Chotiner said the changes, which will reduce the four lanes down to one in each direction between Arlington and Hillandale Roads, reduce the speed limit to 25 on that stretch, and add signage, are an interim solution. In response to my questions regarding the lack of interaction with the public ahead of this controversial decision, Chotiner said that public input will be taken in the future on a permanent safety solution for the crossing. The choice to move forward quickly on the interim plan was for safety concerns, she said.
There are over 100 miles of park trails in Montgomery County. Users of those trails can tell you there are any number of fixes or improvements needed, including on the CCT. It appears political pressure is turning the rehabilitation fund for those trails into a slush fund, that can be used for a road project with no oversight or transparency, for the political gain of the County Council. Don't forget, taxpayers paid to build 4 lanes on the parkway, and are now being told they can only use two. Nuts.
The fact is, the changes being implemented in the coming days represent the input of a handful of County officials and their political allies. Many people, including cycling supporters, have suggested alternative solutions that would have less impact on both road and trail users. Not yet addressed, is a serious safety flaw in the "road diet" plan - namely, how will the merge of two lanes turning left from Arlington into one in a short distance not result in many accidents? None of this input has been considered by the parks department, because, well, it never held a public meeting on the issue.
"We know best" is never the best move when you are using other people's money.
17 comments:
This will be Dyer's last column. After a nearly 70% decline in readership in five months, Dyer will be shutting down his blog and firing himself, just five days before Christmas, and three days before Borderstan's closure.
Taking the money from the trails funds makes sense. If cyclists and runners can't follow postage signage and are calling for action might as well take the money from them.
Although the road diet is stupid to begin with. A better course of action would be putting the fellow's picture up with a warning about not following signage near all the intersections.
I am a cyclist and car enthusiast. I have lived in Bethesda my whole life. This move to go from two lanes to one on each side is a disgrace.
Robert Dyer's blog is an invaluable resource for Bethesda residents. Without it, we would learn about many important developments late or not at all. It must be a huge amount of work. We are all in his debt. One suggestion: Require people to give their name if they wish to comment.
^hear, hear
Pretty sure there is just one loser out there who spends his days trolling this blog. Maybe Dyer stole his girlfriend or something
5:37: On behalf of all readers, shut up. I just had my most-read-ever post this month, knucklehead.
Which one, and how many readers?
Although the road diet seems like a pretty ridiculous solution, there's a reason we have elected officials to make these decisions. Not every move the county makes needs to be preceded by public forums (which also cost taxpayer money). Please note that this is not a permanent solution and therefore allows time for public input.
I agree with the posting about the childish troll who posts comments. I'm guessing he or she is 12 years old, given that adults are too busy to harass and insult a guy delivering a free local news blog.
Robert, maybe you could move your dialog to the reddit platform. This would allow us to down-vote the idiot's comments.
Still think the term "road diet" is fucking retarted
As is your spelling, @12:36PM.
Reducing the size of our roads yet approving one massive building after another in Bethesda is hardly a solution. Whoever is responsible for this will be creating a problem (we didn't have here) of more backups, longer trips, more accidents, etc ...
Although, this is kind of a dicey area to cross it has been like this for a decade or longer I believe with no fatalities. A total knee-jerk clueless reaction by government.
The logical solution if the community is in majority agreement to do anything -
Move the Bike crossing to Hillandale Road with a pedestrian/bicycle activated signal only to cross. Have a bicycle cop issue tickets to violators of the light. Word will get out quickly to wait or risk the fine.
If Dyer moved his blog to Reddit, he wouldn't be able to comment anonymously.
And both his articles and comments would be downvoted out of existence.
The last hobo to be popularized in in American Pop-Culture was Christopher McCandless, who was an American vagabond in the 1970's and the subject of the movie 'Into the Wild'.
Thanks for your work Robert, I often read your blog and it is a great source of information. The road diet is a terrible solution. There have been several recent road "fixes" that make traffic worse, e.g. turn lane at Connecticut ave and Jones bridge.
6:25: Thanks. Yeah, the BRAC traffic projects were a complete bust when finished, complete waste of taxpayer money. Council was too impotent to force Walter Reed to use ramp into their own campus from Beltway.
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