Sunday, September 25, 2022

Traffic signals installed on Sangamore Rd. at Walhonding Rd. in Bethesda

Sangamore Road looking toward
intersection with Walhonding Road

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation has installed traffic signals at the currently-unsignalized intersection of Sangamore Road and Walhonding Road in Bethesda. This project has been on MCDOT's list of Vision Zero initiatives, and was budgeted for the fiscal year FY-2022. There are now two poles with signal arms in place; one of the arms is currently swung over behind the Glen Echo Volunteer Fire Department, and is out of view in this photo. You can see the other one is in position already, with the signals themselves covered.

This intersection is only a short block from the Sangamore-Massachusetts Avenue intersection that has signals. However, the intersection is currently intimidating for pedestrians to cross, and children walking from Sumner and Glen Echo Heights to Glen-Mar Park are likely to use this route. Views of oncoming cross-street traffic are obstructed in all four directions at this crossing, as you can see in the above photo. Crosswalks still have to be painted.

If you've driven on Sangamore for any length of time, you've probably had to hit your brakes for someone blowing through the stop signs on Walhonding here more than once. You're also likely to now approach this intersection with hyper caution as a result. It's unclear if there will be any issue with traffic backing up on that short block of Sangamore between the two signals.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Terrible. This will result in backups all the way to Little Falls Mall or whatever fu-fu name that place has nowadays.

All because people are too lazy to twist their necks one way, then the other, to check if the coast is clear before proceeding.

Anonymous said...

The traffic signal arm on the south side of the intersection on Walhonding Road is not swung over as the signals on that arm face the rear driveway of Glen Echo Fire Department. When the signal work is complete, the new traffic signals will coordinate with the existing signals at Sangamore Road and Massachusetts Ave. ADA-compliant pedestrian signals and crosswalks will also be installed. The new traffic signals will also allow for faster, safer egress of fire department vehicles when they are responding to emergencies.

Anonymous said...

Why not turned on? It’s been months!