Some Congestion Small Price to Pay To Protect Walkers
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With main roads so crowded, many residential neighborhoods find their once-quiet streets have become Plan B for commuters. Drivers use them to avoid chokepoints.
In Montgomery County, the intersection of Georgia Avenue and University Boulevard is a choker, and cutting onto Arcola Avenue is Plan B. The county's Department of Transportation has remodeled the avenue to make it safer.
But the unusual effort, which restricts traffic in various ways, provoked many questions from readers. Here's an example.
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
How did this dangerous redesign of this road come to pass? There are no signs indicating when two lanes become one lane. The parking lanes preclude trying to get around vans and trucks.
Large trucks and vans ride up on the so-called "pedestrian safety zones" because they can't maneuver around them, and avoid parked vehicles. The concrete walk-throughs now create a bottleneck to drivers around the clock. What committee or organization came up with this plan that makes Arcola Avenue more dangerous to pedestrians and drivers?
Nadine G. Sparer Silver Spring
Aliza Kwiat, who also lives in the area, wrote in to say that the plan "seems like a typical Washington solution, to create traffic congestion where it was not a problem in order to promote safety!"
