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.
