Gun It!

Here's a short video showing something that is happening more and more lately - someone driving a business vehicle gunning it to get through the intersection as they take a left turn. The vehicles in the oncoming lane have to wait for the pedestrians, so they gun-it. It has happened to me three time in the past week, and more than a dozen times in the last year. The intersection of Wayne and Fenton is the worst.


Speaking of Wayne X Fenton, I also run-into many More bicyclists riding their bikes through the crosswalk - such as in the video from that location below. While I know it is not illegal to ride bikes on the sidewalk in Montgomery County, I think cyclists should be expected to obey traffic laws when riding in the street - even if that part of the street is a crosswalk. You should get off your bike and walk through the crosswalk, or wait for the traffic signal to say it's OK to proceed on you8r bike in the street. It is dangerous and inconsiderate to ride your bike through a crosswalk.. It's a crosswalk - not a crossride.

More Sligo ROW issues

Last week we got a notice from WSSC that they would be doing water main work on Sligo Avenue over the next two months. This wasn't a surprise, as they have been doing work on other streets nearby, and the ROW was painted to indicate buried utilities the week before.

I also noticed that the fire hydrants that lay in the middle of the sidewalks in a few places were painted. Yesterday I took this photo on my way to Downtown Silver Spring.


Here are a couple of examples. There are as many as six of them.

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Last year KB from DOT told us that moving these hydrants was cost-prohibitive. What about now? How can DOT be so unaware of what is going-on? Is it my responsibility to do this for them?

I sent an email to my Councilmember's office to ask about this. I tried to find information about this project online, and found a number to call. I thought I'd wait and see whet I heard from the Councilmember's office first. While on the website I looked for information about WSSC's ADA efforts, and didn't find anything. Do they have a program?

I expect that this work will last another twenty+ years, which means that if the corrections are left undone, the problems will exist fro another twenty+ years. This is the kind of situation that sparked the legislation in the first place. A classic example of why ADA is important, and why public utilities need to have ADA plans and procedures. ADA is meaningless without compliance.

AND -- WHERE IS THE DEPARTMENT OF PERMITTING SERVICES??? WSSC probably has a blank permit to do this stuff (or NOT do this stuff). DOT tells me that they are no longer responsible for utilities in ROW, that it is the responsibility of DPS. Talk about passing the buck...

This is another episode in ROW mismanagement and government neglect of what is supposed to be an important issue. County DOT told us last year that moving the hydrants would be cost=prohibitive. No one is looking at ADA issues when major utilities are improved.

I realize that I am making some assumptions here. I won't mind being proved wrong.


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