As a result, someone has already struck one of the pylons. Half of the pylon was laying in the roadway on Sunday. The project also represents an illegal use of funds. While all of the cost went to a "road diet" to obstruct drivers, the money was taken from a trail maintenance fund. You can't use trail money for a road diet project, making this an illegal use of taxpayer funds. The Montgomery County Council, as of press time, has taken no action on this illegal use of funds. There is substantial evidence several councilmembers were directly involved with the plan to take punitive measures in this latest strike in the Council's war on cars.
Problem is, nobody is paying attention! Runners, walkers, & bikers disobey the stop signs on either side of the trail. Headphones in ears & expecting drivers to stop on a dime at the crosswalk. I've been on the driving side & biker side of the intersection. Use common sense!
ReplyDeleteThe scary thing is, now when they don't stop, they aren't visible thanks to all the clutter of signposts and pylons.
ReplyDeleteDyer, you need to have your eyes checked if those skinny pylons are somehow impeding your view of cyclists. They are not even present in the last 10-20 feet before the crosswalk.
DeleteAnd the signs aren't even in the line of sight of the crosswalk.
Delete8:46: Yes, they are. I welcome anyone to make the left turn from Arlington to confirm my report of signposts and pylons blocking the view of people emerging into the roadway from the trail.
DeleteDyer, if you need to see the cyclists in the crosswalk all the way from the Arlington Road intersection, to be able to stop in time, then you are either 1) driving way too fast for that location, or 2) have disabilities that should prohibit you from driving a vehicle.
DeleteRobert, It's a mess and worse than before by far. At night, it's very difficult to see thru there with all the pylons and signs. It's a bit like a kayak course. I hate what they've done.
Delete9:37: Sorry, loser, the visual obstruction is all the way between Arlington and the trail crossing, not "from Arlington Road." Stop lying.
Delete"PYLON KNOCKED OVER"
ReplyDeleteTwo Minutes To Midnight here in Bethesda. LOL
Seems the easiest solution would have been to put speed bumps in. The current solution is a joke.
ReplyDeleteIf they had done nothing, Dyer would complain.
ReplyDeleteIf they had put speedbumps there, Dyer would complain.
If they had put a four-way stop sign there, Dyer would complain.
If they had put a traffic light there, Dyer would complain.
If they had relocated the crosswalk to either Arlington Road or Hillandale Road, Dyer would still complain.
If they had built a bridge or underpass there, Dyer would complain.
Driving that area, they added about 5 signs each way warning of the crossing. However, I see no addition of more signs on the CCT itself warning pedestrians and cyclist of the upcoming crossing and how they need to stop at the stop sign. Seems like a half-baked solution, consdering the last fatality here was due to the cyclist running the stop sign.
ReplyDeleteThere were 10 car-bicycle collisions at that intersection in the past 5 years, and 9 of them were the fault of the driver.
ReplyDeletethe traffic backup is terrible also.
ReplyDeletethe county should spend some money and build a bridge or tunnel if it is really that critical.
I think all the pylons just create more visual confusion for drivers.
ReplyDeleteThe trail pedestrians/bikers were more visible before.
It's such a mess that I now avoid it, driving through neighborhoods (like Hillandale or through Kenwood Forest to Goldsboro). Stupid County.
ReplyDeleteIf Dyer keeps reporting on this, hopefully we'll see a change. It's not complaining, it's reporting. Trying to improve things is good.
ReplyDeleteDyer did a lot of reporting on sidewalk safety and got attention on the issue.
Dyer is right on this -- the pylons obscure a view of the trail. I noticed it myself last week.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, they have put so many road signs within about 50 feet of it. If the driver, driving at 30mph, is trying to read each road sign, then they don't have sufficient time to also look at the CCT crossing for pedestrians and cyclists.
Someone better at math than I should work the numbers. After you make the turn from Arlington Road, how many signs are there and how much time (based on traveling at 30mph) do you have to read them before you actually encounter the crossing? I bet there is insufficient time to read all signs while traveling at the posted speed, _and_ keep a look out for people on the CCT.
10:18: That's correct, and the multitude of signs violates a basic traffic engineering law - too many signs is dangerous because it distracts drivers. More evidence that this project wasn't designed by professional traffic engineers.
DeleteHow many signs were there previously? How many signs were added as a result of this project? What would be the optimum number of signs?
ReplyDelete12:28: One sign, with concise command of what driver is to do as approaching the crossing, is the engineering ideal. Any real traffic engineer would laugh like a hyena driving through this signstorm they've created now.
DeleteI counted the number of signs today. It's a total of 14 signs from the time you make the turn from Arlington until the CCT crossing. I counted the 3-part sign with trail information as 3 parts since each has separate text, and each "stop for pedestrians" sign (mounted directly on the road) as 1 each.
ReplyDeleteAlso, traffic was backed up there, at 4:30pm, since it's only 1 lane. No surprise.
2:26: It's total insanity, plus they'll have to recalculate all the traffic studies for Westbard now that they've reduced capacity on the parkway by 50%.
DeleteThe parkway is still four lanes between River Road and Hillandale Road. The capacity coming out of Westbard has NOT been "reduced by 50%".
DeleteSo Dyer thinks that all the signs along that stretch of roadway...
ReplyDelete-Left Turn Only
-Right Turn Only
-Keep Right
-Crosswalk Ahead
-Speed Limit 35 mph
-Yield to Cyclists and Pedestrians in Crosswalk
Should be merged into a single sign in one location, with all that verbiage?
What a Birdbrain.
The visual clutter at this intersection makes it very difficult to pick up the cyclist who is about to run the stop sign. When approaching an intersection, seeing what is about to enter the intersection is as important as seeing what is in the intersection.
ReplyDelete3:24 knows what he/she is talking about. 9:00, not so much.
ReplyDeleteWhenever the government gets involved and makes up something sounding ridiculous like "road diet", you know it will be a waste of tax money and completely bungled before it's implemented.
ReplyDeleteWhoever authorized this mess needs to be reassigned to filling potholes on our crappy roads or scrubbing the algae off the Bethesda pool walls! If they do a good job they'll move up to ditchdigger...
12:34: And whoever authorized the illegal use of trail funds for a road project needs a sit-down with the FBI.
ReplyDeleteHow would the Feds have jurisdiction over a dispute involving a local government's budget categories?
DeleteWho do we contact to remove it? Is there a petition to sign?
ReplyDelete4:05: Illegal use of funds anywhere in America is under the FBI's purview.
ReplyDelete6:48: Yes it has. You can't get to Arlington Road to go downtown without passing through this bottleneck. 50% reduction in capacity is simple math.
10:22: I would contact the Parks Department, as well as Roger Berliner (although I believe Berliner highly favors the road diet) and Ike Leggett).