Do You Feel Safe Walking in White Flint? MCDOT is listening
At the moment, our car-centric area may not feel the most friendly to people wanting to get around in other ways. This will improve over time as the redevelopment’s infrastructure is built out. But, that’s a lengthy proposition. What about folks who want to walk instead of drive now?
Although the major overhaul of a road is a multi-year, big bucks process, there are some fixes for pedestrian safety that can be made quickly by our county and state Departments of Transportation. But, they need your comments and guidance to know where the biggest problem areas are. So, we’re calling on our Friends for their eyes on the ground.
When you’re out and about in the White Flint area, do you notice:
- Burned out traffic or streetlights?
- Places where lighting is otherwise lacking?
- Faded striping in crosswalks or intersections?
- Sidewalks that are bumpy or otherwise in disrepair?
- Areas where you feel particularly unsafe?
If so, post a comment here or email directly them to me at Lindsay.Hoffman@whiteflint.org and I’ll get the information to the right folks at MCDOT. Let’s all get involved in making this a more walkable area right now. County Councilmembers Berliner and Riemer are doing their part. Stay tuned tomorrow for more about legislation they’ve introduced that will move Montgomery County’s urban areas toward a model of “Complete Streets.”
Steve Thornton
The street lighting along Nebel, Randolph, and Nicholson/Parklawn all suffer from poor lighting and frequent bulb outages. I periodically call these in. Sometimes they are fixed in a timely manner; sometimes not. If they are wooden, it’s Pepco. If metal, then MoCo or MD. Just FYI.
The most unsafe sidewalks are: the entire length of Rockville Pike through the district, especially near White Flint Metro, Nicholson/Parklawn (east of Rockville Pike), and to a lesser extent Old Georgetown. The problem with Old Georgetown Road is less about sidewalks and more about the need for a safe bike lane. The already narrow Parklawn/Nicholson and Rockville Pike sidewalk issues are exacerbated, because cyclists are forced to use the narrow sidewalks, since the roads are unsafe to bike on.
I had also opened a request for a traffic study for Parklawn east of the CSX track, between Boiling Brook Parkway and Randolph Road. That is a high pedestrian area with no crossings. And cars fly through the area and around curvy roads. I’ve seen many car accidents and frequent close calls between cars and pedestrians, due to the lack of traffic calming on that stretch of road. A blind resident takes her life in her hands every time she crosses. Not surprisingly MoCo has yet to conduct the study.