A proposed Purple Line route won’t do too much damage to traffic flow at one busy downtown intersection, reps for the state transit administration claim.
The mass-transit project could chug through Wayne Avenue at Fenton Street in downtown Silver Spring. That’s if a Wayne Avenue route is chosen to link Long Branch with the future Silver Spring transit center, Joe Romanowski and Harriet Levine, consultants with the transit administration, explained at a public meeting Monday night.
“We can have a lot of movement at that intersection,” Levine told 90 people kicking it inside the Round House Theatre.
Rolling westbound on the proposed route, the Purple Line would cruise with car traffic from Sligo Creek Parkway to Fenton Street, the consultants said. The route then would cross Fenton diagonally into a station near Bonifant Street, next to Silver Spring’s future library.
Orchestrated traffic signals and a Purple Line-only left-turn lane on Wayne would keep things in check, they added.
“Cars can’t turn [left from Wayne onto Fenton] when there’s a Purple Line there,” Levine said. “But when the Purple Line vehicle makes its move [toward the station], westbound cars will still be able to move.”
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Video: Animation showing how things will roll on Wayne Avenue at Fenton Street if the Purple Line goes through that intersection. Notice the northbound car on Fenton that blows the red light, then the westbound car on Wayne that nearly gets clipped while turning left onto Fenton. Presented by the Maryland Transit Administration; bootlegged by R. Pace/SSP.
What will it cost drivers waiting for the lights to turn green? An additional 15 seconds, based on the state’s current traffic model.
That model takes pedestrian activity into account (whether that includes jaywalking isn’t clear). But it doesn’t consider auto traffic waiting to enter the Wayne Avenue garage, which meeting attendees blamed for snarling traffic at the intersection.
It also doesn’t consider traffic tearing into and out of the Whole Foods Market parking lot, which has an entrance on Wayne between Fenton and Cedar Street. The westbound Purple Line’s left-turn lane could block that entrance entirely, consultant Romanowski said.
The transit administration and The Peterson Cos, which manages the parking lot, are working to fix that problem, both parties have said.
Photo (lead): Transit engineer and consultant Joe Romanowski talks purple at the Round House Theatre. Credit: R. Pace/SSP.
Map courtesy of the Maryland Transit Administration.
Edited Apr 29, 2008, at 3:20 p.m.
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Done correctly, I can’t wait for the Purple Line to break ground already.
To the points brought up above, walking along that same area last Friday I was wondering, why didn’t Downtown SS provide better urban planning by the parking lot and Whole Foods? Seems like a hassle that could have been avoided with more forethought.
In any case look forward to making this area more mass-transit, walking, biking friendly.
Putting the Purple Line on the surface through downtown Silver Spring would be a major mistake. Traffic is bad enough already, and the trains would only get caught up in the traffic, as demonstrated in the video. To make the Purple Line really successful, it should be in a tunnel through downtown Silver Spring.
Tunnel is indeed the advantage of rail. At that meeting, one woman said the proposed Purple Line system seemed like “buses with wires.” Instead of the Purple Line, we need more buses, crosswalks where drivers actually stop, more bus stop shelters, and a system that tells when the next bus is coming. WMATA & Ride-On experimented with NextBus, but it didn’t work.
The Purple Line idea has been kicking around for a long time. Campaign literature and ads from PL advocates gave the impression that it would be part of Metrorail. Not so.
Meanwhile, buses have improved a lot. Lower floors, SmartTrip, automatic announcements of the next stop.
From what I saw at that meeting, MTA has not sufficiently studied those enhancements to the existing system, known as Transportation System Management or TSM.
The purple line should not exacerbate traffic congestion if it’s purpose is to relieve traffic congestion. Also, the southern end of Fenton Village needs a reason to pull people/buisness down to that end. Therefore it seems that a route underground Sligo Avenue with a stop at Fenton would be the best solution because A: It would not require blasting below existing houses (Thayer/Silver Spring Ave Route), B: Not jamb up an existing busy intersection (Wayne/Bonifant Route), and C: Provide an “anchor” of sorts to activate the lower end of Fenton Village and stimulate a connection between South Silver Spring and Ellsworth Avenue. How ever it ends up though, we’re all going to need more public transportation!!!
No stop on Fenton! Under current zoning, anything within 800 feet of a rail stop can be vulnerable to TOMX rezoning. TOMX means Transit-Oriented Mixed-Use Development. In reality, this means high-rise.
Look at the concrete canyon springing up around the Silver Spring Metro stop. A big building is set for that space. That may be OK, but I feel for the people in the townhouses across Colesville Road.
But no concrete canyons eating into the trees, houses, small apartments and small businesses of East Silver Spring!
By the way, 800 feet is only the beginning. O’Malley was pushing legislation that would have extended transit-oriented development zoning to a half-mile. His press release said it was aimed at Prince George’s County, but the bill made no mention of that.
Thanks for your comments, Nancy. Can you tell me where I can find information on the TOMX zoning rules?
Also, let’s say TOMX zoning wasn’t an issue. Would you still object to a Purple Line stop in Fenton Village?
Hey Nancy,
Just in response to your comment regarding no stop on Fenton – I don’t know if you’re aware but DD SS is in the middle of a dense urban area. Compared with rising energy costs why would a, as you put it, “concrete canyon” be a problem? We need to start developing efficiently and making the most out of the limited space i.e. homes, retail, and businesses and hopefully one day I can leave the car at home, take mass transit and do all of my working, shopping, and living within a 5 mile area.
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. — JD (May 2, 2008)
As a resident of East Silver Spring I’m not overly worried that locating a station at the library site would lead to “concrete canyons eating into the trees, houses, small apartments and small businesses of East Silver Spring.” Most of East Silver Spring east of the CBD is zoned for single-family residential uses and the county’s master plan for East Silver Spring has as one of its priorities preserving the low-density, residential character of ESS.
There may be greater heights and densities in the Fenton Village area within the CBD, but this could occur regardless of whether there is a station stop at the future library site.
Here is what gives me heartburn: growing U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil, rising temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions, greater shares of a household budgets that need to spend on owning and operating a car, greater traffic congestion and air pollution.
The Purple Line would be a step towards mitigating these very real and scary conditions.
Jennifer, the link on TOMX that I had bookmarked (on the Neighbors for a Better Montgomery site) is no longer active. However, a couple of years ago I attended a Park & Planning hearing on the Falkland Chase Apartments. One of the board members mentioned the need for housing near Metro.
It sounded like he wanted to see the Falklands replaced with a high-rise. A couple of years later, that was proposed. You did some excellent coverage of that plan — which, fortunately, has been stalled. The Falklands are not “out of the woods” yet, however.
I fear that any small-scale, green neighborhood near a rail stop will go through something similar. Remember, the Master Plan is about to be amended by the Purple Line Master Plan. And Master Plans are reopened anyway. Also, I question how energy-efficient life in a high-rise actually is. Small, shaded houses use very little air-conditioning, and need no elevators. It is possible to dry laundry outdoors in warm weather — and people acutally do that around here.
Editor’s note: This comment has been deleted. — JD (May 2, 2008)
Play nice, people. If you disagree with someone’s opinion, please say why.
I’ll pose my question to Nancy again: If TOMX wasn’t an issue (I’m still not sure it really is), would you support a Purple Line stop along Fenton Street?
Does anyone have any statistics about energy efficiency, especially when it comes to single family homes versus high rises? I definitely leave a lighter footprint (on the earth and in my wallet) after moving from a single family home in the way-out burbs to a high rise apartment that is accessible to mass transit, groceries stores, entertainment, etc. Also, I find I use the heat a lot less in my apartment than in my old house. I never air-dried my laundry, and I think not having the option for a vegetable or herb garden are the areas my energy consumption increased… but I have to believe the net gain is positive.
Another note: to me, there’s only a handful of shops in Fenton Villiage that I absolutely adore and would cry if they shut down. Otherwise, I find it somewhat depressing as far as neighborhoods go. I really think that those small businesses I love (holla back, Kefa Cafe) could do well with some choice new spaces. Especially if MoCo paid special attention to keeping those guys in business…. Why does it always have to be one or the other?
P.S. So to me, yeah, bring on a purple line stop in Fenton Village.
No more buses, please! DTSS is already a pollution nightmare with all those buses rolling to and from the Silver Spring metro. I’m tired of sucking up bus exhaust fumes. The pollution will only get worse in DTSS. Why would we want to add to the pollution with more buses? Let’s get the more environmentally friendly purple line to the area.
Jennifer, I would not support a Purple Line stop on Fenton St. I don’t want the Purple Line at all — I want TSM, more buses, more and better crosswalks, improved telecommuting options, more Zipcars…
pj, many new buses are the diesel-electric hybrids; they are quieter and seem to pollute less. They seem far more “environmentally friendly” than a railroad powered by electricity. That electricity comes from coal. In addition to the global warming, mercury, fine particulate — the extreme strip-mining technique of Mountaintop Removal is tearing up beautiful places in West Virginia, Virginia & Kentucky. Communities and habitat are being wiped out.
Little Foot, homes and apts vary massively. So do the way people live in them. Whether a person uses more or less of anything would almost have to be studied on a case-by-case basis. What if a person who lives an a high-rise feels a need to drive out into the country every weekend?
And Jennifer, thank you for the reminder to “play nice.”
Finally, and gratefully, I’ve seen “No train on Wayne” signs on my street. Wayne is one of the most congested streets there is. If often narrow down to one lane each way as cars park along the sides. The number of buses is excessive already, with noise and exhaust something we live with daily. And it is the road of choice for every police car, firetruck, and ambulance – sirens blaring. There is never a time that it is not fairly packed with cars, though at rush hour it is even more packed. One of our blessings is Sligo Creek Park – a purple line of any sort will add to conditions there, and do away with the birds we do have, including blue herons, that tough it out there.
Why, if this must be built, do the powers that be have their eye on Wayne? Do we not have enough powerful politicians or developers sticking up for us? Why not the logical choice of Colesville? I would not put anything on Sligo either but it will be no better if “it” is built here. It will wreck our neighborhood, which is already under severe environmental stress.
I went to one meeting and was accosted verbally by a non Wayne Avenue man who said that “I should sacrifice for the good of the cause.” I haven’t been back since. I am not interested in such rude behavior, of which there has been plenty.
Susan,
The Purple Line has great wrecking potential anywhere it could go. Colesville Road has been brought up over and over, MTA says it’s a state route, can’t afford to take car lanes away. I have also experienced this phenomenon of people who do NOT live along the proposed routes saying people should give up yards or even homes “for the greater good.” This is nonsense.
The perpetual density argument behind the Purple Line is the beast that will not be fed. If a route were approved, developers would go crazy pushing to rezone areas around the tracks and stations. Gov. O’Malley just signed a bill designating places a half-mile from a transit station for transit-oriented development. The legislation makes a token nod to local planning, but we see how well that works.
As long as local governments rely on the regressive property tax, instead of switching to a progressive income tax with the highest rates for those with incomes in the millions, we will see this.
Please don’t let the rude behavior stop you. All of us must band together to save our communities. It is stressful, but it is also possible to laugh at the absurdity of these proposals.
Wayne the most congested street there is? Surely you jest. Perhaps you should drive on Colesville or Georgia Ave., which are genuinely congested.
Those with the rallying cry of “save our communities” simply do not want to accept the current reality and the invevitable future: The Washington area is becoming an international, urbanized city like other world capitals. Congestion will get worse and no amount of transit & higher density developement will relieve it or bring back the good old days. The best we can hope for is to manage the problem by building better/more public transit & higher density housing/retail in the close in locations where people can afford to live. Central DC, like London, Paris & NY will become too expensive and the next ring out is our area.
It’s going to happen folks, whether you want it or not. Long Branch, Langley Park, Hyattsville, College Park and the like will eventually be built up as the functionally obsolete & low density apartment complexes are replaced. You may not like the higher density, but you sure as heck will like the increase in your property value.
People who bought in Bethesda in the 70’s & early 80’s before the Red Line and onslaught of development are sitting on GOLD MINES.
I’d rather be sitting under a shady tree than atop a gold mine. Let’s have a purple line, but run it underground where it belongs.
I agree it would be much better underground. But in this rotten fiscal climate, what if the funding isn’t there for putting it underground? Is it an all or nothing proposition?
Susan said regarding the Sligo Creek Park crossing: a purple line of any sort will add to conditions there, and do away with the birds we do have, including blue herons, that tough it out there.
On what do you base your unsubstantiated claim other than just raw emotion? The area of Sligo Creek Park that the Purple Line will cross is about 200′ across. It is not a wide swatch of destruction like the ICC, but a tiny area about 1/2 the size of the existing 4-lane Wayne Avenue crossing. How can you believe that this will “do away” with the wildlife? They don’t tough it out there, they have a protected riparian paradise. And last time I looked, a bird can fly over a slow moving train without much trouble. Deer and other ground based animals will have no greater difficulties than they do now with the roadway crossing.
Purple Lover said: “It’s going to happen folks, whether you want it or not. Long Branch, Langley Park, Hyattsville, College Park and the like will eventually be built up as the functionally obsolete & low density apartment complexes are replaced. You may not like the higher density, but you sure as heck will like the increase in your property value.
“People who bought in Bethesda in the 70’s & early 80’s before the Red Line and onslaught of development are sitting on GOLD MINES.”
I’m sure East Silver Spring would also be declared obsolete. Plenty of us see our homes as places to live, for the rest of our lives. And we want the kids of today to be able to live here, too, in these small, beautiful houses with front porches — shaded by big trees. Our homes and trees are not gold mines.
Governments have always had the power to seize homes by eminent domain for various projects, such as roads. However, in the Kelo case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that homes can be seized for economic develoment. If the state decided to seize a home for transit-oriented development, the homeowners would be kicked out — and unlikely to be able to find a similar home. They are not making small, beautiful homes like this any more. When they are gone, they are gone.
I wasn’t referring to the small beautiful houses with front porches–I live in one of them myself. I was referring to the endless low-rise garden style apartment complexes built in the 50’s-60’s & 70’s, most clustered around interesections very near the future purple line. With the exception of some houses on Wayne Avenue, virtually all the small homes you reference are safe. Those who bought on Wayne Avenue KNEW when they bought that it was already a busy street.
Nancy, even accounting for coal power, electric trains are an order of magnitude more efficient than the best hybrid buses.
Thanks for your comment, Jake. Do you have anything supporting your claim for Penguin readers to check out?