The Little Falls Parkway "temporary" road diet persists, but the Montgomery County Department of Transportation has announced it is scrapping a proposed slimdown for Tuckerman Lane in Bethesda. Instead, it will implement smaller safety measures including raised crosswalks, speed bumps 300 feet prior to crosswalks, flexposts at crossings and "curbside," and addition of LED lighting. MCDOT expects to install these by the end of this summer.
There are a few notable differences between the two road diets. First, this one was under the direction of MCDOT, and it has apparently responded to strong public opposition to the Tuckerman Lane road diet. By contrast, the Little Falls Parkway road diet was implemented (illegally) by the Montgomery Parks department, which is continuing to ignore public opposition, the law - and even the opposition of the County Executive and the area's County Councilmember - to keep steamrolling ahead with a 2-lane parkway between Dorset Avenue and Arlington Road, the public who pays their salaries be damned.
Unlike MCDOT, Montgomery Parks is not a traffic engineering agency of the government. "I'm not a traffic engineer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."
I'm surprised the traffic measures are not more notable than the proposed speed bumps and bollards, not that I don't think those will help. I frequent that crosswalk for the Trolley trail, maybe 4x a week in the morning or evening, and there are a surprising number of times I've seen the aftermath of a crash - vehicle x vehicle or vehicle x pedestrian - compared to LFP and the CCT. I think the long and usually uncrowded section of road allows drivers to go on autopilot, look at their phone, space out, etc. and they somehow are not ready for that crossing.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely unbelievable and shocking. Amazing! Take note folks cause this doesn't happen very often around here. I don't travel that stretch that often but when I do, it'll be so nice to know that the design that never needed to be changed now will not be. That's a very pretty drive as well. Little Falls was too before they ruined it. This is such a great piece of news. Well done.
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