Comments on: Council asks: Which way to downtown’s new library?

By: JG

JG — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:56:30 +0000

“Hey, there IS a South SS ped bridge over Ga., part of the RR overpass! It’s just that peds must walk under that funky underpass to get to it”

If we’re both thinking of the same bridge then well, yeah, that defeats the entire point. If I have to walk down East-West Hwy, around the Tires of Silver Spring or whatever, down Georgia, under the underpass to go over a bridge, then why not just walk across the street when I get there? The point of a pedestrian bridge would be so you don’t have to walk around, tripling the time it takes to get there. A bridge would go OVER the railroad/metro tracks to Georgia so one would not have to walk AROUND everything.

By: LuvMyHood

LuvMyHood — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:25:48 +0000

Hey, there IS a South SS ped bridge over Ga., part of the RR overpass! It’s just that peds must walk under that funky underpass to get to it. I avoid that unless I am wearing shorter-than-usual pants, due to the puddles of urine. About that Hyattsville bridge, at a meeting a man who tried to use the bridge said it was essentially becoming a public toilet.
Which brings me to a point I have made before; why don’t we build public restrooms and hire some of those out-of-work people to clean them? Union Station restrooms are always clean, and nobody lingers there doing foot-tapping or God-Knows-What, people use the plumbing and leave. There are many ways we could spend a few $ here and there to maintain and improve what we have. Instead of building pricey ped bridges, improve on-the-ground crosswalks. Maybe arms coming out like RR crossiings, as another poster suggested.

By: JG

JG — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:02:42 +0000

“People often think they will use something if they were to have it, but once attained, it rarely gets used.”

I definitely agree with that, especially with this bridge for the library. However, if a bridge were built from East-West Hwy to Georgia ave. to connect south Silver Spring with the downtown area I guarantee it would be used since people would no longer have to walk all the way around. It is a shame that our county “leaders” do not think this way…

By: Woodsider

Woodsider — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:43:22 +0000

I forgot to mention…hyatsville has a serious pedestrian safety problem in that area…not enough crossings. We don’t have that problem–we have state of the art crosswalks at the two nearest intersections. Hell, there are even speakers telling you when to walk and when not to.

By: Woodsider

Woodsider — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:42:01 +0000

Fantastic example, Murph. Wayne Ave has a lot less (and in that area slower)traffic than EW Highway in Hyattasville, but the illustration works nonetheless. People often think they will use something if they were to have it, but once attained, it rarely gets used. It’s the same human nature that makes people people buy homes with oval soaking tubs. I’m sure I’ll get grief from the readers who thik I’m comparing silver springers to McMansion lovers (i’m not).

By: Murph

Murph — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:10:13 +0000

Anybody seen the pedestrian bridge crossing E-W highway at PG Plaza? No one would use it and there was a solid stream of jaywalkers crossing 410 on foot. Finally they had to put up an eight foot high fence for the entire block in the median. An ugly solution to an ugly problem.

By: LuvMyHood

LuvMyHood — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:16:39 +0000

Actually, I like Fan’s points better than Robin’s. I hate the traffic noise on Colesville Road. Once I walk into the little library my ears need a few minutes to recover. But if it were larger, I would go more often.
Tdiddy said: “downtown Silver Spring is a dense urban community and with continued growth will continue (knock on wood) to do so.”
I would whack the Zalco building and build a larger office building. But off the top of my head, I don’t see any more spots for growth. We have more than enough apts. Even if the ones on the books are built, those residents will start to overwhelm our small neighborhood parks. The cities that have been losing population are the ones with room for growth; Detroit, for example.

By: Fan

Fan — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:40:14 +0000

or they could just modernize the current library, put an extension on it, theres plenty of room in front of it to add on a huge modern extension, and they could modernize the current building if they dont want to tear it down.
why spend all this money to build an entire new library in an inconvenient location? people seem to get to the library just fine where it is now.

By: Fan

Fan — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:35:07 +0000

Why exactly can’t they just tear down the current library and re-build it on-site?
Am I missing something? Is the current library deemed historic?
it already has its own big parking lot

By: Tdiddy

Tdiddy — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:16:38 +0000

I’m totally with Woodsider – we’re not asking people to do something extraordinary to simply use a crosswalk. What irks me is the small distance that may be involved, just walking across the street from the parking lot to the library.

It’s not NYC but downtown Silver Spring is a dense urban community and with continued growth will continue (knock on wood) to do so. I don’t think there’s an issue about drivers unused to peds – but just for arguments sake – keeping them on the streets will be a quick way to educate drivers to watch where they’re going.