According to the Gazette, Kensington Councilman Al Carr is pushing for a new sidewalk as a way of improving pedestrian safety in his town along Connecticut Ave.:
Pedestrian safety was also a factor in WMATA's surprise decision to cancel development at the Forest Glen Metro stop:Mayor Peter Fosselman started planning the meeting in March following the death of Karen Shprintz-Grossman of Potomac. The Temple Emanuel schoolteacher died from injuries sustained after she was struck by a car while crossing Connecticut Avenue at Dresden Street.
Three fatalities have happened near Dresden Street since 1991.
‘‘Connecticut Avenue is not the Beltway,” Chris Schiponi, of Kensington, told the panel of representatives. ‘‘How many people have to die in our town before you take action?”
A sidewalk on the southbound side of Connecticut Avenue from Washington Street south to Saul Road may help reduce pedestrian fatalities, Carr said.
‘‘You can walk from the District all the way up Connecticut on sidewalks except for the gap right here,” Carr said of the missing sidewalks on that stretch of Connecticut Avenue.
Officials with the State Highway Administration said in 2002 that installing a sidewalk was possible but expensive, and not much has changed in five years.
In 2002, a steep slope in the area would have required larger easements from property owners and retaining walls to hold back the dirt at an estimated cost of $228,000.
County Councilwoman Nancy M. Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park, who once served as mayor for that town, said she noticed improved driving conditions on Strathmore Avenue after SHA expanded the sidewalks and installed more streetlights. . . .
Del. Jeff Waldstreicher (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington said he lives near the University Boulevard intersection and noticed a ‘‘bottleneck” effect that may be causing problems all along Connecticut Avenue.
‘‘We need to ease the traffic through the community core,” he said. ‘‘Traffic slows so much right there that when people get freed they jet out of there.”
Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington said the state lawmakers could hold SHA’s ‘‘feet to the fire” in order to keep traffic discussions and solutions coming.
Steps need to happen to develop Kensington into a community where residents feel safe walking around town, Madaleno said.
As residents continued to raise concerns about pedestrian safety in and around the Metro area, and county officials worried the project may not mesh well with the surrounding single-family detached homes, however, WMATA has stopped the talks with developers.
The next step for WMATA is to continue working with Montgomery County and the State Highway Administration to ensure community concerns, specifically pedestrian safety, are addressed before any other plans are formulated, Bottigheimer said.
Community members are happy that the Metro property will remain untouched for now.
‘‘We were very encouraged to hear them talk about pedestrian safety,” said Adam Pagnucco, a member of the Forest Estates Community Association. ‘‘That’s what we want to hear.”
The nearby Forest Glen Road and Georgia Avenue intersection was named the most congested intersection in the county, according to the 2006 Highway Mobility Report, which was released by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and some residents have called for a tunnel under Georgia Avenue.
Pagnucco said residents were concerned about the already congested intersection getting worse with added housing and the school system being inundated with more students than it can handle. He said nearby Oakland Terrace Elementary School already has several portable classrooms and is about 300 students over capacity.
Paul Gordon, president of the Forest Estates Community Association, sarcastically called the intersection ‘‘our favorite intersection of death.”
No doubt the County's sluggish housing market also played a role in killing the project for now. Hopefully, any new plans will address these pedestrian safety concerns when WMATA is ready to try again.
