problem, there are also people coming in and out of two housing complexes on either side of the street. If there hasn’t been a pedestrian accident here yet because of the traffic and visibility problems, I am concerned that it is only a matter of time.

I don’t see this point on the map which is why I bring it up. I am looking into what can be done about this.

Rarely do I see drivers slow down — much less stop — for peds trying to get to the library.

Montgomery County in their wisdom made a cross walk across 16th Street between the strip mall and Suburban Tower apartments. They made the cross walk just below the horizon of a small hill. When cars are flying down 16th Street at 45 mph, there’s not much reaction time when a pedestrian is walking across 16th Street. Drivers can’t see pedestrians crossing the road from the other side of the hill. What usually happens is that the driver slams brakes…pedestrian runs for his life…another car crashes into the driver who slammed on the brakes. You hear the screeches and then the “Boom”, “Boom” sound. That’s metal getting crushed.

I really hope MontCo would seriously invest in a pedestrian bridge.

Not so much by me (excepting the Whole Foods example), but I have found that people tend to jump the lights on Georgia and Colesville (we’re Twin Towers residents, if that puts my whining in perspective :)).

I never thought I’d say this after having lived in ticket-happy College Park, but the police really need to spend a little time cracking down on driving, parking, and pedestrian violations in the downtown area (between Spring and Thayer). I’m not saying it needs to be constant or nitpicky, but a short campaign once in a while that targetted really egregious offenders would probably help out quite a bit.

“The walk signals are not long enough at Georgia and Wayne … Pedestrians have a very long wait when trying to cross Georgia on Wayne.”

Funny you should say that. The county’s pedestrian safety committee actually gave that intersection kudos and called it “a model for urban districts.” According to the committee’s presentation Monday night, the crosswalks there were admired for their diagonal striping.

Go figure.

The walk signals are not long enough at Georgia and Wayne or at Fenton and Wayne. In fact, the walk signals encourage jaywalking: the signals only last for a fraction of the period that cars moving in the same direction have a green light, and pedestrians feel they should be allowed to cross with traffic. I imagine the wierdly short walk signals are designed to allow cars to turn unimpeded by pedestrians, but since the cars do not have a specific turn light giving them right-of-way, pedestrians feel they should be allowed to cross. Pedestrians have a very long wait when trying to cross Georgia on Wayne.

I agree that a crosswalk is definitely needed on Fenton between Pier One and Whole Foods.

Crosswalks are also definitely needed on Dale at some of the side streets between Colesville and Wayne. With the amount of traffic on Dale, it can be very difficult to cross.

“No recommendations for pedestrian bridges?”

Ped bridges weren’t brought up at this particular meeting. However, at a recent meeting on capital improvement projects, I threw in a request for a bridge over the CSX tracks behind NOAA.

I figure it would make a trip from South Silver Spring to the Ripley District or transit center easier.

The only problem is this: I’d hate to see another Forest Glen footbridge. (No offense to Montgomery Hills and Forest Glen residents.) Safety must be studied before putting up another ped bridge.