Plans for a proposed pedestrian bridge over Wayne Avenue have got to go, Silver Spring’s citizens advisory board wrote to the county council Monday night.
In a letter dated Mar 9, advisory board members said building a bridge between downtown’s new library and the Wayne Avenue garage “neglects the primary problem of pedestrian safety and access.” The bridge also would wreck economic-development goals for Fenton Village, the letter argued.
“If downtown Silver Spring — the Fenton Village neighborhood in particular — is going to thrive, we need to do our best to create a lively and urban environment that will be safe for current residents … and inviting to visitors,” the letter stated.
“Building a pedestrian skywalk over Wayne Avenue will likely do exactly the opposite, keeping people off the streets, and limiting pedestrian traffic in and around Fenton Village,” the letter continued.
The letter dropped four days before the county council’s human services committee is to consider how to fit the bridge into downtown Silver Spring’s urban-renewal plan. That committee decided informally to move forward with the bridge last month after different library-affiliated groups and Silver Spring’s urban-district advisory committee threw their collective weight behind it.
The citizens advisory board previously had a lengthy discussion and even held a formal vote on whether an informal vote on the bridge should be taken. Ultimately, 10 of the board’s 15 members voted (informally) against the bridge; three members supported it; two were absent. But because no unanimous consensus could be reached at the time, chairperson Darien Unger decided not offer county council members any formal opinion from the board.
The Mar 9 letter was approved Monday night with seven votes. Two board members abstained, and two opposed the letter’s content.
“When you stand at the corner of Wayne and Fenton, sometimes you can barely move,” Mary Pat Spon, a board member and bridge supporter, said of the pedestrian traffic. Building a bridge would help smooth that over, she argued.
Rita Gale, public services administrator with the Silver Spring library, worried the new house’s collection for disabled patrons would be wasted if crossing Wayne was an obstacle to access. The Rockville library has a similar collection, but brick pavers used in surrounding crosswalks there has dissuaded disabled patrons from visiting, Dan Beavin, Silver Spring’s top librarian and former boss at Rockville, said previously.
“We expect people from Damascus and Poolesville to use this library,” Gale told the advisory board. “We want them to have access.”
It’s unclear what impact (if any) the advisory board’s letter will have on the county council’s plans for the bridge.
Rendering courtesy of MNCPPC.
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“…we need to do our best to create a lively and urban environment…”
heh – based on saturday’s concert/riot, i’d say lively and urban isn’t really a problem.
If you go to the web site (links above) for both the Silver Spring Advisory Board and the Urban District Advisory Committee, the most recent postings of Agenda/Minutes/Correspondence is from January/February, 2008. It’s been like this for a long, long time. Maybe a member of both will read this comment and explain or better, have the pages updated.
Why would people come all the way from Damascus and Poolesville to use this library? Seems like the distance is a greater obstacle than lack of a footbridge. I would guess that every single other library in the county is closer to them, and even if the special collection is so great, you can request to have material delivered to your local branch.
Germantown and Rockville have spectacular new libraries that are closer than ours would be.
It is hard to understand how NOT having a bridge into the library will help Fenton Village. The intersection at Fenton and Wayne is bad enough for pedestrians already, and adding the Purple Line to the mix will make it much worse. People wanting to go to Fenton Village, just like people going to the library, could park in the garage and use the bridge. The bridge would make going to Fenton Village easier. In fact, the only downside I see is that people going to Fenton Village might go through the library, get their parking validated, and abuse what I hope will still be free parking for library users.
Not having a footbridge will save us taxpayers $700,000 in today’s dollars. That is money that could be much better spent on other, far more urgent/important projects.
The purpose of the letter approved by the SSCAB was not really to oppose the bridge, as much as it was to reinforce our belief that pedestrian safety and access to the library must be improved.
Here is a key paragraph from the letter:
“The need for a skywalk has largely been expressed because of the perceived safety concerns of any street-level pedestrian crossing on Wayne Avenue. Building a skywalk is not an acceptable way to address such apprehension. The decision to build a bridge to allay safety concerns for some residents is simply an admittance of failure for all pedestrians. What remedy will there be for those who do not drive to the library or who choose to combine their library trip with shopping or eating in downtown Silver Spring or Fenton Village? If the improvement of Wayne Avenue is to be made in advance of opening of the library- and improvements are definitely needed- then the results should be good enough for all residents to safely cross the street. If the public’s safety cannot be insured by improving street access, then we question the decision to relocate the library to this location. However, assuming that the library is to be constructed at the currently designated location, assuring safe pedestrian access must be a top priority regardless of a skywalk.”
One other key sentence: “We believe that a skywalk should be an option of last resort, not the first.”
Editor’s note: Thanks for clarifying that, Evan. By the way, Evan is a member of the citizens advisory board. — JD (Mar 13, 2009)
I can’t help but feel that the foot bridge would be a lose-lose for pedestrians. The message it sends is, “We won’t make it easier for you pedestrians to walk across the intersection, but we will make it easier for you to walk from your parked car.”
Editor’s note: Well said! — JD (Mar 13, 2009)
Montgomery County needs to do both: improve the intersection at Fenton and Wayne and build a pedestrian bridge to the library. There will be no or very limited library patron parking on the site, so the Wayne Avenue garage provides ample and convenient parking, and with a bridge, safe access for those individuals who need it. On site underground parking would cost millions of dollars. Intersection improvements and a pedestrian bridge are not mutually exclusive. MontCo should push for both. It looks like the State of Maryland will ultimately be responsible for pedestrian safety/road improvements, if the Purple Line alignment for Bonifant and Wayne is approved.
This is mind-boggling to me that so much time and effort is being spent on something so completely unnecessary. The fact that this thing will cost nearly $1m should make that clear enough.
Out of any major intersection in downtown, that’s really the one that I hate crossing the least – why do people act like they’re an inch from death when crossing there? I do actually feel like I could die when crossing Colesville or Georgia, with their superhighway size, but Fenton and Wayne? The streets are 15 feet wide! People have said that it’s because they’re small, people try to cut through that intersection quick, but I think it’s hard to argue that people would pay less attention there than when they’re on one of our bigger roads.
I have had some very close calls crossing at that intersection, especially in the rain. Saturdays can be rough; that really discourages folks who walk to Whole Foods and schleup groceries home.
There should be left-turn-only arrows in all directions there. Right-on-red should be prohibited. Those cheap & tacky but effective paddles that stick up and say something like “state law, stop for pedestrians” should be deployed in lots of places, including that intersection.