Annual County Report Lists Most-Congested Intersections
By Aruna Jain
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 1, 2006
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.
There also will be deeper study of other possible changes. Improvements can include lane widenings, widening a median strip to accommodate pedestrians and -- this would certainly please Kogok -- such things as extending the right lane on Georgia Avenue after the Beltway exit. (Hawthorne said that the State Highway Administration is studying that interchange.)
Officials are moving forward on projects that they say will ease congestion in some problem areas.
Work is underway on Montrose Parkway West, a cornerstone of Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan's (D) campaign pledge to invest $1 billion in transportation projects. The plan calls for widening Montrose from four to six lanes between Interstate 270 and Tildenwood Drive, then creating a four-lane Montrose Parkway extending to Old Georgetown Road. Eventually, the parkway would stretch to Veirs Mill Road.
This week, the federal government gave final approval for construction of the long-debated intercounty connector, an 18-mile toll highway that will link I-270 in Montgomery County to I-95 in Prince George's County.
Both the Montrose Parkway and intercounty connector projects are touted as a salve for east-west traffic congestion.
The report also found that many heavily trafficked downtown areas, such as in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville and Gaithersburg, often have smooth traffic flows, largely as a result of a grid street pattern.
The problems, Hawthorne said, are concentrated on connector roads between major activity centers.
"The Planning Board observed that in Silver Spring and Bethesda, the intersections are operating extremely well, and that the places that we have to be paying some attention to are the large stretches of major roads in between the downtowns," Hawthorne said.
Local officials will use the report in coming months as they develop transportation priorities, drawing on the expertise of planners, environmental specialists, engineers and others.
"We will talk about how long it would take and when it would get funded, if it's feasible, and if it is, how soon we can do something," Hawthorne said.
This year's ranking of Georgia Avenue and Forest Glen Road as the worst intersection reinforces the county's move to build a pedestrian walkway in that area, said David Weaver, a Duncan spokesman. The walkway, which is under construction, will allow people to cross over ramps and under the Beltway to get to the Forest Glen Metro station.
"There was a way to help alleviate that congestion without touching the roads," he said, "and it's called making the Metro more accessible."
Weaver and other officials said that the county and state must deal with transportation issues aggressively.
"We have to all commit . . . to a comprehensive plan to putting significant money into an array of projects," Weaver said.
State support, the intercounty connector and a long-term commitment to funding such projects are all needed, he said.
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