Maryland’s highway administration must take more responsibility for improving pedestrian safety in Silver Spring’s central business district, the chairman of Silver Spring’s citizens advisory board demanded Monday night.
Photo: Pedestrians navigate the crosswalk on Colesville Road, a state roadway. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.
In a draft letter presented to the board at its monthly meeting, chairman Darian Unger claimed the county’s efforts to make streets more pedestrian friendly were “limited by a lack of authority over state roads and an overall car-centric view by most transportation authorities.”
“This car-centric view is harmful and dangerous to our community and should be changed to adapt to the needs of a more urban Silver Spring,” he wrote to state and county transportation departments, as well as to MoCo exec Ike Leggett and the county council.
Some of downtown Silver Spring’s main roadways — Georgia Avenue, Colesville Road, East-West Highway and 16th Street — are under the state’s authority. Meanwhile, The District controls Eastern Avenue along its border with South Silver Spring, as well as the southern half of the 16th Street traffic circle. Montgomery County takes care of the rest.
This jurisdictional mosh pit makes for tough navigating when traffic and pedestrian-safety improvements are needed, community members complained earlier this month at Silver Spring’s pedestrian-safety committee meeting.
Board chairman Unger said his draft letter was based on the committee’s comments. However, the draft letter was neither presented to nor approved by committee members, who usually mete out a letter’s content for accuracy or relevance.
Board members called the draft letter “impassioned.” (Debbie Linn, a board member from the Sligo-Branville neighborhood, said it contained “more emotion than fact.”) In particular, members were concerned with Unger’s accusations of the state highway administration’s “inflexibility” in dealing with more urban settings, and its “bunker-like unwillingness” to reduce speed limits.
Nonetheless, the board unanimously approved the letter with amendments to temper Unger’s language. The wordsmithing will occur via email, Unger said.
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I agree with a lot of points about DTSS being car-centric. I don’t wander away from DTSS much, and one block beyond the Discovery Building might as well be another planet because the pedestrian/car interaction is a risk I don’t like taking.
Take the hugely traveled 4-way traffic mess at Wayne and Ramsey next to the Metro. It used to be 6-way until they shut down the bus lanes. And now they have a crossing guard during peak periods which is really helpful, except for the jerks that ignore that poor woman and walk or drive around her. So every time I take my life in my hands to cross, I have to do this:
1. Is the signal “walk?” If yes, this means when I get hit by a car, I may have an edge in court if I live through it. If no, I try and make sure I walk with someone who will get hit first and give me an impact buffer.
2. Is there a crossing guard? Is she paying attention, or chatting with a cop, another crossing guard, a policeman, or screaming at a cabbie or bus driver?
3. Is there a car, cab, or bus turning? Will they stop or pay attention to pedestrians or the crossing guard? Why are they talking on the cell phone? Are they looking the opposite way from where they are turning?
I also play this game at the corner of Wayne and Dixon, but now I have added the new bus stops they put there.
I figure it’s not a matter of if I get hit by a car, but when. I have already had some close calls, and seen a few accidents with gory results.
Wayne/Dixon & Wayne/Ramsey never fail to shock me with how un-ped-friendly they are compared to the traffic they receive. Why a crossing guard rather than ticketing people who don’t follow the already-in-place lights?
There are plenty of crappy crossings in the downtown area.
Just this morning, I watched some poor bastard cross 16th Street just north of the traffic circle (around where that pedestrian was struck and killed late last month).
Dude had to dodge cars coming from every direction — from northbound 16th Street, Eastern Avenue, and westbound Colesville Road. As dangerous as his crossing was, there didn’t seem any other way to do it.
Sadly, cars at the traffic circle had the same problem. Cars dodged other cars coming from everywhere. I’m just grateful that despite the distractions, drivers there spotted the ped running across the street.
Yeah, that circle is a damn mess for everyone.
If someone drew a map of the most-likely-survivable intersections for peds in DTSS, it would have only a few entries.
One weekend morning I saw a big red pickup truck blow through the Bonifant intersection with Georgia. Another time I was trying to cross Georgia, and a red sports car turning right off Bonifant nearly hit me. That was also a weekend morning. I almost NEVER cross at Bonifant. I shudder to think what will happen if the state dumps the Purple Line on that intersection.
I think both cars and pedestrians would benefit from better signage indicating that left turns are not allowed from southbound Georgia Avenue onto eastbound Colesville Road. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been trying to cross there while some oblivious driver is trying to make the illegal left while others are blaring their horns behind him and trying to dart around each other then end up blocking the crosswalk, sometimes in more than one lane.
Darian Unger claimed the county’s efforts were “limited by a lack of authority over state roads..” Darian is doing wonderful service for DTSS.
Could we modify the draft letter slightly. MoCo has the authority to get drivers attention. It is called law enforcement. It requires very little outlay. In fact it seem to me this driver education program should raise revenue. Surly the cost ot issuing the ticket can be covered by the fine collected. Lets not ask for more paint, signs, bridges or $70K electrified crosswalks. Let’s go right to the out-of-bounds drivers.
I both walk in downtown Silver Spring and drive there — driving usually only when the weather is bad or I will be returning very late, or if I have to go through downtown to get where I’m going.
I think the complaint against the SHA is unfair. The state has done a good job with crosswalks, especially the one at Ellsworth and Georgia. The problem is largely pedestrians crossing in mid-block or against walk lights.
The jaywalking problem will become a lot worse on Wayne if the new library is built without the bridge to the Wayne Avenue Garage. Both the pedestrian exit from the garage and the entrance to the library are/will be far from the corner and people will jaywalk unless the bridge is built directly into the library, which will be on the third floor of the new building. The Citizens Advisory Board needs to support the bridge — it is pedestrian safety measure under County control.
My only complaint about the SHA is that they have gone too far in restricting traffic by allowing parking along Georgia Avenue north of Colesville Road and along Colesville Road east of Georgia Avenue. Parking is allowed during rush hours in the “non-rush hour” direction. The problem is that we really don’t have a “non-rush hour” direction any more, and in-bound traffic gets really backed up during the evening rush hour. That makes it less safe for drivers and encourages illegal mid-block jaywalking between cars stuck in traffic.
Thanks for all your comments.
Without getting into the whole library bridge debate, let me just say that Wayne Avenue is a county road. Whatever happens there will be up to the county, not the state highway administration.
I’d like to see the reversible lanes on Colesville and Georgia (in Montgomery Hills) removed. They confuse the hell out of me.
Woodsider said: “in-bound traffic gets really backed up during the evening rush hour. That makes it less safe for drivers and encourages illegal mid-block jaywalking between cars stuck in traffic.”
Woodsider, you criticize jaywalkers, but then admit that they sometimes do so beause of gridlock. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen the crosswalk blocked at Bonifant & Ga., sometimes by drivers talking on cell phones. Also, drivers at intersections are getting ready to rev up and go, while those approaching intersections are slowing down. I’ll never forget crossing Conn. Ave. in Aspen Hill in the summer, running as soon as the ped sign said to, turning my anke, in an un-obvious depression in the pavement, and scrambling to the other side just as the light changed. If I had fallen, would any of those drivers gotten out and helped me? Somehow I doubt it. They would have feared for their own lives.
It really is crazy how pedestrian unfriendly DTSS is. It seems to be basically an outdated mentality of DTSS being something you go through in order to get to and from points north, south, east, and west. I know jaywalking can be dangerous for pedestrians and frustrating for drivers, but, on the other hand, what is the point of going to a crosswalk or waiting for a light and walk sign if it is just going to be blown through by drivers who are turning or don’t want to stop? In our neighborhood people flip out about generally very rare and minor crime, but it can be far more dangerous just crossing 16th St, Colesville, Georgia, etc.
I don’t expect drivers’ mentalities to change overnight so I think what would help are some traffic-calming measures. Some of the streets are way too wide and could do with narrowing or new or enlarged medians as well as speed and red light cameras (in fact those cameras could pay for the upgrades). I am also hoping that the Purple Line will actually help by slowing traffic at street level and of course when the transit center is completed that will be a big help, I think.
Hugo, the Purple Line would not slow anything except the ability of people to stay in their current homes and businesses. Expect a big push for rezoning, followed by pushes for demolition of exisiting small homes, apts. and businesses.
The Purple Line is not about getting the people who live and work in a place, or those who travel through it, where they need to go. It is about getting land for redevelopment, and about pumping the property value of land to increase the tax base.
More buses might slow the traffic a bit here and there, but they don’t get real estate developers and their elected enablers all hot and bothered the way rail does. I’m not saying all real estate development is bad, but for a long time it has been very skewed against preserving existing communities.
LuvMyHood, I definitely wasn’t trying to open a Purple Line debate. All I meant was that drivers will be less likely to speed, run lights, and do dangerous things when there are purple line trains on the road near them. Not a big effect, probably, but I do think it’ll slow down traffic on the streets on which it has its route based on what I’ve seen in other towns.
I agree with pagodat about the Colesville/Georgia left turn. When I first moved here I was, sadly, one of those oblivious drivers trying to make the turn. The signage is REALLY confusing. The no left sign is below the ped crossing signs, and about 15 ft before that intersection is a sign that says no left turns during rush hour. I actually had to walk through as a pedestrian and take a lot of time to read all the signs at that intersection before I finally got it. Too bad I didn’t have time to do that while I was driving. What does that tell ya?
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