Construction on yet another road diet for Little Falls Parkway between Arlington Road and Dorset Avenue in Bethesda is scheduled to begin "on or about" September 29, 2025. This is at least the third road diet project to be implemented on the parkway in the last decade, but only the first to be legally carried out. The Montgomery County Parks Department previously imposed road diets on the parkway illegally, by not receiving the required permission from the National Capital Planning Commission that has authority over the parkway, and by illegally using money from a trail fund that had not been allocated for a road diet by the Montgomery County Council. To date, no one has been arrested, fined, or otherwise disciplined for these illegal actions.
The new road diet will again reduce the portion of the parkway in question to one lane in each direction. This time, there will be a grass median between those lanes, instead of the reckless and dangerous configuration that has existed for about 3 years, where the opposing lanes were only separated by two yellow stripes of paint. A bike path will be constructed on part of the space left by the removed southbound lane. This past weekend, a digital signboard was placed on Arlington Road near the parkway (see photo above).
Highly controversial from the beginning, the Little Falls Parkway road diet scandal will leave a legacy of shame in Montgomery County government for decades to come. The Parks Department, Montgomery County Planning Board, and Montgomery County Council all ignored the wishes of the public on this matter. 73% of the residents who testified regarding the road diet opposed it; the County is steamrolling over them and moving ahead with it anyway. That gives you some idea of their commitment to "democracy."
Instead, the Council and their allies in government are privately high-fiving each other over their second monumental victory over a perceived invincible foe. Having defeated the once-feared Columbia Country Club to implement the Purple Line for their developer sugar daddies, they are now giddy at having defeated the powerful Kenwood neighborhood on the road diet issue. Now nothing can stand in their way, as the last remaining private powers in the county capable of inflicting financial or political repercussions are now perceived to have been rendered inert.
And beyond the actual illegal actions that were taken on the earlier road diets, the shame of destroying an expensive public roadway - further crippling highway infrastructure capacity even while increasing the amount of development in the area - for radical, War-on-Cars ideology, is beyond criminal. Once again, one must wonder at what offense, at what illegality, the voters of Bethesda and Montgomery County might finally take action at the ballot box.
25 comments:
Excellent! Thanks for laying it put so well. Totally unacceptable, but we get what we vote for!
Robert were you a theater major in college?
Two opposing lanes, separated by only two yellow lines? Doesn’t this describe 99% of all two way roads in the world? This all stems from the death of a recumbent cyclist that was not seen by a motorist where double one way lanes concealed the biker at a heavily used trail crossing. I still don’t know why they didn’t just put in a simple traffic light to stop traffic for pedestrians and cyclists to safely cross. This is such a convoluted solution to a simple problem, and ruins a very nice boulevard.
Great picture! Completely unrecognizable.
Elrich fiddles while MC burns
Thank you Robert for the mention of the underlying rationale here and that is, War on Cars period. Let's see how many positive comments you get there. In other words, pro LFP rehab or redo. I bet not many. Why on God's green earth didn't they just install a bridge over the CCT? Wouldn't that have solved a lot and made the crossing safer? Well, of course it would have. There aren't really that many people exercising or biking along there except on the CCT which is great and runs all the way to G'twn. I'll tell you why they didn't do that. They are anti-car and this is social engineering at its worst. I'll go back to the former Marriott HQ site which is now being redeveloped. What did they do without public notice or input? They're removed an entire travel lane from the 270 spur bridge adjacent to Mont. Mall all the way down to the intersection at Democracy. You tell me if this isn't anti-car. Who bikes there? No one, ever. I can tell you one thing, which I have heard from tons of cyclists, it isn't for safety. That's a lie. This is outrageous and even Mr. "I still have calls via Zoom" Elrich, was against this. That should really tell you something.
Social engineering really shatters the axiom of, If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
That gives you some idea of their commitment to "democracy."
The democrats will defend our democracy
The republicans will defend our republic
And when all the dust does settle down
The expenses will be paid by the public.
I don't know, Dyer. I like the idea of a nice little bike trail and some grass instead of multiple lanes of traffic and high speed cars furiously commuting home. I have never seen traffic on Little Falls Parkway, so why not?
Do you remember Chevy Chase West resident Dr. Ned Gaylin death in October 2016 at the Capital Crescent Trail intersection? It happened when your road binge existed.. For all of your safety concerns with the two yellow stripes of paint, it never really killed anyone.
2:55: You must not have driven the parkway during rush hour and other peak times, then, as the congestion since the road diet is new and unprecedented.
I do remember that tragic accident, but I also remember that the police determined the driver was not at fault.
Elrich prepares weekly messages from his hideout that no one listens to.
"a bridge over the CCT?"
To paraphrase: Bridges Cost Too Much!
. . . and now all the traffic during rush hour and other peak times is forced via Wisconsin Avenue.
"The Parks Department, Montgomery County Planning Board, and Montgomery County Council all ignored the wishes of the public on this matter."
It never ends ... rinse ~ repeat. They're clear on who and what matters, and it's not the residents and taxpayers.
"They're clear on who and what matters, and it's not the residents and taxpayers." This describes MoCo government to a tee!
Not a single comment in favor of this social engineering plan thus far just as I thought. And for the person that said bridges cost too much, that is incorrect, one. Two, that was an idea on the table in the early stages of this solution seeking to a non-problem. As I stated, it wasn't about safety but anti-car.
“Further crippling highway infrastructure”
Uhhh - isn’t this a parkway?
6:24: Parkways are part of highway infrastructure. It (was) a 4-lane road, like countless state and federal highways. Moreover, the parkway - and Little Falls Stream Valley Park itself - is a highway facility set aside for potential use as a freeway almost 100 years ago by the federal government.
3:33 - As I have said here so many times, it's not the politicians that are or can be the problem but rather the people that vote for them. The state for the most part is Dem. The county for the most part is Dem. But do all those voters, who rubberstamp every candidate with a D, support this? No, so stop voting them into office.
They have transformed LFP into a gated community.
A grown man shouldn’t be riding a recumbent bicycle in a crosswalk. Since he isn’t walking he’s not a “pedestrian” and needs to obey vehicular traffic rules. The recumbent puts him 3 feet off the ground, and nearly impossible for motorists to see. Roads are for CARs people!
JAC, the electorate in this county are so entrenched in supporting the most liberal idiots possible that self sacrifice is inevitable. Just since Trump cited a connection between Tylenol and Autism especially during pregnancy there are expectant women on Tik-Tok filming themselves taking Tylenol in defiance.
TDS is real and debilitating.
10:05 - I get where you're going there. But staying local, I'm waiting for cyclists to applaud the massive destruction of a pretty drive as was mentioned by another here. Robert makes a great point too. The genesis of this nightmare and unnecessary move stemmed from the a cyclist death. While tragic, accidents do happen and the cyclist in that case, was determined to have been at fault. All of this is the result of one, single incident. Marc Elrich, who many think is the worst county leader in recent memory, and is on the wrong side of everything, was against this. The anti-car cabal must be strong indeed.
Maybe if thousands of unemployed Deep-Staters move out of MoCo the Dem power structure will collapse. One can only hope.
Let us separate the CCT crossing from the rest of the LFP plan.
When I drive on LFP, I never see anyone using the trail. I think most people agree. And it make sense, because why would you use the trail. First, the CCT is right there and it's amazing. Second, it doesn't go anywhere. That's the beauty of the CCT. No one wants or needs a dead end trail along a road.
But sadly, as everyone returns to the office, LFP has become so congested that it's faster to take other routes, some of which involve cutting through neighborhoods. Well done Parks. Glad you nominated yourself for that award for your visionary project.
On the trail crossing itself, while the crossing is safer with fewer lanes, I recognize that one sad, horrible accident outweighs thousands of perfectly safe crossing experiences. Personally, I follow a rule of stopping at crosswalks to make sure cars see me before crossing.
8:59 - Apparently, common sense need not apply.
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