Photo: Round and round it goes! Courtesy of Google Maps.
Police investigators are still piecing together movements that led to last month’s fatal car-on-pedestrian collision on 16th St, but one thing is known for sure: The collision scene has been on the county’s radar as a dangerous crossing for at least a few months, the county’s pedestrian-safety campaign coordinator claimed.
Jeff Dunckel revealed to Silver Spring’s pedestrian safety committee last Tuesday that plans existed to enhance crosswalks at the intersection of 16th St and Colesville Road, both state roads through the central business district. He also recalled speaking with South Silver Spring’s neighborhood association last spring about pedestrian crossings at a traffic circle there.
The traffic circle is a few yards south of where 63-year-old pedestrian William Guy was struck and killed by a car last month while crossing 16th Street during the evening rush hour.
“Unfortunately, things take a long time to be implemented on state roads,” Dunckel told the committee. “It’s a bureaucracy.”
Adding to that bureaucracy is the intersection’s shared jurisdiction, Dunckel explained. The traffic circle’s northern half is controlled by the state of Maryland, which continuously feeds cars into it from southbound 16th Street and westbound Colesville Road. The circle’s southern half belongs to The District, which added traffic lights and a crosswalk to control traffic there.
Photo: Nothing packs a ped-safety meeting like tragedy. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.
Eastern Avenue, which straddles Maryland’s border with The District and also drains into the traffic circle, is entirely under the Metropolitan Police Department’s jurisdiction.
“That sort of bureaucratic grind is frustrating,” committee member and East Silver Springer Darian Unger said. “When it comes to designing some of these intersections, it’s going to take a coordinated effort.”
It’ll also take a shift in thinking for the state and county’s traffic engineers, committee member and Woodside resident Casey Anderson told colleagues. The problem, Anderson said, is that the county’s transportation department and the state highway administration design roads to maximize vehicle throughput, not pedestrian movement.
Maria Tucker, representing State Del Tom Hucker (D-20), later told the committee that the state highway administration was capable of improving its pedestrian crossings, as long as it was notified of trouble spots. And as long as improvements undergo an audit and a design-review process, the county’s Dunckel threw in there.
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This is not just a pedestrian crossing issue. There are numerous traffic accidents at the circle of 16th Street and Colesville. I have seen cars flipped over and serious injuries as a result of the collisions. The onus is on Montgomery County to make this traffic area safer for drivers and pedestrians alike.
I think the circle itself should be removed and there should be a five-way intersection with traffic lights in that area. Vehicles tend to stop at red lights where as circles do not inhibit drivers from braking. Many experienced DC-area drivers still get confused about circle right-of-way traffic rules. I have seen drivers enter the circle without checking for on-coming traffic. Amazing but true. Oh yeah, try turning left to Eastern Ave. from 16th Street. If you are lucky, you won’t get blasted from an idiot speeding through the circle. Left-only turn signals should also create safer traffic flow.
I am tired of planning aesthetics taking precedence over safety. The circle must go!
Absolutely agree. I’ve been trying to get both DC and MD folks to address this for years.
The traffic patterns on this circle are ridiculous and I have narrowly avoided several car accidents. They need to deal especially with cars coming across Colesville and turning South on 16th street.
I’m glad there is finally some pressure mounting, I’m only sorry it took someone being killed to get that attention.
Editor’s note: This reader’s screen name was changed to avoid confusion. — JD (Dec 8, 2009)
I would still argue that if this was a true circle (i.e. no traffic lights, no stop signs, like Chevy Chase circle) it would function well for traffic and pedestrians. As it is, it’s sort of a Frankenstein’s monster of a junction, with components taken from circles, traffic lights, stops, yields, etc – and it just doesn’t work.
I’m with Steve – right now it’s not really a traffic circle. As it’s engineered, there’s nothing to encourage northbound or southbound drivers on 16th St to slow down and yield to traffic in the oval, and I don’t think the signage southbound is marked to suggest it to them either. For the northbound set, if the light’s green the light’s green and they fly on through. On the other hand, if you’re entering the oval from North Portal, Colesville Rd southbound, or Eastern Ave, it feels like a traffic circle situation.
A true roundabout could slow everyone down a little bit without making traffic any worse. And slower cars would make for safer pedestrians.
I agree the intersection is very dangerous. I can only speak as a driver. I, usually arrive from Colesville and am headed south on 16th. I always feel like I have to gun it and then break quickly to avoid the 16th street gang going south.
I think a 5 way intersection is the better way to go. The Chevy Chase Cricle, to me, is one of the most dangerous sections we have in the area. I’m sure there have been numerous accidents there. I take Brookville Rd. to Connecticut Ave. south and it seems like I take my life in my hands to get across.
Too many drivers just aren’t fimilar enough with circles and the rules involved.
I drive this circle pretty much every day and agree its bad for both cars and pedestrians. But if they get rid of it, how will I give my friends directions to my house? “If you reach the scariest traffic circle in the world, you’ve gone to far.” It’s such a great motivator for people to make the correct turns the first time!
Seriously though, I hope they do something about it. I doubt they will, but I can name so many bad things about it, both driving and walking, so I hope they do something.
Agree that this isn’t really a traffic circle. Neither is Dupont Circle, or Tenley Town, for that matter.
And I found a 2003 article that said that after the light went in just before the Chevy Chase circle, the accident rate there plummetted. The problem was controlling speed into the circle–in other words, forcing people to yield.
AS long as we keep pedestrians and cars on the same grade car will win. That was why the above grade sidewalk was developed. this intersection cries out for a pediastrian tunnel or a bridge walkover. Why does Maryland refuse to recognize these solutions?