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Crossing MD 355 at Rockville Metro

Letter to Maryland Dept. of Transportation, July 9, 2020

Dear Secretary Slater,

We write to you about the need to maintain good pedestrian access from the Rockville Metro station to downtown Rockville during the closing of the pedestrian bridge over MD 355. We understand that the structural repairs to the bridge will require a shutdown of many months.

Pedestrians headed into the downtown now have no practical choice but to cross at either Middle Lane or Monroe Place, depending on where in the downtown they are headed. The existing pedestrian crossing at Church Street/Monroe Place is functionally obsolete and very dangerous. The crossing at Middle Lane/Park Road is also functionally obsolete. Immediate intervention is needed at both.

We recommend the following immediate improvements at Monroe Place/Church Street:

• Close the slip lanes to vehicles, using Jersey barriers pending permanent reconstruction.
• Mark the crosswalk on the north leg of the intersection, so that all four legs are marked.
• Remove the beg buttons and give walk signals during all green phases.
• Move the stop line for westbound vehicle traffic on Church St. back behind the exit from the Metro bus bays. (With the current configuration, single-occupant vehicles backed up on Church St. block buses from exiting the station. During the evening rush hour, buses sometimes get delayed for several signal cycles.)

The intersection at Middle Lane/Park Road also needs immediate improvement. We recommend:

• Remove the beg buttons and give walk signals during all green phases.
• Eliminate permissive left turn from westbound Park Road onto southbound MD 355. (The excessive width of Park Road causes drivers to make this turn at high speeds that endanger pedestrians.)
• Using Jersey barriers or bollards, create a buffer between sidewalk and roadway on Park Road between MD 355 and the driveway into the Metro station and reduce the curb radius at the driveway entrance.
• Relocate the crosswalk markings across 355 on the south leg of the intersection to create a straight path onto the Park Road sidewalk.
• Similarly relocate the crosswalk across the driveway to directly continue the sidewalk. (If necessary for ADA compliance, retain the existing marked crosswalk in addition to the new direct crosswalk.)

We appreciate your attention to this and look forward to working with SHA to resolve these issues.

Sincerely,

Paul Goldman

Action Committee for Transit