Little Falls Parkway got a lot more dangerous to drive today. An announced plan by Montgomery Parks to reduce the road's size down to one lane in each direction between Arlington Road and Dorset Avenue came to pass. As you can see, it is just as narrow as I predicted it would be. There will be no room for error, and no room for evasion, should a drunk driver weave into oncoming traffic with this illegal road diet by the Parks department.
19 comments:
Bethesda used to possess a pleasant, sociable and welcoming environment.
Sadly, the great visionaries and aloof planners have morphed it into Gotham city.
Probably 99.99% of the roads in MoCo are two way. How many head on collisions occur on low speed roads like this? On the other hand boulevards along parkways look nice, especially with trees in the median area, and alone curing sections.
I’m not sure we really need a linear park at this location, and would have preferred an enhancement of the CCT instead.
The beginning of the end. I feel really sorry for the Kenwood and Somerset residents. For the rest of us, avoid, avoid, avoid. Pain in the butt now to get to River Road. It'll take a bit longer but Goldsboro to River is about to get very busy. Just unreal these fools think this is safer.
There are many many single lane roads in the area. Your characterization of how the sky will fall because this road goes down to single lanes seems a bit overdone.
5:14: The County Council and Planning Boards since 2002 have indeed botched the once-promising future of Bethesda we imagined was ahead of us in the 1990s. If only it did have the architectural grandeur of Gotham City. Alas, I think it's becoming more like Ballston.
6:01: I would say to examine the photos, and you will see the "roadway" they've created is much narrower than any comparable 2-lane road (residential streets are not parkways). Also, they've *increased* the impermeable surface with additional asphalt on what used to be grass median, in the midst of an environmental crisis and a sensitive stream yards away.
6:01 - That's really the wrong answer. Of course there are many two lanes roads but this road was not designed as one. There has never been an issue with the way in which this road was designed and has been used for decades. The anti car lobby, also called bike lobby, has really shown their stripes here. Taking an entire side of this parkway out of commission is really the definition of insanity. It will never go back to the way it was designed. They are going to put picnic tables, etc on the other side to create a park like atmosphere? How wonderful. No, the rails to trails is a great innovation in this country and runs right along here obviously. The impact here is huge. Imagine the Somerset and Kenwood residents. Imagine the folks that need to use this corridor to move in, yes, a motor vehicle. Elrich and Co. do not care about the impact. Seen the traffic on Old Georgetown road lately? Well, same thing will happen here. Avoid at all costs. It will be a nightmare not a pleasant drive thru forested areas and mature trees.
I just found myself along this stretch so I know first hand. I'll wait for everyone else to experience this and welcome any positive feedback. I doubt they'll be many positive remarks here.
There are park areas already along the trail itself. Would make more sense to expand or add to those rather than a long side a busy road.
5:14 - I'd say the county is more like the Old West given we have shoot outs on street corners now and general lawlessness.
Lawlessness Council, lawless planning board breeds this stuff.
To "change lanes" for a moment, what's going on with the county's approval of the new 5G zoning law?
There's something about it on the other Bethesda blog. I don't know the science of 5G, but I think it's the second county government meeting in a week where people have shouted "Shame on you!" at the decisionmakers.
why did they do this? I truly feel they are slowly destroying Bethesda on purpose because of a villainous council and their agenda which is wrapped around ideology and not pragmatism.
When is this going to end?
This on top of the restricted street access due to the ill-planned Westbard development has already put many large trucks on Little Falls; I see them daily. The zoning plans for River Road and Westbard shows thousands of housing units over the next 10-20 years. I imagine the bike lobby thinks the folks in all the single-family neighborhoods will walk to mass transit or use a bike. Can't see it happening.
8:45 When will it end? It won't end until the Left is defeated - not a little, but completely destroyed. What today's 'useful idiot' Democrat voters do not realize is that they are being used as pawns. The Green movement is the peaceful Communist takeover of our freedoms, one at a time. They realized outright Communism doesn't sell well; cloak it in 'saving the planet' and you can achieve your goals easily without bloodshed.
7:14 - that's well stated. Yes, the real agenda is cleverly cloaked in Save the Planet. I'm going to start making some noise about the awful paper straws at local food establishments starting with chick fil a which I love. NOVA must be reckless because they have a nice styrofoam cup that keeps your tea ice cold and their signature, red, plastic straw. How dare they hurt the environment. Ha! Crazy town. Wait until Elrich walks into reelection.
I drove LF today. Very confusing and dangerous. And , there were no walkers or cyclists on the new path. Waste of our money.
The new road design is very confusing - I was on it last night at around 9 pm, and someone was driving on the wrong side of the road at the Dorset Ave intersection!
As predicted in my first comment at the top here. No one likes it. We're all taxpayers, we're all voters and we all deplore this destruction of a very pretty drive actually. No one thinks it's a good idea yet crazy politicians, who are rubber stamped every time, could care less and go forward anyway. Now drivers have to avoid little Falls parkway completely, which is challenging for many in the area obviously. And, folks up towards NIH now have to avoid Old Georgetown Road to get to Montgomery Mall area or Rockville which is even more challenging for folks in that part of Bethesda. It's just insane but it is happening. Wait until Elrich gets back in. He'll be running MoCo and Wes Moore will be running the state. Not good for the once Free State.
Everyone needs to voice their displeasure at this ridiculous inconvenience!
Is there a petition we can all sign to end this terrible linear park idea??!! From what I’ve been reading, this isn’t popular with the majority, only the few. This is terrible for commuters and there’s already many parks available without closing a major thru way!!!
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