Stuck at a Crossroads Is Par for the Course

Annual County Report Lists Most-Congested Intersections

It's no surprise to office manager Sherry Kogok that the intersection of Forest Glen Road and Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, near the ramps to the Capital Beltway, is ranked as Montgomery County's most congested intersection during peak rush hours.

"I believe it," she said from her office building, which is adjacent to the intersection. "I look out there every day."

Then she paused for a moment. "First of all, whoever designed that stupid thing where you lose the right lane off the Beltway -- it's a dumb setup," she said hotly, referring to the lane that leads north from the Beltway on Georgia Avenue.

Nothing like traffic to get on your nerves.

It's no secret that traffic is a problem in the county, or that it's getting worse. In Montgomery's third annual report on congestion, transportation officials have found that the patterns of gridlock are similar to last year's. The hot spots are: the developing Clarksburg area, Rockville Pike (MD-355), Georgia Avenue from Silver Spring to Wheaton and the east-west Norbeck Road (MD-28) and Montrose Road. These areas "should be targeted for near-term congestion relief," according to the report.

The study also found that Georgia Avenue from Glenmont to the Olney Town Center is facing increasing congestion and "should be monitored with a high level of scrutiny for future reporting purposes."

Seven of the 10 worst intersections in the county appeared on the list for the second consecutive year. Maryland Route 355, also known as Rockville Pike, Hungerford Drive and Frederick Road, showed up five times -- in the Bethesda and Chevy Chase area and in Gaithersburg and Germantown.

Appearing in the top 10 for the first time this year were Great Seneca Highway at Muddy Branch Road in Gaithersburg, which moved from 11th to third, and the intersection of Rockville Pike at Pooks Hill Road in Bethesda, which went from 13th to ninth. The intersection of Colesville Road at University Boulevard in the Four Corners area of Silver Spring was ranked 10th, up from 14th last year.

"We will continue to monitor these areas," said County Council member Nancy Floreen (D-At Large), who chairs the council's transportation committee. "The numbers that are in the report are existing conditions, and it helps us judge our priorities in terms of road improvements and what might be required of developers."

The report measures congestion during morning and evening rush hours on state and county roads and ranks dozens of intersections.

In general, said Richard Hawthorne, chief of transportation planning at the county Planning Department, congestion is the result of overlapping factors: commercial and residential development, construction on alternative routes, travel pattern changes and population shifts.

Officials will try to ease congestion at the worst intersections immediately, Hawthorne said, by evaluating traffic flow and making adjustments such as changing the sequencing of traffic lights. Major intersections in the county are monitored daily on video feeds at the Transportation Management Center in Gaithersburg.