Leland St. turn restrictions violate Montgomery County law (Photos)

"Enough is enough!"

The recent aggressive War-on-Cars actions of Montgomery County on Leland Street in Bethesda may have backfired. An illegal closure of the road, ultimately reversed after it was exposed to have been done without the required public process, was simply piling-on with onerous turn restrictions and traffic obstacles already in place. All the illegal move did was draw attention to the fact that, with Leland Street classified as an arterial road, it is ineligible for traffic volume restrictions - much less a closure to traffic.

Now, Bethesda resident Ashish Goel has written to Montgomery County Department of Transportation Director Al Roshdieh, putting him on notice that he must remove those restrictions - or be found in violation of County law. In his letter to Roshdieh, Goel cites Section III.B of Montgomery County Executive Regulation 17-94, which states, “Only tertiary, secondary, and primary residential streets are eligible for volume restriction measures.”

Graphic by Ashish Goel
showing classification of
Leland St. as an arterial

Boom.

Goel is asking Roshdieh to immediately remove the existing turn restrictions on traffic from Woodmont Avenue between 4:00-7:00 PM, demolish the recently-added concrete median which restricts left turns from Leland to Woodmont and vice versa, nullify traffic citations handed out during the recent police sting operations on Leland, and cease any ongoing consideration of further traffic restrictions on Leland.

Image from Montgomery County
Executive Regulation 17-94

"Your office has shown that it is willing to unlawfully put the wants of a few over the rights of all Montgomery County residents," Goel wrote to Roshdieh Friday. "Enough is enough! Stop wasting Montgomery County taxpayer dollars to advance the agenda of this small minority of residents."

A new Leland St. perk at taxpayer expense: deceptive Do Not Enter signs

Montgomery County government continues, for dark and mysterious reasons, to bend over backwards to please its wealthy patron(s) on Leland Street in Bethesda. Take these two new signs with false messages, for example. When making the right turn from Woodmont Avenue onto Leland, a driver is now confronted with two signs stating, "Do Not Enter." In much smaller type, the hours during which turns are prohibited are detailed, but that information is overshadowed by the universally-familiar "Do Not Enter" symbol and words. This is a violation of signage best practices, and could potentially cause an accident.

I watched several drivers making the turn slam on their brakes upon seeing the Do Not Enter signs. Even I instinctively braked for a second the first time I encountered them. The signs give you the impression that you are going the wrong way, sure to create confusion. In truth, you are going the right way, on a public street whose residents and the County would like to make private - at taxpayer expense. It appears that the County is trying to yet again unofficially close the street by fooling a percentage of drivers into thinking they are going into a one-way street.

The resulting confusion could cause accidents. In fact, the first car I observed encountering the signs immediately braked, and ultimately backed up and turned back onto Woodmont - even though he was making the turn during the legal hours! This is an abuse of the system and taxpayer money for political and patronage reasons. It is not a Do Not Enter at all; it is a restricted turn, and a Do Not Enter symbol should not be used for another purpose.

According to the United States Sign Council Best Practices Manual, a sign of this type requires 4-5 seconds of reaction time on a driver's part. During that time, he or she might be distracted from a pedestrian trying to cross here, for example.

Once again, the rules are being bent by the County, in order to honor an apparently-secret agreement between County politicians and one or more residents of Leland Street. The scandal began when it was exposed that the County had closed the street without the required public notice and public meeting. Caught in a firestorm of backlash from taxpaying drivers, road-closure advocates on the County Council Roger Berliner and Hans Riemer quickly backpedaled, portraying themselves as unwitting tools in the closure.

After the street was reopened to traffic, an electronic sign and personal police trap were dispatched rapidly and at taxpayer expense. Other streets and neighborhoods in the County have sought many of these same solutions, but have had to wait weeks, months or years for action.