Woodmont Avenue has recently been reduced to a two-lane street - with one vehicle lane in each direction - in front of the Marriott International headquarters and hotel site in downtown Bethesda. That made it somewhat shocking to find vehicles related to that construction project using the sole northbound travel lane as a parking lot yesterday morning. Even more shocking, was that the lane was blocked the rest of the day, even as the sun set Monday evening. All vehicles attempting to drive north on Woodmont were forced to drive into oncoming traffic, and any emergency vehicles like fire engines would have been unable to get by without even greater difficulty.
The fact that the vehicles were never directed to move nor ticketed has brought one of two issues to light. Either Montgomery County government has told its employees that such violations at the Marriott site are to be ignored. Or no police units traveled that block of Woodmont Avenue the entire day yesterday. The latter would be quite troubling at a time of rising crime in Bethesda. But the former is equally troubling.
Think about what would happen if you parked your car in the eastbound travel lane of Bethesda Avenue, and went into the Apple Store or Five Guys for an hour. How many minutes do you think your car would sit in the middle of the street before a police or traffic enforcement officer took action? How many violations would you be written up for, in parking(!) your vehicle in the only eastbound travel lane? How long would it take before your vehicle was towed away?
It should be also be noted that the Marriott property has its own off-street driveway, and its own parking garage. Yet work trucks and private vehicles were parked in the middle of the public roadway the entire day, and were allowed to stay despite breaking multiple traffic laws. Let's be clear - this is not a parking lane; there is no street parking lane on this block of Woodmont anymore. This was the actual, and only, northbound travel lane! Unreal.
8 comments:
Have you contacted anyone about this? MoCo Police? Bethesda Urban Partnership? MoCo 311? Marriott themselves?
Looking at the Hansel Phillips Marriott HQ webcam, there are seven vehicles in that lane on Tuesday morning. I suppose northbound vehicles could carefully pass using the center left turn lane, but you are right that this will be a huge problem. I bet that Amazon and UPS drivers will often park their as well.
I have noted that the new separated bike lanes at the Bethesda and Woodmont intersection have become popular illegal parking spaces despite their obvious bright green paint and bike lane markings. I have seen many contractor vehicles ticketed there, so at least some problems are being addressed.
It appears the new neighbors will fit in perfectly with the haughty, bumptious arrogance that defines Bethesdans.
Any new large scale building needs to be designed with Amazon, FedEx, ups, door dash,Uber eats, etc in mind.
Look at the Elm- constant food deliveries and Uber pickups frequently block a lane of Wisconsin
I noticed this on Monday during the day and called the police non-emergency number to report it. I passed by again about an hour after I made that call and the situation was unchanged -- street still being blocked.
I also reported it to DPS (permitting services) since this is construction-related, but they wrote back saying to report it to police.
What's next? I could call the project manager, but the project is so big I'm not sure where the permits are posted. Who's the lead contractor on this? Also does Bethesda's parking enforcement take calls? I see their cars around now and then.
The J2 bus (Bethsda-Montomery Mall) travels up this road and it's often a long articulated bus. I'm surprised it's able to navigate going into oncoming traffic to get past these illegally-parked vehicles. On top of that, the Marriott building has a garage -- why can't the contractors use it?
You seriously watched the vehicles the entire time they were parked there or are you completely fabricating the claim that they were "never ticketed?" Blaming police for the situation when you acknowledge you have no idea if the action was legal or not is even more irresponsible. For all you know the construction company has the lane appropriately reserved for months. I'm embarrassed for you after reading this post, Mr. Dyer.
4:14: I'd be more embarrassed about your county government than me. This is the only northbound lane on the street - you can't rent the whole street. That's only done when there is more than one lane.
Being in the only active travel lane, these vehicles would not only have been ticketed by police, but towed away. They were not.
3:17: I'm glad you brought up the J2 bus because I forgot to mention that it also uses this street. Marriott has its own garage, and there is a public garage right across the street.
@4:14 There's no way the County has given a permit for construction vehicles to block the only travel lane on that road. Well, if they had a flagger they can do it, but I haven't seen one.
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