A proposed pedestrian bridge to downtown Silver Spring’s new library (above) went through the wringer Thursday night, pitting mom against mom, and access versus urban design.
The new library, slated to sprout on Wayne Avenue at Fenton Street, could serve an estimated 1.1 million visitors, Gary Stith, director of Silver Spring’s regional center, told about 30 people gathered in ye olde library’s basement. About half those visitors would be kiddies; another 5 percent would be disabled, Stith spelled out.
That crowd is part of the reason why the county’s libraries department recommended a pedestrian bridge connecting the new library with the Wayne Avenue garage across the street, Stith explained. “If access wasn’t easy, they’d go to some other library,” he said.
One mom concerned about crossing Wayne Avenue was totally for the bridge. “I don’t understand why you feel the need to remove a safe alternative to crossing into the library,” Kathlin Smith, who hangs with the Friends of the Silver Spring Library, told the crowd.
Smith said her crew surveyed the public over the last 12 years, and the numero-uno concern has always been access to parking. A bridge connecting the library with the garage would smooth that out, she indicated.
On the flip side, Joanna Slaney, a Silver Spring mom with young children, said she didn’t understand why some perceived her and her kids as unable to cross Wayne safely. “We cross at intersections,” she explained. “It’s not an issue.”
Furthermore, the bridge would quash the goal of putting pedestrians (including kids) on the urban landscape, Slaney added. “You want them to walk around downtown Silver Spring. That’s why you build [the library] in downtown Silver Spring,” she said.
However, Marilyn Wisoff, vice president of the Friends of the Silver Spring Library, said suburban patrons deserved to choose between walking on a bridge or the sidewalk. And if the bridge wasn’t built, then her group would withdraw its support for the new library, she warned.
That’s when sounds of “Whoa! Wait a minute!” rose from Wisoff’s colleagues in the audience, who said they would support the new library no matter what. “Then I’ll just go to the library in Chevy Chase,” Wisoff responded.
While meeting attendees quibbled over safety and convenience, disabled residents argued for access. Jeanie Dunnington, with the Rockville library’s disability resource center, said the Wayne Avenue footbridge would cut disabled residents a break on negotiating traffic and possibly the Purple Line mass-transit project at the corner of Wayne and Fenton.
“When people in wheelchairs have a smooth surface, when blind people can find the route by the feel of the surface, and when nobody has to negotiate elevators, stairs or escalators, we will go to the library and the businesses!” read a flier that Dunnington distributed to meeting attendees.
Access was an issue for many disabled patrons at Rockville’s shiny new library, admitted Dan Beavin, Silver Spring’s top librarian and former head of the Rockville library. Their complaint: that the parking garage was too far from the main entrance. Mind you, that garage is across a relatively slow, narrow street from the library, which opens onto a pedestrian plaza, Beavin explained.
If a footbridge is built over Wayne Avenue, it’s not yet known whether it will be open to the public as a pedestrian crossing when the library building is closed, the regional center’s Stith said.
Rendering of the proposed footbridge courtesy of MNCPPC.
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The footbridge is absolutely unattractive and unnecessary. Just like that Civic Center spawning where the green turf existed.
And the wanker of the day award belongs to Marilyn Wisoff. She was way out of line with the “Footbridge or Else” threat. We could care less if you visit the Chevy Chase library.
Apparently this Marilyn Wisoff thinks the world owes her everything, including a $700K bridge paid for by our tax money so she doesn’t have to walk across a street.
I remember her name from this story a few weeks back about how the AFI Silver sold out of tickets to the inauguration viewing:
“But not everyone was happy because tickets sold out after 15 minutes with the line still wrapped around the building. Several people continued to wait, asking for another theater room and more tickets. “”I expect that they will not do things that they say they won’t – swore that it would not be in the computer before one o’clock. I demand tickets,” said resident Marilyn Wisoff.” (Emphasis mine.)
I guess the theater was supposed to install new seating so that she could have a ticket…
I still think all these issues could be resolved by putting the library in City Place
Editor’s note: I agree with Sligo — turn the entire mall into a library. Either that, or a casino. — JD (Feb 9, 2009)
I disagree. The intersection at Wayne and Fenton is hazardous and I do not like crossing it myself, especially when I am holding my toddler. I would not let him walk across the crosswalk by himself, no way. Drivers are always pressing to make the right turn from Fenton. We would probably go to the library less if there were no bridge. That would be a shame, because we like the kid’s reading room at the current location, as well as the fact that you can park outside and walk right in.
Yeah, I don’t even get why a new crosswalk would be needed…granted the wayne/fenton light seems to take forever to change, but come on. Make sure the sidewalk is smooth for wheelchairs and install the speaking crosswalk signals for the blind. Everyone else just needs to not be lazy.
Thank you, Joanna Slaney, from another Silver Spring mom who is able to get herself and her spawn across the street just fine, thanks, without a silly bridge. I can’t believe people are getting so hysterical at the thought of not having a bridge! I’d be much more afraid of the walk through the garage to get to the (hypothetical) bridge entrance, than the walk across the street.
“The intersection at Wayne and Fenton is hazardous and I do not like crossing it…”
Well, I hate walking from the Metro to Ellsworth because of crossing the streets and waiting for lights, especially when crossing Georgia ave. when cars are making a left at the light from Colsville onto Georgia. Can we please build a bridge from the Metro platform to Ellsworth, preferably ending in front of McGinty’s?
We’re talking about crossing a street people. Jag is absolutely correct, make sure that the sidewalk is smooth for wheelchairs and install the speaking crosswalk signals for the blind, perhaps put in an island and colored cross walk to make it clear that people will be crossing there frequently. Don’t build an almost $700,000 bridge because people are afraid of crossing the road. Let’s get real in our new economic situation.
This was the first time I had heard of this footbridge so I didn’t know it had become such an emotional issue (I looked back at other earlier posts). It shouldn’t be settled by people shouting at each other at these meetings though. My beef with crossing the street is certainly not because it would be too far to walk. Wayne is a pretty busy street. And a mid-block crosswalk seems like a bad idea based on the anarchy that reigns when people drive out of the Wayne garage, me included. Someone should look at the accident stats at the Wayne/Fenton intersection and figure out whether $700k spread over about two decades outweighs the cost of one or more of the members of the increased foot traffic getting flattened. It’s less than 2% the projected cost of the library and it would probably be a big factor for a large segment of the library’s users.
KM has the correct response. I personally think the bridge is probably a waste of money, especially if its going over the prpl line route…that airspace may be needed for wires and the like.
I don’t think money is the real issue. The issue to me is projected usage. The fact is few people already at street level will go up to cross via the bridge, and those in the garage will not bother with the bridge unless they got lucky with a spot on the bridge level.
People that live here expect to have to cross streets. There are already accepted ways to make intersections safer to cross. Let’s do that and move on to the next burning issue.
are they planning to make parking at the wayne avenue garage free, as well? because i seriously question whether many of these too-timid-to-cross-a-street people will even use the bridge from the parking garage if they have to pay to park there.
and, unless i’m missing something, there’s already talking crosswalk signs at wayne/fenton. i already see blind people walking all around silver spring without the benefit of pricey highrise crosswalks. that argument holds no water.
Last time I checked Silver Spring wasn’t going to become a giant network of skywalks and bridges that kept people from having to cross any intersection at street level. Thus, if you are in the downtown area, you are going to have to cross some busy streets. I just feel like someone who is that neurotic about crossing Wayne at Fenton that they need an elevated bridge that requires going into a garage to use probably really should just go to a library that is in a much less congested area.
I also think laura makes a great point about the garage parking not being free (its not a library only parking lot, so its not going to be free).
In the end, I feel like if this is built, we are going to be left with a 700k piece of architecture that will get little to know use. On the upside, it will be great conversation in 50 years if the SSHS is fighting to preserve it.
SoCo hit the nail on the head: who is really going to use that bridge except those lucky enough to find a parking spot on that level. Which brings up another point…would MoCo reserve spots on that level for library patrons? How would it be enforced? How many spaces would they take away from an already very tight parking garage? I guess it’s a sign of success that the once empty and free Wayne Avenue garage is now the parking hotspot of DTSS.
The library should have a proper civic presence and such should be built on the proposed site as designed. As for City Mall, that should be converted into apartments with a large courtyard where the atrium is placed. You would poke a bunch of French Door balconies like you see in southern Europe and you would enliven Ellsworth to no end.
Editor’s note: Holes can’t be poked into the City Place building because its facade has been declared historic.
For now, let’s save our City Place fantasies for another article and stick with the library bridge discussion. Thanks! — JD (Feb 10, 2009)
According to Gary Stith, director of Silver Spring’s regional center, parking at the Wayne Avenue garage would be free (up to two hours) for library patrons.
There’s a similar deal at the Rockville library — you park at the public garage, tell the electronic meter that you’re headed for the library, and your first two hours are free. (At least, that’s my recollection.)
Jennifer,
“For now, let’s save our City Place fantasies for another article and stick with the library bridge discussion. Thanks! — JD (Feb 10, 2009)”
Didn’t you say earlier that you thought the City Place mall should be turned into the Library? Ironically it was your comment that inspired me. Play nice.
Editor’s note: Notes embedded into comments are used to add my two cents without steering the conversation totally astray, as my actual injected comments might. As I said earlier, let’s keep this string on the library bridge.
And in the future, leave the moderating to the moderator. — JD (Feb 10, 2009)
I can think of plenty of intersections around Silver Spring that are much more tricky to cross than this one. (I myself have to cross every day from a bus stop on East-West Highway – 4 lanes of traffic – in front of Summit Hills in the dark, with NO crosswalk…tell those uppity library patrons to try crossing THAT one to get home.) Oh, but that’s outside of DTSS, so it’s not special enough to get attention.
Anyway, I think this bridge biases “safer” access to people with cars, if the only access is from within the garage. I agree with other people here that non-drivers would be less likely to go into the garage to get to the library. What about people who can’t afford a car or prefer to take public transit? Are we sending the message that we don’t care if those people get hit crossing the street? Would we wind up exacerbating the socio-economic divide by providing easier access to the library to mostly those who have cars? I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I think they are important to consider.
This problem could be solved if there was an elevator to the bridge at the front of the pedestrian entrance to the garage, but then, I question how safe it is to walk in front of a garage where drivers may not see you coming towards the entrance. But hey – if you don’t build the walkway – you don’t have this $700K problem.
I agree with the person who said we need to focus the efforts more on making that street level crosswalk safer. The same could be done at other points around DTSS, and probably make a lot more people happier than just the library patrons.
“On the upside, it will be great conversation in 50 years if the SSHS is fighting to preserve it.”
LOL. OK, I might not live to see that, but now I’m in favor of the bridge.
Does anyone use the footbridge for the Fenton/Ellsworth garage to City Place? Is that a fair comparison?
If you add a bridge for the library, where does it end? Everyone will want a bridge. If the plan is to eventually have a connection of skywalks and footbridges to the Metro and then to Caribou Coffee across East/West — I’m all for it. But a bridge just for the library? No, thank you.
MEOW!!!
Thayer D: Oh Snap! JD put you in your place. Don’t mess with The Penguin.
JD’s at a 10, she needs to be at a 2.5
I think one of the main arguments is that a lot of the people that will go to the library are not people that are TYPICALLY pedestrians. Sure, I walk around and I am prone to walking, I know how to cross at a crosswalk. But for someone who is use to navigating parking lots, busy crosswalks can be a foreign affair, and its those people that a skybridge (or whatever you want to call it) would be meant to protect. People like children. Sure, some families walk a lot, but a lot don’t. And those parents that are going to have a hard time controlling their kids in the crosswalk are the ones that need a safer option (and better discipline, but we can only ask so much). People that live further out from the urban-esque part of SS don’t dodge 4 lanes of traffic daily, and those are the people that would be visiting that library, they’re the people a bridge would be made to protect.
I am dying here regarding pro-bridge arguments. My two cents, I think KM made an excellent point about identifying the accident stats and seeing if the cost of the bridge is justified. Othersise, it’s a crosswalk, not some strange, exotic, urban-only device to get people across the road.
The barriers that people in our area will put in the way of development in DTSS – Purple Line, Civic Center (Ice Skating Rink or Turf), Library is just ridiculous.
As for Friends of the Silver Spring Library? Give me a break sounds like Wisoff has some entitlement issues to work out.
I wonder if the laws (specifically, the “no right turn on red” signal at several intersections in the area) aren’t creating problems in traffic flow, especially at the intersection in question. Motorists and pedestrians are competing for street space for no discernible reason at Wayne and Fenton. Maybe making revisions to the laws governing the traffic flow would negate the need for such a ridiculously expensive, unnecessary eyesore.
And even though it is apparently a no-no subject on this post (for whatever reason), I too think that City Place would be a great site for the public library, if for no other reason than there’s already a footbridge connecting it to the parking garage. Novel concept: using what you already have.
Crosswalks are not foreign, people! You look both ways before crossing and then you go when cars aren’t coming. Follow the flashing hand if you are confused. I remember learning this in kindergarten. (And what a great opportunity to teach your kids about safety – if they don’t practice it, they will have a hard time learning.)
If it’s an issue of having enough time to cross, that’s understandable, but also something that can be addressed by timing lights better or greater visibility features, without an unnecessary, costly building project.
Besides, when did a parking garage become a whole lot safer than a crosswalk? There are plenty of times when I’ve seen drivers speeding in and out of those places. If a parent needs to teach their kids safety in crossing the street, they would need it for a parking garage too.
I agree that parking garages can be dangerous themself with all those cars speeding like Nascar around those curves. And if we are discussing moving the library to city place mall, then why not just leave the library where it is in the first place. I mean if we just modernize it and expand it then we keep a big parking lot and spacious library green property. I dont see why we are moving it to begin with…Can someone please tell me why the move?
If its moving to this location to be in the middle of DTSS then people need to understand how a downtown works, your going to have to cross busy streets!
What is going to happen to the current library property once its moved?
Editor’s note: Once the new library is built, ye olde library will be offered to other Montgomery County departments for use. If there are no bites, then the property gets sold as surplus. — JD (Feb 11, 2009)
No Bridge is right. Let’s modernize the library where it is. It is walkable on Colesville — unpleasant from traffic noise and wind, but walkable. It is driveable for those who need it.
So much more needs to be done about crosswalks in MoCo, in DTSS and elsewhere. Those plastic paddles that stick up and say “Stop for Peds, State Law” or something like that, are far too rare. I see them in Takoma Park, and a bunch have been installed in the University Towers area, on Arcola. Yeah, they don’t last long, so workers must be sent out to replace them. But that provides useful work to people, so it’s a good use of my tax $. I heard that some in-pavement device to light up when peds were present was tried at Twinbrook, but failed. Would love to get details. If the Purple Line is built, how would people get to it without safe crosswalks? MTA and MoCo planners have said repeatedly that bus service would be cut back if PL is built. Scary crosswalks, rezoning pressure galore, and fewer buses. Just great.
So many times I have seen bus drivers cut off/into other drivers in smaller vehicles, run through crosswalks, run redlights, and block traffic for a right or left on green they did not have the ability to make. If one were to go to the corner of Georgia and Colesville during rush hour, they could watch buses turn left from Colesville onto Georgia as and after the light turns red. With traffic and with its size, it is sometimes well into the walk sign before the buses get out of the road and through and out of the crosswalks. All the while Peds tentatively cross the street praying that the bus allows them to cross instead of assuming all life stops while they inch through the crosswalk, staring straight ahead all the while as if not seeing the Pedestrians they know are there.
This same acts happens by plenty of motorist operated personal vehicles but you would think that the driver of a public transportation machine that can do great damage than a smaller vehicle would hold their driving to a higher standard.
I for one think that fewer buses on the road would make the crosswalks less scary.
Corona, I have seen and heard of frightening bus/ped encounters. However, I suspect technology could help, a GPS/camera device that would help drivers see better, demonstrate their good or bad driving, and show HQ where the bus was at any given time. Wonder if this could hook into NextBus — which failed the first time. NextBus is supposed to tell riders when the next bus is coming.
I don’t think bus drivers have the market cornered on awful driving. I have scurried in terror from drivers wielding just about every kind of vehicle.
Just today, actually, I saw a metrobus cut off a school nus which was stopping to pick up school kids – it had its stop sign out and everything, and the bus just blazed right past it, turning in an awkward way to get around the corner of the bus while at the same time running TWO stop signs (both the one on the bus as well as the one normally at the corner). I was just appalled.
Yikes! Robin, did you get the bus #? I wonder if drivers are under crazy pressure to make schedules. I had to ride a C2 or C4 one summer day, I forget which bus, but it was early afternoon. An amazing number of wheelchair-bound and other special-needs passengers boarded. All these folks took a lot of time. In some cases, the passengers needed to pitch in and help right a wheelchair onto the ramp. Cameras would show the school buses, wheelchairs — other impediments to a smooth rhythm of stops.